Ansley, Warwickshire

Historical Description

Ansley, a village and a parish in Warwickshire, on the river Bourne, 2½ miles N of Ariey station on the M.R., 5 W of Nuneaton, and 4 from Atherstone, under which the parish has a post office; money order office, Hartsliill; telegraph office, Stockingford railway station. Acreage, 2930; population, 951. Coal is extensively worked. Ansley Hall, now in the occupation of the Ansley Hall Coal and Iron Company, once formed part of the possessions of the famous Lady Godiva. It stands in an extensive park, which abounds with both natural and artificial beauties, and contains a hermitage. The hermitage was formed out of an ancient oratory, and was the place where Warton wrote his lines, " Beneath this stony roof reclined." The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester; value, £190. The church is partly Early Norman, has a fine Norman arch dividing the chancel from the nave, also a smaller Norman arch over the north door, now stopped up. The tower of the church is of hewn stone, and measures 72 feet and upwards in height, and 18 by 17 feet square at the base, is very regular and well built, and one of the best towers for so small a village in the county, if not the wliole kingdom. There is a Congregational chapel.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

The Warwickshire County Record Office hold the following registers for Ansley, St Lawrence:

Most of the records prior to 1911 have been digitised and are available on Ancestry.co.uk

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Ansley from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Ansley (St. Lawrence))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Warwickshire is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Ansley are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Warwickshire papers online:

• Leamington Spa Courier

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Warwickshire 1619 is available on the Heraldry page.