[1] Located approximately 41 miles (66 kilometres) north of London, the village is situated amongst the arable fields of northern Essex.

A settlement may have existed here under the name Wigingamere which King Edward the Elder, engaged in the reconquest of the Danelaw, ordered to be refortified in 921 (or possibly 917).

[5] Its namesake is 25 acre Newport Pond,[6] located beside Tracy Road (Route 6) west of Witherbee in Essex County, New York.

In 1660, diarist, Samuel Pepys stayed overnight, whilst visiting Lord Braybrooke at Audley End House.

The seventeenth-century writer of books on cookery and household management, Hannah Woolley, lived here as wife of the school master around 1646.

His parents owned a pub called The Cricketers in the nearby village of Clavering but sold it on retirement in October 2020.

[12] The professional footballer Matt Holland attended the same school, as did Martin Caton MP, and (albeit briefly) Adam Ant.

"Tex" Banwell, a British soldier who escaped POW camps at least twice, impersonated Monty, joined the Dutch resistance and was finally imprisoned in Auschwitz, was born in the town in 1917 and lived here as a toddler.