105-554: The River Anker flows through Nuneaton , England. It is a major tributary of the River Tame , which it joins in Tamworth . The name derives from the old British for winding river . From source to river mouth at Tamworth is 50 kilometres (31 mi). The river rises near Wolvey and flows in a north-westerly direction to pass between Bramcote and Burton Hastings , it is designated a main river at Stretton Baskerville where it also forms
210-465: A flood relief channel . Nuneaton forms the largest part of the Nuneaton built-up area which also includes the large villages of Hartshill and Bulkington . It had a population of 132,236 at the 2001 Census . In the 2011 Census it had a considerably lower population of 92,698 because Hinckley ceased to be defined as part of the urban area. In the 2021 Census the urban area was recorded as having
315-568: A turnpike road to Coventry in the 1750s, which partially resolved this problem. Early on Newdigate recognised the potential of canals as a means for transporting bulk cargoes. He developed a system of private canals on his land on the Arbury Estate from 1764 to transport coal, and helped promote the Coventry Canal , which opened from Coventry to Nuneaton in 1769, before being finally completed to Staffordshire in 1790. He also helped promote
420-480: A waterwheel to drive drainage pumps was recorded as early as 1683. The first recorded use of an atmospheric engine ; a primitive form of steam engine , to pump water from coal pits was recorded at Griff Colliery in 1714; this was the first recorded use of a steam engine in Warwickshire. Another major problem facing the industry was poor transport. Sir Roger Newdigate , who owned several local coal mines, developed
525-458: A 128 ha (320 acres) Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and nature reserve. It continues past Amington Hall before turning south-westerly to flow through Tamworth and join the River Tame near Tamworth Castle . The Anker is popular with anglers and is known to contain some large pike and chub . Also there are barbel present with fish over 15 lb being reported. The flow of
630-632: A converted former Methodist Chapel in Stockingford. In addition to these, there is an active Bahá'i Faith group in Nuneaton. Several Eastern European Jewish families settled in the area after the First World War, due to the economic vitality of the town at the time. Economic migrants seeking technical and agricultural opportunities in North Warwickshire relocated to Nuneaton in the 1920s and 1930s, worshipping and paying for membership seats in
735-459: A downy nest high up in a good old tree". Her stay is commemorated by a plaque on the building. While residing there, she read avidly and took long walks in the beautiful Swiss countryside, which was a great inspiration to her. François Durade painted her portrait there as well. On her return to England the following year (1850), she moved to London with the intent of becoming a writer, and she began referring to herself as Marian Evans. She stayed at
840-449: A few days after birth in March 1821. She also had a half-brother, Robert Evans (1802–1864), and half-sister, Frances "Fanny" Evans Houghton (1805–1882), from her father's previous marriage to Harriet Poynton (1780–1809). In early 1820, the family moved to a house named Griff House , between Nuneaton and Bedworth . The young Evans was a voracious reader and obviously intelligent. Because she
945-433: A foray into verse, but her poetry's initial popularity has not endured. Working as a translator, Eliot was exposed to German texts of religious, social, and moral philosophy such as David Friedrich Strauss's Life of Jesus and Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity ; also important was her translation from Latin of Jewish-Dutch philosopher Spinoza's Ethics . Elements from these works show up in her fiction, much of which
1050-451: A line to Coventry via Bedworth . A new railway station at Bermuda Park was opened south of the town centre in 2016 on the line towards Coventry, as part of the NUCKLE (Nuneaton, Coventry, Kenilworth and Leamington ) rail upgrade scheme. Historically, Nuneaton was also served by Chilvers Coton station , Abbey Street station and Stockingford station . Chilvers Coton station was located on
1155-623: A man much younger than her, and she changed her name to Mary Ann Cross. Mary Ann Evans was born in Nuneaton , Warwickshire , England , at South Farm on the Arbury Hall estate. She was the third child of Robert Evans (1773–1849), manager of the Arbury Hall estate, and Christiana Evans ( née Pearson, 1788–1836), daughter of a local mill-owner. Her full siblings were: Christiana, known as Chrissey (1814–1859), Isaac (1816–1890), and twin brothers who died
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#17328487532221260-490: A new Nuneaton Parkway station between Nuneaton and Hinckley , which could open by 2034. The principal operator around Nuneaton is Stagecoach in Warwickshire and the depot is located next to the fire station on Newtown Road, just west from the bus station. Arriva Midlands also operate a number of routes around Nuneaton with buses running to Tamworth , Hinckley , Barwell , Leicester . MIRA , and Coventry . Arriva Midlands also operate service 78 to Walsgrave Hospital ,
1365-700: A number of inhabitants of a small English town on the eve of the Reform Bill of 1832 ; the novel is notable for its deep psychological insight and sophisticated character portraits. The roots of her realist philosophy can be found in her review of John Ruskin 's Modern Painters in Westminster Review in 1856. Eliot also express proto- Zionist ideas in Daniel Deronda . Readers in the Victorian era praised her novels for their depictions of rural society. Much of
