Polesworth, Warwickshire

Historical Description

Polesworth, a village and a parish in Warwickshire. The village stands on the river Auker, near the Coventry Canal, 1½ mile N of Watling Street, 5 miles NW of Atherstone, and 4 ESE of Tamworth; is an ancient place; was once a market-town; and has a station on the Trent Valley section of the L. & N.W.R., a post, money order, and telegraph office under Tamworth, and a fair on the Monday after 19 Sept. The parish contains also the hamlets of Warton, Dordon, Hallend, Freazley, and Quarry Hill, and the manors of Pooley and Bramcote. Acreage, 6370; population of the civil parish, 3758; of the ecclesiastical, 3076. For parish council purposes it is divided into Polesworth ward, which returns five members to the council; Dordon and Hall End ward, three members; and Warton ward, two members. The manor and much of the land belong to the Chetwynds. Pooley Hall belonged anciently to The Marmions, passed in 1399 to the Cokains, was rebuilt in 1509 by Sir T. Cokain, and is now a farmhouse. A small chapel adjoins the house. A nunnery was founded at Polesworth by King Egbert or his son, and was refounded after the Norman Conquest by Robert Marmion. Remains of the refectory are incorporated with the vicarage. There are collieries, quarries, and clayworks. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester; net value, £200 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is part of the ancient nunnery, and was restored and enlarged in 1869. It contains a very curious effigy of the 14th century of an abbess of the nunnery, and some memorial windows. The vicarage of Warton is a separate benefice. There are Baptist, Congregational, and Wesleyan chapels. Dordon contains a chapel of ease and a New Connexion Methodist 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 Polesworth:

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 Polesworth from the following:

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

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Polesworth 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.