STOKE
The ancient parish of Stoke lay immediately to
the east of Coventry. It comprised 935 acres in
1891. (fn. 28) For most of the 19th century it was in
Foleshill Union and Rural District, but in 1899 the
western part of the parish (490 acres) was transferred
to Coventry County Borough (fn. 29) and in 1928 the
remaining 449 acres of the parish became part of
Coventry. (fn. 30)
The parish consisted of a block of land lying
between Gosford Green and Stoke Green on the
west and the River Sowe on the east, and an
irregularly-shaped projection north of Walsgrave
Road to higher ground at Barras Heath and Stoke
Heath. The middle of the parish forms a low watershed between the River Sherbourne and the Sowe.
From the end of Far Gosford Street at Gosford
Green Walsgrave Road runs north-east across this
area towards Leicester and Binley Road east towards
Rugby. In the north-west the Coventry Canal
follows the line of the former parish boundary. The
greater part of the west of the former parish is
occupied by 19th-century, and of the east by modern,
domestic building (1964).
MANORS AND ESTATES.
Stoke was not mentioned in Domesday Book, and first appears as one
of the chapelries granted to Coventry Priory by
Ranulf de Gernon in the early 12th century. (fn. 31) It was
also mentioned in a grant of land by the same Ranulf
to Liulph of Brinklow. (fn. 32) In their grant of lands to
the priory in 1250 Roger and Cecily de Montalt
reserved the services in Stoke of Robert de Stoke,
Walter Deyville, Thomas de Neville, and Walter de
Coventry. (fn. 33) In 1279 the principal freeholders in
Stoke and Bigging were the priory, Robert de Stoke,
Thomas de Ardern, Nicholas de Segrave, and
Thomas de Wiltshire. (fn. 34)
The estate of the Stoke family survived, held in
direct descent, until the 16th century. It can be
dated from 1221, when the first Robert, son of Hugh
de Stoke, granted a lease of land to Walter de
Coventry. (fn. 35) In another charter, possibly a little later
than the first, Richard de Burton granted to Robert
de Stoke a croft and house which one William Barbe
d'Averil held. (fn. 36) According to the priory's rental of
1410-11 it was Philip Barbe d'Averil who had
originally received the principal tenement from the
Earl of Chester, and had been the predecessor of the
Stokes. (fn. 37) When Sehar, son of Hugh le Harper of
Stoke (supposed, probably wrongly, to have been
the ancestor of the Stokes), (fn. 38) granted Harperswood
in Stoke to Combe Abbey, his neighbour Thomas
de Stoke had a house there. (fn. 39) Robert and Thomas de
Stoke were witnesses to a charter of about 1250, (fn. 40)
and not long afterwards Alice, widow of Thomas de
Stoke and daughter of Robert, granted part of the
land she held in dower to Thomas de Wiltshire. (fn. 41)
Although it is clear that the Stokes held a considerable estate in the early 13th century, they were
not the principal landowners. In 1250 Robert held
only a half carucate of the de Montalts and a croft
of the priory. (fn. 42) Walter Deyville was then lord of the
greater part of the village which consisted of the ten
free tenants with five virgates and the eight bondtenants with four virgates in Bigging described in
1279. (fn. 43) Walter's holdings were granted to Robert
and Roger Deyville shortly after 1250. (fn. 44) Roger sold
them to Thomas de Ardern of Hanwell, (fn. 45) and
Thomas granted them in 1262 to his cousin Thomas
de Ardern of Rugby, (fn. 46) who was the mesne tenant of
the free holdings in 1279 (the bond holdings having
since 1250 been sold to the priory). (fn. 47) Ardern sold most
of the free holdings to Guy de Tilebrook, the Vicar
of St. Michael's, Coventry, (fn. 48) who sold them, in his
turn, about 1290, to Robert de Stoke. (fn. 49) In 1292
Rose, widow of Thomas de Ardern of Hanwell,
released to Robert her rights in the land, (fn. 50) and later
granted to him two holdings which she had retained
in Stoke, as the endowment of an obit and a
chantry. (fn. 51) Walter Deyville also released his mesne
tenancy to Robert de Stoke, making him the direct
tenant of Cheylesmore. (fn. 52)
Robert de Stoke, or probably two successive
Roberts de Stoke, made many other purchases of
land in the late 13th century. Some were of small
plots, (fn. 53) but others probably represented parts of
those freeholds which were not in the Deyville
estate in 1250 or in the Stoke family and priory
estates in 1279. (fn. 54) Subsequently the enterprising
Robert de Stoke (II) bought a holding in Foleshill
sometime after 1302, which was called a manor in
1336. (fn. 55) The Stokes apparently continued to live at
Stoke where they had a manor-house near the
church by the mid 14th century. (fn. 56) The two estates
descended in the family to the 16th century, successive lords of the manor being Robert (III) (d.