1470-886: A part of it and outside the ring road, lies the medieval church of St. Nicolas – a grade I listed building. Chilvers Coton contains All Saints' Church, where Mary Ann Evans ( George Eliot ) worshipped and Justin Welby , now Archbishop of Canterbury , served as a curate . This was badly damaged by bombing during the Second World War , and rebuilt largely by German prisoners of war . There are also Anglican churches in Weddington (St James's), Attleborough (Holy Trinity), Stockingford ( St Paul's ), Galley Common (St Peter's), Abbey Green (St Mary's), and more recently built (1954), in Camp Hill St Mary's and St John's . There are two parishes in
1575-437: A period of rapid growth from the 1880s onwards with the rapid development of an array of industries. These included brick and tile making, brewing , the production of hats and leather goods. and engineering . At the time of the first national census in 1801 Nuneaton was one of the largest towns in Warwickshire, with a population of 5,135. By 1901 this had grown to 24,996. Nuneaton was an ancient parish , which covered
1680-448: A population of 99,372, and comprising Nuneaton, Bulkington and Hartshill. On 19 July 2022, it recorded its highest ever temperature of 38 °C during the 2022 United Kingdom heat wave . Towns close to Nuneaton include Bedworth , Atherstone and Hinckley , with Tamworth , Rugby , Coleshill and Lutterworth a little further afield. Within the borough boundaries: Adjacent or adjoining places, some of which fall outside
1785-410: A positive view of the growing movement in support of Irish home rule . She was influenced by the writings of John Stuart Mill and read all of his major works as they were published. In Mill's The Subjection of Women (1869) she judged the second chapter excoriating the laws which oppress married women "excellent." She was supportive of Mill's parliamentary run, but believed that the electorate
1890-465: A product of their friendship, Bray published some of Evans's own earliest writing, such as reviews, in his newspaper the Coventry Herald and Observer . As Evans began to question her own religious faith, her father threatened to throw her out of the house, but his threat was not carried out. Instead, she respectfully attended church and continued to keep house for him until his death in 1849, when she
1995-468: A result of the Education Act of 1944 . The voluntary aided school had around 400 boys in the 1960s. In 1974 the grammar school closed and was re-established as a sixth form college . In 1543, Nuneaton was recorded as containing 169 houses, with a population of around 800. By 1670 this had grown to 415 households, with a population of 1,867, and by 1740 the population had risen further to 2,480. In
2100-461: A ribbon manufacturer and had used his wealth in the building of schools and in other philanthropic causes. Evans, who had been struggling with religious doubts for some time, became intimate friends with the radical, free-thinking Brays, who had a casual view of marital obligations and the Brays' "Rosehill" home was a haven for people who held and debated radical views. The people whom the young woman met at
2205-450: A sense of social order and morality. The religious elements in her fiction also owe much to her upbringing, with the experiences of Maggie Tulliver from The Mill on the Floss sharing many similarities with the young Mary Ann Evans. Eliot also faced a quandary similar to that of Silas Marner, whose alienation from the church simultaneously meant his alienation from society. Because Eliot retained
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#17328487532222310-531: A service operated by Travel de Courcey until the company entered administration in 2020. In January 2020 NX Coventry announced an extension to Nuneaton on their 20 route from Coventry to Bedworth. The Coventry Canal passes through Nuneaton, while the Ashby Canal skirts the town's south-eastern outskirts. George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian ), known by her pen name George Eliot ,
2415-553: A type of building which was specific to the local area, and had living space in the two lower floors, and a workshop with very large windows on the top floor. This industry flourished for nearly two centuries, albeit with periodic booms and slumps. However, by the early 19th century the industry was struggling to compete against the factory produced textiles from northern manufacturers, and the local weavers strongly resisted adopting factory production methods as they valued their independence. Nevertheless, in 1851 46% of Nuneaton's workforce
2520-571: A vestigial respect for religion, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche excoriated her system of morality for figuring sin as a debt that can be expiated through suffering, which he demeaned as characteristic of "little moralistic females à la Eliot." She was at her most autobiographical in Looking Backwards , part of her final published work Impressions of Theophrastus Such . By the time of Daniel Deronda , Eliot's sales were falling off, and she had faded from public view to some degree. This
2625-565: Is 9 miles (14 km) north of Coventry , 18 miles (29 km) east of Birmingham and 16 miles (26 km) south-west of Leicester . The town centre lies 2 miles (3 km) south-west of the Leicestershire border (which is defined by the A5 road the former Roman Watling Street ), 9 miles (14 km) south-east of Staffordshire , and 12 miles (19 km) south-south-east from Derbyshire ’s southernmost point. Nuneaton lies very close to
2730-873: Is a mosque on Frank Street, Chilvers Coton, and two gurdwaras (Sikh temples): the Nuneaton Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Park Avenue, Attleborough, and the Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara in Marlborough Road, Chilvers Coton. There are also two Hindu temples in Nuneaton: the Shree Hindu Gujrati Samaj on Upper Abbey Street, and a second Hindu temple, the Watford Kantha Swami Hindu Temple, which opened in 2021, using
