Henley in Arden, Warwickshire

Historical Description

Henley-in-Arden, a market-town and an ecclesiastical parish in Wootton Wawen parish, Warwickshire. The town stands in the forest of Arden, under a sheltering range of hills on the river Arrow, near its confluence with the Aine, near the boundary with Worcestershire, and near the Stratford-on-Avon Canal, 8 miles NNW of Stratford-on-Avon. In 1894 it was connected with the G.W.R. main line at Kingswold. The town consists chiefly of one street about three-quarters 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 De Montforta. 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 has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Birmingham, a bank, is a seat of petty sessions, and contains the shaft of a very ancient market-cross. A weekly market is held on Monday, and fairs on 2S March and 11 and 29 Oct. The ecclesiastical parish includes the town, and extends into the country. Population, 1043. The manor belonged to the De Montforts, and passed to the Botelers. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Worcester; gross value, £160 with residence. The church is ancient, and was restored in 1856, all the windows being of stained glass. There is a Baptist chapel, and a Wesleyan 'chapel was erected in 1894.

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 Henley in Arden:

Most of the records prior to 1911 have been digitised and are available on Ancestry.co.uk
See Wootton Wawen for earlier records.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Henley in Arden from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Henley-in-Arden)

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Henley in Arden 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.