1335), John (I), Robert (IV) (d. 1357), Robert (V)
(d. 1361), Thomas (I) (c. 1364), John (II) (c. 1378),
Thomas (II) and (III) (there may also have been a
Thomas (IV)) in the 15th century, and William, his
son Nicholas, and another William in the 16th
century. (fn. 57) A Robert de Stoke was for a time castellan
of Kenilworth Castle in Edward II's reign, (fn. 58)
Richard de Stoke was mayor and Member of
Parliament for Coventry in the 14th century, (fn. 59)
and Robert and Thomas de Stoke were members of
Holy Trinity Guild. (fn. 60)
In the early 16th century the Stokes seem to have
left Stoke, but the steps by which they parted with
the manor are difficult to follow. A deed of 1530-1,
by which William Stoke granted the manor to the
Horne family, was probably only a lease. (fn. 61) In 1542-3
William Stoke, then of Foleshill, granted his capital
messuage in Stoke to his son Nicholas, (fn. 62) and about
1562-3 gave his estate to his daughter Margery and
her husband Thomas Smith. (fn. 63) By 1570 the Smiths
had sold their interests to Coventry corporation. (fn. 64)
The Stokes of Wolvey, however, had retained rights
of lordship, and these were sold by William Stoke,
described as of Coventry, to the tenant, John Horne,
in 1573 (fn. 65) or 1577. (fn. 66) Finally, in 1593, John and
Reginald Horne granted their interests in the manor
to Coventry corporation for charitable purposes, and
especially for the maintenance of Bond's Hospital. (fn. 67)
Among the chief rents then granted to the corporation were those on property held by Hall, Hulcotte,
Christopher Warren, and formerly by Wright. The
Hornes kept a cottage near Stoke church, and a
house and three yardlands. (fn. 68)
The lands which had been granted to Coventry
Priory in 1250, when the Montalts had retained the
four principal free tenancies, (fn. 69) were very small and
were probably represented by the four minor free
tenancies held of the priory in 1279. Between 1250
and 1279 the priory acquired the eight bond holdings
of the Deyville estate, (fn. 70) and Walter Deyville released
his rights in them, making the priory the direct
tenant of Cheylesmore in 1279. (fn. 71) The combined
estate, with some minor additions, was almost unchanged in the early 15th century, (fn. 72) and at the
Dissolution. (fn. 73) It was granted to Coventry corporation in 1542, (fn. 74) and was included in the endowment of
Sir Thomas White's Charity in 1551. (fn. 75) White's
Charity held about 98 acres in Stoke in 1833. (fn. 76) Both
the principal medieval estates of Stoke thus came
into the hands of Coventry corporation, as trustee
of charity lands, in the 16th century, but only that of
White's Charity retained its identity to the 19th
century.
The holdings of Walter de Coventry in 1250 and
Thomas de Wiltshire in 1279 (they may have been
the same), and the holding of Thomas de Neville in
1250, (fn. 77) disappeared by the end of the century. Land
which had been part of the Segrave holding of 1279
was granted to John de Stoke in 1343, (fn. 78) but the
owners of the Caludon estate immediately to the
north retained interests in the parish: Lord Berkeley,
for example, was a party to the inclosure of 1617-19. (fn. 79)
By the mid 14th century (fn. 80) land in Stoke was also
attached to the manor of Shortley, immediately to
the west, and descended with that manor until at
least the end of the 15th century. (fn. 81) Land in Stoke
and elsewhere was given to St. John's Hospital,
Coventry, in 1329 by Nicholas Crump of Coventry; (fn. 82)
this passed in 1545, with the rest of the hospital's
property, to John Hales. (fn. 83)
References in mid-14th-century deeds to the
manor-house of the Stoke family mention the
'knights' chamber', a chamber over the entrance
gate, and the garden which lay between the house
and the graveyard of Stoke chapel. (fn. 84) The Stokes'
house was called Stoke Hall in 1542-3. (fn. 85) It was
apparently this house, said to be near the church
and opposite Stoke Row, that members of the Honer
family continued to live in, after they had parted
with the manor, up to at least the late 17th century.
