Allesley is an English suburban village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

City of Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

metropolitan borough, West Midlands, about 3¼ miles (5.25 km) west-northwest of Coventry city centre and 4 miles (6.5 km) east-south-east of Meriden. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 805, which rose to 837 at the 2011 Census (excluding the neighbouring districts of Allesley Park and Allesley Green). Until 1998, Allesley contained the main

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

car assembly plant at Browns Lane.

The parish

Situated at the eastern extreme of the Meriden Gap, the parish of Allesley covers a much larger area than the village itself, which is based around Washbrook Lane, Browns Lane and Hawkesmill Lane. The parish incorporates the ancient rural Ardens of Pinketts Booth, Pickford, Pickford Green, Harvest Hill, Hawkes End, Hollyberry End, Wall Hill and Brownshill Green. Allesley Village denotes the area east of the Birmingham Road, including West Point. Although this is largely a dormitory community for Coventry, it retains several aspects of a separate village, with many residents still regarding it as such. Most of the old village is a conservation area on a low ridge between the

River Sherbourne The River Sherbourne is a river that flows under the centre of the city of Coventry, in the West Midlands, in England. The source of the river is in the fields near Hawkes End in the parish of Allesley. It flows for about 8 miles or 13 km ...

and a tributary of it, the Pickford Brook. The suburbs of Allesley Green and Allesley Park lie to the south and west. Allesley Park developed in the 1950s to 1970s to the east of the A45 and due south of Allesley. Allesley Green, built in the late 1980s, lies a quarter of a mile south-west of Allesley. The combined population of the three main districts is approximately 8,000.

History

Allesley grew around the 800-year-old

All Saints Church All Saints Church, or All Saints' Church or variations on the name may refer to: Albania * All Saints' Church, Himarë Australia * All Saints Church, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory * All Saints Anglican Church, Henley Brook, Western Aus ...

(known as All Souls Church until the Reformation). Its spire is prominent on the village skyline. Originating about 1140, it was rebuilt in 1863 and remains largely unaltered since. A noted writer on husbandry, Walter Blith, was baptised there on 7 August 1605.ODNB entry
Retrieved 2 September 2011. Subscription required.
/ref> The Birmingham Road running through the village was part of the

turnpike Turnpike often refers to: * A type of gate, another word for a turnstile * In the United States, a toll road Turnpike may also refer to: Roads United Kingdom * A turnpike road, a principal road maintained by a turnpike trust, a body with powe ...

trunk road laid out between Holyhead and London in 1821–1824 by

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scot ...

. A toll house stood at the junction of Holyhead Road and Allesley Old Road, but the tolls were withdrawn by Act of Parliament in 1871 and the toll house demolished in the mid-1930s. Allesley included the Browns Lane Jaguar car plant and its national showroom, which closed in the late 1990s. Wood-veneer trim production for Jaguar continued until the mid-2000s, after which the land was sold to developers. An

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

fulfilment centre is now one of the businesses on the site.

Twin town

Allesley is twinned with the village of Saint-Jean-Soleymieux, near Saint-Etienne, Loire, France.

Sports

The parish has an amateur Barkers Butts

Rugby Football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

Club playing at the Bob Coward Memorial Ground, just off Pickford Grange Lane. Formed in 1946, it originally played in Keresley, but moved to Allesley in 1975.

References

Bibliography

*David Fry and Albert Smith, 1991/1993, ''The Coventry We Have Lost.'' 2 vols, Simanda Press, Berkswell / {{authority control Villages in the West Midlands (county) Suburbs of Coventry Civil parishes in the West Midlands (county) Conservation areas in England