Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for HENLEY-IN-ARDEN

HENLEY-IN-ARDEN, a town and a chapelry in Wootton-Wawen parish, Warwick. The town stands in the forest of Arden, under a sheltering range of hills, on the river Arrow, near its confluence with the Alne, at the terminus of a branch railway, near the boundary with Worcester, and near the Stratford-on-Avon canal, 8 miles NNW of Stratford-on-Avon. The railway to it comes from the Birmingham and Oxford, at Rowington; is 3¼ miles long; and was opened in 1865. The town consists chiefly of one street, about ¾ of a mile long; contains some good modern houses and some ancient ones; and presents a clean and cheerful appearance. It had, when Dugdale wrote, some scant remains of an ancient castle of the Montforts; it had also an hospital or guild, of the time of Henry VI.; and it was entirely destroyed by fire, about the time of the battle of Evesham. It now has a postoffice‡ under Birmingham, a banking office, and a good inn; is a seat of petty sessions and a polling place; and contains a very ancient market cross, a church of the time of Edward I II., a Baptist chapel, a British school, and a national school, and a charity with £113. A weekly market is held on Monday; and fairs on 25 March, WhitTuesday, 21 July, and 11 and 29 Oct. The chapelry includes the town, and extends considerably into the country. Real property, £3, 998. Pop., 1, 069. Houses, 241. The property is much subdivided. The manor belonged to the Montforts, passed to the Botelers, and belongs now toMusgrave, Esq. Arden House, Burman House, and Hurst House are lunatic asylums. Ashbury House and Yew-Trees are principal residences. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester. Value, £150. Patrons, the Inhabitants.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town and a chapelry"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Henley in Arden CP/Tn       Wootton Wawen CP/AP       Warwickshire AncC
Place: Henley in Arden

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