The house itself, or the site of it, was included in the
land which, by his will dated 1715, Dr. Christopher
Horne, then of Birmingham but earlier resident in
Stoke, gave as glebe to the vicar. (fn. 86) The site of the
house may have been the Hall Close or Hall Piece
(also called Hill Close) which was listed in surveys
of the glebe from 1764 onwards, but, according to a
tradition current in the parish about that date, the
house on this ground, which had long previously
been demolished, had been that of the Holles
family, including (in the late 15th century) Thomas,
the father of Sir William Holles, Lord Mayor of
London and donor of Coventry Cross. (fn. 87)
A large medieval house, called Biggin Hall, stood
on a moated site 300 yards south of the hamlet on the
Binley road until the mid 19th century. It may have
been the house of the Deyville family in the 13th
century, but nothing is known of its occupants until
the mid 17th century when William Partridge, a
doctor, was living there. By 1766 it was owned by
the drapers' company of Coventry and let to a
farmer. It probably ceased to be a farmhouse in the
early 19th century and by 1818 it was used for local
committee meetings and, for a time, by the Sunday
school. It was demolished sometime after 1840 and
by about 1885 only part of the moat and a cow-shed
marked the site of it. (fn. 88)
Excavations carried out about 1817, apparently
in the neighbourhood of the hamlet at Bigging,
revealed traces of building 'of great antiquity',
including a chapel identified by a piscina and an
aumbry, (fn. 89) but there is no further evidence to connect
this with any of the families prominent in Stoke
in the Middle Ages.
GENERAL HISTORY.
The ancient parish of
Stoke was made up of two medieval hamlets, Stoke
itself, and Bigging. The nature of the two hamlets
and the relationship between them is, however,
obscure. The earliest hamlet of Stoke was probably
what was later called Church End, at the junction of
Walsgrave Road and Church Lane, immediately
south of the parish church. (fn. 90) A chapel has been
supposed to have existed serving either the hamlet
or the manor-house at Bigging; remains have in fact
been found on several different sites, and the
evidence is difficult to interpret. (fn. 91)
The relationship of the two hamlets to the open
fields of the parish is equally difficult to determine.
In 1279 Thomas de Ardern had thirteen free tenants
and cottars on five virgates in Stoke, and the priory
had eight bond tenants on four virgates (called
carucates) in Bigging. The fact that similar rents
were paid on the two estates and among both bond
and free tenants (fn. 92) suggests that there was a single
open-field system for the two hamlets.
Of the bigger free tenants, Thomas de Wiltshire
and Robert de Stoke both held half-carucates, and
Nicholas de Segrave a virgate; only two crofts and
a few odd pieces of land would then appear to have
been outside the open fields. (fn. 93) However, the source
probably does not mention pieces of assart and waste
being developed by the freeholders, or else includes
them in the half-carucates and virgates. An assart
was mentioned in the mid 13th century, (fn. 94) and
several crofts soon after. (fn. 95) Harperswood included
arable as well as wood, and the Stokes had wastes
and land at Morethife. (fn. 96)
The location of the fields in 13th-century charters
was most often said to be not Bigging but Stoke.
Open fields of some kind stretched from Gosford
Green and Potters Green on the west, along Binley
Road to Binley Bridge on the east, and south towards
Pinley. (fn. 97) The field name most commonly used was
Hokenibfield; others were the Riding, Middlehul,
and Stiffordhale. But the most striking names are
Parkfield, or Wrydesdon (Wrydesden) by the Park;
this was Cheylesmore Park, and these fields lay
outside the ancient parish on the other side of the
River Sherbourne and between Shortley and the
park. (fn. 98)
The priory's rental of 1410-11 gives a fuller
account of this curious arrangement. The priory's
tenants - at will and for life - in Bigging held land
both in the fields of Bigging and the fields of Stoke.
It was the fields of Stoke, including Stiffordhale and
Wrydesden, which were outside the parish. The
tenants had rights of transit over Shortley for their
ploughs and carts. The virgates were precisely
divided between the two groups of fields, a virgate
having 66 roods in Bigging and 28 in Stoke, a half-virgate 33 (or 23) and 14 roods. The four virgates
totalled 90 acres. (fn. 99)
This comparatively small acreage clearly did not
occupy the whole of the open fields. This land
presumably lay intermingled with the lands of the
Stoke family estate and the other freeholders, there
being only one set of open fields known both as Stoke
Fields and Bigging Field. The name Bigging was used
less and less after 1410-11, but was not entirely
forgotten. It is possible that even at that date the
references to Bigging in the rental were made more
emphatic than general usage justified, in order to
give the priory's estate a character distinct from that
of the Stoke family.