2835-416: Is known for embracing a realist aesthetic inspired by Dutch visual art. The revelations about Eliot's private life surprised and shocked many of her admiring readers, but this did not affect her popularity as a novelist. Her relationship with Lewes afforded her the encouragement and stability she needed to write fiction, but it would be some time before the couple were accepted into polite society. Acceptance
2940-465: Is magnificently ugly — deliciously hideous. She has a low forehead, a dull grey eye, a vast pendulous nose, a huge mouth, full of uneven teeth & a chin & jawbone qui n'en finissent pas ["which never end"] ... Now in this vast ugliness resides a most powerful beauty which, in a very few minutes steals forth & charms the mind, so that you end as I ended, in falling in love with her. She spelled her name differently at different times. Mary Anne
3045-498: Is near the M6 , the M42 and M69 motorways and the main A5 trunk road ( Watling Street ), which also acts as a border with Leicestershire and the neighbouring town of Hinckley. The A444 provides a high-speed dual-carriageway route into the town from the south and also acts as the often busy town centre ring road . The A47 links the town with neighbouring Hinckley and onwards to Leicester, and
3150-431: Is something to love; the second something to reverence". George Eliot was considered by contemporaries to be physically unattractive; she herself knew this and made jokes about her appearance in letters to friends. Despite this, numerous acquaintances found that the force of her personality overcame their impression of her appearance. Of his first meeting with her on 9 May 1869, Henry James wrote: ... To begin with she
3255-482: Is to some extent a commuter town for nearby Coventry and Birmingham. However a relatively large number of businesses involved in the automotive, aerospace and engineering supply chains industries are active in the area. MIRA Limited , formerly the Motor Industry Research Association, is based on a disused wartime airfield on the A5 , to the north of the town. One of the biggest developments in
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3360-435: Is written with her trademark sense of agnostic humanism . According to Clare Carlisle , who published a new biography on George Eliot in 2023, the overdue publication of Spinoza's Ethics was a real shame, because it could have provided some illuminating cues for understanding the more mature works of the writer. She had taken particular notice of Feuerbach's conception of Christianity, positing that our understanding of
3465-656: The George Eliot Academy , Middlemarch Junior School, George Eliot Hospital (formerly Nuneaton Emergency Hospital), and George Eliot Road, in Foleshill , Coventry. Also, The Mary Anne Evans Hospice in Nuneaton. A statue of Eliot is in Newdegate Street, Nuneaton, and Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery has a display of artefacts related to her. A tunnel boring machine constructing the Bromford Tunnel on High Speed 2
3570-557: The Oxford Canal . Ironically, the new canal system led to a decline in the Warwickshire coal industry after 1800, as it was exploited by Staffordshire coal producers to capture the local market. The local coal industry was not exploited to its maximum potential until the development of the railway network in the 19th century. The first railway to reach Nuneaton was the Trent Valley Railway which opened in 1847, linking Nuneaton to
3675-702: The River Anker . 'Etone' was listed in the Domesday Book as a small farming settlement with a population of around 150. In the early 12th century, the settlement came under the control of the Beaumont family , and in around 1155 Robert de Beaumont granted his manor of Etone to the French Abbey of Fontevraud , who established a Benedictine nunnery here, which became known as Nuneaton Priory . This led to Etone becoming known as Nuneaton. A document from 1272 referred to
3780-517: The geographic centre of England , which since 2002 has been recognised as being at Lindley Hall Farm , about 3 miles (5 km) north of Nuneaton, across the county border in Leicestershire. The River Anker runs through the town. Nuneaton town centre was historically prone to regular flooding from the Anker, with especially bad floods in 1932 and 1968. This was relieved in 1976 by the construction of
3885-429: The largest town in Warwickshire . Nuneaton's urban area, which also includes the large villages of Bulkington and Hartshill , had a population of 99,372 at the 2021 census. Nuneaton gained its name from a medieval nunnery which was established in the 12th century, when it became a small market town. It later developed into an important industrial town due to ribbon weaving and coal mining. The author George Eliot
3990-489: The realism of novels that were being written in Europe at the time, an emphasis on realistic storytelling confirmed in her own subsequent fiction. She also adopted a nom-de-plume, George Eliot; as she explained to her biographer J. W. Cross, George was Lewes's forename, and Eliot was "a good mouth-filling, easily pronounced word". Although female authors were published under their own names during her lifetime, she wanted to escape
4095-703: The "Rosehill Circle". The Strauss book had caused a sensation in Germany by arguing that the miracles in the New Testament were mythical additions with little basis in fact. Evans's translation had a similar effect in England, with the Earl of Shaftesbury calling her translation "the most pestilential book ever vomited out of the jaws of hell." Later she translated Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity (1854). The ideas in these books would have an effect on her own fiction. As
4200-564: The A4254 – Eastern Relief Road – provides direct access from the east of Nuneaton to the south, avoiding the town centre. The town has two railway stations. The main Nuneaton railway station , located near the town centre, is an important railway junction and is served by the West Coast Main Line running from London to the North West, the cross-country Birmingham to Peterborough Line and by
