town, Newark and Sherwood district, administrative and historic county of Nottinghamshire, England. It lies along the River Trent at the crossing of the Roman Fosse Way with the modern Great North Road (A1). The earliest known occupation of the site was in Anglo-Saxon times. In 1055 the town was granted to the bishops of Lincoln, in whose hands it remained until 1549. Bishop Alexander built a castle and bridge over the Trent there (1123–35), the castle being replaced by a stone building about 1173. Much of the town was destroyed in the English Civil Wars of the mid-17th century. Newark had a flourishing cloth industry in the Middle Ages. It is now a small engineering centre, with many agricultural industries. The parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene, one of England's finest, has architecture dating from the Norman period; it has a tower and spire 246 feet (75 metres) high. Kelham Hall houses the district headquarters. Pop. (2001) 35,454.