The road past Stoke church, mentioned about
1240, which went on through Wyken, Sowe, and
Ansty towards Leicester and is now called Walsgrave Road or Ansty Road, was not an important
route until the late 18th century. (fn. 1) It was probably
the road also mentioned as the church road and the
way to Caludon in the 14th century, and as the lane
to Sowe in 1410-11. (fn. 2) The road to Binley and on
towards Rugby and Northampton, was, on the other
hand, well established in the 13th century; it was
called the highway from Coventry to Binley about
1250. (fn. 3) Binley Bridge was mentioned shortly after
and was probably the stone bridge referred to in
1379; (fn. 4) Borden or Bowden Bridge, which appears in
the 17th century, (fn. 5) was probably another name for
this bridge. Other medieval roads were Clay Lane,
running north towards Stoke Heath, (fn. 6) and that
running south to Pinley, the modern Aldermoor
Lane, mentioned in the late 13th century; (fn. 7) this was
probably the same as the Folly Lane, said to have
been an ancient highway to Whitley and so to
London. (fn. 8) The significance of Warwick Way, a name
which also appears in Warwick Grove and other
features, (fn. 9) is not clear; no road in the parish leads
towards Warwick.
In the late 17th century Coventry corporation
improved the roads to the east. In 1671 Richard
Ferryman was appointed to maintain the road from
outside Gosford Gate towards Stoke as a causeway
for carts as far as its junction with Coalpit Causeway,
and from there to Stoke as a bridle way. (fn. 10) The
Coalpit Causeway, maintained by the corporation
for the transport of coal from Wyken and Sowe
Waste, seems to have followed the western boundary
of Stoke along Swan Lane. (fn. 11)
Beighton's map of the early 18th century marked
only the Binley road in Stoke; (fn. 12) this was turnpiked
in 1754-5. (fn. 13) The Ansty road was marked in 1778,
and was turnpiked in 1812-13; (fn. 14) there was a toll
gate on the Wyken boundary near Stoke church.
Brays Lane (probably also called Cross Lane),
Church Lane, and Bulls Head Lane were also
marked in the late 18th century. (fn. 15) Lilburne Lane
and Filley Lane, otherwise unidentified, were
mentioned in the 17th century, (fn. 16) Grove Lane, on the
Caludon boundary, in 1701. (fn. 17)
Stoke is distinguished from most of its neighbours
by having no large area of waste or wood on which
extensive inclosure and assarting might take place.
The largest commons, Stoke Heath and Barras
Heath, seldom appear in references to the parish
before the 18th century, probably because they
formed part of farms outside. (fn. 18) The earliest
references to a common, about 1280, are to Potters
Green, (fn. 19) which may have been in the Stoke Row
district. Stoke Green, an extension of Gosford
Green in Coventry, cannot be unmistakably
recognized until 1622, (fn. 20) but the butts on the Stoke
boundary, where a wiredrawer killed himself with
his own arrow in 1396-7, (fn. 21) may have been on this
site. It was perhaps the same as the Biggin Green
mentioned in 1539, (fn. 22) but Stoke Green may not have
had a distinct identity until the first inclosure in
1617-19 (see below). Stoke Common, a term used
in the 17th century, was probably another name for
Stoke Heath. (fn. 23) The Aldermoor, to the south, was
not clearly in either Stoke or Pinley, and the
commoning rights there were disputed in the 16th
and 17th centuries. (fn. 24) Dean's Green, mentioned in
1637, (fn. 25) has not been identified. After the second
inclosure, of 1655, the freeholders surrendered the
commoning rights in the remaining wastes to the
cottagers of the parish. (fn. 26) The commons in Stoke
were finally inclosed in the late 19th century. Some
small plots near Gosford Green became private
property, while the remainder, Stoke Aldermoor,
Stoke Heath and Barras Heath, and Stoke Green,
with wide strips along the adjacent roads, were
vested in Coventry corporation. (fn. 27)
In the mid 19th century there was a race-course
immediately north of Stoke Green and Binley Road.
The races, which had been formerly held in Cheylesmore Park, were resumed in Stoke as Stoke Races
in 1834, but were transferred to Conduit Fields near
Radford in 1849. (fn. 28) The site of the race-course,
known as Stoke Park, was later developed as a
residential estate. (fn. 29)
The tenemental and field system of the parish
appears to have been unchanged between 1410-11
and the Dissolution. At the latter date the priory's
holding consisted of the four virgates in the fields of
Stoke and Bigging, all held at will, and another 1½
virgate in Bigging held at farm; the typical rent had
risen from 6s. 8d. to 26s. 8d. for a virgate. (fn. 30) The
virgate system was still in existence in 1612 when the
glebe consisted of a quartron, or quarter-virgate; (fn. 31)
what seems to have been the same holding was
described in 1605 as consisting of two lands in
Church Field, eight leys in Moor Field and St. Mary
Balk, and two butts in Park Field. (fn. 32)
A measure of inclosure by agreement took place in
1617-19, in a process described as laying 'in several
flats'. (fn. 33) It is not possible to estimate what proportion
of the open fields were inclosed at this time. Of the
seven men who took part, only one was among the
fourteen inhabitants of Stoke who appeared at the
Cheylesmore court in 1616 and 1617. (fn. 34) Another of
the seven appeared at Cheylesmore as a Pinley
resident, (fn. 35) which suggests that it may have been the
fields next to Cheylesmore Park which were being
inclosed in 1617.
