PINLEY, SHORTLEY, AND WHITLEY
Pinley, Shortley, and Whitley were all in the
parish of St. Michael, Coventry. (fn. 81) The district
known as Shortley lay along the River Sherbourne
immediately south of New Gate, Gosford Street
and Far Gosford Street, and Gosford Green. It was
bounded on the east by Stoke parish and Bigging
manor, and on the west roughly by London Road.
On the south it was divided from Pinley by a line
running approximately from Shortley Road to
Pinley Gardens. The district is crossed from north
to south by the railway from Stoke which joins
that from Coventry to Rugby near Humber Road,
and there are sidings between Binley Road and
Humber Avenue. The greater part of the district is
occupied by factories and modern houses, but some
fields remain south of the Charterhouse.
Pinley lay between the Sherbourne and the Sowe,
south of Shortley and Stoke, and north of the old
London road, now called Abbey Road, at Whitley.
The modern line of London Road crosses Pinley
north of the old road. The ground rises from the
rivers to two low hills, on one of which stood Pinley
Hill Farm. The railway from Coventry to Rugby
runs across the district from west to east, and crosses
the Sowe by the Sowe Viaduct. North of the railway
and south of the road are modern houses, but there
are still some fields between.
Whitley occupied the elbow of land between the
Sherbourne and the Sowe, south of Pinley. The
two rivers are crossed near their confluence by the
Coventry by-pass which is here called Stonebridge
Highway. Whitley Abbey and its grounds lay south
of the old London road. The site of the house is
occupied by Whitley Abbey School, and between
the school and the confluence of the rivers are the
Armstrong-Whitworth buildings and Whitley Airfield. West of the Sherbourne and running northwards along London Road is Whitley Common. On
both sides of Abbey Road at its east end the land is
occupied by streets of modern houses.
In the late 14th century Shortley lay within the
city liberties, the boundary of which ran from Bigging
in Stoke along the ditch dividing Shortley from
Pinley and by 'Shortley stile' to the Sherbourne. (fn. 82)
Most of the area inside this boundary was included
in the municipal borough of Coventry which was
created after the dissolution of the county of the
city in 1842. Pinley and Whitley remained outside
the borough in the rural area (fn. 83) which in 1894 was
formed into the civil parish of St. Michael Without
in Coventry Rural District and was taken into the
city in the boundary extension of 1928. (fn. 84)
MANORS AND ESTATES.
In the 12th century
the vill of BISSELEY, with the mill and property in
Coventry, was granted to Liulph of Brinklow by
Ranulf (II), Earl of Chester. The grant was confirmed by Ranulf's successor, Hugh. (fn. 85) The overlordship passed from the earls of Chester to Robert de
Montalt, (fn. 86) from whom it was acquired with other
land by Coventry Priory. (fn. 87)
The property descended to Simon and Nicholas,
sons of Liulph, and to Nicholas son of Nicholas,
from whom it was inherited by Henry d'Aubigny, (fn. 88)
the husband of Nicholas's daughter Christina.
Henry granted his house and lands in Coventry
(which may have included Pinley as well as Bisseley)
and three mills, all formerly held in dower by his
mother-in-law Joan, to Geoffrey de Langley in
1244. (fn. 89) Geoffrey was lord of the manor until his
death in 1274, but Edmund de Langley appears to
have held it of him in 1244-5. (fn. 90) Two other lessees,
William de Rolleston and Hugh de Viennia, are
known in the 13th century. (fn. 91)
At Geoffrey's death the estate, inherited by Walter
de Langley (d. 1280), was described as land worth
26s. 8d. in Coventry, held of Henry d'Aubigny for
2d. yearly. (fn. 92) The estate, thereafter called SHORTLEY, did not appear among Walter's possessions in
1279 and 1280, (fn. 93) and seems to have been settled on
Geoffrey de Langley (II), probably Walter's younger
brother. (fn. 94) Geoffrey's son Edmund and grandson
John both leased the manor during the earlier 14th
century to another John de Langley, probably the
merchant of Coventry who represented Coventry in
the parliament of 1315; (fn. 95) his widow Alice also held
property in Shortley. (fn. 96) The manor was settled on
