Hampton-in-Arden (St. Mary and St. Bartholomew)
HAMPTON-IN-ARDEN (St. Mary and St. Bartholomew), a parish, partly in the union of Meriden, and partly in that of Solihull, Solihull division of the hundred of Hemlingford, N. division of the county of Warwick, 9½ miles (W. by N.) from Coventry; containing, with the chapelries of Balsall and Knowle, and the hamlets of Kinwalsey and Nuthurst, 3306 inhabitants, of whom 781 are in the township of Hampton. The parish comprises 11,172 acres, of which 2310 are in the township; the soil is generally a mixture of marl and clay, and the surface undulated: the village is built on an elevation. The river Blythe, and the Birmingham and Warwick canal, pass through the parish; it is also intersected at its southern extremity, by the road from Birmingham to Warwick, and the Birmingham and Derby railway diverges from the line of the London and Birmingham near the village, where is a convenient station. A charter for a weekly market and an annual fair, was granted in the reign of Henry III. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £15. 6. 8.; net income, £578; patrons and impropriators, the Master and Brethren of the Earl of Leicester's Hospital, Warwick. The tithes were commuted for land and a money payment in 1796. The church was built in the reign of Henry II., and had formerly a lofty spire, which was destroyed by lightning in 1643. George Fentham, in 1690, bequeathed property for instruction, the annual proceeds of which are about £200: it will ultimately yield a much larger income. Balsall and Knowle form separate incumbencies: at Nuthurst was an ancient chapel, on the site of which a chapel of ease has been built, chiefly at the expense of E. Bolton King, Esq. There is a small place of worship for Independents.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.