The final, and probably the more important, inclosure took place by a fictitious suit and Chancery
decree in 1655. The fields inclosed were Church
Field (120 acres), Moor Field (129 acres), and Park
Field (138 acres), with small pieces in Lake Furlong,
Hencroft, and Parson's Hook, amounting in all to
400 acres; (fn. 36) this may be compared with 935 acres,
the area of the parish in 1891. (fn. 37) Besides five smallholders there were nine principal occupiers, holding
between 27 and 55 acres each. (fn. 38) Presumably these
were the disordered forms of one- and two-virgate
holdings, and they would thus represent about
seventeen or eighteen virgates (according to the size
of the virgate indicated in 1410-11), (fn. 39) excluding the
fields next to Cheylesmore Park, which were not
dealt with in 1655. Of the three fields, Church Field
seems to have been in the west of the parish between
Binley Road and the church, Moor Field in the south
of the parish, and Park Field in the east, near
Caludon Park north of Binley Road; the Park Fields
of the 15th and the 17th centuries were therefore
different. Though fields near the church were
mentioned in the 15th century, the term Church
Field first appears in 1539; (fn. 40) the Moor Field first
appears as one of the three fields in 1605. (fn. 41)
There is some evidence of the nature of medieval
farming in Stoke. In one close in 1365 there were
oats and peas, in 1366 wheat, rye, peas, and hay, in
1367 wheat, rye, and barley, and in 1368 rye and
oats. (fn. 42) In another close there was grass in the spring
of 1368 and wheat there in the autumn. (fn. 43)
The field names at the time of the inclosure of
1655 suggest a three-course rotation, but, if the
pieces of land listed in the inclosure survey are in
fact the older plots, the rotation must have been very
irregular. Of the nine tenants, one held land in all
three large fields, four in two fields, and four in only
one field. (fn. 44) It is not clear, however, whether the
inclosure survey represents the old arrangement or
a new allotment; the most likely explanation is that
it was both, the agreement merely permitting the
inclosure of holdings already largely consolidated in
the fields.
Most of the farmers on the nine inclosed farms
created in 1655 were afterwards listed, with the
addition of the tenant of Biggin Hall, among the
'families of note' in Stoke at that time, several of
them being called gentlemen and said to keep a
coach. (fn. 45) There were eleven Stoke voters in 1761, (fn. 46)
and eleven 'principal inhabitants and landholders'
in 1772. (fn. 47) The farms themselves appear to have
been largely unchanged in 1766, but more of the
houses were then occupied by tenant farmers. (fn. 48) By
the end of the century they were no longer arable
farms; in 1801 most of the parish was used for
grazing. (fn. 49) There were twelve occupiers employing
agricultural labourers in 1831; (fn. 50) thirteen farmers
were mentioned in 1850, (fn. 51) and nine (with five
nurserymen) in 1875. (fn. 52)
Evidence of house building and of a contract
between ordinary villagers was given in a case at the
Cheylesmore court at the same period. John Ellis
had granted a messuage and a half-virgate to William
Bittlesby for life about 1365, on condition that
William should build a house of four 'forks' and two
'stanchions'; this suggests a cruck-framed house of
three bays. A written agreement should have been
made but it had not been produced or properly
sealed. (fn. 53)
Apart from farming, the making of tiles seems to
have been the most important occupation in Stoke
from at least the 14th to the 16th centuries. Two
kiln sites have been found, in 1911 and 1940, near
Harefield Road, between Binley Road and Walsgrave
Road, (fn. 54) and tiles have been found at several other
sites. (fn. 55) A vivid description of a tiler's premises at
Stoke was given in a case of 1516. In William Riley's
house a building called the tile-house opened off the
hall. William Besworth, a labourer working in the
tile-house, threw a handful of clay at a servant, Alice,
who was standing in the hall; the clay missed Alice
but hit John Riley and mortally injured him. (fn. 56)
Several cases involving tilers appear in the 14th-century Cheylesmore court records. John Mariot,
tiler of Stoke, was first mentioned in 1364 in a suit
with a miller. (fn. 57) He appeared again in 1366, accused
of failing to deliver 500 tiles to Henry Merinton by
an agreed date. (fn. 58) Henry Merinton was apparently
building a substantial house, for in 1367 he was
accused of owing the value of 1,500 tiles to William
Brewood. (fn. 59) In 1368 John de Coughton, who elsewhere appears as a Stoke man, was accused by
Adam Keresley, the wealthy Coventry merchant,
of failing to have 8,000 tiles ready for collection
when Adam's cart arrived to collect them. (fn. 60) A single
tiler was mentioned in the poll-tax returns, but the
surname Tiler was common in 14th-century Stoke,
and the name Slater also occurs. (fn. 61) The occurrence of
tiles, of the pattern found on Stoke kiln sites, in St.
