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Henley in Arden in Warwick County England History and GeographyHENLEY in ARDEN, a market town and chapelry in the parish of WOOTTON-WAVEN, Henley division of the hundred of BARLICHWAY, county of WARWICK, 10 miles (W. by N.) from Warwick, and 101 (N.W. by W.) from London, on the road through Oxford to Birmingham, containing 1249 inhabitants. This town takes the adjunct, by which it is distinguished from other places of the same name, from its situation in the Forest of Arden, a large tract of woodland extending over part of Warwickshire and the adjoining counties. A considerable part of it was burnt at the battle of Evesham, in the reign of Henry III., from which injury, however, it had recovered in that of Edward I. Henry VI., in the 27th of his reign, granted to Sir Ralph Boteler, Knt., lord of the manor, a charter reciting and confirming previous charters, by which it had view of frankpledge, a market, and other privileges, that monarch adding the power to hold courts of pleas of the crown and common pleas, exemption from tolls, and from the jurisdiction of the sheriff for the county, with the right to the chattels of all tenants of the manor wheresoever condemned, with other grants and privileges, which have become obsolete. The town is pleasantly situated near the confluence of the rivers Arrow and Allen, or Alne, and consists principally of one spacious street extending for more than a mile along the turnpike road; the houses are in general neat and well built, but of ancient appearance, occasionally interspersed with handsome modern buildings; the inhabitants are amply supplied with water from pumps and wells. The only articles of manufacture are nails, needles, and fish-hooks, which afford occupation to not more than fifty persons. The market is on Monday; the fairs are on the Tuesday in Whitsun-week, a pleasure fair; October 29th, a large fair for hops; and March 25th, for cattle and sheep. The market-house is a neat building of stone, supported on pillars; and near it is a handsome ancient cross, of which the shaft, of one entire stone, rises from a pedestal and terminates in a rich canopy at the summit. By charter of Henry VI., the government is vested in a high and low bailiff, appointed at the court leet of the lord of the manor, when constables and other officers are also chosen: a petty session is held weekly by the county magistrates. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Worcester, endowed with £400 royal bounty, and £1400 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the householders in the parish. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is a small but elegant structure in the later style of English architecture, with a square embattled tower; the porch at the west entrance is a highly enriched and beautiful specimen of the later period of that style: the old roof, of ribbed and carved oak, is still preserved in the chancel, and throughout the whole of the building the traces of a pure and elegant design are discernible. There is a place of worship for Baptists. A charity school was founded by the corporation, to whom George Whateley, Esq., in the 28th of Elizabeth, gave a messuage in trust for that purpose, and it is supported by the appropriation of part of the charitable funds at their disposal, arising from various benefactions: there are thirty boys in the school. A Sunday school, in which from eighty to one hundred children of both sexes are instructed, is supported by subscription. About a quarter of a mile to the east of the town, on the summit of a bold and lofty eminence, called, from its beautiful situation, Bel Desert, or Beau Desert, is the site of a castle, which was erected prior to the reign of Stephen, and demolished during the war between the houses of York and Lancaster; the site of the draw-bridge and some other parts may be traced, and there are faint vestiges of the ancient moat, but no remains of the building. At the base of the castle hill, the parish church of Beaudesert, a small but beautiful edifice, partly in the Norman, and partly in the early English, style of architecture. About two miles to the north-west of the town are the Leveridge hills, where there is a Roman encampment, intrenched with a double moat and high ramparts of earth; and about half a mile to the east is Henley Mount, said to have been thrown up by Cromwell, as an exploratory station during the parliamentary war. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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