IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Avenue Road, NUNEATON, CV11 4ND

In April 2000 Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council were awarded a £2,900,000 lottery award to construct a £7,000,000 leisure centre to replace the existing Pingles Leisure Centre. In November 2003 the old Pingles was razed to the ground to provide the landscaped car parking, with the final completion of the project in early 2004.

Dedicated to All Saints, George Eliot, (Mary Ann Evans) parents are buried here

The Heritage Centre occupies the building of the former Chilvers Coton Free School, which was founded around 1735 by Lady Elizabeth Newdigate of Arbury Hall. Her son Sir Roger Newdigate had the building enlarged in the 1770s and it was further extended in the mid 19th century. It included a house for the headmaster, presumably the wing on the right hand side of the photo. The school closed in 1954; a photo of it in 1951 can be seen here https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/catalogue_wow/nuneaton-avenue-road-school . For more information see this article on the Our Warwickshire site here https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/article/chilvers-coton-heritage-centre

These two plates on display at the Heritage Centre Image] commemorate the north Warwickshire coalfield and its coal mines. The last of them, Daw Mill near Arley, closed in 2013.

Part of the Churchyard

Chilvers Coton Parish Church, The Church of George Eliot

The parish church of Chilvers Coton has stood here since the middle ages; the tower dates from the 15th century. Mary Ann Evans, the future George Eliot, was baptised here and she would have attended worship here with her family during her childhood at Griff House in the parish. She depicts the building in 'Scenes of Clerical Life', under the fictional name of Shepperton Church. See the BBC website here https://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/features/george-eliot/george-eliot-locations.shtml for information on Warwickshire locations associated with Eliot. Most of the building, apart from the tower, was destroyed in an air raid in 1941; a police photo of the destruction can be seen in this Nuneaton Museum article about the air raids on the town here https://nuneatonmuseum.wordpress.com/2020/08/19/voices-from-the-blitz/ . By 1947 the church had been rebuilt, in a simpler style. Much of the work was done by German prisoners of war who were interned in a camp in the grounds of Arbury Hall; their carving can still be seen on woodwork inside the church. A description of the architecture can be found on the Historic England site here https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1034977?section=official-list-entry .

Local authority housing stock especially built to meet the needs of elderly single people.

The stone building to the left is the Heritage Centre, situated in the old Free School founded by the Newdigate family of Arbury Hall in the 18th century and enlarged around 1846. https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/article/chilvers-coton-heritage-centre Behind it is All Saints Church, where Mary Ann Evans, the future George Eliot, worshipped as a child with her family. Her father, who managed the Arbury estate, is buried in the churchyard. Eliot would, however, recognise only the tower of the church building; the remainder was rebuilt in a more modern style after destruction in an air raid in the second world war.