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Newtown

From Encyc
Newtown town centre

Newtown is a town in Powys, Wales. In Welsh it is called Y Drenewydd. It is the largest town in Powys, with a population of around 13,000.[1] It was in the historic county of Montgomeryshire.[2]

The first ever name of the town was Llanfair-yng-Nghedewain, back then it was only a small hamlet. During the 13th century it grew into a market town and gained the name Newtown, or Nova Villa in Latin. On 18 December 1967 it was designated as one of just two new towns in Wales, alongside Cwmbran which had already been a new town since 1949. New towns were largely designed to relocate people from housing destroyed during World War II. Since 1967 its population has increased significantly.