Nuneaton in 1843

Nuneaton is in the Atherstone division of Hemlingford hundred, about eight miles north of Coventry, or 101 north-west of the General Post-office, London. This town is indebted for its early prosperity to a nunnery of the order of Fontevrauld, founded here in the reign of Henry II, by Robert Bossu, earl of Leicester ; the yearly revenues of the nunnery were valued, at the dissolution, at £290, 15 shillings, 0 pence gross, or £253, 14 shillings, 5 pence clear. It was the first established of the very few houses of this order in England. The nuns obtained the grant of a weekly market in the time of Henry III. The hamlet of Attleborough, about half a mile to the south-east of Nuneaton, in Nuneaton parish, may be regarded as one suburb, and the village of Chilvers Coton, about the same distance south of the town, as another suburb. The small hamlet of Stockingford, in Nuneaton parish, is two miles west of the town. The statistics of the two parishes of Nuneaton and Chilvers Coton, in 1831, were as follows:-

Only about a fifteenth part of the population of Nuneaton, and a fifth part of that of Chilvers Coton, were agricultural.

The town of Nuneaton is irregularly laid out, but tolerably well built. The river Anker runs through it. The church, which is on the south-east side of the town, is a Gothic building, with a square tower, but too small for the accommodation of the inhabitants. The chief branch of industry in the town and neighbourhood is the ribbon-manufacture, which employed, in 1831, about 900 men in the parish of Nuneaton, and 200 in the parish of Chilvers Coton, besides women and children. The coalfield, which extends from Tamworth to Coventry, passes through both parishes, and there are some coal-pits. The market of Nuneaton is on Saturday, and there are three yearly fairs for cows, horses, and sheep. The living of Nuneaton is a vicarage united with the chapelry of Stockingford, of the joint clear yearly value of £902, with a glebe-house, in the rural deanery of Arden, in the archdeaconry of Coventry, and in the diocese of Worcester. The living of Chilvers Coton is a vicarage, of the clear yearly value of £106, with a glebe-house, in the same ecclesiastical divisions.

There were in Nuneaton parish, in 1833, eighteen day-schools with 511 children, namely 91 boys and 30 girls, and 390 children of sex not discriminated in the return. Two of the schools were endowed : one of them was a grammar-school founded by king Edward VI, with 45 boys ; the other, called Smiths Charity-school, contained 46 boys and 30 girls. About one in fifteen of the population was under daily instruction. There were six Sunday-schools, with 789 children, namely 286 boys and 377 girls, and 126 children of sex not stated, giving about one in ten of the population under instruction on Sundays. In the parish of Chilvers Coton there were at the same period one infant-school, partly supported by an individual contributor, with 45 children, namely 20 boys and 25 girls ; four other day-schools, two of them national schools, with 263 children, namely 148 boys and 115 girls ; making a total of 308 children, or one in eight of the population under daily instruction. The two national schools were also Sunday-schools, and were attended on Sundays by 120 boys and 80 girls ; beside which there were five other Sunday-schools, with 67 boys, 88 girls, and 250 children of sex not stated : making a total of 605 children, or two in seven of the population under instruction on Sunday. From this unusually large proportion it is probable that the Sunday scholars are from Atherstone or other adjacent parishes. There are several dissenting meeting-houses in the two parishes.