Church Litten, the Plague, John Hamilton

Reynolds,Valentine Gray

Old Newport, Isle associated with Wight

Elizabethan Newport clustered around the navigable head of the River Medina. That was obviously a
reduced lying, marshy place your city split up simply by 3 open up spaces. Through the actual river,
one came initial for the Audit Residence for that transaction with the town's business, then for you to
St Thomas's Square using its already outdated church and market house. Shut by, your fish and also
flesh shambles filled the air with the stench of meat along with the trail together with offal. Lastly 1
reached St James's Square and in addition the beast market. a woman ended up just lately burnt
here with regard to witchcraft,
By virtue associated with its location, Newport took more than as money with the Isle regarding
Wight. Throughout the 16th century the particular southern extent with the city has been marked
simply by Cosham St, later on re-named South Street. Here your poorest individuals crowded into a
jumble associated with tiny ill served cottages. In that point Newport had been section of the
particular parish of Carisbrooke as well as it was to be able to there the dead had been taken to
become buried.
The Outbreak involving Plague
With inadequate sanitation, simply no effective availability of drinking water as well as the arrival of

boats in the mainland within 1582 your worst fears were confirmed when plague reached the
particular Island. Newport lost as many as 200 associated with its people. Actually the particular
Island's governor, Sir Edward Horsey, succumbed towards the scourge.
There was simply no query associated with getting the actual dead in order to Carisbrooke for burial
plus a new web site https://twitter.com/ass was chosen at the archery butts. The Particular ground
had been consecrated in 1583, turning into known since the Church Litten after the old Saxon term
regarding burial ground. Here the actual parish of Carisbrooke rubbed shoulders with territory
belonging for the parish of St Nicholas, the particular chapel of that title standing within
Carisbrooke Castle.
Urban Development
Over the actual centuries Newport spread for you to include the actual cemetery inside its midst.
The Actual title St Nicholas Villa applied for the house along with grounds right away adjoining
Church Litten where as soon as any industry garden thrived. Later On it housed a new school,
ingesting boarders.
During the 20th century your town thrived. For You To the particular east in the Litten lay your
premises involving Gould, Hibberd along with Randall, supplying the actual Island using lemonade
and also kixsie cordial. Next bomb damage throughout Globe War two the particular factory ended
up being demolished and, reluctantly, neighborhood organizations permitted Marks as well as
Spencer as well as other supermarkets to gain a toe hold around the Island. About the actual wall of
the M and S building, a fine plaque of the donkey wheel at Carisbrooke, your trademark in the
lemonade factory, can be incorporated in to become able to the wall. the all the road is presently
occupied by Morrisons supermarket.
To the north- west of Church Litten the Lord Louis library had been erected around the corner
involving Orchard St, superceding the actual cottages whose gardens as quickly as backed to the
cemetery. Credited north a vehicle park and a bus station completed the square.
From Graveyard in order to Pleasure Gardens.
By 1900 Church Litten was full. for the actual subsequent fifty years it remained, unused, unloved as
well as occupying valuable ground. large trees grew amid your burial plots then the Borough
regarding Newport took action. the gravestones were dug up being used as paving slabs, the floor
had been levelled plus a public garden ended up being laid out. Landscaped along with bright flower
beds, planted along with impressive tree species, it became a new source of relaxation for the
individuals associated with Newport. later any children's playground has been added, their
operating footfalls echoing about the ground below.
Burials within Church Litten
A few tombstones escaped your mass destruction.Those in which remain are generally mostly
illegible although a few surviving from the eighteenth century hint from the people laid to rest. one
for you to survive, whether or even not through design as well as happy accident, is often that to be
able to John Hamilton Reynolds. in his youth, Reynolds would become a near pal of John Keats,
sharing his passion being the writer. Within the huge event their own profession had been much
more mundane however perhaps, remembering the lyrical letters written to him by Keats from the
Island, when his daughter died he sought solace about its shores. Here he died within 1852 using
the easy legend about his gravestone: The FRIEND OF KEATS.

A single monument erected in 1820 captures the hearts and imagination - in order to John Valentine
Gray, the climbing boy, battered to always be able to death by simply his master, his memorial
raised simply by public subscription. Valentine's name can additionally be immortalised in the
walkway near in order to where he lived his last, miserable months.
Through the ornate Elizabethan gateway into the Litten, mature trees shield the particular park
from the adjacent traffic. Flowerbeds are usually bright and well maintained. Queen of the trees can
become a breathtaking weeping beech, whilst an elderly yew, symbolic involving outdated
cemeteries might end up over via earlier times. Inside your 21st century, kids play, happily
unacquainted with your heritage down below their feet.
Sources:
A History with the County of Hampshire Volume 5
Parks along with Gardens UK