Allesley is an English suburban village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

in the City of Coventry 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 Allesley Green is a modern suburb of Coventry in the West Midlands, England, within the civil parish of Allesley. The suburb lies west of the A45 road and is approximately west-northwest of Coventry city centre. Most of the housing dates from ...

). 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 thi ...

car assembly plant at

Browns Lane The Browns Lane plant in Coventry, England was built as a Second World War shadow factory run by Daimler Company, The Daimler Company Limited. In 1951 it was leased by Jaguar Cars and remained the company's home until 2005. It was the site o ...

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 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.

, 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 (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 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 Scotla ...

. 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

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

Twin town

Allesley is

twinned Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to: * In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so; * Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning * Twinning inst ...

with the village of

Saint-Jean-Soleymieux Saint-Jean-Soleymieux (; frp, Sent-Jouan-Solèmi) is a commune in the Loire department in central France. Population International relations Saint-Jean-Soleymieux is twinned with Allesley, near Coventry, United Kingdom. See also *Commune ...

, 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 Keresley is a suburban village and civil parish in the City of Coventry, West Midlands, England, about north of Coventry city centre and southwest of Bedworth. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 791 falling to 71 ...

, 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