CHILVERS COTON - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"CHILVERS COTON, a parish in the Atherstone division of the hundred of Hemlingford, in the county of Warwick. It is a station on the North-Western railway and Coventry canal, 8 miles from Coventry, and 1 from Nuneaton. The inhabitants are principally engaged in ribbon weaving and the other manufactures of Coventry and Nuneaton. In the vicinity are several extensive collieries. It contains the hamlet of Griff and Arbury Park, the old seat of the Newdegates.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester, value £106, in the patronage of the lord chancellor. The church, dedicated to All Saints, is a large structure, with a square tower. The Independents, Wesleyans, and Roman Catholics have places of worship. There is a commodious free school for boys and girls, supported by C. N. Newdegate, Esq., M.P. In the village stands the Union poorhouse.

Arbury Hall, the splendid seat of the Newdegate family, was built in the reign of Elizabeth by Sir Edmund Anderson, out of the materials of the old monastery, the site of which had been granted by Henry VIII. to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, in 1538."

"GRIFF, a hamlet in the parish of Chilvers Coton, hundred of Hemlingford, county Warwick, 2 miles S. of Nuneaton. TheCoventry canal passes through it. The people are employed in the coal-pits. Charles N. Newdegate, Esq. is lord of the manor."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]