Baddesley Ensor
Encyclopedia
Baddesley Ensor is a village and civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 in the district of North Warwickshire
North Warwickshire
North Warwickshire is a local government district and borough in Warwickshire, England. The main town in the district is Atherstone where the council is based...

 in Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, about three miles west of Atherstone
Atherstone
Atherstone is a town in Warwickshire, England. The town is located near the northernmost tip of Warwickshire, close to the border with Staffordshire and Leicestershire and is the administrative headquarters of the borough of North Warwickshire.-History:...

. It runs into to the village of Grendon
Grendon
Grendon is a small village and civil parish in rural Northamptonshire, England on the borders of Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire. Many houses are made of the local limestone and various older thatched houses still survive. The name of the village means "green hill" and today the village remains...

, which forms a parish itself.

History

There were mining activities in the area for centuries before the two main shafts, which formed Baddesley Colliery, were sunk in 1850. Although called Baddesley Colliery it was actually just over the border in Baxterley
Baxterley
Baxterley is a village and civil parish in the North Warwickshire district of Warwickshire in England. According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 335. The village is about two miles west of Atherstone.-History:...

.
From then on until 1989 when the pit closed most Baddesley men worked in some capacity at the mine.
The worst disaster at the mine occurred on 2 May 1882. There was a fire followed by an explosion and 23 men lost their lives in attempting to rescue 9 nightshift workers trapped by the fire.
A memorial to all the men who worked in the mines, in the form of a pit head winding wheel was erected on the common on the site of the old Maypole pit. Since the closure of the mine the village is now mainly residential.

Landmarks

Baddesley Ensor is also famous for its common. There are beautiful views to be seen looking over towards Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 and also Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...

, Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

 and Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

. There are also many other landmarks such as: the old wheel used for mining, the old pit, bomb hole and the bike jumps which some are as high as 25ft

Transport

The A5 (Watling Street) runs through the village and the M42
M42 motorway
The M42 motorway is a major road in England. The motorway runs north east from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire to just south west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, passing Redditch, Solihull, the National Exhibition Centre and Tamworth on the way. The section between the M40 and M6 road forms...

 is also nearby.

The village is served by bus routes 48, 764, and the nearest railway station is Atherstone
Atherstone railway station
Atherstone railway station serves the town of Atherstone in Warwickshire.It is located on the Trent Valley section of the West Coast Main Line, exactly 102 miles from London Euston station, as a placard on an adjacent building announces...

.

The nearest airports are Birmingham (10 miles) and East Midlands (20 miles).

Media

The local newspapers covering the area are the Tamworth Herald
Tamworth Herald
The Tamworth Herald is a weekly tabloid newspaper published every Thursday in Tamworth, Staffordshire, England. Its offices are based in Ventura Park Road, Bitterscote, and its current editor is Gary Phelps...

, which has a separate edition for North Warwickshire and the Atherstone Recorder.

The local BBC radio station covering the area is BBC Coventry & Warwickshire
BBC Coventry & Warwickshire
BBC Coventry and Warwickshire is the BBC Local Radio service serving the City of Coventry and the county of Warwickshire. It broadcasts on 94.8, 103.7 and 104 MHz FM, DAB Digital Radio and is streamed on the internet via the ....

. Local commercial stations in the area include Mercia and Touch FM
Touch FM (Coventry)
96.2 Touch FM is a radio station that broadcasts to Coventry but not from Coventry, having moved out of the city to base itself elsewhere and co-locate with other Midlands radio stations leaving Coventry with only 1 local radio station left, BBC Coventry & Warwickshire...

.

The village is covered by the Central ITV
Central Independent Television
Central Independent Television, more commonly known as Central is the Independent Television contractor for the Midlands, created following the restructuring of ATV and commencing broadcast on 1 January 1982. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting...

 and BBC West Midlands
BBC West Midlands
BBC West Midlands is the BBC English Region producing local television, radio, web and teletext content for West Midlands metropolitan county, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and parts of Northern Gloucestershire - although the county as part of the south west...

 TV regions broadcast from the nearby Sutton Coldfield transmitting station.
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