4305-486: The Anker has been measured at a gauging station in its lower reaches at Polesworth since 1966. The catchment to the station of 386 square kilometres (149 sq mi) yields an average flow of 3.2 cubic metres per second (110 cu ft/s). The highest river level recorded at the station occurred on the 25 November 2012, with a height of 2.57 metres (8 ft 5 in) and a flow of 128 cubic metres per second (4,500 cu ft/s). The catchment upstream of
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4410-577: The Brays' house included Robert Owen , Herbert Spencer , Harriet Martineau , and Ralph Waldo Emerson . Through this society Evans was introduced to more liberal and agnostic theologies and to writers such as David Strauss and Ludwig Feuerbach , who cast doubt on the literal truth of Biblical texts. In fact, her first major literary work was an English translation of Strauss's Das Leben Jesu kritisch bearbeitet as The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined (1846), which she completed after it had been left incomplete by Elizabeth "Rufa" Brabant, another member of
4515-508: The Conservatives once more gained a majority; winning ten seats from Labour and one from an independent. However, the pendulum swung back again in the May 2024 elections, when Labour again won back control of the council, winning 15 seats. Nuneaton's traditional industries like textiles, mining and manufacturing have declined significantly in the post-war years. Due to its transport links, Nuneaton
4620-457: The Coventry line, a short distance north of the new Bermuda Park station, and was closed in 1965. Abbey Street station and Stockingford station were on the line towards Birmingham and were both closed in 1968. In January 2017, there were proposals to open a new station at Stockingford, at a different location from the former one, which could open by 2023. Warwickshire County Council have also proposed
4725-646: The Italians would chase the "odious Austrians" out of Lombardy and that "decayed monarchs" would be pensioned off, although she believed a gradual reformist approach to social problems was best for England. In 1850–51, Evans attended classes in mathematics at the Ladies College in Bedford Square, later known as Bedford College, London . The philosopher and critic George Henry Lewes (1817–1878) met Evans in 1851, and by 1854 they had decided to live together. Lewes
4830-423: The Nuneaton and Bedworth borough was less prosperous than the rest of Warwickshire, reflecting the long established north–south divide in the county. The average annual workplace wage in Nuneaton and Bedworth was £21,981, the lowest in the county and below the Warwickshire average of £28,513 (and UK £28,296) although the productivity gap had narrowed with the rest of Warwickshire since 2009. Nuneaton's name reflects
4935-686: The Spon End Synagogue in Coventry and the Orthodox Synagogue in Leicester. Prior to World War Two, hundreds of children gained passage to the UK via the Kindertransport , with a number of children being fostered in Nuneaton and subsequently settling in the immediate area, North Warwickshire and Market Bosworth. Provincial Jewish life in Nuneaton and Bedworth has waned since the 1970s, with the majority of
5040-417: The architect and town planner Frederick Gibberd was appointed to create a masterplan to redevelop the bomb damaged town centre. The redevelopment, which continued until the 1960s included the features typical of town planning from that era, including a new ringroad, indoor shopping centre , administrative centre and library. Nuneaton continued to expand in the latter 20th century. In the early postwar years
5145-470: The area reserved for political and religious dissenters and agnostics, beside the love of her life, George Henry Lewes . The graves of Karl Marx and her friend Herbert Spencer are nearby. In 1980, on the centenary of her death, a memorial stone was established for her in the Poets' Corner between W. H. Auden and Dylan Thomas , with a quote from Scenes of Clerical Life : "The first condition of human goodness
5250-587: The borough boundaries: Nuneaton is part of the constituency of the same name in the House of Commons . The constituency is currently represented by the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), Jodie Gosling who was first elected in the 2024 general election . From 1935 to 1983 , Nuneaton was a safe Labour seat, but it has become more marginal. Between 1983 and 1992 , the Conservative Party held
5355-517: The boundary between the boroughs of Rugby, Nuneaton and Bedworth. On the outskirts of Nuneaton it collects the Wem Brook, and then passes alongside the Liberty Way sports stadium. At this point the river splits, with a flood relief channel to the north, and the main channel passing through the Nuneaton town centre. The relief channel re-joins beyond the town at Weddington, where the river then continues in
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#17328487532225460-597: The business side of the Review with attempts to change its layout and design. Although Chapman was officially the editor, it was Evans who did most of the work of producing the journal, contributing many essays and reviews beginning with the January 1852 issue and continuing until the end of her employment at the Review in the first half of 1854. Eliot sympathized with the 1848 Revolutions throughout continental Europe, and even hoped that
5565-456: The community leaving for larger Jewish centres of Britain, with remaining members being elderly and non-observant. At the 2021 census , there were 88,813 residents in Nuneaton. In terms of ethnicity in 2021: In terms of religion, 50.7% of Nuneaton residents identified as Christian , 40.2% said they had no religion , 4.1% were Muslim , 1.8% were Hindu , 1.6% were Sikh , 0.7% were Buddhists , and 0.8% were from another religion. The town
