Coleshill in 1843
Coleshill is in the Birmingham division of Hemlingford hundred, about 10 miles E. by N. of Birmingham, and 18 miles N. N.W. of Warwick. The parish has an area of 6,200 acres, and contained in 1831, 404 houses, namely, 380 inhabited, 14 uninhabited, and 10 building, with 404 families, and a population of 1,853. The town is on an eminence, at the foot of which the river Cole flows, and consists principally of one long street, with a number of respectable and some spacious and handsome houses. The church is on a lofty site, and has a square western tower with buttresses, surmounted by a crocketed spire of late perpendicular character, of better design than execution. The church contains a font of Norman architecture, and is rich in monuments, especially of the Digby family. Coleshill has no manufacture. The market is on Wednesday ; and there are three annual fairs for cattle and horses. There is a brick bridge of six arches over the Cole. The river Blyth over which there is a bridge, flows near the town on the east side. The living is a vicarage, of the clear yearly value of £718, with a glebe-house, in the rural deanery of Arden, in the archdeaconry of Coventry, and in the diocese of Worcester. There were in the parish, in 1833, thirteen day-schools, which contained 286 children, namely, 142 boys and 144 girls : and three Sunday-schools with 152 children, viz., 65 boys, 67 girls, and 20 of sex not stated : so that of the total population of the parish nearly one in six was under daily instruction, and about one in twelve under instruction on Sundays.