Place:Exhall (near Coventry), Warwickshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Exhall (near Coventry) is a suburban settlement in the Nuneaton and Bedworth District of Warwickshire, England.

Exhall is an area south of Bedworth located 4.3 miles (7 km) north-northeast of Coventry and 3.8 miles (6.1 km) south of Nuneaton. The population of the ward taken at the 2011 UK census was 8,006. It is bounded (approximately) by a disused mineral railway (that used to serve Newdigate Colliery) to the north, the Coventry–Nuneaton railway line to the east, Pickards Way (B4113 spur) and the M6 motorway to the south, and Church Lane/Bowling Green Lane and the River Sowe to the west. The area makes up the eastern part of the ecclesiastical parish of Exhall St Giles. However, the parish church of St Giles is located on the northeastern edge of nearby Ash Green (which forms the western part of the parish).

The River Sowe and the Coventry Canal are the principal waterways in the area.

Historically, the parish of Exhall (which extends from Black Bank in Bedworth to the north of Holbrooks in Coventry) had no clear centre, instead being composed of a number of hamlets, such as Black Bank, Exhall Hall Green, Wagon Overthrow, Little Bayton, Ash Green, Neal's Green and Newland (all redirected here). Hayes Green has been redirected to Bedworth.

Although the area remained largely rural until recent times, coal mines were attested from the early 17th century onwards. During the Industrial Revolution, activities such as coal-mining and brick-making were further developed, leading to an increase in the population of the parish, and consequently the construction of many small houses for workers. These were mainly located along what is now Black Bank/Coventry Road Exhall, in Ash Green and in Goodyers End in Bedworth (part of which is included in the parish of Exhall). In 1868, the main industry in the parish – in common with towns such as Nuneaton and Coventry – was ribbon-making.

Local government

From 1451 to 1842, Exhall was a parish in the Liberty of Coventry, which was geographically in the hundred of Knightlow in the county of Warwickshire, but administratively separate.

Following the abolition of the Liberty of Coventry, the city boundary was revised, with Exhall excluded.

With the passing of the Local Government Act 1894, which established urban and rural districts in England and Wales, Exhall formed part of the Foleshill Rural District, up until the creation of the Bedworth Urban District in 1928, to which it was transferred. Following local government reorganisation in 1974, Bedworth Urban District was merged with Nuneaton Municipal Borough to form the new Borough of Nuneaton (renamed Nuneaton & Bedworth in 1980).

Research Tips

• GENUKI main page for Warwickshire provides information on various topics covering the whole of the county, and also a link to a list of parishes. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. This is a list of pre-1834 ancient or ecclesiastical parishes but there are suggestions as to how to find parishes set up since then. GENUKI provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. There is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date and therefore the reader should check additional sources if possible.
• Warwickshire and West Midland family history societies are listed in GENUKI.
• The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date and from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851. There is a list of all the parishes in existence at that date with maps indicating their boundaries. The website is very useful for finding the ecclesiastical individual parishes within large cities and towns.
• A Vision of Britain through Time, Warwickshire, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72 which often provides brief notes on the economic basis of the settlement and significant occurences through its history.
• The two maps below indicate the boundaries between parishes, etc., but for a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from this selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile.

• Map of Warwickshire illustrating urban and rural districts in 1900 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. Parish boundaries and settlements within parishes are shown.
• Map of Warwickshire urban and rural districts in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. Parish boundaries and settlements within parishes are shown. This is not a repeat of the first map. There were a number of changes to urban and rural district structure in the 1930s.

• A map of the ancient divisions named "hundreds" is to be found in A Vision of Britain through Time. It shows the detached sections of Warwickshire as they were in 1832. These detached sections have now been moved into the counties that surrounded them.
• As of October 2016 Warwickshire Parish Registers, 1535-1984 are available to search online on FamilySearch
• As of September 2018 TheGenealogist has added over 1.5 million individuals to its Warwickshire Parish Record Collection and so increases the coverage of this Midland county for family researchers to find their ancestors baptisms, marriages and burials. These records are released in association with Warwickshire County Record Office and have the benefit of high quality images to complement the transcripts, making them a valuable resource for those with ancestors from this area. These are available to Genealogist Diamond Subscription holders.
• The website British History Online provides seven volumes of the Victoria County History Series on Warwickshire. The first (Vol 2) covers the religious houses of the county; Volumes 3 through 6 provide articles the settlements in each of the hundreds in turn, and Volumes 7 and 8 deal with Birmingham and Coventry respectively. References to individual parishes will be furnished as time permits.
• Victoria County History - Warwickshire - Vol 8, pp 40-43 - The City of Coventry: The outlying parts of Coventry, Introduction. British History Online. University of London (London, 1951). This is the first of several chapters outlining the suburbs of Coventry. Exhall is not named in a title, but is mentioned from time to time.