The Library, Church St, Nuneaton - 02476 384027/0300 555 8171 Avenue Road, Nuneaton - 024 7632 5822 nuneatonlibrary@warwickshire.gov.uk

In Domesday, it was simply Etone, from Old English Ea tun (enclosure by a river), but by 1247, it had become Nonne Eton after nunnery which is now part of St Mary's church.

Nuneaton is located 14.5 km (9 miles) north of Coventry, 32 km (20 miles) east of Birmingham and 166 km (103 miles) northwest of London. The River Anker runs through the town. Nuneaton (as defined by the Office for National Statistics) had a population of 70,721 according to the 2001 census, though the 2008 estimate is closer to 73,000 inhabitants. However, both of these figures exclude the Camp Hill area of the town, which is deemed to be in the Hartshill subdivision of the Nuneaton urban area by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), as can be seen from the map included in its report on Key Statistics for urban areas and the dataset of this report, which cites a population of 12,207 for the Hartshill subdivision (by comparison, the population of the civil parish of Hartshill in 2001 was just 3,611). A more representative figure is given by the combined population of Nuneaton's 11 wards, which was 78,403 in 2001 according to the ONS. Nuneaton also has a football team called Nuneaton Town.

Towns close to Nuneaton include Bedworth, Atherstone and Hinckley, with Tamworth and Lutterworth a little further afield. The nearest city is Coventry, sited 7 miles (11.25 km) from the centre of Nuneaton. Leicester and thereafter Birmingham are considerably close. A local landmark is Mount Judd, which is a large mound of quarry waste that was formed when Judkins Quarry was dug out. Mount Judd lies in the northwest of the town and can be seen for miles around.

There are various Ordnance Survey-recognised viewpoints at the extremities of the town. One of the most noteworthy is in the west of Hartshill Hayes Country Park from where looking north Atherstone can be seen and looking north-east Leicester can be seen, depending on favourable visibility.

Nuneaton's name came from a 12th century Benedictine nunnery (parts of which still survive) around which much of the town grew. Prior to this it was a settlement known as 'Etone', which translates literally as 'water-town'. Nuneaton was listed in the Domesday Book as a small hamlet. A market was established in 1233 (and is still held today). The first recorded use of the modern name was in 1247 when a document recorded it as 'Nonne Eton'. The Nunnery fell into disrepair after 1539 (with Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries). King Edward VI School was established by a royal charter in 1552. From 1944 it became a Grammar School for boys and, although it was locally known as KEGS, it never included the word Grammar in its name. In 1974 it became a Sixth form college. Other grammar schools in Nuneaton during the 1944 to 1974 period were Nuneaton High School for Girls and Manor Park. Additionally Nicholas Chamberlaine School in Bedworth was an early comprehensive school that had a grammar school stream.

Nuneaton grew gradually from the 17th century onwards, due to its position at the centre of the Warwickshire coalfields. At the time of the first national census in 1801 Nuneaton was already one of the largest towns in Warwickshire, with a population of 5,000. During the Industrial revolution in the 19th century, Nuneaton developed a large textile industry. Other industries which developed in the town included brick and tile making and brewing. By 1901 the population of Nuneaton had grown to 25,000.

Nuneaton became an urban district in 1894, and was upgraded to the status of a municipal borough in 1907.

Due largely to munitions factories located in Nuneaton, the town suffered heavy bombing damage during World War II. The heaviest bombing raid on Nuneaton took place on 17 May 1941, when 100 people were killed, 380 houses were destroyed, and over 10,000 damaged, a few smaller raids took place on the town, most notably on 25 June 1942. As a result of the bombing, much of the town centre was rebuilt in the post-war years.

On 6 June 1975, six people died and 38 were injured when a train crashed just south of Nuneaton railway station.

An ancient abbey church founded at 'Eaton' in the 1150s was home to Benedictine nuns and gave the present town the name 'Nuneaton'.

Very little survives today of the original building. The cruciform church was sold after the dissolution and converted into a mansion. Abandoned in the seventeenth century it was quarried away until all that survived by the 1860s were the foundations, some low walls and the battered crossing piers of the former central tower.

In 1876-7 this desolate ruin was brought back to life as a place of worship after centuries of neglect, when four of the original seven bays of the nave were rebuilt on the old foundations in neo-romanesque style by the Gothic Revival architect C.C. Rolfe with the old crossing piers enclosed by a temporary brick structure for use as a chancel. The west wall was also left in plain brick to allow for possible completion of the nave on the ancient footings further west at a later date, though this retains its incomplete appearance to this day.

In 1904 the chancel was rebuilt in neo-gothic style on the old foundations east of the crossing by Harold Brakspear, followed by the north transept in 1930. The architect had drawn up plans to restore the south transept and central tower too, but sadly these were never realised, leaving the south transept as a ruin sealed off by the 1877 'temporary' brick wall and leaving the church in an odd truncated state today (comprising half the nave, the chancel, north transept and base of the crossing).

Inside the ruined crossing piers remain from the original church, as well as part of a fine medieval tiled floor and the bases of what remained of the walls. Outside, the ruins of the nave and South Transept remain as they were, along with the base of what is thought to have been a chapter house.

The church (such as it stands) is used as the Parish Church of St. Mary and is known locally as the Abbey Church.

Despite this building's significance in Nuneaton's past and its extraordinary recent history, it is a relatively unknown and obscure place, with little promotion or signage.