Edmund's daughter Joan, wife of Edmund de
Chesterton, who held it in 1368-9, but by 1372 it
was in the hands of Sir Baldwin Frevill (d. 1375),
who already held Pinley. (fn. 97) Joyce, the widow of
Frevill's son Baldwin (d. 1387), (fn. 98) married Sir Adam
Peshale, (fn. 99) and in 1402-3 the Peshales were involved
in a suit with John Barndesly who had married
Elizabeth, great-granddaughter of Edmund de
Chesterton and Joan de Langley. (fn. 1) Barndesly
recovered the manor, but his own title was disputed
by John de Langley of Atherstone, grandson of
Edmund de Langley, and Barndesly surrendered the
manor to John in 1418. (fn. 2) Barndesly was living in a
house in Spicer Stoke in Coventry in 1410-11. (fn. 3)
There was apparently a manor-house at Shortley in
the 15th century, which was described in 1489 as
'totally desolate and waste'. (fn. 4)
A later John de Langley died, without male heirs,
in 1518, (fn. 5) and in 1520 the manor was granted to
Edward Ringley, second husband of John's widow,
Jane. (fn. 6) Ringley immediately lost the manor as the
result of a lawsuit with the three nieces of John
Langley - Isabel Skidmore, Christine Wigston, and
Alice Huntley - who obtained possession of the
manor in 1521. (fn. 7) After a series of grants and suits,
probably fictitious, the manor was settled in 1549-50
on William, son of Christine and Roger Wigston. (fn. 8)
William Wigston sold it in 1554 to his sister
Katherine and her husband Edward Aglionby, (fn. 9)
later Recorder of Coventry and an M.P. for
Warwick. (fn. 10)
By 1592 Shortley was in the hands of James
Fitzherbert. Fitzherbert had previously mortgaged
the manor to Edward Brabazon (later Lord
Brabazon of Ardee), and Brabazon got possession of
it by 1598 (fn. 11) after a violent dispute with Fitzherbert. (fn. 12) Lord Brabazon's son, William Brabazon,
Earl of Meath, did suit to the Cheylesmore court for
the manor in 1628-9. (fn. 13) By 1634 it was held by Isaac
Walden of Keresley, a former mayor and M.P. of
Coventry, whose muniments Dugdale used for the
history of the estate in the 16th century. (fn. 14) Before
1700 the manor had come into the hands of the
Hopkins family of Foleshill, (fn. 15) and it descended
thenceforward with their Foleshill estate. (fn. 16) W. R.
Hopkins Northey was the principal landowner in the
district in 1846, (fn. 17) and about 1860 Lord Boston, his
son-in-law and successor, owned a compact estate
of 114 acres in Shortley, bounded by the railway on
the south, the Sherbourne on the west, Gosford
Street and Binley Road on the north, and 'Coal Pit
Lane' on the east. (fn. 18)
In 1381 William, Lord Zouche of Harringworth,
bought fourteen acres of land in Shortley Field from
Sir Baldwin Frevill, and in 1382 the land was
granted in mortmain to the first prior of the
Carthusian house which was to be built there. (fn. 19)
After the Dissolution the Charterhouse and the
surrounding land were granted in 1542 to Richard
Andrewes and Leonard Chamberlain, the speculators
in monastic property. In 1567 the house was owned
by Henry Waver (or Over), a Coventry mercer, and
in 1569 was sold by his son Richard Waver to Robert,
Earl of Leicester. Thereafter it passed through many
hands and was latterly used as a suburban residence
by manufacturers and others, including a silk-dyer
and two vicars of St. Michael, Coventry, in the 19th
century. (fn. 20) In 1848 it was bought by John and Francis
Wyley, of a firm of chemists in Coventry, and after
1889 was occupied by William Wyley, later Col. Sir
William Wyley, a mayor and prominent citizen of
Coventry. (fn. 21) At his death in 1940 the house and
garden were left to the corporation which afterwards
acquired the rest of the property. (fn. 22) For some years
after the Second World War the house was used as a
home for aged men and later as a youth hostel. In
1965 it was unoccupied. The new Blue Coat School
was built in 1964 on the south-eastern part of the
site. (fn. 23)
Land in PINLEY was held by Walter de Langley
in the early 13th century and the manor there may
have been created by his son Geoffrey. (fn. 24) Geoffrey
enclosed the wood, moor, and other land in Pinley,
which had been ditched and fenced by him and his
father, by an agreement of 1236-7. (fn. 25) In 1238 he
obtained timber to build himself a house (fn. 26) and
