BEDWORTH - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"BEDWORTH, a parish and small town in the Kirby division of the hundred of Knightlow, in the county of Warwick, 3 miles to the S. of Nuneaton, and 5 from Coventry. It is a station on the Coventry and Nuneaton branch of the London and North-Western railway. The Coventry canal terminates in this parish, where it joins the Ashby-de-la-Zouch canal. The town, which contains a population of 5,651, is lighted with gas, the works of which were reconstructed about six years ago.

There is a good supply of provisions on Saturday, though no regular market. The ribbon manufacture is carried on extensively here, employing about 1,300 looms, and many hands are employed in the neighbouring collieries and stone quarries. There is also a silk throwing mill and some malting-houses. The living is a rectory* in the diocese of Worcester, of the value of £562, in the patronage of the Earl of Aylesford, with a park-like glebe of 214 acres. The church, dedicated to All Saints, is a modern structure with square embattled tower, and was enlarged in 1851.

The register dates from 1656, and contains some curious entries of excommunication. There are chapels belonging to the Independents, Wesleyans, and Baptists. The charitable endowments of Bedworth amount to nearly £1,200 a-year. The principal charity being that founded in 1715 by Nicholas Chamberlain, a former rector, consisting of two free schools and twenty-four almshouses. The present income of this charity is £1,176 per annum. A fair is held on Whit-Wednesday for cattle."

"COLLY CROFT, a hamlet in the parish of Bedworth, in the county of Warwick, 5 miles N. of Coventry."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]