5670-742: The countryside. Middlemarch was described by the novelist Virginia Woolf as "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people" and by Martin Amis and Julian Barnes as the greatest novel in the English language. Scandalously and unconventionally for the era, she lived with the married George Henry Lewes as his conjugal partner, from 1854 to 1878, and called him her husband. He remained married to his wife and supported their children, even after she left him to live with another man and have children with him. In May 1880, eighteen months after Lewes's death, George Eliot married her long-time friend, John Cross,
5775-724: The effect that Christianity has had upon the town's history. Although the Benedictine nunnery which gave the town its name was destroyed at the time of the Reformation , the remaining fragments were incorporated into the Anglican church building now known as the Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin in Manor Court Road. This is a Victorian construction. Near the town centre, but unusually not
5880-428: The evolution of the self." These themes made their way into Evans's first complete novel, Adam Bede (1859). It was an instant success, and prompted yet more intense curiosity as to the author's identity: there was even a pretender to the authorship, one Joseph Liggins. This public interest subsequently led to Mary Anne Evans Lewes's acknowledgment that it was she who stood behind the pseudonym George Eliot. Adam Bede
5985-403: The growing national railway network at Rugby and Stafford . This was followed by a branch line to Coventry in 1850. In 1864 a line was opened from Birmingham to Leicester via Nuneaton, and this proved to be the most important for the local economy, as it linked Nuneaton with the rapidly growing town (later city) of Birmingham . Due largely to this, the local coal industry expanded rapidly in
6090-464: The hamlets of Attleborough and Stockingford as well as the town itself. The parish was made a local board district in 1850, which was Nuneaton's first modern form of local government; previously it had been governed by its vestry and manorial court . The local board's main responsibilities were to provide the town with infrastructure such as paved roads, clean drinking water, street lighting and sewerage. The neighbouring parish of Chilvers Coton
6195-406: The house of John Chapman , the radical publisher whom she had met earlier at Rosehill and who had published her Strauss translation. She then joined Chapman's ménage-à-trois along with his wife and mistress. Chapman had recently purchased the campaigning, left-wing journal The Westminster Review . Evans became its assistant editor in 1851 after joining just a year earlier. Evans's writings for
6300-576: The latter half of the 19th century, with production from the Warwickshire coalfield expanding nearly tenfold between 1860 and 1913 from around 545,000 tons to over five million tons. The industry peaked in the early 20th century; in 1911 one third of the male workforce in Nuneaton were employed as miners. The industry, however, declined rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, with the last coal mine in Nuneaton closing in 1968, although Newdigate colliery at Bedworth lasted until 1982. The last Warwickshire coal mine at nearby Daw Mill closed in 2013. Nuneaton underwent
6405-594: The local villages. In 1485, the Battle of Bosworth , the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses , was fought around 5 miles (8 km) to the north-west of Nuneaton, across the border in nearby Leicestershire . King Edward VI School was established in 1552 by a royal charter by King Edward VI . The school was originally a fee-paying school, although the county council provided some scholarships, and became non-fee-paying as
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#17328487532226510-500: The marriage courted some controversy due to the 21 year age differences, it pleased her brother Isaac that she was married in this relationship. He had broken off relations with her when she had begun to live with Lewes, and now sent congratulations. While the couple were honeymooning in Venice , Cross, in a suicide attempt, jumped from the hotel balcony into the Grand Canal . He survived, and
6615-504: The material for her prose was drawn from her own experience. She shared with Wordsworth the belief that there was much value and beauty to be found in the mundane details of ordinary country life. Eliot did not, however, confine herself to stories of the English countryside. Romola , an historical novel set in late fifteenth century Florence , was based on the life of the Italian priest Girolamo Savonarola . In The Spanish Gypsy , Eliot made
6720-413: The mid-17th century, a silk ribbon weaving industry became established in the local area which included Nuneaton, Bedworth , Coventry and much of North Warwickshire . This industry was enhanced by the arrival of French Huguenot immigrants in the latter part of the century, who brought with them new techniques. This industry operated as a cottage industry , with the weavers working from top-shops ;
6825-423: The nature of the divine was to be found ultimately in the nature of humanity projected onto a divine figure. An example of this philosophy appeared in her novel Romola , in which Eliot's protagonist displayed a "surprisingly modern readiness to interpret religious language in humanist or secular ethical terms." Though Eliot herself was not religious, she had respect for religious tradition and its ability to maintain
6930-484: The need arose for low-cost housing, and in response to this around 2,500 council houses were built during the 1950s, the largest such development was at Camp Hill , where 1,400 new houses were built by 1956, while around 1,100 new council houses were built at new estates at Hill Top, Caldwell and Marston Lane by 1958. Following this, Nuneaton's expansion was largely driven by private developments at Weddington , St Nicolas Park , Whitestone and Stockingford . Nuneaton
