Place:Walsgrave on Sowe, Warwickshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Walsgrave on Sowe is a village located about 3 miles northeast of Coventry, West Midlands in England. Although it now sees very little flooding, it was built on marsh lands. However, due to urban growth, it is now an outer suburb of Coventry, near to Ansty and Shilton.

History

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Walsgrave has reputedly been in existence for approximately 1,000 years. The first mention of a chapel in Walsgrave-on-Sowe (then known as Sowe) was in 1221. It is likely that the chapel would have been built after 1086, as there is no reference in the Domesday Book of a priest serving the area. St Mary's Church currently stands on the site of the former chapel. The original graveyard for the church was covered over and now forms the slope in front of the church, facing onto the main road.

Walsgrave grew into a sizeable village commercially based around agriculture and coal mining. Plans for incorporating Walsgrave within the boundaries of Coventry were proposed in the late 1920s, and Walsgrave gradually lost its individual identity owing to new road development, the replacement of much of its older buildings and houses with new housing schemes, and the eventual closure of the pit (Craven Colliery, sited off Henley Road).

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Walsgrave.

Walsgrave on Sowe was originally a chapelry within 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. It was abolished as a civil parish in 1932 and its area (2,505 acres in 1870) was split between the parishes of Ansty, Bedworth, Combe Fields, Coventry and Shilton with Coventry obtaining the largest share. (Source: A Vision of Britain through Time)

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

"SOWE, a village, a parish, and a [registration] sub-district, in [registration] Foles-hill district, Warwick. The village stands on the river Sow, 4 miles NE by E of Coventry [railway] station; is known officially as Walsgrave-upon-Sow; and has a post-office under Coventry. The parish comprises 2,505 acres. Real property: £7,001; of which £1,156 are in mines. Population: 1,667. Houses: 380. The manor belongs to Earl Craven. Coal and ironstone are worked, and ribbons are made. The living is a vicarage, annexed to Stoke. The church is good; and there are an iron chapel of ease, an Independent chapel, two Baptist chapels, and a national school."

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 8, pp 104-114 - The City of Coventry: The outlying parts of Coventry, Walsgrave-on-Sowe. British History Online. University of London (London, 1951).