In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Southam like this:
SOUTHAM, a small town, a parish, a district, and a division in Warwick. The town stands on a branch of the river Ichene, 2¾ miles NE of Harbury r. station, and 7½ miles ESE of Leamington; was known, at Domesday, as Sucham; gave a night's lodging to Charles I. and his two sons, on the eve of the battle of Edgehill; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling place; and has a post-office‡ under Rugby, two banking offices, a hotel, several inns, a church, Independent and Methodist chapels, endowed national schools with £61 a year, an eye and ear infirmary, a mineral spring similar to the waters of Leamington, another spring with intensely cold water, a workhouse, town lands £180, a weekly market on Monday, and a fair on the first Monday of every month. ...
The church is partly decorated English; was repaired and partly rebuilt in 1854; and has a beautiful broach spire.—The parish comprises 2,770 acres. Real property, £9,175. Pop., 1,674. Houses, 253. The manor is divided into 32 shares. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Worcester. Value, £600.* Patron, the Crown.—The district contains 19 parishes, and 7 extra-parochial tracts. Acres, 50,409. Poor rates in 1863, £5,490. Pop. in 1851,10,504; in 1861, 10,392. Houses, 2,279. Marriages in 1863, 59; births, 314,-of which 22 were illegitimate; deaths, 190,-of which 66 were at ages under 5 years, and 5 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 657; births, 3,457; deaths, 1,959. The places of worship, in 1851, were 19 of the Church of England, with 4,527 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 469 s.; 5 of Wesleyans, with 699 s.; 4 of Primitive Methodists, with 303 s.; 1 of Moravians, with 70 s.; and 1 undefined, with 70 s. The schools were 17 public day-schools, with 1,022 scholars; 22 private day-schools, with 425 s.; and 28 Sunday schools, with 1,783 s.-The division is mainly identical with the district, but less extensive; and is part of Knightlow hundred. Acres, 44,730. Pop. in 1851,9,362. Houses, 2,010.
Southam through time
Southam is now part of Stratford on Avon district. Click here for graphs and data of how Stratford on Avon has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Southam itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Southam, in Stratford on Avon and Warwickshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/9356
Date accessed: 19th April 2024
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