Place:Binley, Warwickshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Binley Woods from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"BINLEY, a parish in Foleshill [registration] district, Warwick; on the river Sow, adjacent to the Northwestern railway, 2½ miles E of Coventry. It includes the liberty of Earnsford; and its Post Town is Coventry. Acres: 2,470. Real property: £2,356. Population: 196. Houses: 51. The manor belongs to Earl Craven; and Binley Hall is the seat of the Lloyds. The living is a donative in the diocese of Worcester. Value: £52. Patron: Earl Craven. The church was built by the sixth Lord Craven, and is a Grecian structure, with a medallioned roof. Charities, £6. Wagstaffe, the non-juring bishop, was a native."

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
Binley is now a suburb in the eastern part of Coventry, England. Binley evolved from a small mining village on the outskirts of Coventry to a large residential area composing private residences and council-owned properties.

Binley colliery started producing coal in 1911 and was most productive during the 1950s, the entrance was on Willenhall Lane. It closed in 1963 and Herald Way industrial estate now occupies the site. (See Google Earth). Former pit worker cottages still remain along Willenhall Lane and St. James Lane.

Binley is flanked by Willenhall to the southwest (separated by the Coventry to Euston railway line), Stoke Aldermoor to another side (separated by Allard Way road), and Binley Woods on a third side, which almost joins Binley since the construction of the Eastern Bypass (the A46).

The construction of St Bartholomew's Church was funded by wikipedia:William Craven, 6th Baron Craven|Lord Craven]]. It was consecrated in 1772, with its 200th anniversary being celebrated in 1972.

end of Wikipedia contribution

Binley was originally a chapelry in the ancient parish of Coventry St. Michael in the Knightlow Hundred of Warwickshire.

It was made a civil parish in 1866 and in 1894 it became part of the Foleshill Rural District. In 1932 the parish was split with 793 acres (the western section of the parish) being absorbed into Coventry. The remainder became a civil parish in Rugby Rural District and eventually the village of Binley Woods. Since 1974 the Coventry section which retained the name Binley has been in the Coventry Metropolitan Borough.

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 6, pp 26-30 - Parish: Binley. British History Online. University of London (London, 1951).