Stoneleigh in 1843
Stoneleigh is in the Kenilworth division of Knightlow hundred, on the river Sow, just above its junction with the Avon, about 2 miles east of Kenilworth, and 6 north-east of Warwick. There was anciently a Cistercian abbey here, transferred hither from Radmore in Staffordshire about A.D. 1154, the yearly revenues of which at the dissolution were estimated at £178, 2 shillings, 5 pence gross, or £151, 0 shillings, 3 pence clear. The gateway of the abbey is still standing in Stoneleigh Park, the seat of Lord Leigh. The church of Stoneleigh is a large irregular building, partly of Norman architecture, partly of later date. Among the monuments that of Alice, titular duchess of Dudley, who claimed to be wife of Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth, but could not establish her claim. The area of Stoneleigh parish is 8,680 acres : the population, in 1831, was 1,298 ; three-fourths agricultural. There are two endowed free-schools, which had, in 1833, 149 scholars. 74 boys and 75 girls, in the week, and 108 scholars, 51 boys and 57 girls, on Sundays. |