HAMPTON-in-ARDEN, a parish in the Solihull
division of the hundred of HEMLINGFORD, county of
WARWICK, 4 miles (E. by N.) from Solihull, comprising
the chapelries of Balsall and Knowle, and the hamlets
of Kinwalsey, and Nuthurst, and containing 2772 inhabitants.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry
of Coventry, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry,
rated in the king's books at £15. 6. 8., and in the
patronage of the Master and Brethren of the Earl
of Leicester's Hospital, in Warwick. The church, dedicated
to St. Mary and St. Bartholomew, had formerly
a lofty spire, which was destroyed by lightning
in 1643. A charter for a market and a fair was granted
by Henry III. The river Blythe and the Birmingham
and Warwick canal pass through the parish. George
Fentham, in 1690, bequeathed certain property for the
instruction of youth of both sexes; the annual proceeds
are about £60, of which sum the schoolmaster
receives £42, the schoolmistress £12. 12., and £5
is laid out in apprenticing children: the school-house
for the boys was erected by the trustees in 1782. At
Nuthurst, in this parish, was an ancient chapel, but
there are not any remains of it.