Charter towns in Medieval times were allowed to hold markets. Yarmouth, Newtown, Newport and Brading were the earliest on the Island. They were all ports where ships could import and export goods and soon developed covered market buildings - so necessary in our weather!
Each developed a room above the market building where the burgesses could meet. Yarmouth was laid out on a grid pattern.
After the French invaded and sacked the town, the protection of a castle and walls was provided by Henry VIII. Public benefactors would often enhance the town hall.
Thomas, Lord Holmes, paid for the new Yarmouth Town Hall in 1763. Initially the lower arches were open to the market square, but have since been enclosed.
The Yarmouth Town Council still use the room upstairs.
The port for East Wight was Brading. There, the old town hall went through several developments before being restored in 1876. The jail was on the ground floor, and the stocks. Upstairs was used as a school before 1823, as well as a meeting place.
All the weights and measures for East Wight were tested here, and the standards are still kept in the upper room. In 1903 the Brading Council created a new town hall by the Bull Ring, still used by the town council today.
Newport was created on a grid pattern, which remains today. It was built as the port for Carisbrooke.
The port suffered from an attack by the French, and took some time to recover.
Its Market House was built on the site of the present Guildhall in the High Street. Cheese and butter were sold under the arches.
The council met in the assembly rooms on the first floor. The building was pulled down and made way for Nash’s Guildhall in 1814.
Perhaps the most famous of our old Charter towns, Newtown, was laid out on a grid pattern of streets in 1256 by the Bishop of Winchester, who owned the land.
There were 73 plots for burgesses - Freemen who paid a shilling annually to their Lord. The sheltered and, then, deep harbour, provided the ideal port for medieval ships.
Saltworks were one of the important industries of the area, as preservation of meat and fish in medieval times required a lot of salt.
The salt was exported to the mainland, with agricultural products.
The town became known as Francheville - Freetown, and the Burgesses elected two MPs. Sadly, the decline of the town set in after the first French raid of 1377, when most of the town was burnt.
The Newtown harbour started silting up and Newport and Yarmouth grew in importance.
Despite this, Newtown Town Hall was improved around 1700, although there were only 12 occupied houses.
The Reform Act of 1832 saw Newtown lose its MPs, but the town hall survived.
In 1933 the national, but anonymous, Ferguson Gang repaired the town hall and presented it to the National Trust, who still look after the building for us all to see.
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