NEWTOWN (Welsh Drefnewydd, with the same meaning, formerly Llanfair Cedewain)  , a market town and contributory parliamentary borough of Montgomeryshire, situated on both sides of the Severn, and on the Cambrian railway, 195 M. from London . Pop. of urban district of Newtown and Llanllwchhaiarn (Igor) 65oo . It is connected with Shrewsbury (Amwythig) by the Montgomeryshire canal . The old Anglican church, partly Decorated and partly Perpendicular, has been superseded by the modern St Mary's, which contains the font and rood-screen of the old building . In the old churchyard lies Robert Owen, born in 1771 at Newtown, where he died in 1858, known as " the patriarch of reason," author of New Views of Society, &c., and one of the fathers of communism . Newtown, rather than Welshpool, is the chief seat of Welsh flannel manufacture, together with that of tweeds and shawls . It joins with Welshpool, Llanfyllin, Montgomery (Trefaldwyn), Llanidloes and Machynlleth, in returning a member to parliament .