Ansley, Warwickshire

Description
Ansley, a village and a parish in Warwickshire, on the river Bourne, 2 1/2 miles N of Arley station on the M.R., 5 W of Nuneaton, and 4 from Atherstone, under which the parish has a post office; money order office, Hartshill; telegraph office, Stockingford railway station. Acreage, 2930 ; population, 951. Coal is extensively worked. Ansley Hall, now in the occupation of the Ansley Hall Coal and Iron Company, once formed part of the possessions of the famous Lady Godiva. It stands in an extensive park, which abounds with both natural and artificial beauties, and contains a hermitage. The hermitage was formed out of an ancient oratory, and was the place where Warton wrote his lines, "Beneath this stony roof reclined." The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester; value, £190. The church is partly Early Norman, has a fine Norman arch dividing the chancel from the nave, also a smaller Norman arch over the north door, now stopped up. The tower of the church is of hewn stone, and measures 72 feet and upwards in height, and 18 by 17 feet square at the base, is very regular and well built, and one of the best towers for so small a village in the county, if not the whole kingdom. There is a Congregational chapel.