_Castle Bromwich, distant five miles and a half_.
Here is an ancient venerable mansion, where that eminent statesman,
Sir Orlando Bridgeman, used to reside. His successor having been
honoured with the title of Earl of Bradford, the eldest son of the
present Earl, Lord Newport, has fixed his residence here. In the
village is a neat place of worship, erected by Sir Orlando Bridgeman,
who endowed it with the tythes of the parish, it being a chapel of
ease to the parish of Aston.
About half a century back, when there was considerable traffic
between London and Chester, the road passed through this village,
and supported two respectable inns, but the mode of conveyance being
changed, one of the inns is converted into a farm-house, and the other
has very little custom; for the road from Birmingham to Coventry also
passed through here; but it is totally deprived of that also, and is
now little more than the road to Coleshill. On the road you pass by
Coleshill park, an ancient seat of Lord Digby; within which there are
numerous hawthorn trees of unusual magnitude: one of them produces
five stems, each equal in size to a moderate man's body.
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