Old Arley is a village in the

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 ...

of Arley, in the north of

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, west 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 ...

and north west of the city of

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) :

Location

The village is within the

of Arley in the

North Warwickshire North Warwickshire is a local government district with borough status in Warwickshire, England. The borough includes the two towns of Atherstone (where the council is based) and Coleshill, and the large villages of Hartshill, Kingsbury, Ma ...

district of

of which it is the less populated settlement. It is to the west of the stream called

Bourne Brook The Bourne Brook or Black Brook, as it is known in its upper reaches, is a tributary of the River Tame in Staffordshire, England. Course From its source near Aldridge (originally in Staffordshire, but now in the West Midlands county), where ...

and the

Birmingham to Peterborough Line Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands region, in England. It is the largest local authority district in England by population and the second-largest cit ...

. The other settlement within the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

is New Arley which is southeast. Elevations of developed estates range from a maximum of

Above Ordnance Datum An ordnance datum (OD) is a vertical datum used by an ordnance survey as the basis for deriving altitudes on maps. A spot height may be expressed as above ordnance datum (AOD). Usually mean sea level (MSL) at a particular place is used for the ...

in the Devitts Green western part of the village, gently down to at the southernmost neighbourhood, which adjoins the brook itself, which by the time it reaches the western tip of the parish at the defunct

Daw Mill Daw Mill was a coal mine located near the village of Arley, Warwickshire, Arley, near Nuneaton, in the English county of Warwickshire. The mine was Britain's biggest coal producer. It closed in 2013 following a major fire. It was the last remaini ...

colliery, is at AOD. The locality of New Arley known as Hill Top is higher still at 166 m (545 ft), the highest point of the parish.

Closest towns and transport

The village and

is north west of the city of

, and west of the town of

but with equally good connections to Coleshill and to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, particularly its

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

area. The nearest railway station is at which is north east of the village. The B4114 runs along gentle hillsides east–west to the north of the village and travels west to meet the motorway network by the village of Coleshill on the nearside of Spaghetti Junction providing there a direct route over that junction to Birmingham or a short stretch (of the

A446 road The A446 is an A road in Zone 4 of the Great Britain numbering scheme. History The 1922 route of the A446 was Leamington – Kenilworth – Coleshill – Lichfield, which over the years has been curtailed to its current route. Route Stonebri ...

) south to Junction 4 of the M6 for longer distance journeys.

History

Old Arley is included 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 ...

which was compiled in 1086. In its entry there the village, which is named as ''Arei'', has four households, 2 men's plough teams, Woodland of 1.5 by 1

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

s. In 1066 the

lord of the manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...

was Earl Edwin, and in 1086 the manor was Princess Christina who was also listed as the

Tenant-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, a tenant-in-chief (or vassal-in-chief) was a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opposed to holding them ...

. The

had a taxable value of 1 gold unit per year.Domesday Book
retrieved 9 April 2013 The village and parish was foremost a farming community and had several

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

within its parish which combined slowly into the village of Old Arley: Gun Hill, Slowley Hill, Devitt's Green and Ballard's Green. The village was centred on the

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

, stone-built

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

St Wilfrid Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and beca ...

. Samuel Lewis described the village in 1848: In 1881 the population of the village was 207 and by 1891 it had risen to 216. In 1900 the

Kelly's Directory Kelly's Directory (or more formally, the Kelly's, Post Office and Harrod & Co Directory) was a trade directory in Britain that listed all businesses and tradespeople in a particular city or town, as well as a general directory of postal addresses ...

includes a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, with a

post box A post box (British English; also written postbox; also known as pillar box), also known as a collection box, mailbox, letter box or drop box (American English), is a physical box into which members of the public can deposit outgoing mail intend ...

built into the wall, which was said to be by the church. There was also a mixed free school which had been opened in 1875 for an attendance of a capacity of sixty, but had only an average attendance of thirty-three pupils. There was also a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

with station master Alfred Lingdon. Kelly's also lists a total of twenty farms, one

water mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...

and one

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

, the ''Wagon Load of

Lime Lime most commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Bo ...

''. There was also one shop. The

of Old Arley is called

Saint Wilfred Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and beca ...

A church near you
retrieved 9 April 2013 and there is a

Methodist church 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 ...

in the village.

References

{{authority control Villages in Warwickshire Borough of North Warwickshire