received grants of free warren at Pinley in 1239 and
1246. (fn. 27) He had had a chapel there since at least
1222. (fn. 28) In 1251 Geoffrey was licensed to divert the
highway from Pinley to Coventry and to impark his
woods there. (fn. 29)
At Geoffrey's death in 1274 and his son Walter's
in 1280 the manor was said to be held of the Earl of
Hereford as a tenth of a knight's fee. (fn. 30) There is no
other reference to the Hereford overlordship and
no other land in Warwickshire seems to have been
held of the earldom at that time. (fn. 31) When John de
Langley, Walter's son, settled the manor on his son
Geoffrey in 1325, it was said to be held of the king. (fn. 32)
The manor was also for a time in the hands of
another son, Thomas. (fn. 33) In 1330 Thomas granted a
life tenancy of the manor to William Careswell,
second husband of Mary, Geoffrey's widow. (fn. 34)
Geoffrey had probably died soon after 1325, for
Careswell was already the principal taxpayer in
1327. (fn. 35) At Careswell's death in 1359 the heir was
Joan, daughter of Geoffrey's son, another Geoffrey,
and wife of John de Charlton; the manor was then
reported to be held of William Mandevill. (fn. 36)
In 1366 Sir John Trillow, apparently Joan de
Langley's second husband, granted the manor of
Pinley to Sir Baldwin Frevill (d. 1375). (fn. 37) Frevill
obtained a release of rights in the estate from Sir
Peter Careswell, William's son, in 1372. (fn. 38) In the
following year Frevill was involved in a suit about
the manor with John de Peyto, a great-grandson of
the Walter de Langley who died in 1280. (fn. 39) After the
death of the fourth Baldwin Frevill (fn. 40) the estates
were divided in 1419-20 (fn. 41) among his three co-heirs,
Pinley being allotted to Robert Aston, a minor, the
son of Frevill's sister Joyce and her second husband
Sir Roger Aston. This arrangement does not appear
to have come immediately into force, for Hugh
Willoughby and his wife Margaret, Joyce's eldest
sister, had a third of the manor in 1435. It was made
permanent, however, in 1452. (fn. 42) The estate remained
in the hands of the Aston family until the 17th
century. Edward Hill leased the manor from Sir
Walter Aston (and the tithes from Coventry
corporation) in the early 17th century. (fn. 43) The Astons
apparently sold some land to their tenants in Pinley
about 1625. (fn. 44) The manor, called the manor of
Pinley and Aldermoor, was sold by Walter, 2nd Lord
Aston of Forfar, to the corporation in 1655. (fn. 45) Not
long afterwards the corporation was involved in a
dispute about the Aldermoor, which remained a
common in the jurisdiction of the manor of Cheylesmore. (fn. 46)
Among the holders of land in Pinley in the late
17th and early 18th centuries were Richard Hopkins,
Humphrey Lowe, and a second Edward Hill. (fn. 47) The
principal holding in the 19th century was that of
Pinley House, (fn. 48) with the farm called Pinley Fields
or Round House Farm attached to it. This was
owned by Mark Conway in 1846 and by Harold
Smith in 1900. Until the early 20th century there
were three other farms, Pinley or Aldermoor Farm,
owned in 1846 by Queen Anne's Bounty, and Pinley
Green Farm and Pinley Hill Farm owned in 1846
by Viscount Hood. (fn. 49) Coventry corporation bought
land there in 1869. (fn. 50)
WHITLEY was first mentioned in a grant of
Ranulf (II), Earl of Chester, in the mid 12th
century. (fn. 51) In their grant to Coventry Priory of
1250 Roger and Cecily de Montalt reserved the
services of Walter Deyville and Miles Gerbod in
Whitley. (fn. 52) The Deyville holding may have been that
later acquired by Coventry Priory. When Walter,
called lord of Whitley and Bigging (in Stoke) granted
his land to Robert de Stoke, his attorney was William,
son of David of Whitley, and William son of David
held one of the houses on the priory's estate there
in 1279. (fn. 53) The priory certainly acquired its estate in
Bigging from Walter Deyville. (fn. 54)
In 1279 five free tenants held of the king land
which had formerly been held of de Montalt, and
an estate, consisting of six free tenants, two houses,
the mill, 1¼ virgate, and other land, was held of de
Montalt by the priory. The principal free tenant of
the king, Adam son of Miles, who held a virgate in
serjeanty, was probably the son of Miles Gerbod.
