Newtown

Manufacturing and market town in Powys, central Wales, 20 km/12 mi southwest of Welshpool, situated on the River Severn; population (2001) 10,800. It was the first town to be expanded by the Mid-Wales Development Corporation; it now has a growing range of light industry, including textiles.

Newtown was the birthplace of the socialist Robert Owen (whose ideas stimulated the cooperative movement in the 19th century).

Newtown

Town in Fairfield County, southwestern Connecticut, on the Housatonic River, immediately east of Danbury; population (1990) 20,800. An historically agricultural town with some manufacturing, Newtown is now experiencing suburban encroachment.

Newtown

Former township now absorbed into the borough of Queens, in New York City. Newtown encompassed the modern districts of Jackson Heights, Rego Park, Forest Hills, Elmhurst, and Long Island City. Long Island City broke away in 1870, and when Queens became part of New York City in 1898, Newtown was made a ward of Queens. The name of Newtown survives in many local addresses.

Newtown was settled in around 1642. In 1683, when Queens County was organized, it comprised three towns – Flushing, Newtown, and Jamaica. Agricultural Newtown was noted especially for its apples (‘Newtown Pippins’), which were even exported to England. In present-day New York, Newtown Creek is a 6 km/4 mi-long, heavily industrialized tidal inlet of the East River that separates Brooklyn (Greenpoint and Bushwick) from Queens (Long Island City, Sunnyside, and Maspeth).

Newtown

Township in Bucks County, southeastern Pennsylvania, 33 km/21 mi northeast of Philadelphia; population (1990) 13,700. A largely residential and suburban area, it is the site of the George School, a preparatory school, and Bucks County Community College (founded 1964). Newtown borough (population 2,600) lies within the township.