A motorist on the M6 or M42 cannot fail to notice Coleshill. The tall spire of St.Peter's Church stands on a hill so that it is visible for miles around. Approximately eight miles to the east of Birmingham, the place has just been by-passed by just about every road so not that many people trouble themselves to go and explore this once-busy staging post of the old coaching days. The old London to Holyhead turnpike passed through this way and was the reason for Coleshill having more than twenty inns along and close to its route. Some of these have remained, others have been rebuilt or converted, and some, inevitably, have disappeared. With the improvements to the A5 to the north and the arrival of the railways, Coleshill's fortunes sank like a pint of heavy stout. During the early part of the 20th century the town reverted to little more than a minor market town. Worse was to come. The raped Hams Hall estate was sold to the City of Birmingham Electric Supply Department who built a monstrous power station so that local residents could ponder about their health as they drank their pints. Nearby Minworth fared even worse for they got Birmingham's sewerage treatment plant. The area around Coleshill seemingly became the dumping ground of the growing city of Birmingham. Today, Coleshill is surrounded by the M6, the M42, Birmingham Airport and large industrial estates. This all sounds pretty grim and yet I can still find pleasure in visiting. A good place to start a visit to Coleshill is the library, itself a fine Georgian building. Most of the town's meritorious buildings date from Coleshill's glory days of the coaching period. Indeed, there are few notable Victorian buildings as this was the period when Coleshill stagnated. Inside the library you can pick up some leaflets that will be useful when wandering around. The library is on the ground floor of Coleshill House which I believe is still owned by the Wingfield Digby's, lords of the manor of Coleshill. The Digby family's association with Coleshill started in 1495 when Henry VII gave the manor to Simon Digby who held the post of Deputy Constable of the Tower of London. Earlier in the same year the manor's previous owner, Sir Simon Mountford, was hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn Hill for supporting Perkin Warbeck's claim to the throne. Warbeck was himself hung some four years later.