Wolvey

Location

The village lies 8 miles north east of Coventry, 6 miles south east of Nuneaton and 4 miles from Hinckley. It is said that when looking east from Wolvey, the next highest point lies in the Ural Mountains. The parish includes the hamlets of Bramcote, Copson Parva and Smockington.

Churches

St John the Baptist

Baptist Chapel

History

Wolvey is thought to have been occupied by Neolithic and Bronze-age peoples. Nearby at Temple Hill is Temple Farm (now a bed & breakfast) which a site formerly occupied by a farm of the Knights Templar. The village was called Ulveia in the Domesday Book of 1086. Aetherlric held land here before the conquest. There was a hermitage on Wolvey Heath, founded in the reign of Richard II, and here EdwardIV was surprised by the Earl of Warwick, who conveyed him hence to Middleham Castle in Yorkshire. In 1555 Wolvey Heath was the scene of the burning at the stake of Lady Dorothy Smythe for the murder of her husband. It is recorded that on the Middle Ages there were twenty-seven windmills in the area. Wolvey once had a thriving knitting industry. The present church, which stands on the site of the Saxon Church, was rebuilt in the nineteenth century.

Links
Wolvey History Group
Victoria County History from British History Online