MEREVALE, a parish partly in the hundred of
SPARKENHOE, county of LEICESTER, and partly in the
Atherstone division of the hundred of HEMLINGFORD,
county of WARWICK, 1 mile (W. by S.) from Atherstone,
containing 208 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual
curacy, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the manorial
court of Merevale, and in the patronage of D. S.
Dugdale, Esq. The church is dedicated to St. Mary.
There are coal mines in the parish, which is bounded
by the river Anker: the Coventry canal passes on the
north-east side of it. An abbey for Cistercian monks,
founded by Robert, Earl of Ferrars and Nottingham,
about 1148, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was
valued at the dissolution at £303. 10.