MANCETTER - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"MANCETTER, (or Mancester), a parish in the Atherstone division of the hundred of Hemlingford, county Warwick, containing Atherstone railway station and post town, 1 mile S.E. of the village of Mancetter. It is situated on the Coventry canal and river Anker, and contains the populous hamlets of Atherstone, Hartshill, and Oldbury, the seat of the Okeovers. It is supposed to be the site of the Roman Manduessedum on Watling Street, and has a camp of 6 acres, where numerous relics have been found. In this parish are extensive stone quarries, and productive mines of manganese of superior quality.

The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Worcester, value £230. The parish church, dedicated to St. Peter, is an ancient structure, standing on the site of the camp. It has an E. window of ancient stained glass, and a tablet to Robert Glover, of Mancetter House, who was burnt at Coventry as a Protestant martyr in Queen Mary's time. In addition to the parish chureh, there are two district churches, viz: at Atherstone and Harthill, the livings of which are perpetual curacies*, value £150 and £155 respectively. The parochial charities produce about £829, of which £205 goes to the hospital or almshouses founded by James Gramer in 174. The Trent Valley railway and the Coventry canal pass through the parish.

Mancetter House is the principal residence, and has been the family seat of the Glovers for a considerable period. Oval flint axes or celts, Roman bricks, gold, silver, and brass coins, with various other antiquities, have been found here.

"HARTSHILL, a hamlet, township, and chapelry in the parish of Mancetter, Atherstone division of the hundred of Hemlingford, county Warwick, 3 miles N.W. of Nuneaton, and 3 S. of Atherstone. This place is intersected by the Coventry canal, the river Ancor, celebrated by Drayton in his "Polyolbion", and the roads from Atherstone and Coleshill to Nuneaton. It contains the hamlet of Chapel End. From the high ground on which the village stands, there is a view over the country, between the Peak in Derbyshire, and the Weedon hills in Northamptonshire, taking in no less than 45 parish churches.

It is supposed to have been the site of the Campus Martins connected with the Roman station of Manduessedum, now Mancetter, and had a Norman castle built by Hugh de Hardreshull about 1125. The modern village is neatly built, and part of the inhabitants are engaged in ribbon weaving, and in the mines and quarries. On the W. side of the village is a large wood stretching up towards the Roman Castra AEstiva, or "summer camp", at Oldbury. The soil is fertile, and manganese, iron ore, copper, greenstone, and quartz, are found, the first being extensively worked.

The living is a perpetual curacy* in the diocese of Worcester, value £155, in the patronage of the Vicar of Mancetter. The church is a modern structure built of random stone, with blue brick dressings. The Independents and Wesleyans have chapels, and there is a National school. The foundation school is endowed with a house for the master and a farm at Baxterley, which produces about £37 per annum. There are besides several small charities."

"OLDBURY, a hamlet in the parish of Mancetter, Atherstone division of the hundred of Hemlingford, county Warwick, 2 miles S. of Atherstone, and 4 N.W. of Nuneaton. It is situated near the site of the ancient Manduessedum on Watling Street. In the vicinity are ruins of a Roman camp, surrounded by a rampart 6 feet in height, where British arms have been discovered. Here was once a small nunnery of the Dominican order, dedicated to St. Lawrence, and subordinate to the abbey of Polesworth. Its revenues at the Dissolution were valued at £6 0s. 10d. The principal residence is Oldbury Hall."

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