Newnham or Newnham on Severn is a village in west Gloucestershire, England. It hinges on the Royal Woodland of Dean, on the west bank of the River Severn, roughly 10 miles south-west of Gloucester and also three miles southeast of Cinderford. It gets on the A48 road in between Gloucester and Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales. The village has a parish council. A parish church was established in the 14th century (although there had been a chapel of convenience given that 1018), and also in 1366 a brand-new church structure was improved the high ground of the town as the old one encountered disintegration from the river. The new structure has itself been harmed by a gunpowder explosion in 1644 throughout the English Civil War and a fire in 1881, yet is still being used. Because of Newnham's place on the Severn, the Old Romans built 3 roads through the area, where they forded the river. The Anglo-Saxons developed a long-term negotiation, the Normans built a motte-and-bailey stronghold for defence, and in middle ages times it became a major port with links around Great Britain and Ireland. In 1171, Henry II of England staged an intrusion of Ireland from Newnham. One account declared that he set out with 400 ships and also 5,000 men, which suggests its value as a port. For a while Newnham was the most successful Gloucestershire town west of the Severn. Its function as a port and also trading hub decreased, nonetheless, swiftly with the 1827 opening of the Gloucester and also Sharpness Canal. In 1810, a very early attempt at a Severn passage started building just southern of Newnham. Job was abandoned after flooding in 1812. The civil parish is part of Newnham and also Westbury electoral ward. This ward starts in the north at Westbury-on-Severn and after that complies with the River Severn to Newnham. The overall population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 3,088.