Packington, Little (St. Bartholomew)

PACKINGTON, LITTLE (St. Bartholomew), a parish, in the union of Meriden, Solihull division of the hundred of Hemlingford, N. division of the county of Warwick, 9 miles (W. N. W.) from Coventry; containing 151 inhabitants. This place is supposed to have been anciently part of the Earl of Mellent's possessions. A moiety of it belonged in the reign of Henry VII. to John Grey, Viscount L'Isle, from whom it passed to Thomas, Marquess of Dorset, and from him to the Duke of Suffolk. On the attainder of the last-mentioned nobleman, it came to the crown, and was granted by Queen Elizabeth to Edward, Earl of Lincoln; it was next sold to the Baker family. Within the lordship was a hermitage, which, with the church, was given by Sir Gilbert Picot to the monks of Worcester; on the Dissolution, their lands were granted to the Dean and Chapter of Worcester. The parish comprises 970 acres of productive land, and is intersected by the Derby railway, and by the river Blyth, from the bank of which rises a sloping hill richly wooded. The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the king's books at £3; net income, £212; patron, the Earl of Aylesford. The tithes were commuted for land and corn-rents in the year 1818.