The principal tenant of the priory, Ralph de
Whitley, had three under-tenants. (fn. 55)
There was an intermediate tenancy in the 13th
century which was not expressly mentioned in 1279.
The king's tenants, other than Adam son of Miles,
and the rent of 22s. from their four virgates, were
granted by Henry III at an unknown date to Simon
son of Maurice. Simon was succeeded in 1272 by
his sister Cecily and she in 1279 by her son Roger le
Tailor. (fn. 56) The William son of Richard who appears
in the survey of 1279 probably represents this
intermediate tenancy; he held a half-virgate himself
and collected the rents of his three fellows, paying
½d. for a render called 'warth'. Although the four
holdings consisted of only two virgates, five acres,
and a cottage, the rents amounted to the 22s.
mentioned earlier. (fn. 57) In 1302-3 Roger le Tailor
granted his holding to Adam des Okes, (fn. 58) and at
Adam's death in 1324 it was described as a messuage
and two virgates held in chief for ½d. 'warth' yearly. (fn. 59)
Adam was succeeded by his nephew William and he
by his son Philip in 1345. (fn. 60) The family held land of
the priory in the 14th century, (fn. 61) and were last
mentioned in 1399-1400, when Philip des Okes
granted a house in Whitley to William Simpson.
Richard Simpson granted a piece of land to John
Bristow in 1444-5. (fn. 62)
The holding of Adam son of Miles may have been
merged with the later manor of Whitley. In 1313-14
and in 1334 Henry Miles granted pieces of land to
William Page, and in 1333, 1342, and 1343 Page
granted land to Elias Freberne. (fn. 63) William Page
finally sold his messuage, sixteen acres, and other
land to Richard Freberne in 1347. (fn. 64)
A manor was first mentioned at the death of
Thomas Freberne, possibly Richard's son, but there
was prolonged disagreement about its tenure at that
time. Thomas died in 1371, and in an inquisition,
probably of that date, was said to have granted the
manor, together with the reversion of three parts
of it held in dower or for life, to Thomas de Whitley
and his heirs. (fn. 65) According to a second inquisition, of
1380, the manor and reversion were to be inherited
by Freberne's daughter Alice. (fn. 66) Yet another inquisition, of 1382, stated that Thomas Freberne had
granted the manor in 1369 to Thomas de Whitley,
who, in 1379, had settled it on William Palmer and
others. Palmer was in fact in occupation in 1382. (fn. 67)
After Palmer's death in 1392 his daughter Margaret
was said to be the heir, but evidence was given that
Palmer had granted the manor shortly before his
death to Robert Shipley and others. (fn. 68) In 1395
Margaret Palmer, then a minor, was said to have
inherited Whitley from her brother John, William's
son, (fn. 69) but John Shipley was apparently in possession
of the manor in 1410-11. (fn. 70) It is also uncertain at this
period to whom the overlordship of Whitley
belonged. In 1371 Thomas Freberne held the estate
from the manor of Cheylesmore, except for a croft,
a toft, and 5½ acres which he held from the priory. (fn. 71)
In 1410-11 John Shipley held another estate of the
priory, consisting of a house, virgate, and mill, and
the rents of four under-tenants, the descent of which
was traced from the holding of Ralph de Whitley in
1279. The descent of Shipley's own house was,
however, similar to that of the manor as described in
the inquisitions, from Geoffrey de Whitley, through
Thomas Freberne and Thomas de Whitley, to
William Palmer and others. (fn. 72) This estate had not
been mentioned in 1371. To sum up this stage of the
descent, it seems that Elias and Richard Freberne
built up a small estate from the lands of the king's
tenants of 1279, including the holding in serjeanty,
and held it in fee of Cheylesmore. Thomas Freberne
added to it land held in fee of the priory, and other
land (that of Ralph and Geoffrey de Whitley) held of
the priory by customary service. The nature of these
various tenures was half-forgotten in the late 14th
century and after 1410-11 they were merged as the
manor of Whitley, the interests of the priory being
extinguished. (fn. 73)
Shortly after 1428 the manor came into the hands
of John Bristow, (fn. 74) and Bristow bought other land in
Whitley in 1437. (fn. 75) He probably died in 1454-5. (fn. 76)
In 1455 the manor was held by his son William, to
whom John had granted it, reserving the New Mill
and other property to another son, Edward. (fn. 77) John
and William Bristow were involved in prolonged
and violent disputes with the citizens of Coventry
about the commons on the east of the River
Sherbourne; these were ended by an agreement of
1482. (fn. 78) The Bristows, like the Frebernes, Shipleys,
and others concerned with the manor at this period,
were themselves prominent citizens of Coventry.
