ASTHILL, HORWELL, AND WHOBERLEY
The districts known as Asthill and Horwell lay in
the south-west of St. Michael's parish, mainly to
the east of the stream which runs south from
Hearsall Common to Canley Ford. There was a
well here called Horwell or Whorwell from at least
the 14th century, and the stream has been called
Horwell stream (fn. 43) or the Whor (or Hor) Brook.
Asthill was the land rising east of the Whor Brook
and south from Hearsall Common towards Stivichall
Common, which has been included in the modern
Earlsdon. The roads called Asthill Grove and Asthill
Croft, east of Warwick Road, may mark the eastern
extremity of this district. Horwell as the name for a
locality has disappeared, and has been replaced for
some purposes by that of Hearsall. Except for
Hearsall Common, Hearsall Golf Course, and some
playing fields the whole area is occupied by houses
of the 19th century and later (1965).
In the 14th century the boundary of the inner
liberties of the city ran from Stivichall through
Aylesden (Earlsdon) Field and Blackorchard Field
to Guphill Ford, (fn. 44) so including the north-east of
Asthill in the city. After the dissolution of the
county of the city in 1842 the railway line from
Coventry to Birmingham, which crosses the area
south of Hearsall Common, became the boundary
of the new municipal borough. The land north of
the railway therefore remained in the city, and the
rest of the two districts was taken into the city in
the boundary extension of 1890. (fn. 45)
The greater part of Whoberley lay west of the
Horwell stream, and was thus in Stoneleigh parish.
The Whoberley estate occupied the part of the
parish north of Tile Hill Lane and east of the
modern Coventry by-pass. Hearsall Common was
continued as Whoberley Common into Stoneleigh
beyond Guphill Lane; this lane, also called
Whoberley Lane, formed part of the boundary
between Coventry and Stoneleigh, (fn. 46) across and
north of Hearsall Common, and probably took its
name from the Gopyls or Gupyls, who held land in
Whoberley in the late 13th and 14th centuries. (fn. 47)
There was a 'wrestling-place' on the parish boundary
by 'the heath called Hearsall', in 1581. (fn. 48) Five fields
called Whoberley fields or Whoberleys lay on the
east of Guphill Lane in St. Michael's parish, and
were commonable by the citizens of Coventry in the
15th and 16th centuries. (fn. 49) Whoberley was later
covered by a modern housing estate and playing
fields. There was a single house there in the 17th
century and in 1850 Whoberley Hall was described
as 'an ancient house formerly moated round'. (fn. 50) By
1906, however, it had been replaced by one of
modern brick and in the Second World War there
was an industrial hostel on the site. (fn. 51) To the south of
Tile Hill Lane the area between it and the railway
is occupied by the extensive Standard works. The
entire district became part of Coventry as a result
of the boundary extensions of 1928 and 1932 in
which a large area of Stoneleigh (c. 3,600 a.) was
joined to the city. (fn. 52)
Dugdale also mentioned, in connexion with
Asthill and Horwell, a locality called Olney which
in his day was represented merely by a double
moat. (fn. 53) The only other evidence of this locality's
existence dates from 1250 when William de Olney
held a tenement in Asthill and Olney, (fn. 54) but it
may be marked by the moated site immediately to
the north-east of Moat Cottages in Canley. (fn. 55) The
moat itself was clearly visible at the end of the 19th
century when it was still filled with water. (fn. 56)
In a prolonged dispute in the 1590s between
Coventry corporation, as rectors of St. Michael's,
and Bartholomew Tate, lessee of the church of
Stivichall, about the status of Asthill and Horwell,
Tate maintained that Stivichall was a parish and
that, by customary usage, Asthill and Horwell were
parts of it. Instead the boundary between the parishes of St. Michael and Stivichall at this point was
agreed to be the road to Warwick (probably Kenilworth Road). A similar controversy arose in the late
17th century, when the inhabitants said that Asthill
and Horwell should be, and had in the past been,
rated with Stivichall, but that the Coventry magistrates had recently refused to approve such rates. (fn. 57)
Dugdale said that Asthill was 'utterly depopulated' and 'only known by a little thicket of trees,
called Asthill grove', and that Horwell also had been
'long depopulated'. (fn. 58) The Cheylesmore court roll
twice recorded of Asthill in the 1360s that no one
remained there. (fn. 59) No houses, however, were
mentioned at Asthill and Horwell at any time, and
from the 16th to the 19th centuries many of the
lessees were resident in Coventry. (fn. 60)
MANORS AND ESTATES.
Asthill and Horwell
cannot always be clearly distinguished. In 1250 the
service of William de Olney for a tenement in Asthill
and Olney was reserved by Roger and Cecily de
Montalt in their grant to Coventry Priory. (fn. 61) William
de Olney granted land in Asthill to Philip de
Winchcombe. (fn. 62) Oliver d'Aubigny held this estate
in Asthill in 1275 as a ½-fee. (fn. 63) What was clearly the
same estate, held by Oliver d'Aubigny of Montalt in
1279, was called Horwell. It then consisted of 1½
carucate in demesne, an inclosed wood (a 'grove')
of 12 acres, and seven free tenants holding 38 acres.
