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HENLEY-IN-ARDEN - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

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The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868

"HENLEY-IN-ARDEN, a chapelry, post, and market town in the parish of Wootton Wawen, Henley division of the hundred of Barlichway, county Warwick, 6 miles from the Knowle station on the Great Western railway, 8 from Stratford-upon-Avon, and 14 from Birmingham. It is a town of great antiquity, and was partially burnt at the battle of Evesham in the reign of Henry II. It took the adjunct to its name from its position in the forest of Arden, a large tract of woodland extending over part of Warwickshire and the adjoining counties. It is situated on the river Alne, near the Birmingham canal, and is a polling place for South Warwickshire.

The inhabitants are employed in agriculture. The town is sheltered from the N. winds by a range of hills which extend to Leveridge Hill on the Birmingham road. It is considered a healthy town, and is governed by a high and low bailiff, with other officers appointed at the courtleet of the lord of the manor. It forms one long street consisting of several good houses and shops, with a branch of the Stourbridge and Kidderminster Banking Company, and a savings-bank. It is now lighted with gas, and a railway is in progress which will be opened in 1865, and the street is being paved with blue brick. Petty sessions are held every alternate Wednesday at the White Swan inn. Near the market-house is an old cross.

The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Worcester, value £104, in the patronage of the inhabitants. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, has a square embattled tower, and highly decorative western porch. The old roof of ribbed and carved oak is still retained in the chancel. There is a place of worship for the Baptists. The charities produce about £113 per annum, including the endowment of the free school. Here is a National school for girls, and a Sunday-school for boys. Here is situated Burman House, and Hurst House; the former for the reception of private lunatic patients of both sexes, and the latter for females only. Arden House is a first-class lunatic asylum for a limited number of patients. Christopher Musgrave, Esq., is lord of the manor.

On Leveridge Hill, about 2 miles N.W. of the town, is a Roman encampment, entrenched with a double moat and high ramparts of earth, and about half a mile to the E. is Henley Mount, said to have been thrown up by Cromwell as an exploratory station during the parliamentary war; also vestiges of a Norman castle on Beaudesert Hill, a lofty eminence a quarter of a mile E. of the town, and commanding extensive views. Fairs are held on the 25th March for the sale of cattle, on Whit-Tuesday, 21st July, and 29th October for hops, and a statute fair on the 11th October for the hiring of servants."

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