Ansley 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 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...

 district of 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...

. The parish includes Ansley Common

Ansley Common

Ansley Common is a village in Warwickshire, England....

, Ansley Hall, Birchley Heath, and formerly Ansley Hall Colliery. The village is just to the west of Nuneaton

Nuneaton

Nuneaton is the largest town in the Borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth and in the English county of Warwickshire.Nuneaton is most famous for its associations with the 19th century author George Eliot, who was born on a farm on the Arbury Estate just outside Nuneaton in 1819 and lived in the town for...

, and near Arley

Arley, Warwickshire

Arley is a civil parish in the North Warwickshire district of Warwickshire, England. The parish includes two settlements, New Arley and Old Arley. Old Arley is to the west of the Bourne Brook and the railway line, and New Arley is to the east....

, Astley

Astley, Warwickshire

Astley is a village and parish within the North Warwickshire district of Warwickshire, England. In the 2001 census it had a population of 219.Astley is Knebly in George Eliot's Mr Gilfil's Love Story. Eliot's parents were married in the church....

 and Church End.

Ansley Parish Church - St. Lawrence - is Norman in origin and lies outside the main village at Church End. A relatively recent addition was stained glass

Stained glass

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

 by Karl Parsons

Karl Parsons

Karl Parsons was an English stained glass artist.At the age of 15 Parsons became an apprentice in the studio of Christopher Whall where he was strongly influenced by the philosophy and practice of the Arts and Crafts Movement. He was an exceptional pupil and became Whall’s principal assistant...

. Ansley Hall dates from the early eighteenth century. It was taken over by the Ansley Hall Coal and Iron Company, founded by William Garside Phillips, the great grandfather of Captain Mark Phillips, the first husband of Princess Anne

Anne, Princess Royal

Princess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...

 the Princess Royal

Princess Royal

Princess Royal is a style customarily awarded by a British monarch to his or her eldest daughter. The style is held for life, so a princess cannot be given the style during the lifetime of another Princess Royal...

. The village was called Hanslei in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 of 1086 and gives the details that the land was owned by Lady Godiva

Lady Godiva

Godiva , often referred to as Lady Godiva , was an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to legend, rode naked through the streets of Coventry in order to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation imposed by her husband on his tenants...

.