Coleshill, Berkshire
Historical Description
Coleshill, a village in Berks, and a parish partly in Berks and partly also in Wiltshire. The village stands on the river Cole, at the boundary between Berks and Wiltshire, 3½ miles WSW of Faringdon station on the G.W.R., and 4½ N of Shrivenham, consists chiefly of new, neat, uniform cottages, and has a post office under Swindon; money order and telegraph office, Highworth, Wiltshire. It gives the title of Baron to the Earl of Radnor. The parish is mainly in Berks, but includes Lynt, a pasture farm of 480 acres in Wiltshire. Acreage, 2014; population, 373. Coleshill House, the seat of the Bouverie family, is a quadrangular structure of 1660 by Inigo Jones, retaining its original character, and forming the finest specimen of Jones' taste and talent, and it contains a fine hall and commands splendid views. The grounds are remarkably beautiful. Vestiges of a Roman camp are seen at Binbury. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; value, £252 with residence. Patron, the Earl of Radnor. The church is a handsome structure, with pinnacled western tower, and contains a curious circular window, with the arms of Sir Mark Stuart Pleydell and his lady, a marble cenotaph by Rysbrach to their daughter, afterwards Countess of Radnor, and an eastern window representing the Nativity, brought from Angers. Charities, £150.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Berkshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Coleshill All Saints | |
| Hundred | Highworth | |
| Poor Law union | Farringdon |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1559.
Churches
Church of England
All Saints (parish church)
The church of All Saints is a fine and ancient edifice of stone, of the Early English period, with inserted Perpendicular windows, and consists of chancel, nave of one bay, north aisle, south transept and an embattled western tower with pinnacles and containing 5 bells, dated 1708: the south transept was originally a chapel built in the latter part of the 15th century, by Thomas Pleydell esq. an ancestor of the present patron, who died in 1527: the stained east window, filled with glass brought from Angers, was presented by Jacob, 2nd Earl of Radnor, in 1787; and there are four other stained windows: there is a small but elegant mural monument by Rysbrach, to Harriot (Pleydell), wife of William, 1st Earl of Radnor, who died in 1751; a marble monument with recumbent effigies to Sir Henry Pratt bart. who died 6th April, 1647; and to Mary (Adams), his wife: all the bells were rehung and a cracked one recast in 1884, at the sole expense of Jacob, 4th Earl of Radnor: the organ was enlarged in 1902 at a cost of £100: there are 250 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Coleshill was in Faringdon Registration District from 1837 to 1937 and Wantage Registration District from 1937 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Coleshill from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Coleshill (All Saints))
- Kelly's Directory of Berkshire, 1915
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Berkshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Coleshill 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 Berkshire papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitations of Berkshire 1532, 1566, and 1665-6 is available online.