The descent of the manor cannot be traced for
some years after 1482. Laurence Walsgrave of
Whitley complained of commons' encroachments
there in 1510, (fn. 79) and Elizabeth Walsgrave was the
principal landowner in 1524. (fn. 80)
At his death in 1555 William Starkey held the
manor from Coventry corporation, as of the manor
of Cheylesmore. (fn. 81) The manor descended to Anne
Longvile and, by 1574, to her son Bartholomew Tate,
M.P. for Coventry in 1572. (fn. 82) The manor was held
by Bartholomew until his death in 1601, (fn. 83) and by
his son, Sir William Tate, to his death in 1618. (fn. 84) In
1627-8 Zouch Tate sold the manor, then said to
include three water-mills, to John Bowater. (fn. 85) When
John Bowater died in 1640, the manor was described
as held of the king in socage for rent as of the manor
of Cheylesmore. (fn. 86) The descent of the manor in the
later 17th and earlier 18th centuries has not been
traced, but it subsequently passed to the Hood
family, apparently by the marriage in 1774 of Jane,
daughter of Francis Wheler of Whitley Abbey, to
Henry Hood (d. 1836), who became Lord Hood of
Catherington on his mother's death in 1806, and
who succeeded his father, Admiral Hood, as 2nd
Viscount Hood in 1816. (fn. 87) In 1867 the Whitley
estate was sold by Francis, 4th Viscount Hood, to
E. H. Petre. (fn. 88) After Petre's death in 1902 the house
was occupied by his widow, Lady Gwendaline
Petre (d. 1910), and their son, O. H. P. Petre (after
1907 Turville-Petre), who sold the house in 1920. (fn. 89)
Whitley Farm, south of the house, was sold to the
Armstrong-Whitworth Company. (fn. 90) During the First
World War the house was used to accommodate
Belgian refugees but afterwards stood empty and
became increasingly derelict. The chapel attached to
the house (see below) was in use as a chapel of ease
to Holy Trinity Church, Coventry, as late as c. 1950,
by which time most of the surrounding land had been
acquired by the corporation. (fn. 91) The ruins were
finally demolished in 1953 and in 1955 Whitley
Abbey Comprehensive School was opened on the
site. (fn. 92)
Whitley Hall, later known as Whitley Abbey, may
have occupied the site of the medieval 'capital
messuage', but at its demolition the oldest parts of
the building probably dated from the early 17th
century. Charles I is said to have been staying at the
house when he unsuccessfully summoned the city
in 1642. (fn. 93) Plans and views of Whitley Hall before its
19th-century enlargement (fn. 94) show it to have been a
stone house built on the E-plan, the main block
being one room deep and having two projecting
wings and a central two-storied porch facing north.
On this side there were gables with curvilinear
parapets, but the south elevation, which had a
hipped roof and a continuous plain parapet, may
have been 'regularised' in the 18th century. The
house had a central hall with service rooms to the
west and living rooms to the east; the easternmost,
and longer, front wing contained a library with
projecting bay-windows on two sides. In 1808 plans
for improvements were submitted to Lord Hood by
John (later Sir John) Soane. These provided for an
enlarged hall, flanked by a drawing-room and
dining-room, the kitchen quarters being moved into
a new west wing, and a new east wing being built
beyond the drawing-room. At the same time the
central block was to be widened by the addition of
corridors along the entrance front and the porch
was to be rebuilt further forward. The design of the
exterior showed no striking change from the existing
work; internally the most notable rooms were the
enlarged hall, its beamed ceiling supported on square
classical columns, the 'vaulted' drawing-room, the
'eating room', and the library. (fn. 95) At this period the
house was renamed 'Whitley Abbey', probably
because of its picturesque appearance rather than
for any supposed monastic associations. (fn. 96)
The house was altered and partly rebuilt by
E. H. Petre after the west end had been badly
damaged by fire in 1874. (fn. 97) It may have been at this
time that oriel windows and curvilinear gables were
introduced on the south front. (fn. 98) Petre had already
built a Roman Catholic chapel (fn. 99) adjoining Soane's
east wing; he also constructed ornamental water
gardens and improved the grounds. The house,
approached by a drive from Abbey Road, stood on a
low hill with a lake to the south and Whitley Grove
to the south-east. The park-like grounds were
bounded on the west by the River Sherbourne and
on the east by the River Sowe. Whitley Grove had
been planted on the site of a medieval quarry from
which came the greyish-white sandstone for St.