Michael's Church in Coventry, and elsewhere,
confirms the documentary evidence that in the 14th,
15th, and 16th centuries Stoke was the centre of this
trade in the Coventry district. (fn. 62)
The tile industry is said to have died out in the
16th century and to have been replaced by the
making of white clay pipes; there was a pipe factory
in Stoke until the late 19th century. There was also
in 1850 a pot manufacturer. (fn. 63) Clay and sand for
brickmaking were excavated on Stoke Heath by
1827 (fn. 64) and there was a limekiln by 1862. Commoners
also had the right to take soil or gravel from the
common. (fn. 65) Several brickworks and limekilns shown
near the canal on Stoke Heath in 1887 seem to have
become building sites during the 20th century. (fn. 66)
Two weavers of Stoke gave evidence in a case
of 1689, (fn. 67) the first signs of textile manufacture in the
parish. In 1766, among the parents of the fourteen
children baptized in the parish church there were
eight weavers, including one silk weaver, one tammy
weaver, and three worsted weavers. (fn. 68) The poor, most
of whom were probably weavers, were causing
concern by 1772, and in the years 1783-5 a total of
86 poor received regular relief. (fn. 69) In 1801 out of a
population of 505 there were 157 employed in trade
and manufacturing. (fn. 70) There were 126 weavers and
other operatives with 83 looms in 1818, and 138
looms in 1838. (fn. 71) At the Independent Sunday school
in 1838, two-thirds of the parents were weavers, the
rest labourers and gardeners. (fn. 72) A hint of the disorderly behaviour evident elsewhere in the neighbourhood at this time is given by the 'nightly
depredations' for which additional constables were
required in 1826. (fn. 73) There were also a number of
respectable working men's clubs in Stoke about this
time. (fn. 74)
In 1861 about half the population of Stoke was
said to be dependent on weaving, (fn. 75) and of a group of
348 workers, probably all weavers, in that year 237
were unemployed. (fn. 76) The Cobden treaty of 1860
caused great distress in Stoke as elsewhere in the
district. The population declined, and weaving disappeared during the 1860s. (fn. 77) An incidental effect
was the failure in 1863 of the night-school run by
the parish for children over twelve, because the
weavers could no longer pay the fees. (fn. 78) The ribbon
manufacturers who were living in Stoke then and
later in the century were suburban residents with
their businesses in Coventry. (fn. 79)
In the early 19th century there was a small
cotton-weaving factory, at Hill Top, north of the
Sowe road. It failed, quite independently of the
ribbon-weaving industry, before the 1860s. (fn. 80)
There is no direct evidence of watch-making in
Stoke itself, but the parish is said to have been
affected by the decline in that industry. In 1887 a
committee for the unemployed was set up, which
provided some work on parish tasks. The decline
of the ribbon and watch industries had coincided
with the closing of several pits, in Sowe and elsewhere, and 90 per cent. of the inhabitants of Stoke
were then described as extremely poor cottagers. (fn. 81)
Of the medieval population of Stoke there is little
significant evidence. There were about 33 tenants in
Stoke in 1279, (fn. 82) and 44 people a century later. (fn. 83)
There are some signs of the effects of the 14th century plagues. Among nine deaths reported at the
Cheylesmore court of 1361, a plague year, were
Ralph and Robert Stoke, (fn. 84) and in 1365 the holdings
of both Robert Stoke and Richard Freberne were still
in the lord's hands because their heirs were
children. (fn. 85) On the priory's holding, which was only
the smaller part of the parish and therefore may not
be typical, the number of tenants fell and the
holdings were engrossed into fewer hands. On the
original four virgates, the eight tenants of 1279 were
reduced to five at an unknown date, then to four in
1410-11, (fn. 86) and to three at the Dissolution. (fn. 87)
In the 16th and 17th centuries the population
may have been lower than it had been in 1279. There
were sixteen taxpayers in Stoke in 1524. (fn. 88) About
twenty men were mentioned in the years 1616 to
1619, (fn. 89) and 24 owners or tenants were involved in
the inclosure of 1665. (fn. 90) There was a total of 69
adults recorded in the Compton Census of 1676. (fn. 91) In
the 18th century the population probably rose steadily.
