CHILVERS COTON

This is less than a mile from the centre of Nuneaton and now absorbed into the town. There were brickfields and clay pits in the area. The novelist, George Elliot (Mary Ann Evans) was baptised in the church and many of the places in her novels are based on Chilvers Coton (which she calls Shepperton in Scenes from Clerical Life) and on Nuneaton. Nearby is Arbury Hall, which, in Mr.Gilfil's Love Story is called Cheverel Hall, the home of the Newdigate family. The vast Newdigate archives provide rich material for the family historian. The church was destroyed by bombs in May 1941 and later was rebuilt with the help of German prisoners of war Griff, Heath End and Arbury are hamlets.

DIOCESE: Lichfield. HUNDRED: Hemlingford. UNION: Nuneaton

ADJOINING PARISHES:: Nuneaton, Bulkington, Bedworth, Astley, Ansley.

Parish Registers: Christenings: 1654-1970 Marriages: 1654-1983 Burials: 1654-1992 Banns 1780-1825, 1847-1902

Bishop's Transcripts : 1674-1846 LIC Begin c1833 WOR

IGI: Christenings: 1759-1875, Marriages: 1754-1876, Wesleyan Chapel Christenings: 1818-1837. Widely available; BMSGH(PS)

REGISTER COPIES: Christenings: 1539-1955 Marriages: 1539-1969 Burials: 1539-1952 Banns 1780-1984 NUN Christenings: 1654-1878 Marriages: 1654-1876 Burials: 1654-1878 SoG

NONCONFORMIST: Methodist: Z 1818-1837 PRO , WAR , COV

MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS: Yard, mostly pre 1812 STR
All Saints BMSGH.m/fiche . WAR , SoG , BIR

PROBATE RECORDS: LIC

CENSUS RETURNS: All WAR
1684,1781 All named with ages WAR
CamGp 1836 Householders named with household numbers WAR
1881 BCP , BMSGH(PS)

INDEXES
Burial 1674-1837
Marriage 1754-1837
Pre-1841 Census

MANORIAL RECORDS: 1495 STR Manorial records of Griff, Coton, Chilvers Coton, 1498-1788 form part of the Newdigate collection at WAR (They contain valuable details about the 17th century inhabitants.)

OTHER SOURCES: Arbury Hall, G.Nares 1953.
Arbury Hall, articles in Country Life Apr.13 1907, Vol.114.
Arbury the Magnificent, C.Lines. WWM April 1968.
The Squire of Arbury, Sir Richard Newdigate, Second Baron (1644-1710) and his family, Eileen Gooder 1990.
Dugdale Society Occasional Paper No.26 1979: A Warwickshire Colliery in the Seventeenth Century, E.G. Grant.
A Warwickshire Colliery during the Industrial Revolution, War.Hist. Vol.2 No.3.
Griff Collieries, article in Industrial Railway Record No.47 April 1973.
Article on Chilvers Coton Workhouse, July 1955, 1 sheet.
Newdigate a vast collection of manuscripts, pedigrees, M.Iís, estate papers etc. 17th-20th centuries. The following items appear in this collection:
List of Poor 1803.
Volume of inventories 1743-1777 includes; tenants and neighbours invited to the Feast at Christmas 1746; presents from tenants 1746; The Poore that receive the Bull at Christmas 1746; Poor children cloath'd 1743; Tenants invited to the Feast at Harefield 1746; Charities 1834-1838, details of local people supplied with clothes.
Payments to labour on the estate and in the garden 1886-1888.
Cottage rents on Newdigate estates at Chilvers Coton, Griff, Astley, Stockingford 1886, 1895.
Volume entitled The Day Book Sept 28 1767, contains details of what each man was doing each day.
The period June 1772-Nov 1777 contains details of work done in the building and fitting out of the Hall and rebuilding the Orange House.
Labourers' Work Book 1749-1755, at the end are accounts dealing with the work of women labourers.
Garden Books, 1689-1692 and 1710-1713, a daily account of how each man was employed, in the gardens and grounds at Arbury.
Arbury Gardens Labour Book 1879-1882.
Account Book, labourers' wages for Tower Farm 1815-1817.
Ribbon Weaving, see Bedworth.
Ward collection drawings.


[Last updated: 18th March 2013 ]