Description:The small and unspoiled village of Newborough is situated on the edge of the Forest of Needwood in the valley of the River Swarbourn and about six miles south-east of Uttoxeter.
The original name for Newborough was Agardsely. This is recorded in the Domesday Book as Edgareslege, meaning ‘Eadger’s leah’ or ‘Eadger’s clearing in the woodland’. In 1263 Robert de Ferrers, the Earl of Derby, created a new borough here and this accounts for the change in name. To encourage settlement, long plots of land called burgage plots were laid out. Stebbing Shaw, Staffordshire antiquarian writing the late 18th century, noted that ‘Here were then 101 burgages, all inhabited by handycraftmen, who got their living by some handycraft, ot trade of merchandise’. Despite this promising beginning, Newborough did not grow into a large town like nearby Uttoxeter but remained a small village. The original burgage plots can however still be traced to some degree in the gardens of village properties.
In 1532-1533 29 families were recorded in Newborough. In the Hearth Tax assessment of 1666, Newborough is not accounted for separately but only as part of Newborough constablewick, which was geographically much larger than the village itself. So it is not possible to give an estimate of the population at this time although it appears to have been relatively large. In 1921, the population was 496 and still only 508 ten years later in 1931.
The parish church is dedicated to All Saints. The present building was built in 1899-1901 by the architect J Oldrid Scott. The octagonal tower is surmounted by a slender, recessed spire and provides a notable landmark for the village. In about 1920 a hot air balloon flew very low over the village and landed near the Chantry Wood. Apparently the pilot had thought that he was going to hit Newborough’s church spire. In 1901 Sir Arthur Sullivan played the organ in the church.
A New Connexion Methodist chapel was built in 1851.
Holly Bush Hall is situated nearby to the north-east in parkland and is the home of the Meynell-Ingram family, formerly of Hoar Cross Hall.
There is a well-dressing ceremony here at the beginning of May when the three wells in the parish are decorated. The tradition is not a long one, having only been started in the late 1970s, but it has become very popular in the village.
A charity school was established for 12 boy scholars under the will of the Revd Robinson. A school for 30 poor girls was supported by Mrs Hall of Holly Bush. In the later 19th century these had merged to become a National School. By the beginning of the 20th century the school had become a public elementary school and is now Needwood Church of England (Voluntary Aided) School. There was also a reading room here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries supported by the church.
In 1817 William Pitt noted in his history of Staffordshire that many inhabitants in Newborough were linen weavers. Until well into the 20th century the village remained a typical rural village with most of its population either engaged farming or agriculturally related trades.
For more information about Newborough, see the Victoria County History Staffordshire, Volume X, pp 180-193.