Local History

Originally a small market town with Saxon origins, Bedworth was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Bedeword.^[7][8] The first record of a priest at Bedworth was from 1297. The town suffered great decline as a result of the Black Death in the 14th century. In 1590, the town was described as being home to just 14 families. By 1730, Bedworth had recovered somewhat as a result of local coal mining, and was described as containing 260 houses.^[9][10]

Following the passage of the Five Mile Act 1665, which forbade Nonconformist church goers from assembling for worship and preaching within five miles of a corporate town such as Coventry. Bedworth, being exactly five miles from Coventry became a local centre for Nonconformists who assembled at the town. In 1686 the Reverend Julius Saunders established the Old Meeting congregation just north of the five-mile post. An old plaque that was on the mile-post can still be seen on a gate post of the Almshouses.^[10] In 1726 a Presbyterian Nonconformist chapel now of the United Reformed Church was built here which still stands, and was restored in 2012.^[11][12]

Bedworth developed into an industrial town in the 18th and 19th centuries, due largely to coal mining and the overspill of ribbon weaving and textile industries from nearby Coventry: Located on the Warwickshire coalfield, coal mining in the area was recorded as early as the 13th century, but grew to a large scale as a result of the industrial revolution. The industry peaked in 1939 when there were 20 pits in the area producing over 5.8 million tons of coal. The last colliery in Bedworth, Newdigate Colliery closed in 1982, and Coventry Colliery on the edge of the town closed in 1991.^[10] The ribbon weaving industry had been introduced to the area by French Huguenot immigrants in the 18th century and thrived for nearly a century, until it was largely wiped out in the 1860s following the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty which removed tariffs on imported French silks, causing enormous hardship to the town. Hat making however grew and largely replaced the ribbon trade, and lasted until the 1950s.^[10][13]

The opening of the Coventry Canal in 1789 and later, the railway in 1850 enhanced the town's growth.^[13]

From 1894 Bedworth was a civil parish within the Foleshill Rural District. In 1928 Bedworth was incorporated as an urban district in its own right.^[14] In 1932 the urban district was enlarged by the addition of Exhall and parts of Foleshill, Astley and Walsgrave on Sowe parishes.^[9] It was further enlarged in 1938 by the addition of Bulkington. In 1974 the Bedworth Urban District was merged with the Municipal Borough of Nuneaton to create the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth.^[15]