Kirby, Monks (St. Edith)
KIRBY, MONKS (St. Edith), a parish, in the union of Lutterworth, Kirby division of the hundred of Knightlow, N. division of the county of Warwick, 6 miles (N. N. W.) from Rugby; containing in 1841, with the chapelry of Copston Magna, and the hamlets of Brockhurst, Easen-hall, Over-Cester, Newnham-Paddox, Pailton, Stretton-under-Foss with Newbold-Revel, and Walton, 1861 inhabitants. Dugdale fixes here the town of Cyrcbirig, built by Ethelfreda, Countess of Mercia; but Bishop Gibson places it at Chirbury, in Shropshire, on the frontier of the ancient kingdom of Mercia. A priory of Benedictine monks, a cell to the abbey of Angiers, in Normandy, was founded about 1077, by Gosfred de Wirchia, the possessions of which, on its suppression, were valued at £220. 3. 4. per annum, and annexed to the Carthusian priory of Axholme. The parish is situated near the borders of Leicestershire, and consists of 9533 acres of a productive soil, of clay and sand, with trees in the hedge-rows. The Oxford canal passes along the south-western portion, and the parish is intersected from west to east by the road from Coventry to Lutterworth: the Trent-Valley railway, also, passes through a portion of the parish. The living is a discharged vicarage, with that of Withybrook annexed, valued in the king's books at £22. 9. 7.; net income, £166; patrons and impropriators, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. The church is a large structure. At Copston Magna is a chapel of ease. There are places of worship for dissenters; and an endowed school.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.