Bedworth, Warwickshire

Historical Description

Bedworth, a town and a parish in Warwickshire. Tho town stands adjacent to the Coventry Canal, on the high road between Coventry and Nuneaton, 5 miles NE of Coventry, and 3 S of Nuneaton, and has a station on the L. & N.W.R., and a post office under Nuneaton. There are extensive coal and ironstone mines belonging to the Chamberlain Charity and leased to the Bedworth Coal and Iron Company. A manufacture of ribbons, tapes, and hats is carried on. The town has a branch establishment of the Leicestershire Banking Company; a fair is held on Whit-Wednesday. The parish comprises 2165 acres; population, 5485. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Worcester; net value, £475 with residence. Patron, the Earl of Aylesford, who is lord of the manor. The church, with the exception of the tower, was rebuilt in 1890. It is a handsome edifice in the Decorated style, with seats for 900 all free. There are Roman Catholic, Congregational, Baptist, Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, and Calvinist chapels; and almshouses for forty aged men and women. The last-named occupy three sides of a cloistered quadrangle, in Later Gothic, built in 1840, at a cost of £8500, and form part of the Chamberlain Charity, which was founded in 1715 by the Rev. N. Chamberlain, rector of the parish.

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 Bedworth, All Saints:

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 Bedworth from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bedworth (All Saints))

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Bedworth 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.