Coleshill, Warwickshire
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  Map sources for Coleshill at grid reference SP1989
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Coleshill is a market town in the North Warwickshire district of Warwickshire, England, taking its name from the River Cole. It has a population of 6,343 (2001 census) and is situated 18 km (11 miles) east of Birmingham.
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[edit] Location
Coleshill is located on a ridge between the rivers Cole and Blythe which converge to the north with the River Tame. It is just to the east of the border with West Midlands county outside Birmingham. According to 2001 census statistics [1] it is part of the West Midlands conurbation, despite gaps [2] of open Green Belt land between Coleshill and the rest of the conurbation. The Green Belt narrows to approximately 150 yards to the north near Water Orton, and to approximately 700 yards at the southern tip of the settlement boundary where Coleshill meets Chelmsley Wood [3], but is in excess of a mile at some points in between. In the 1970s, Coleshill narrowly avoided being absorbed into Birmingham.
[edit] History
Coleshill began life in the Iron Age, before the Roman Conquest of 43AD, as a settlement on the south face of Grimstock Hill. Evidence of Hut Circles was found by archaeologists at the end of the 1970's. These excavations showed that throughout the Roman period there was a Romano-Celtic temple on Grimstock Hill. It had developed over the earlier Iron Age huts and had gone through at least three phases of development. The area was at the junction of two powerful Celtic Tribes - the Coritanii to the east from Leicester, and to the west the Cornovii from Wroxeter.
In the post Roman or Arthurian period (The Dark Ages) the nucleus of Coleshill moved about a kilometre to the south - to the top of the hill. Here the present church is set and the medieval town developed around it. By 1066 the town was a Royal Manor held by King Edward (the confessor) and is recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1086 as land held by William the Conqueror. Henry II granted the manor to the de Clinton family, then it passed to the de Montford's who had moated manor houses at Coleshill and Kingshurst. King Henry VII granted the lands to Simon Digby in 1496. His descendants (Wingfield-Digby) still hold the titles.
During the Coaching Trade and the Turnpike Trusts Coleshill became important as a major staging post on the coaching roads from London to Holyhead and from London to Chester to Liverpool. At one point there were over twenty inns in the town. The Coleshill to Lichfield Turnpike dates from 1743.
[edit] Notable buildings
Many former coaching inns remain in Coleshill, mostly along the High Street and Coventry Road.
One of the most notable buildings in the town is the Parish Church Church of St Peter and St Paul at the top of the Market Square. It has a 52 metre (170ft) high steeple, one of the finest in Warwickshire, dating from the 13th century. Inside there is a 12th century font of Norman origin, which is one of the finest examples in the country. There are also medieval table tombs with effigies of Knights, including John de Clinton. Just outside the south door are the preserved remains of a medieval cross.
In the Market Square are the preserved remains of the Pillory and Whipping Post that were used to punish the town drunks and bakers selling underweight loaves.
[edit] Transport
The town is close to the M6 and M42 motorways.
Two railway stations have borne the name Coleshill: the first was on the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway (later part of the Midland Railway), opened in 1839 and running from Derby to Hampton-in-Arden via Whitacre Heath. However, in 1840 a new line from Whitacre into Birmingham was opened and became the favoured route, and so the Whitacre to Hampton section, including Coleshill, was demoted to a little-used branch line, known as the Stonebridge Railway, being reduced to single track in 1841 and closing to passengers in 1917 as a wartime economy measure. On the Whitacre to Birmingham stretch was a station called Forge Mills; this was renamed Coleshill in 1923 (the original station on the Hampton line, still in use as a freight facility until 1935, was simultaneously renamed Maxstoke), but this second Coleshill station, the former Forge Mills, closed in March 1968.
Currently the town's nearest railway station is at Water Orton, some 2½ miles (4 km) to the north-west, but a new Coleshill station, adjacent to the old Forge Mills site and about 1¼ miles (2 km) east of Water Orton, is soon to be completed and is expected to open in January 2007. Like Water Orton, the new station will be served by trains between Birmingham and Nuneaton trains on the Birmingham New Street to Stansted Airport via Leicester and Cambridge route as well as those on the Birmingham to Leicester local service.
A number of bus routes serve the town, including one to Birmingham. The new railway station will also have an interchange serving a direct Tamworth - Coleshill - Birmingham International Airport bus connection.
[edit] Notable people
Simon Digby was awarded the manor of Coleshill in 1496 by King Henry VII, following the Battle of Bosworth and the execution of Simon de Montford for helping in the attempt to oust the King.
One of the most infamous residents of Coleshill was John Wynn, a local cinema owner who, during World War II was caught transmitting information to the Germans. Wynn is rumoured to still have descendants in Coleshill: with a current inhabitant David Edwards claiming to be closely related along with several other named blood-relations.[citation needed]
