COLESHILL, a market-town and parish in the,
Birmingham division of the hundred of HEMLINGFORD,
county of WARWICK, 18 miles (N. by W.) from Warwick,
and 103 (N. W.) from London, containing 1760 inhabitants.
This place derives its name from being situated
on the acclivity and summit of an eminence rising gradually
from the south bank of the river Cole, over which
is a neat brick bridge of six arches leading into the town:
it consists principally of one long street, from the
centre of which a shorter street of considerable width
diverges towards the church, and affords a convenient
area for the market-place, in which is a portico of brick.
The houses are in general well built, and several of them
are handsome and of modern date; the inhabitants are
amply supplied with water from springs, and from the
rivers Thame and Blyth, which run through the parish.
The market is on Wednesday: the fairs are on the first
Monday in January for cattle and sheep, on Shrove-
Monday for horses, which is the principal fair, May 6th,
the first Monday in July, and the first Monday after
September 25th, all for cattle. The county magistrates,
occasionally, hold here a petty session for the division;
two constables, two headboroughs, two clerks of the
market, and two pinners, Eire chosen at the court of the
lord of the manor, held in October: the bishop holds
his annual visitation in August, and a court of probate
quarterly. Part of the workhouse is appropriated to the
confinement of malefactors previously to their committal.
Th§ living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of
Coventry, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, rated
in the king's books at £10. 18. 6., and in the
patronage of Earl Digby. The church, dedicated to
St. Peter and St. Patil, is an ancient and spacious
structure, in the decorated style of English architecture,
with a lofty tower surmounted by am octagonal spire,
crocketed at the angles, part of which was taken down
and rebuilt in the same style in 1812: it contains an
ancient Norman font, with an effigy of St. Peter, and
a representation of the Crucifixion, rudely sculptured
on it. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists.
The free grammar school was founded in the
reign of James I., by Lord Digby, who, in conjunction
with some of the parishioners, endowed it with
seventy acres of land and several houses in the parish;
the management is vested in thirteen trustees, of
whom Earl Digby nominates three: it comprises two
schoolrooms, one exclusively for classical literature,
the other for English, writing, and arithmetic: the
head-master's salary is £80 per annum, with a house
and seven or eight acres of land; the second master
has a salary of £70 per annum; both are nominated
by the trustees, and their appointment is confirmed by
Earl Digby. A charity school was endowed, in 1694,
by Simon, Lord Digby, with £500, which has been
vested in the purchase of a house and land, for clothing
and instructing poor girls, and apprenticing poor children;
and under the same trust is a small endowment
for the distribution of bibles and prayer-books.
There are two almshouses for widows; and a house,
which has lately been rebuilt, is endowed with land for
the accommodation of poor travellers for one night,
with a small hospital attached to it for those that are
sick. About a mile to the east of the town is Maxstoke
castle,, in a high state of preservation, and inhabited
by a descendant of the founder: the buildings occupy
an irregular quadrilateral area, enclosed by an embattled
wall, and defended at the angles by octagonal
towers: the entrance on the east side is under a finely
groined arch in the gateway tower, which is square and
strengthened with angular turrets, and was- formerly
defended by a portcullis. About a mile and a half to
the south-east of the castle are the remains of Maxstoke
priory, consisting of part of the walls and the
entrance gateway; the conventual buildings have been
converted into farm-offices: the castle and the remains
of the priory are in the decorated style of English architecture,
and appear to be of the same date with the
church, to which it is said there was a subterraneous
passage leading from the priory. Coleshill gives the
title of viscount to Earl Digby.