Michael's Church and other Coventry buildings.
The grounds also contained more recent quarries
and an icehouse. (fn. 1) The site of the house is now
covered by the new school buildings, but some of the
surrounding features have been retained.
GENERAL HISTORY.
It has already been shown
that Shortley was probably identical with the 12thcentury locality called Bisseley. Dugdale said that
Bisseley was 'anciently depopulated', that Pinley
was by his day 'known to very few, depopulation
having extirpated all its inhabitants', and that at
Whitley there was then 'no more than a manorhouse with an old chapel and a mill to be seen: but
anciently it was a village of divers inhabitants'. (fn. 2)
These are further examples (fn. 3) of Dugdale's undiscriminating zeal for evidence of depopulation.
Shortley was in fact close enough to Coventry for
both the lord of the manor and his tenants to live in
the city and the manor-house of the Langleys at
Shortley (fn. 4) seems to have been abandoned in the 15th
century. (fn. 5) The site may have been marked by the
group of uninhabited farm buildings still standing
near the pound on Folly Lane in the late 19th
century. (fn. 6)
There were nine cottages in Pinley in 1219, but
there is no evidence of a medieval village centre.
Geoffrey de Langley's house in Pinley (fn. 7) seems to have
been near the River Sherbourne, and it is possible
that Pinley House was built on or near the site. This
house was probably in existence by 1703 and was
standing in an extensive park in 1822. (fn. 8) A close called
the Castle Close was said in the 19th century to
mark the site of the medieval house. (fn. 9) After the First
World War Pinley House became a club-house of
the Hillman Company, and the site was later
occupied by the Humber-Hillman Company's
parking ground. (fn. 10)
Only three cottages were mentioned in Whitley in
1219 and six houses on the priory's estate in 1410-
1411. (fn. 11) A hamlet seems to have grown up there in
the 14th century, probably as a result of traffic on the
London road. Cases of illicit brewing, and of
violence, appeared in the court rolls with unusual
frequency for so small a place, and carts and horses
lost at Whitley were referred to in 1361 and 1371. (fn. 12)
Apart from the village brewers and the millers, the
only other occupation to be mentioned was that of
a shepherd of Whitley, who was involved in 1364 in
a dispute with a butcher about sheep which he had
been keeping there on the latter's behalf. (fn. 13)
At Shortley, a herd of oxen was mentioned in
1397, (fn. 14) and horses, oxen, sheep, and pigs in 1402-3.
There was a fishery there, (fn. 15) and the woods provided
valuable timber in the 14th century. (fn. 16) There were
later stone quarries on the commons outside the
New Gate, clay workings in Shortley near Brickiln
Lane, and sand and gravel pits in Pinley. (fn. 17)
The road from Coventry to Whitley was mentioned in the 12th and 13th centuries, (fn. 18) and it was
probably the road to Daventry and London marked
on Gough's map about 1360. (fn. 19) It was called the
king's highway towards London in the 15th
century. (fn. 20) A reference of 1382 to a footpath towards
London, however, suggests that it may not have
had a permanent course (fn. 21) until the construction of
Whitley, Willenhall, and Ryton bridges. (fn. 22) There is
no medieval reference to a bridge at Whitley, and
the river could also be crossed near Bisseley Mill
and the Charterhouse, and near Alderford Mill
where there was a bridge in the early 13th century. (fn. 23)
Whitley Bridge can probably be identified with the
stone bridge of three arches, situated half a mile up
the river from Willenhall Bridge, mentioned by
Leland. (fn. 24) Between Whitley and Willenhall Bridge
the old road was called the Hollow Way in the 18th
century. (fn. 25)
There were two crosses on the main road, Whitley
Cross north of Whitley Mill, mentioned in 1378, (fn. 26)
and Shortley Cross outside the New Gate, mentioned
