- source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
- source: Family History Library Catalog
- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
Napton on the Hill, often referred to locally as just Napton, is a village and civil parish 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Southam in Warwickshire, England. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 UK census was 1,144.
In the 14th century Napton was granted a market charter by King Edward II and throughout the Middle Ages it was one of the largest settlements in Warwickshire. However the market died out, and the population of the village today of around 1,000, is roughly the same as it was in the year 1400.
The first section of the Oxford Canal from Hawkesbury Junction was completed in 1771 and it reached Napton in 1774. This made Napton the head of navigation for coal supplies to be forwarded by road to Banbury, Bicester, Woodstock and Oxford until 1777, when the canal reached Fenny Compton which then took over as the trans-shipment point.
In 1800 the Warwick and Napton Canal (W&N) was completed, joining the Oxford Canal at Napton Junction. To reach the same level as the Oxford Canal the W&N ascended three locks at Calcutt just north of Napton parish. In 1805 the Grand Junction Canal was completed, joining the Oxford Canal at Braunston 4.5 miles (7.2 km) east of Napton and completing the direct canal route between Birmingham and London.
For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Napton-on-the-Hill. An interesting description of the canal network in this part of England.
Napton on the Hill was originally an ancient parish in the Knightlow Hundred of Warwickshire, England. It was made a civil parish in 1866 and in 1894 it became part of the Southam Rural District. Since 1974 it has been part of the non-metropolitan Stratford on Avon District.
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.
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- 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.
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