7035-609: The neighbouring parish of Weddington . In 1974, the Municipal Borough of Nuneaton was merged with Bedworth Urban District to create a non-metropolitan district with borough status which was initially called Nuneaton, but changed its name to Nuneaton and Bedworth in 1980. Nuneaton suffered severe bomb damage during The Blitz in the Second World War between 1940 and 1942. The heaviest bombing raid on Nuneaton took place on 17 May 1941, when 130 people were killed, 380 houses were destroyed, and over 10,000 damaged. In 1947
7140-686: The newlyweds returned to England. They moved to a new house in Chelsea, but Eliot fell ill with a throat infection. This, coupled with the kidney disease with which she had been afflicted for several years, led to her death on 22 December 1880 at the age of 61. Due to her denial of the Christian faith and her relationship with Lewes, Eliot was not buried in Westminster Abbey . She was instead interred in Highgate Cemetery (East), Highgate, London, in
7245-483: The paper were comments on her views of society and the Victorian way of thinking. She was sympathetic to the lower classes and criticised organised religion throughout her articles and reviews and commented on contemporary ideas of the time. Much of this was drawn from her own experiences and knowledge and she used this to critique other ideas and organisations. This led to her writing being viewed as authentic and wise but not too obviously opinionated. Evans also focused on
7350-402: The period of Conservative control was relatively short lived. The Labour Party won two seats from the Conservative Party in the 2010 local elections , giving no party overall control of the council (but leaving the Labour Party as the largest grouping). In 2012 Labour gained a further 8 seats to regain overall control which they lost again to no overall control in 2018. In the May 2021 elections,
7455-460: The relationship was contrary to the social conventions of the time, and attracted considerable disapproval. While continuing to contribute pieces to the Westminster Review , Evans resolved to become a novelist, and set out a pertinent manifesto in one of her last essays for the Review , "Silly Novels by Lady Novelists" (1856). The essay criticised the trivial and ridiculous plots of contemporary fiction written by women. In other essays, she praised
7560-461: The river flooded the Liberty Way pitch, forcing Nuneaton Town and Nuneaton RFC to cancel matches while the river water drained away. Nuneaton Nuneaton ( / n ə ˈ n iː t ən / nə- NEE -tən ) is a market town in Warwickshire , England, close to the county border with Leicestershire to the north-east. Nuneaton's population at the 2021 census was 88,813, making it
7665-466: The same north-westerly direction to pass the village of Caldecote , then Mancetter (where it is crossed by Watling Street ) and Witherley , before reaching Atherstone where it is joined by the River Sence . Downstream of the confluence, it reaches Grendon and then flows through Polesworth before passing beneath the M42 motorway . Beyond the motorway it passes through Alvecote Pools and meadows ,
7770-499: The seat, until losing it back to Labour. For the next 18 years, the Labour Party (in the form of Bill Olner ) was the local representative at Parliament, until his retirement. The Conservatives won it back at the 2010 general election , with Marcus Jones holding the seat until 2024. There are two-tiers of local government covering Nuneaton; Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council as the lower tier and Warwickshire County Council as
7875-461: The sixth year of our life together, at Holly Lodge, South Field, Wandsworth, and finished 21 March 1860." Silas Marner (1861) and Romola (1863) soon followed, and later Felix Holt, the Radical (1866) and her most acclaimed novel, Middlemarch (1871–1872). Her last novel was Daniel Deronda , published in 1876, after which she and Lewes moved to Witley , Surrey. By this time Lewes's health
7980-468: The sole exception perhaps of Romola de' Bardi , who resolutely rejects the State and Church obligations of her time. After the success of Adam Bede , Eliot continued to write popular novels for the next fifteen years. Within a year of completing Adam Bede , she finished The Mill on the Floss , dedicating the manuscript: "To my beloved husband, George Henry Lewes, I give this MS. of my third book, written in
8085-538: The station has an average annual rainfall of 653 millimetres (25.7 in) and a maximum altitude of 275 metres (902 ft) near Bardon Hill in Charnwood Forest at the north-eastern edge of the basin. The River Anker has flooded Nuneaton town centre several times in the past, including 1968, prompting the construction of a 600-metre-long (2,000 ft) flood relief channel in Weddington in 1976. In July 2007
8190-472: The stereotype of women's writing being limited to lighthearted romances or other lighter fare not to be taken very seriously. She also wanted to have her fiction judged separately from her already extensive and widely known work as a translator, editor, and critic. Another factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny, thus avoiding the scandal that would have arisen because of her relationship with Lewes, who
8295-525: The town as Nunne Eton . The nunnery was closed in 1539 during King Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries , and subsequently fell into ruin. However part of the Abbey church was rebuilt in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Nuneaton obtained a market charter in around 1160 from Henry II which was reconfirmed in 1226, causing Nuneaton to develop into a market town and become the economic focal point of
8400-550: The town serving the Catholic community in Nuneaton. Our Lady of the Angels on Coton Road, was opened in 1838 (originally as St Mary's). The building, designed by Joseph Hansom , was extensively remodeled in 1936. The Parish of St Anne's, Chapel End, Nuneaton was created in 1949 out of the Parish of Our Lady of the Angels (which originally covered the whole town). The original church building