There were about 60 houses in 1730, (fn. 92) and in 1783-5
over 200 poor received constant or occasional relief. (fn. 93)
In 1801 there was a population of 505. There was a
sharp rise between 1821 and 1831 to 848, and the
population again nearly doubled by 1861. Between
1861 and 1871, with the decay of various local
industries, the population fell from 1,555 to 1,241,
but it recovered sharply so that by 1881, when it
stood at 1,447, Stoke had replaced Sowe as the
second most populous of the suburban parishes. (fn. 94)
The rise in population after 1881 was not due to
industrial activity but to the development of Stoke
as a suburb of Coventry following improved transport facilities. (fn. 95) The only major industry in the late
19th century was building and the supply of building
materials. (fn. 96) Nevertheless the construction of the
new line of railway along the western boundary of
Stoke and an increasing rate of house building in the
west and centre of the parish were followed during
and immediately after the First World War by the
spread of the engineering industry from Coventry.
The Midland works near Burlington Road, the
Stoke works on the Sowe road, and the first stage
of the telephone (now G.E.C.) works at Copsewood
Grange, were built by 1923. (fn. 97) Another factory,
outside Stoke, which affected employment in the
parish was the Ordnance factory. The Stoke Heath
estate of 689 houses, in Stoke Heath and Wyken,
was begun by the corporation in 1915 primarily for
munitions workers. (fn. 98) In 1921 nearly a third of the
working population of Stoke worked in Coventry. (fn. 99)
The big Humber works at Shortley is on the parish
boundary. Of the factories and workshops in Stoke
after the Second World War, in addition to the
G.E.C. works, three were concerned with printing
and books, three with cars, cycles, and metalwork,
and one with textiles. (fn. 1) In 1955 the new wholesale
fruit and vegetable market was opened on a site
adjoining Barras Heath. (fn. 2)
Stoke, unlike Stivichall, does not seem to have
been used as a suburban residence for citizens and
merchants of Coventry before the 17th century. By
1640, however, Dugdale could say that part at least
of the parish was 'now adorned with many fair
summer houses'. (fn. 3) These houses were probably
around Stoke Green. A newly-built house on Stoke
Green was mentioned in 1622. (fn. 4) The Bowling Alley
House at Stoke Green was mentioned in 1641, and
the bowling alley itself, on the Stoke side of Gosford
Green, in 1671. (fn. 5) Several of the gentlemen listed in
1655 were suburban residents. William Partridge
then of Biggin Hall, and later Christopher Horne,
were both doctors, and Thomas Wagstaffe, of Stoke
Green Farm, had been a captain 'in Oliver Cromwell's time'. (fn. 6) In 1689 a Coventry clothier was
occupying the Kingfields on the western boundary
of Stoke. (fn. 7) A house which was still standing in 1964
at the north-west corner of Stoke Green may well
have been one of these early suburban residences.
It is of 17th-century origin with 18th-century and
later alterations; it was recently divided into two
dwellings, known as Langleys and The Laurels.
A map of 1793 shows houses on the south of Stoke
Heath and on and round Stoke Green. (fn. 8) The latter
include a row of 17th-century cottages (Nos. 68-74
Binley Road) which are still in existence.
In 1831 nineteen inhabitants of Stoke were
described as professionally employed. (fn. 9) By 1834
Stoke Green was surrounded by houses; there were
also distinct groups of buildings in the Stoke Row
district at the north of Clay Lane, (fn. 10) where some
houses had 'top shops' for weavers in their upper
floors. (fn. 11) Later in the century an area between North
Street and South (now Stratford) Street at Upper
Stoke was laid out and divided into plots, but only
sporadically built up with terraced housing. (fn. 12) The
houses, some with top-shops, still survived in 1964,
the gaps being filled with late-19th- and 20th-century buildings. Another, and probably older,
group of weavers' houses stands in Bulls Head Lane
to the east of Stoke Green.
In the mid 17th century the prosperous inhabitants of the parish lived in houses such as Biggin
Hall, Hope's Harbour, and that adjoining the
church occupied by the Horne family, (fn. 13) which were
all near the medieval hamlets or at Stoke Green.
