Origin: Aetla’s hill or barrow

Domesday: No mention

My home parish. A small settlement to the east of Nuneaton. Originally a chapellry of Nuneaton it gained its parish church, Holy Trinity, in 1842. Well served by four non conformist chapels including the Methodist “Tin Chapel” (made out of corrugated iron) which was the one I attended and the Baptist chapel on “The Green” which was where the earlier generations of the family attended.

The village has largely been subsumed by the growth of Nuneaton but the village centre does remain, albeit with no particularly old buildings. The 19^th century buildings have not been well served by “improvements” in the post war era and a number of interesting features lost, in particular a row of weavers cottages facing The Green (perhaps better that than the decision to retain some unusual 3 storey weavers cottages, The Albion Buildings, with the large weaving windows at the top - the buildings were retained but with the distinguishing feature, the top floor, demolished!). The Green is now a car park.

The novelist George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) attended Miss Lathom’s School in Attleborough

The first Kendell in Attleborough is recorded in the Baptist Chapel records “No. 33 Mary Kendel Feb 20th 1848 Removed to a distance”. Why Mary was removed is not clear but the next Mary to appear (the same one?), from Sutton Cheney, is single but with a son, William Kendell, and she marries Joseph Garrett in 1859. William Kendall was my great grandfather. William started life as a farm labourer later working in a brickyard, reflecting the changing nature of employment in the area.

His son, Zephaniah (my grandfather), ran a general grocery shop on The Green. The shop has recently been demolished.

If you have any information on Attleborough or the Kendell family I would be pleased to hear from you.

For a description of the village in the 1900s a Kellys Guide of 1936 is attached.

Some history of the village and a look at what the 1851 census shows can be viewed here.