8505-518: The town's history, the multimillion-pound Ropewalk Shopping Centre , opened in September 2005 in the hope that it will give the town extra income from the shopping, attract more visitors and retailers, and attract shoppers as an alternative to larger retail centres such as Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester and Solihull. An older shopping centre, the Abbeygate Shopping Centre in the town centre
8610-422: The two sexes, as to education and the possibilities of free development", and dismissed appeals to nature in explaining women's lower status. In 1870, she responded enthusiastically to Lady Amberley 's feminist lecture on the claims of women for education, occupations, equality in marriage, and child custody. It would be wrong to assume that the female protagonists of her works can be considered "feminist", with
8715-466: The upper tier. Nuneaton is an unparished area and so there is no tier of administration below the Borough council. Nuneaton and Bedworth council was once solidly controlled by the Labour Party, but has in more recent years become more volatile: It was Labour controlled from its creation in 1974, until the 2008 local elections , when the Conservatives gained control, ending 34 years of Labour rule. However,
8820-399: The use of a Greek typeface ), and her themes are often influenced by Greek tragedy". Her frequent visits to the estate also allowed her to contrast the wealth in which the local landowner lived with the lives of the often much poorer people on the estate, and different lives lived in parallel would reappear in many of her works. The other important early influence in her life was religion. She
8925-493: The wife of a parson. Eliot was profoundly influenced by the works of Thomas Carlyle . As early as 1841, she referred to him as "a grand favourite of mine", and references to him abound in her letters from the 1840s and 1850s. According to University of Victoria professor Lisa Surridge, Carlyle "stimulated Eliot's interest in German thought, encouraged her turn from Christian orthodoxy, and shaped her ideas on work, duty, sympathy, and
9030-459: Was 30. Five days after her father's funeral, she travelled to Switzerland with the Brays. She decided to stay on in Geneva alone, living first on the lake at Plongeon (near the present-day United Nations buildings) and then on the second floor of a house owned by her friends François and Juliet d'Albert Durade on the rue de Chanoines (now the rue de la Pelisserie). She commented happily that "one feels in
9135-545: Was already married to Agnes Jervis, although in an open marriage . In addition to the three children they had together, Agnes also had four children by Thornton Leigh Hunt . In July 1854, Lewes and Evans travelled to Weimar and Berlin together for the purpose of research. Before going to Germany, Evans continued her theological work with a translation of Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity , and while abroad she wrote essays and worked on her translation of Baruch Spinoza 's Ethics , which she completed in 1856, but which
9240-608: Was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era . She wrote seven novels: Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1862–1863), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Middlemarch (1871–1872) and Daniel Deronda (1876). As with Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy , she emerged from provincial England; most of her works are set there. Her works are known for their realism , psychological insight , sense of place and detailed depiction of
9345-436: Was born on a farm on the Arbury Estate just outside Nuneaton in 1819 and lived in the town for much of her early life. Her novel Scenes of Clerical Life (1858) depicts Nuneaton. The George Eliot Hospital is named after her, and there is also a statue of her in the town centre. Nuneaton was originally an Anglo-Saxon settlement known as 'Etone' or 'Eaton', which translates literally as 'settlement by water', referring to
9450-618: Was brought up within a low church Anglican family, but at that time the Midlands was an area with a growing number of religious dissenters . In 1836, her mother died and Evans (then 16) returned home to act as housekeeper, though she continued to correspond with her tutor Maria Lewis. When she was 21, her brother Isaac married and took over the family home, so Evans and her father moved to Foleshill near Coventry . The closeness to Coventry society brought new influences, most notably those of Charles and Cara Bray. Charles Bray had become rich as
9555-497: Was failing, and he died two years later, on 30 November 1878. Eliot spent the next six months editing Lewes's final work, Life and Mind , for publication, and found solace and companionship with longtime friend and financial adviser John Walter Cross, a Scottish commission agent 20 years her junior, whose mother had recently died. On 16 May 1880, eighteen months after Lewes' death, Eliot married John Walter Cross (1840–1924) and again changed her name, this time to Mary Ann Cross. While
9660-754: Was finally confirmed in 1877 when they were introduced to Princess Louise , the daughter of Queen Victoria . The queen herself was an avid reader of all of Eliot's novels and was so impressed with Adam Bede that she commissioned the artist Edward Henry Corbould to paint scenes from the book. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Eliot expressed sympathy for the Union cause, something which historians have attributed to her abolitionist sympathies. In 1868, she supported philosopher Richard Congreve 's protests against governmental policies in Ireland and had
9765-416: Was first opened in the 1960s, and was formerly known as Heron Way. The European headquarters of Holland & Barrett are based in the town, as is the UK head office of FedEx . While Bermuda Park, which is south of Nuneaton, is the location of the national distribution centres of Dairy Crest and RS Components . Nuneaton is also the location of several international online marketing companies. In 2017
