Chilvers Coton is an area of the town of

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire to the north-east.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

, England, around one mile south of the town centre. Chilvers Coton was historically a 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in its own right and was mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 as “Celverdestoche,”. The author Mary Ann Evans (better known as

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

) lived at Griff House in the parish between 1820 and 1841. Chilvers Coton was the inspiration for the fictional village of Shepperton in Eliot's novel '' Scenes of Clerical Life''. Like neighbouring Nuneaton, Chilvers Coton historically was a centre for the weaving and coal mining industries. The parish of Chilvers Coton was made a local board district in 1850, being the area's first modern form of local government; prior to that it was governed by its

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

. The two local boards for Chilvers Coton and neighbouring Nuneaton were merged in 1893. The following year, all such districts were converted into urban districts. The Nuneaton and Chilvers Coton Urban District was elevated to become a

municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

in 1907 under the single name of Nuneaton. The civil parish of Chilvers Coton continued to exist until 1920, but as an

urban 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

it had no parish council. The parish was abolished in 1920 when the parish of Nuneaton was enlarged to match the borough. In 1911 the parish had a population of 10,492. The original

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

parish church for the area is All Saints' Church. This church dated from the 13th century with 19th-century additions. Most of the church, except the tower, was destroyed in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

during a German air raid on Nuneaton, and was subsequently rebuilt during 1946-51 by German

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

. A

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church, Our Lady of the Angels is also located in the area, as well as a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

chapel. Between 1850 and 1965, Chilvers Coton was served by its own railway station on the Coventry to Nuneaton Line. The

Coventry Canal The Coventry Canal is a navigable narrow canal in the Midlands of England. It starts in Coventry and ends to the north at Fradley Junction, just north of Lichfield, where it joins the Trent and Mersey Canal. It also has connections with the ...

also runs through the area.

References

{{reflist Areas of Nuneaton Former civil parishes in Warwickshire