Nuneaton - my home town

Nuneaton has a long history - it is mentioned in the doomsday book and there have been many books written that trace its history.  The town had many industries, most of which are now gone, including Ribbon Weaving, Brick and Tile Making and Coal Mining.  It also has some famous people notably George Eliot and, more lately, Larry Grayson.  George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, was born in the nearby village of Fenny Drayton. There are, of course, many others who were born in and around Nuneaton.

George Eliot was born at South Farm on the Arbury Estate on the outskirts of Nuneaton as Mary Ann Evans and wrote her books under the pseudonym George Elliot because, in those days, she could not get her books published under her own name because she was female.  There is a small garden dedicated to her just a few steps from the town centre and a bronze statue (photo below) was erected in her honour when the town centre was made traffic free.

There were many fine buildings and churches in Nuneaton some of which still survive.  The half timbered building below was once a meeting place for the Temperance movement.

The original Abbey, from which the Nun bit of Nuneaton comes from, can still be seen as a set of ruins part of which is now the Abbey Church and is still used for regular worship.

The original town Parish Church and is also still in use.One of my (small) claims to fame is that whilst I was in the choir at St Nicholas Parish Church I was asked to be part of the massed choir from the Diocese at the consecration of the newly built Coventry Cathedral on 25 May 1962 in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II .  The Cathedral had been built over the previous six years following the destruction of the original Cathedral during World War II. Shortly after the destruction, the cathedral stonemason, Jock Forbes, noticed that two of the charred medieval roof timbers had fallen in the shape of a cross. He set them up in the ruins where they were later placed on an altar of rubble with the moving words ‘Father Forgive' inscribed on the Sanctuary wall. Another cross was fashioned from three medieval nails by a local priest, the Revd Arthur Wales. The Cross of Nails has become the symbol of Coventry's international ministry of reconciliation.

This page will expand and be further developed as time allows and more information is added. In the mean time take a look at the History of Nuneaton and Bedworth web site which has a great deal information on the town's history and development.

With the advent of scial media sites such as Face Book there is also a very active group specialising in the history of Nuneaton - Nuneaton Memories which has alsmost 2000 members (at the last count!)