in 1389. (fn. 27) By the 17th century causeways, maintained by Coventry corporation, had been made
from the New Gate towards Willenhall. (fn. 28) The old
London Road (now Abbey Road) was turnpiked in
1723-4. (fn. 29) It crossed the River Sherbourne immediately west of Whitley Mill by a single-arched
18th-century stone bridge (now Whitley Abbey
Bridge), which was still in use in 1965 although in
poor repair. By an Act of 1826-7 a new stretch of
road was made north of the old one, diverging from
it on Whitley Common and rejoining it north-west
of Willenhall Bridge. (fn. 30) The new bridge, about a
quarter of a mile north of the old one, was built in
1831 and rebuilt in 1933. (fn. 31) The new road became
known as London Road and the new bridge as
Whitley Bridge. In the mid 19th century the Royal
Oak Inn and a number of houses were built on the
common near the junction of the old and new roads;
this hamlet is now called Whitley Village. The inn
at Whitley mentioned in 1792 was probably the
Seven Stars Inn (later Seven Stars Farm) northwest of Willenhall Bridge. (fn. 32) The old farm-house was
rebuilt in 1905. (fn. 33)
The layout of the fields in the three hamlets had
no regular pattern. Shortley and the land east of the
Sherbourne from the city to Stivichall and Whitley
were included in the liberties of Coventry in 1378. (fn. 34)
In the south, near Diloteshull and Park Field in
Stivichall, the boundaries of Stivichall, the park,
and the commons were ill-defined. (fn. 35) Parts of Shortley were several after the mutual surrender of
grazing rights by Geoffrey de Langley and the
priory in 1364, (fn. 36) but the status of the commons,
closes, and woods east of the Sherbourne was only
defined after the violent disputes between the city
and the lords of Whitley in the late 15th century, (fn. 37)
and it remained a subject of dispute between the
corporation and the commonalty of Coventry until
the 17th century. (fn. 38)
The arable land of Shortley, called Shortley or
Bisseley Field, lay on both sides of the Sherbourne.
There were no village proprietors to share it with the
lord, and the field may not have been cultivated in
common, for the lord, Sir Baldwin Frevill, was able
to give fourteen acres in it for the site of the Charterhouse in the late 14th century. (fn. 39) The citizens of
Coventry, however, had access to Shortley Field,
Shortley Cross was in the field, and the London
road passed through part of it. (fn. 40) In 1489 the land of
the manor was described as 100 acres of pasture 'in
the pasture called Shortley Field'. (fn. 41)
The existence of fields of Bigging manor, in
Stoke, in the west along the park fence, was a
peculiar topographical feature of the district. The
tenants had a right of way across Pinley to the
common called the Aldermoor, which lay between
Pinley and Stoke, and thence to Bigging. (fn. 42) References
to virgates and selions in Pinley in the 13th century, (fn. 43)
to selions in Whitley Field, (fn. 44) to virgates in Whitley
in 1279 and 1410-11, (fn. 45) and to lands and butts there
in 1482, (fn. 46) suggest the existence of common arable
fields throughout this period, but there is little
evidence to show how and when they were inclosed.
The demesne fields and woods of Pinley and some
other land were inclosed by an agreement of 1236-7
between Geoffrey de Langley and his principal
tenants, Richard and William de Pinley. (fn. 47) By the
agreement commoning was still to be allowed after
the harvest, and there was provision that stubble
should not deliberately be left standing in the fields
to make grazing difficult. (fn. 48) By the 19th century there
was a single farm, Whitley Abbey or Old Park Farm,
in Whitley, and at Pinley four separate farms, Pinley
or Aldermoor Farm, Pinley Hill Farm and Pinley
Green Farm, and the farm at Pinley House, later
called Round House Farm. (fn. 49)
The common land east of the River Sherbourne
has been called Whitley Common since at least the
19th century. It was in fact common of Coventry,
and has never been attached to the hamlet of Whitley.
