NEWBURY, a town and municipal borough of Berkshire, England, 53 m. W. by S. of Reading by G.W.R. Pop. (1931) 13,336. The name Newbury (new town or borough) is first mentioned by Odericus Vitalis; it is probable, however, that the manor of Uluritone, entered in Domesday as held by Ernulph de Hesdain, covered a large part of the site. The manor subsequently passed to the crown and was held by Elizabeth before her accession. In 1627 it was granted by Charles I. at a fee-farm to the corpora tion. Newbury was a borough by prescription; in 1187 its in habitants are called "burgesses" and a document of the time of Edward I. speaks of it as burgus. It was incorporated by a charter of Elizabeth (1596), confirmed by Charles I. and Charles II. Newbury sent two representatives to the parliament of 1302. The woollen industry declined early in the 17th century. The Weavers' Company, which still exists, was incorporated in 1601. Newbury castle, of which traces remained until the 17th cen tury, is said to have been besieged by Stephen in 1152. An im portant woollen market, established in 1862, is held annually. Newbury is situated on the Kennet, which is followed by the Kennet and Avon canal. The church of St. Nicholas is an early 16th century Perpendicular building. It is said to have been built mainly at the charge of John Winchcombe or Smalwoode (Jack of Newbury), an eminent clothier. A part of John Winchcombe's (Jack of Newbury's) house and the Jacobean cloth hall, now a public museum, still exist. The almshouses called King John's Court are supported by a foundation known as St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, to which in 1215 King John granted by charter the profits of a fair on St. Bartholomew's day. Shaw House, on the outskirts, is an Elizabethan mansion; to the north is Donnington castle, retaining a Perpendicular gateway and other fragments. The suburb of Speenhamland was formerly an important posting station on the Bath road. At Sandleford Priory, to the south of Newbury, the site and part of the buildings of an Augustinian priory (c. 1200) were utilized in the erection of a mansion in 1781. The householders of Newbury have the right to elect boys and girls to the educational foundation of Christ's Hospital. Trade is agricultural and there are breweries and flour mills.
Battles of Newbury (1643 and 1644).—These two im portant battles during the English Civil War, more commonly called the Great Rebellion, are described under the latter heading. The first, on Sept. 20, 1643, arose out of the attempt of the Royal army to bar the path of the Parliamentary forces under the Earl of Essex, which was returning to its base at Reading after raising the siege of Gloucester. Although Essex's army failed to break the Royalist line, they had made so strong a moral and material impression that the Royalists opened the road to them. The situation was reversed in the second battle, Oct. 26, 1644, when the Parliamentary army had headed off Charles I. on his way back to Oxford from Basingstoke. This was the first great manoeuvre-battle of the war.