There were also seven under-tenants. (fn. 64) A settlement
of Oliver's manor was made by his widow and eldest
son in 1306. (fn. 65) Through Oliver's second son, Ralph,
it passed to William Baret of Passenham (Northants.),
and he granted it in 1348 to Henry, Earl (later Duke)
of Lancaster. (fn. 66) At Henry's death in 1361 Asthill
was said to be leased to Nicholas Percy for life, for
8 marks a year; it was not known of whom the duke
held the manor. (fn. 67) In 1379 John Ray appeared at the
Cheylesmore court for the manor on behalf of the
duke. (fn. 68) When the Lancaster estates were divided in
1361, Asthill fell to the share of Henry's younger
daughter, Blanche, wife of John of Gaunt. (fn. 69) It
became Crown land on the accession of her son as
Henry IV. A ten-year lease of the manor was made
by the Crown to William Pratt of Coventry in 1423. (fn. 70)
According to Dugdale, the estate was afterwards
'parcelled out by sale to sundry persons'. (fn. 71)
There were also a number of freeholders in Asthill.
In 1278 John de Langley sold to Richard de la
Murye land which he had acquired from Maud,
daughter of John Pain of Leicester, and Murye also
bought from John Abbot the land of Margaret,
widow of Richard de Honecote. Langley, Murye,
and Abbot were all citizens of Coventry. (fn. 72) A croft
under Asthill park appurtenant to Kenilworth
Castle was mentioned in 1344 and 1361; (fn. 73) Asthill
grove, possibly this park, was amongst the castle's
property in 1581. (fn. 74)
Horwell seems, like Whoberley, to have stretched
across the boundary between Coventry and Stoneleigh since Stoneleigh Abbey's grange of Horwell,
created from assarts in Westwood, lay in the hamlet
of Fletchamstead in Stoneleigh. (fn. 75) A carucate of land
at Horwell was acquired for the abbey by Abbot
Osbert de Westwelle (1235-58); (fn. 76) this was possibly
the field reserved for a house of religion in William
de Olney's grant to Philip de Winchcombe. (fn. 77) In
1284 the abbey was granted free warren in all its
demesne lands including those in Horwell, (fn. 78) and in
1291 Horwell was described as a cell and the abbey's
property there as two virgates. (fn. 79) In 1363 John le
Spenser and his wife Margery took a lease for life
from the abbey of the 'manor' of Horwell, and were
confirmed in their right to other fields and meadows
given to the abbey by Nicholas, son of John de
Horwell, (fn. 80) who had been one of Oliver d'Aubigny's
tenants in 1279. (fn. 81) John le Spenser appeared for
Horwell at the Cheylesmore court from 1365 to
1371 and John Hawes and Simon Langham, for the
holding formerly John le Spenser's, from 1371 to
1380. (fn. 82) In 1383-4 the abbey granted the manor
to John Lirpol, husband of Margery le Spenser, to
hold for his lifetime after her death. (fn. 83) The abbey's
property at Horwell at the Dissolution consisted
of 'Horwell waste' appurtenant to its estate in
Fletchamstead. (fn. 84)
By 1558 a number of closes in Horwell or Little
Horwell were owned by Holy Trinity Church. (fn. 85)
The property of the church was described in 1627
as seven fields in Horwell and Asthill, five lying
between Horwell Lane and the lands of the Drapers'
Company in one direction and between Hearsall and
the Middlewood in the other, and two between the
stream and the lands of Robert, Earl of Leicester. (fn. 86)
In the 19th century the church estate there consisted
of 45 acres of land in eleven closes immediately south
of Hearsall Common. (fn. 87) Other lands in Asthill and
Horwell were by the 16th century held in connexion
with two estates in Stivichall. The Overhallstede
estate included seven tenants in Asthill in 1565, (fn. 88)
and Sir Robert Fisher, the owner of that estate,
owed suit for Asthill to the Cheylesmore court in
1617. (fn. 89) Leases of closes in Asthill by members of the
Gregory family exist from 1573 to 1650, (fn. 90) and the
family still held land there in 1846. (fn. 91) Hearsall
Common and strips of common along Earlsdon
Lane and Whor Lane were inclosed in the Coventry
commons' inclosure of 1875, some parts being
allotted to the corporation and others sold. (fn. 92)
Land south of the railway and west of Earlsdon
Lane was bought for building in 1853. This was laid
out with streets and partly built up, forming the
detached suburb of Earlsdon which was occupied
mainly by watchmakers. Further to the southeast, near Warwick Road and Kenilworth Road,
there were some large houses in their own grounds
by 1887. (fn. 93) This area was evidently becoming one of
the most favoured residential districts of Coventry.
Spencer Park, immediately south of the railway,
was opened in 1883 (fn. 94) and the new King Henry VIII
School, with its playing fields adjoining the park,
was built in 1885. (fn. 95) By 1906 the former watchmaking suburb had spread southwards between
Whor Lane and Earlsdon Lane, over land which
had belonged to Earlsdon Farm. To the west, by the
Hor Brook, was a horticultural nursery, later called
Earlsdon Rose Nursery. By the First World War
there were more houses, some with large gardens,
to the east of Earlsdon Lane, while in the west
Hearsall Golf Course was laid out. Meanwhile
building to the north of the railway had joined
Earlsdon to the mid-19th-century development at
Chapel Fields. Immediately after the war scattered
building development began west of Whor Lane
when the districts on both sides of the Hor Brook
became known as Beechwood, Canley, and Westwood Gardens. Earlsdon Lane and Whor Lane were
straightened and renamed Earlsdon Avenue and
Beechwood Avenue respectively. (fn. 96) The many
gardens and the survival of Stivichall Common, well
planted with trees, had always given the southern
part of the district a leafy appearance. This was
increased by the opening of the War Memorial
Park beyond Kenilworth Road in 1921. In spite of
more building, sometimes in the grounds of older
houses, and the erection of an eleven-story block
of flats between Kenilworth Road and Asthill Grove
the character of this area was still maintained in
1965.