Parts of it were inclosed in the 15th century by the
Bristow family, (fn. 50) and other parts during the 16th
century by the corporation, (fn. 51) but most of it was
preserved as Lammas and Michaelmas lands or open
common until the 19th century. Soldiers were
mustered on the common in 1745. (fn. 52) There was a
gallows there until 1831. (fn. 53) The fields roughly north
of Shortley Road, which had been freehold but
subject to Lammas commoning rights, were inclosed
in 1860. (fn. 54) Some of these were later occupied by
extensions to Coventry cemetery. To the south the
Michaelmas lands east of the London road were
inclosed in 1875, and part allotted to the corporation. (fn. 55) On part of the remaining common, Coventry
Golf Club, founded in 1887, had a course until
about 1912 (fn. 56) and waste deposits from the sewage
works were dumped on the common in the 1890s. (fn. 57)
The commoning rights on the land west of the London road were extinguished, and the land vested in
the corporation, in 1927, and for a time it became
derelict. During the Second World War it was used
for dumping rubble and exploding delayed-action
bombs. After the war the corporation improved the
common, and with a gift from Butlin's Ltd. an area
of 33½ acres was laid out as playing fields. (fn. 58) Aldermoor, or Stoke Aldermoor, was inclosed in 1875,
and part allotted to the corporation. (fn. 59)
The mills on the River Sherbourne, which are
described elsewhere, (fn. 60) were the most important
feature of the district until the 19th century. The
whole district was described as 'Whitley and the
mills' in 1490. (fn. 61) The mills survived until the late
19th century; the old building at Whitley Mill was
demolished in 1955, and the buildings of Bisseley or
Charterhouse Mill were demolished c. 1956. (fn. 62)
As with Harnall, Asthill, and Horwell, the medieval names of Pinley and Shortley were less
frequently used as Coventry grew and as owners and
occupiers were more often Coventry men. Inability
to relate the medieval evidence to the localities as
they existed in the 17th century, and not a change in
their size and character, led Dugdale to assume
that they had been depopulated. Whitley retained its
identity partly because the lord remained in
residence, and partly because topographers could
not fail to notice the mill, the bridge and the manor-house beside the old London road, and, like Stivichall, it became a favourite subject of 19th-century
antiquaries and artists. (fn. 63)
Apart from Whitley Village, the only attempt at
19th-century residential development was the
building of Whitley Villas about 1840. These were
four substantial houses standing in a cul-de-sac
opposite the gates of Whitley Abbey and having
gardens reaching to the River Sherbourne. (fn. 64) Three
were still in existence in 1965, one having been
converted into a club and another into Whitley
Abbey public house. In general suburban development in the three districts began, as in Radford, not
with the building of railway lines and the laying-out
of streets, but from the municipal needs of Coventry
in the late 19th century. The corporation's sewage
works was built between the railway and Swift's
Corner (Alderford) Mill in 1852-3, (fn. 65) and the works
and filtration beds were later extended downstream
beyond the mill almost to London Road. The
Whitley waterworks was built between Folly Lane
and the River Sowe in 1895, and an isolation hospital
at Pinley Hill Farm in 1897. (fn. 66) Pumping stations were
built between the Sherbourne and the Sowe when
the Baginton sewage farm was constructed in 1901.
Suburban factories and houses came suddenly to
Shortley with the rapid development of the motorcar industry around Coventry. In 1908 the Medical
Officer of Health, using 'Pinley' to include Shortley,
reported that 'instead of being as formerly agricultural, with a sparse population', it 'has become a
manufacturing locality for motors and cycles'. (fn. 67)
By the First World War the Humber and Hillman
works covered a large area in Shortley east of Folly
Lane, the name of which was changed to Humber
Road. The branch railway to Stoke was built at the
same time, and the greater part of Shortley north of
the works, and between the branch railway and
London Road, was covered with suburban housing
and factories. After the Second World War, in
addition to the Humber, Hillman, and SunbeamTalbot works, there were in the district Smith's
Stamping works, the British Oxygen Co. factory,
Curtis and Beamish Ltd. printing works, and several
factories making engineering components and
accessories. (fn. 68)
Nurseries and market-gardens were a noticeable
feature of the Coventry suburbs in the 19th century,
and one of the largest of these, that of Charles
Kimberley, was at Pinley. (fn. 69) Before and after the
First World War a wide area of Pinley south of the
railway was laid out as allotments, and north of the
railway there was scattered housing development in
the 1920s in Pinley Gardens.
Whitley Abbey Farm was bought during the First
World War by the government, and the fields laid
out as an airfield. Immediately after the war the
airfield and buildings were acquired by the
Armstrong-Whitworth Company. (fn. 70) The Infectious
Diseases Hospital, now called Whitley Isolation
Hospital, was built at the junction of London Road
and Humber Road in 1934. After the Second World
War two more large areas were developed for
housing, around Pinley (or Aldermoor) Farm, and
on both sides of Abbey Road in Whitley. In 1965
the whole area was a patchwork of municipal and
private building, of roads, railways, factories, and
some surviving open land. Almost no trace of
the topography of the former rural districts
remained. (fn. 71)