9870-432: Was made a separate local board district at the same time. The two local board districts of Nuneaton and Chilvers Cotton were merged in 1893. The following year, all such districts were converted into urban districts . The Nuneaton and Chilvers Coton Urban District was elevated to become a municipal borough in 1907 under the single name of Nuneaton. The borough was enlarged several times, notably in 1931 when it absorbed
9975-568: Was married. In 1857, when she was 37 years of age, "The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton", the first of the three stories included in Scenes of Clerical Life , and the first work of "George Eliot", was published in Blackwood's Magazine . The Scenes (published as a 2-volume book in 1858), was well received, and was widely believed to have been written by a country parson , or perhaps
10080-412: Was named in honour of her. Throughout her career, Eliot wrote with a politically astute pen. From Adam Bede to The Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner , Eliot presented the cases of social outsiders and small-town persecution. Felix Holt, the Radical and The Legend of Jubal were overtly political, and political crisis is at the heart of Middlemarch , in which she presents the stories of
10185-591: Was not considered physically beautiful, Evans was not thought to have much chance of marriage, and this, coupled with her intelligence, led her father to invest in an education not often afforded to women. From ages five to nine, she boarded with her sister Chrissey at Miss Latham's school in Attleborough , from ages nine to thirteen at Mrs. Wallington's school in Nuneaton, and from ages thirteen to sixteen at Miss Franklin's school in Coventry . At Mrs. Wallington's school, she
10290-429: Was not helped by the posthumous biography written by her husband, which portrayed a wonderful, almost saintly, woman totally at odds with the scandalous life people knew she had led. In the 20th century she was championed by a new breed of critics, most notably by Virginia Woolf , who called Middlemarch "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people". In 1994, literary critic Harold Bloom placed Eliot among
10395-720: Was not published in her lifetime because the prospective publisher refused to pay the requested £75. In 1981, Eliot's translation of Spinoza's Ethics was finally published by Thomas Deegan, and was determined to be in the public domain in 2018 and published by the George Eliot Archive . It has been re-published in 2020 by Princeton University Press. The trip to Germany also served as a honeymoon for Evans and Lewes, who subsequently considered themselves married. Evans began to refer to Lewes as her husband and to sign her name as Mary Ann Evans Lewes, legally changing her name to Mary Ann Evans Lewes after his death. The refusal to conceal
10500-492: Was recorded locally as early as 1338. However the lack of efficient transport and the primitive mining techniques kept the industry on a small scale. Mining did not start to develop on a larger scale until the 17th century, with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution , which led to greater demand for fuel and technical advancement. A major problem was the drainage of water from coal pits as they were dug deeper. The use of
10605-677: Was replaced with the existing church, which was opened in 2000. In the town, Baptist , Methodist , Wesleyan Reform Union , the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , Pentecostal , the Salvation Army , United Reformed and Christadelphian churches serve their respective congregations. A Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses is located in the Stockingford area and Christadelphians in Whitestone . In addition to Christianity, there are also followers of Islam , Sikhism and Hinduism . There
10710-470: Was still employed by the ribbon trade. The industry was finally wiped out after 1860 by cheap imports, following the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty , which removed duties on imported French silks. This caused a slump in the local economy which lasted nearly two decades. Another major industry which grew in the local area was coal mining . Nuneaton was located in the Warwickshire coalfield , and mining
10815-709: Was taught by the evangelical Maria Lewis—to whom her earliest surviving letters are addressed. In the religious atmosphere of the Misses Franklin 's school, Evans was exposed to a quiet, disciplined belief opposed to evangelicalism. After age sixteen, Evans had little formal education. Thanks to her father's important role on the estate, she was allowed access to the library of Arbury Hall, which greatly aided her self-education and breadth of learning. Her classical education left its mark; Christopher Stray has observed that "George Eliot's novels draw heavily on Greek literature (only one of her books can be printed correctly without
10920-443: Was the spelling used by her father for the baptismal record and she uses this spelling in her earliest letters. Within her family, however, it was spelled Mary Ann. By 1852, she had changed to Marian, but she reverted to Mary Ann in 1880 after she married John Cross. Her memorial stone reads Here lies the body of 'George Eliot' Mary Ann Cross Several landmarks in her birthplace of Nuneaton are named in her honour. These include
11025-460: Was unlikely to vote for a philosopher and was surprised when he won. While Mill served in parliament, she expressed her agreement with his efforts on behalf of female suffrage, being "inclined to hope for much good from the serious presentation of women's claims before Parliament." In a letter to John Morley , she declared her support for plans "which held out reasonable promise of tending to establish as far as possible an equivalence of advantage for
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