Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ATHERSTONE

ATHERSTONE, a market town, a township, a chapelry, a subdistrict, a district, and a division, in Warwick. The town stands on Watling-street and the Trent Valley railway, adjacent to the Anker river and the Coventry canal, at the northern extremity of the forest of Arden, 8 miles SE of Tamworth. It was anciently called Adrestone and Edrestone. It was given at the Conquest to the monks of Bec in Normandy; who obtained for it the right of a market and an annual fair. An Augustinian friary was founded at it, in 1376, by Ralph Basset of Draiton; and given, at the dissolution, to the Cartwrights. The Earl of Richmond and other disaffected nobles of Richard III. concerted in it, in 1485, the measures which led next day to their victory on Bosworth field. The place where they held their conference is said to have been the Three Tuns Inn, which still exists; and the place on which their troops encamped was a meadow N of the church. The field of Bosworth lies 8 miles to the NE, within Leicester. The town of Atherstone consists chiefly of one principal street, well-built, and nearly a mile long. The market house stands on pillars, and has a spacious assembly-room above. The corn exchange is large and recent. The church was mainly re-edificed in 1850, and is in the decorated English style. The grammar school was founded, in 1573,-by Sir William Devereux and two other persons; has a free income of £350; and was recently removed to new buildings. There are chapels for Independents, Methodists, Unitarians, and Roman Catholics; a Benedictine nunnery; an endowed school with £42 a year; other charities £293; a library and newsroom, a dispensary, and a workhouse. The town is a seat of petty sessions, and a polling-place; and has a station on the railway, a head post office,‡ a banking office, and two chief inns. A weekly market is held on Tuesday; and fairs, in Feb., April, June, Aug., Oct., and Dec. The manufacture of ribbons, hats, and shalloons is carried on; and a considerable traffic from neighbouring quarries and coalmines exists. Drayton, who wrote the "Polyolbion," and Dr. Grew, the botanist, were natives. Pop., 3,857. Houses, 860.

The township includes the town, and is in the parish of Mancetter.-Real property, £11,854. Pop., 3,877. Houses, 864. Atherstone Hall is the seat ofA. Bracebridge, Esq.; and stands on a pleasant bank, commanding an extensive view. The park contains some very grand old oaks. A very hard quartzose sandstone is largely quarried, and sent to distant parts, for road-making. Manganese has been extensively brought from the contiguous hamlet of Hartshill; and coal from the neighbouring moor of Baddesley.—The chapelry is conterminate with the township. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester. Value, £150.* Patron, Church Pat. Society.-The subdistrict and the district are co-extensive; and comprehend the parishes of Mancetter, Ansley, Baxterley, Baddesley-Ensor, Polesworth, Grendon, Merevale, Sheepy-Magna, Sheepy-Parva, Witherley, and Fenny-Drayton, the extra-parochial tract of the Mythe, and part of the parish of Shustoke; and four of these parishes, part of another, and the extra-parochial tract are electorally in Leicester. Acres in the district, 27,883. Poor-rates in 1866, £4,980. Pop. in 1861, 12,118. Houses, 2,665. Marriages in 1866, 89; births. 426,-of which 28 were illegitimate; deaths, 212,-of which 64 were at ages under 5 years, and 7 at ages above 85 years. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 760; births, 3,949; deaths, 2,336. The places of worship in 1851 were 15 of the Church of England, with 5,226 sittings; 7 of Independents, with 1,976 s.; 2 of Baptists, With 380 s.; 6 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 770 s.; 2 of Primitive Methodists, with 170 s.; 1 of the Independent Methodist Society, with 176 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 140 s. The schools were 16 public day schools, with 1,047 scholars; 30 private day schools, with 564 s.; 24 Sunday schools, with 2,124 s.; and 3 evening schools for adults, with 43 s.-The division is in Hemlingford hundred, and excludes the parts of the district which are electorally in Leicester, but includes ten other parishes which are electorally in Warwick. Acres, 55,495. Pop. in 1851, 26,144. Houses, 5,722.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a market town, a township, a chapelry, a subdistrict, a district, and a division"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Atherstone Tn/CP       Atherstone RegD/PLU       Warwickshire AncC
Place names: ADRESTONE     |     ATHERSTONE     |     EDRESTONE
Place: Atherstone

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