WOLVEY - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"WOLVEY, a parish in the hundred of Knightlow, county Warwick, 8 miles N.E. of Coventry, 6 S.E. of Nuneaton, and 4 from Hinckley. The village, which is partly inhabited by ribbon weavers, is situated near the river Anker. The parish includes the hamlets of Bramcott, Copson, and Smokington, which last was formerly a considerable village on the line of the ancient Watling Street. On Wolvey Heath was a hermitage, founded in the reign of Richard II., and here Edward IV. was surprised by the Earl of Warwick, who conveyed him hence to Middleham castle, in Yorkshire. The great tithes belong to the prebendary of Wolvey, in the cathedral of Lichfield. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Worcester, value £206, in the patronage of the bishop. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, contains an old monument to the Clinton family. The General Baptists have a chapel. There is a free school."

"COPSON, a hamlet in the parish of Wolvey, in the county of Warwick, 6 miles S.E. of Nuneaton."

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