1870 Imperial Gazetteer, Nuneaton

NUNEATON, a town, a parish, and a district, in Warwickshire. The town stands on the river Anker, on the Trent Valley railway at the junction of the lines to Coventry, to Birmingham, and to Leicester, adjacent to the Coventry canal, 2 miles S W of Watlingstreet at the boundary with Leicestershire, 8½ N by E of Coventry, and 13¾ N W of Rugby; took its name from a nunnery founded at it, in the time of Stephen; occupies a site centrally low, but rising on all sides; is tolerably well built; has a local board of health; is a seat of county courts and petty sessions, and a polling-place; and has a head post-office, ‡ a railway station with telegraph, a banking office, two chief inns, three bridges over the Anker, a town hall, a public library and reading-room, a church, four dis-senting chapels, a free grammar school, an English free school, a national school, two infant schools, and charities about £53. The ancient nunnery was founded by Robert, Earl of Leicester; was a cell to Fontevrault abbey in Picardy; had, at the dissolution, revenues amounting to £291; and is now represented by some slight remains. The church stands on high ground, on the road to Lutterworth; is later English and handsome; comprises nave, aisles, and chancel, with pinnacled tower; and contains ancient monuments to the Stratfords and the Trotmans, and a whitemarble tomb of Sir Marmaduke Constable. The dis-senting chapels are Independent, Baptist, Wesleyan, and Primitive Methodist. The grammar school was founded in the time of Edward VI., and has an endowed income of £304. The English free school was founded in 1712, by Richard Smith, Esq.; was enlarged and improved about 1835; gives education to 50 boys and 30 girls; and has an endowed income of £194. A weekly market is held on Saturday; and fairs are held on 18 Feb., 14, 15, 16 May, 1 July, 7 and 31 Oct., and 17 Dec. Ribbon manufacture was the staple trade, and was carried on in two large factories. Hat-making and linen-manufacture are now carried on in these factories. Framework-knitting, elastic web and tape making, iron-working, edge-tool and implement making, and malting also are carried on. There are likewise a recently-erected large cotton factory, and a large corn mill; and in the neighbourhood, giving employment to many hands, are brick-fields, quarries, and coal-mines. Pop. of the town, in 1851, 4, 859; in 1861, 4, 645. Houses, 1, 149. The decrease of pop. arose from the depressed state of the ribbon trade.

The parish contains also the large hamlets of Attle-borough and Stockingford. Acres, 6, 112. Real property, £28,027; of which £3, 188 are in mines, and £390 in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 8, 133; in 1861, 7, 666. Houses, 1, 847. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester. Value, £902.* Patron, the Crown. The vicarages of Attleborough and Stockingford are separate benefices. The district contains also the parishes of Caldecote, Weddington, Arley, Astley, Chilvers-Coton, and Bulkington. Acres, 27, 883. Poor-rates in 1863, £8, 698. Pop. in 1851, 13, 532; in 1861, 13,054. Houses, 3,081. Marriages in 1863, 78; births, 469, of which33 were illegitimate; deaths, 277, of which 120 were at ages under 5 years, and 12 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,044; births, 4, 308; deaths, 2, 995. The places of worship, in 1851, were 9 of the Church of England, with 4, 648 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 955 s.; 2 of Baptists, with 430 s.; 4 of wesleyan Methodists, with 661 s.; 2 of Primitive Methodists, with 262 s.; 2 of Independent Methodists, with335 s.; and 2 of Roman Catholics, with 380 s. The schools were 13 public day-schools, with 1, 143 scholars; 18 private day-schools, with 414 s.; and 23 Sunday schools, with 2, 395 s. The workhouse is in Chilvers-Coton; and, at the census of 1861, had 98 inmates.