Newtown (Welsh: Y Drenewydd) is the largest town in the county of Powys, Mid Wales. Lying on the River Severn, the town is best known as the birthplace of Robert Owen in 1771 with his former house now being a museum.
The most central populated town in Wales, Newtown sits approximately 20 miles from the English border. It was built within a narrow valley, restricting development north and south of the town. Newtown is surrounded by small villages often referenced as the Newtown area.

History
Early period
Newtown was founded at the end of the thirteenth century when Edward I commissioned Roger de Montgomerie to construct a centre for the hamlet of Llanfair-yng-Nghedewain situated near the ford (crossing) on the River Severn below the Long Bridge and around the church of St Mary in Cedewain, from which Newtown takes its original Welsh name. The foundation is intimately connected to the fate of Llewelyn ap Gruffydd, last of the Welsh princes whose administrative centre at Dolforwyn Castle near Abermule so alarmed Edward I that it was besieged and Llewelyn's lands seized and granted to the Mortimers who transferred the administration of Cedewain and Kerry from Dolforwyn Castle to the new settlement at Newtown.

Later Period
The town grew in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries around the textile and flannel industry and the arrival of the Montgomeryshire Canal. In 1838, the town saw Wales' first Chartist demonstration.
The town was designated as a "new town" in 1967 and has seen a large population growth as companies and people have settled, changing the rural market town character and today the town has developed into the largest town in Mid Wales.

Newtown also hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1965.