Origin

An early reference to Longford states that in the 15^th century there were certainly houses and cottages around Longford and Foxford, but there was no indication that they formed distinct hamlets. In 1730 a census showed that there were still only 20 houses at Longford (including Foxford), and Foleshill Parish Church would have served the population of approximately 100. By the middle to late 1700s, the ribbon weaving industry and a flourishing coal mine at Hawkesbury led to workers and their families settling in Longford, which was now on the principal route from the mining districts of Nuneaton and Bedworth to Coventry.

The increase in population within the whole of the Foleshill parish caused the then vicar, Thomas Coker Adams ‘no little concern for the inhabitants' spiritual welfare’. Because Foleshill Parish Church was now too small to cope with the enlarged parish, the parish of St. Paul’s, Foleshill was created in 1841 to serve the south of the parish. Thomas Coker Adams then looked to the north of the parish and around 1850 set about raising funds to build a Chapel of Ease at Longford. By the time of his death in 1851, he had raised the considerable sum of £762.2s.4d.

The project to build this new church was put on hold until the institution of Walter Raleigh Carr as vicar of Foleshill in March 1871. Within twelve months of his arrival he had formed a Church Building Committee which held its first meeting in March 1872. At the first meeting the first item discussed was the site for the new church. A half-acre corner site bounded by the Coventry to Hinckley Turnpike Road (now the Longford Road) and Hurst Lane was purchased for £200.00.

At the committee meeting on June 19^th, 1872 it was agreed that the chairman, Walter Raleigh Carr, would meet with Mr John Cotton, an architect, from Birmingham, to discuss carrying out the designing and building of a church within the committee’s budget of £1200.00. Initial plans were put before the committee in the July 1872 meeting. By December 1872 after several revisions the final plans including a tower and spire were finally approved and tenders were sought from builders.

On March 14^th, 1873, the deadline for tenders to be sent in, thirteen tenders had been received, the cheapest being from a Mr Nelson of Dudley as follows:

For the building of the church only £1,761.00;
For the building of the tower/spire £370.00;
Total for the whole church £2131.00.

After considerable discussion, and bearing in mind that the original budget was £1200.00, it was unanimously agreed to accept the first part of the tender for the church only. However by March 27^th 1873, because of an increase in the price of bricks and tiles the committee had to accept an increase of £100.00 in the price of building the church only to £1861.00.

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