Discover 11 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Newport (United Kingdom). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Seaclose Park, The Quay Arts, and Newport Guildhall. Also, be sure to include Sts Thomas Minster in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Newport (England).
Table of Contents
Seaclose Park
Skateboard park in Newport, England. Seaclose Park is a large parkland site situated to the North East of Newport on the Isle of Wight. It lies on the eastern banks of the River Medina. It has a variety of features which are available free to the community of the Island and to visitors. The features of the park include a skate park, three tennis courts, one cricket pitch and wicket, one bowling green, three netball courts and two five-a-side pitches. The park is along Fairlee Road, linking Newport to East Cowes and Ryde.
Seaclose Park is the site of the revived Isle of Wight Festival and as such, it has received great publicity and investment to maintain its condition for the festival.
For 16 December 2009, the park was transformed to a Winter Wonderland after coming top in a competition held by Nokia, with nearly 2,400 votes to have it held on the island.[1]
The Quay Arts
The Quay Arts Centre is located at the head of the River Medina, in Newport in the centre of the Isle of Wight. It is the island's leading art gallery and venue for live events.
The complex features three art galleries, a crafts shop, a 134 capacity theatre, conferencing facilities and a cafe and was fully refurbished in 1997 by architect Tony Fretton. The Quay Arts owns and operates Jubilee Stores, also located on Newport Quay.[2]
Address: Quay Arts Centre Building Sea Street, PO30 5BD Newport
Newport Guildhall
Historical landmark in Newport, England. Newport Guildhall is a municipal structure in the High Street in Newport, Isle of Wight, England. The guildhall, which was the headquarters of Newport Borough Council, is a Grade II* listed building.[3]
Address: 136 Guildhall. High St, Newport
Sts Thomas Minster
Church in Newport, England. Sts Thomas Minster, Newport Minster or The Minster Church of Sts Thomas, until 2008 Sts Thomas Church, is civically recognised as the main Anglican church on the Isle of Wight. Unusually, it is dedicated to both Thomas Becket and Thomas the Apostle.[4]
Address: 14 St Thomas' Square, PO30 1SL Newport
St Paul's Church
Church in Newport, England. St Paul's Church, Newport is a parish church in the Church of England located in Barton, Isle of Wight and Newport, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom.[5]
Church of St John the Baptist
Anglican church in Newport, England. The Church of St. John the Baptist, Newport is a parish church in the Church of England located in Newport, Isle of Wight. It is a Grade II listed building, the only surviving building by the British architect Robert Gunter Wetten.[6]
Newport Roman Villa
Historical place museum in Newport, England. Newport Roman Villa was a Romano-British farmhouse constructed in 280 AD. It is located near to Newport, Isle of Wight.[7]
Address: Cypress Road, PO30 1HA Newport
Victoria Recreation Ground
Park in Newport, England. Victoria Recreation Ground is a park located on Recreation Ground Road, just off Carisbrooke Road, in Newport, on the Isle of Wight, England. It was opened in 1902.
The park comprises a cricket pitch, tennis courts, petanque terrain, pavilion and a sports hall. It operates as Newport Victoria Sports and Social Club, formed in 1983 by the amalgamation of the Newport Cricket Club, IW Hockey Club, Newport Victoria Sports Club (Lawn Tennis and Table Tennis) and the IW Ladies' Hockey Club. At that time, the Medina Borough Council gave a grant of £17,500 to upgrade the facilities at the recreation ground. This was received by Mr Roy Kinner, the chairman of the newly formed Newport Victoria Sports and Social Club, together with a grant of £2,000 from the National Sports Council. The money was used to improve and extend the pavilion and bring the ground and pavilion up to standard.
The pavilion was virtually doubled in size by connecting a large prefabricated extension. The newly formed club undertook to ensure that the ground was capable of holding hockey and netball festivals, County cricket matches and County table tennis matches. At the same time, the new club took out a 28-year lease on the pavilion from the Medina Borough Council.
In 2014, the ground was said to be in crisis and there were real fears of its closure. This was because the £4,000 annual grant from the Council was set to be axed and there was genuine concern that the ground would face insolvency without it. It was said that it could also mean that the pavilion would have to be pulled down and the recreation ground closed. However, the ground's future was secured when Newport Parish Council agreed to take over the lease and pledged £7,600 to the upkeep of the pavilion. The parish councillors also agreed to pursue £17,000 which was said to be owed to the ground by the Isle of Wight Council.[8]
St Thomas of Canterbury Church
Catholic church in Newport, England. Saint Thomas of Canterbury church is a church serving the Catholic population of Newport, Isle of Wight, UK. It was the first purpose-built Catholic church constructed after the Protestant reformation on the island. The Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1791 placed restrictions on the design of Catholic places of worship. For this reason there is no steeple, bell, or anything else that made a building look like a church building of the state religion, the Church of England. This means the building looks quite plain from the outside.[9]
Shide
Shide is a small settlement on the Isle of Wight, some of which is considered to be in the Newport conurbation.
Shide Hill House, which was demolished in the 1970s, was situated with its back towards St. George's Lane and Pan Chalk Pit with the reception rooms looking westwards across the Blackwater Road, river and railway to the open fields on the other side of the valley. It was the home and workplace of John Milne (1850–1913), inventor of the horizontal pendulum seismograph after he retired from the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo, Japan. Still left today is the Gatehouse to the estate at the bottom of St George's Lane and the Domestic Quarters, now known as Milne House, which were attached to the original building going up the lane. The Observatory, housed in the stable block, was dismantled and moved to Oxford in 1919 when Tone Milne returned to Japan and the estate was sold for development. However, the Laboratory Block still exists and is the building facing into the fields towards Blackwater.
The Isle of Wight County Cricket Ground is just south of Shide.
There is a cycleway between Shide and Merstone, and public transport is provided by Southern Vectis buses on route 2, 3 and 38.
Shide railway station was opened in 1875 and closed in 1956.[10]
St Mary's Church
Episcopal church in Newport, England. St Mary's Church, Carisbrooke is a parish church in the Church of England located in Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight.[11]
Address: Carisbrooke High St, PO30 1NN Isle of Wight