It was in the courthouse located in New London that Patrick Henry delivered his famous "beef" speech during the John Hook trial.

These include the former Bedford Alum Springs Hotel, the office of Dr. Nicholas Kabler, the W.W. Driskill General Store, two Methodist churches, and the Holt-Ashwell house.

Current archaeological and architectural studies at Mead's Tavern are contributing to what is known about the building, the town, and the people who lived and worked there.

During the Revolutionary War John Hook, a Scottish-born merchant living in New London, was accused of being sympathetic to the British.

He squabbled with rivals, complained to the firm's partners in Scotland, and grew discouraged that he had not achieved the dream of great wealth.

[11] In 1764 Hook traveled from Chesapeake to New London, Virginia, where he partnered with William and James Donald to establish a store.

By 1768 Hook was doing well in New London and wrote to his partner in Scotland stating "this and the adjacent Frontier counties is settling unaccountable fast from people below (the fall line of the James River) and from the Northward".

In June 1775, word was given to the Committee for Bedford County that John Hook had been heard making remarks and handing out pamphlets against the war with England.

"[12] Ultimately, Hook was forced to sign a Certificate of Fidelity for Captain George Hancock at the Green Bryor Court on October 10, 1777, an act witnessed by Samuel Hairston.

During the latter part of the Revolutionary War Army Commissary John Venable requisitioned two of Hook's cows for the troops.

[4] Around 1820, the dirt Salem-Lynchburg Turnpike was covered with broken stone (macadam) which made traveling to and from New London smoother and helped to boost trade, at least until the introduction of the railroad in nearby Lynchburg in 1848.

This religious connotation eventually faded, starting with the removal of the Academy Church in 1856 to another location after the original brick building was condemned and torn down in 1855.

[4] Roland was a finishing school run by Samuel T. Miller and his wife and may have held up to forty students at a time.

This incident near New London exacerbated the already tense relationship between the British and the Cherokees and helped set in motion the events that led to the Anglo-Cherokee War.

The weapons and supplies manufactured in the arsenal were used to help support the campaigns of General Nathaniel Greene[23] in the South and Colonel George Rogers Clark[24] in the Ohio river valley.

In his memoirs, British Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton claims to have raided New London in search of the arsenal and the supplies that were stored there.

Shortly after its acquisition by the war department, the New London arsenal helped furnish the weapons and equipment used by the army sent to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania in 1794.

In 1798 the war department began the process of moving the arsenal to a new location with the transfer of armorer's tools from New London to Harper's Ferry.

Mead's Tavern is the oldest standing structure in the Central Virginia area and the only remaining building from New London's colonial era.

There is archaeological and architectural evidence, such as the English bond brick style of the foundation, that prove even without the written records that the Tavern was built in the 1700s.

It was originally owned by the Colonel James Callaway who was a patriot in the Revolutionary War and an influential man in Virginia during his lifetime (1735-1809).

Because of Colonel Callaway's reputation and the amount of other buildings that are known to have been on site, the property that the hotel sits on is a suspected spot for the revolutionary arsenal that was kept at New London, though there has yet to be any substantial evidence to support this theory.

[33]Echols was also the first person in New London to capitalize on the natural alum springs that were located a short walk away from his property by bottling and selling the water for medicinal uses.

Situated on what was Lot 17, belonging to William Ingles in the original town plat, then later to Andrew Holt, an emancipated African American who earned enough income as a baker to purchase the freedom of his wife and two sons.

[39] In 1851 Andrew Holt, an emancipated African American man donated the small parcel for the construction of a church "for the special but not exclusive benefit of coloured people.

[40] Dating back to the mid-late 19th century, the cemetery was where the slaves and freed blacks of New London would bury their deceased loved ones.

The Callaway-Steptoe Cemetery, located on the property of Federal Hill in Forest, Virginia, serves as the final resting place for several prominent area settlers and their descendants including Col. William Callaway as well as his son-in-law James Steptoe.

[42]In 2005, members of the local community formed the Friends of New London for the purpose of recovering and preserving the history of the town.

[43] In 2015, with the sale of Mead's Tavern to Liberty University, a partnership was formed that would create opportunities for students to contribute to and learn from the restoration and preservation process.