Just over a century later the eastern half of the
parish was still agricultural, with three or four farm-houses on the small inclosed holdings, but in the late
18th and early 19th centuries the character of this
part of the parish was sharply changed by a new
kind of residential building. Substantial residences
- Copsewood House (later Grange), Stoke House,
and The Spring - with park-like gardens were
erected, leaving the tenants and their farm-houses
on much smaller holdings. (fn. 14) Similar houses, though
with smaller grounds, were built on and near Stoke
Green before the middle of the 19th century; they
included The Hollies (later Stoke Lodge) and
Witton Lodge. Both were still standing in 1964,
Stoke Lodge having been for many years a private
day school. Another house of the same type was
Stoke Cottage in Clay Lane, which in 1964 was in
use as an ex-servicemen's club. There were also
smaller middle-class houses, mostly detached, overlooking Stoke Green, some of red brick and some
faced with the then fashionable stucco. On the north
side of the green the estate known as Stoke Park was
developed on the site of the old race-course from
about 1865 onwards. It was inclosed by a stone wall,
laid out with curving roads, and gradually built up
with substantial residences in their own gardens.
The first house on the site was Park Cottage, erected
by a builder called Malt for his own occupation. It is
constructed of old timbers from demolished
properties in and around Coventry, and contains
carving and panelling from similar sources. (fn. 15) A new
Hope's Harbour was built north of Stoke Park in
1879 and Copsewood Grange was altered and
enlarged at about the same period. (fn. 16)
Characteristic residents of Stoke in the late 19th
century were John Gulson, mayor of Coventry,
J. B. Twist, clerk to the Coventry magistrates, Sir
Richard Moon, Chairman of the London and
N.W. Railway, and Otto Striedinger, the factory
inspector. (fn. 17)
Until the First World War there was a marked
difference between the north of the parish, which
was largely working-class in character, and the south
with its middle-class development round Stoke
Green and larger residential houses further east.
The south was still sufficiently rural for it to be said
in 1897 that 'some of the lanes are very pretty where
ferns and wild flowers abound'. (fn. 18) The construction
of the telephone works near Copsewood Grange put
an end to this rural seclusion. It was followed after
the First World War by the development of a sewage
works on the River Sowe, then of allotments, golf
courses, and sports grounds on both sides of Binley
Road, and finally of suburban housing estates. Many
of the bigger houses were demolished. Stoke House
became a children's home, and Copsewood Grange
part of the G.E.C. premises. During the Second
World War a large industrial hostel was built to the
north-east of Binley Bridge and later one of the
corporation's housing estates was built at Stoke
Aldermoor. (fn. 19) The surviving farms disappeared as
Stoke became a residential and industrial suburb of
Coventry.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
The manor of Stoke
and the other freeholds in the parish were in the
manor of Cheylesmore, and by the mid 14th century
free tenants attended the twice-yearly Cheylesmore
court and the bond tenants the three-weekly courts
of the manor. (fn. 20) The wording of Robert de Stoke's
obligation in 1279, however, which mentions
attendance 'at the court of Coventry in county and
hundred' suggests the survival of an arrangement
earlier than the existence of Cheylesmore manor. (fn. 21)
Two tithingmen, who normally also acted as the beer
tasters, made presentments at the Cheylesmore
court during the 14th century. (fn. 22) They were variously
described as from Stoke Bigging, or from Stoke and
Bigging, or from Stoke alone. Both freeholders and
tenants continued to attend the Cheylesmore court
until at least 1664. The court was then held only
twice yearly, but it dealt with minor agrarian
matters. (fn. 23) A court called a leet court was still being
held there in 1700. (fn. 24) Many of the functions of the
court seem gradually to have been taken over by
parish meetings such as that which considered the
tithe dispute in 1689. (fn. 25) There was one churchwarden
in 1701, but probably two for most of the 18th
century. (fn. 26) Parish clerks were mentioned from at
least 1707, overseers from 1726, constables from
1767, and headboroughs, probably the constables
under a new name, from 1840. (fn. 27) More constables
were appointed in 1826 because of an increase in
crime, (fn. 28) and at least for a time in the early 1830s
there was one each for Stoke Green in the south,
Stoke Row in the centre, and Stoke Knob in the
north of the parish. (fn. 29) These officers were all elected
or nominated at parish meetings. (fn. 30)
From the middle of the 18th century the parish
administration of Stoke was carried on actively. A
list of apprentices was made in the parish register in
1765. In 1772 the eleven principal inhabitants
resolved to provide a poor-house. In 1782 the
supervisor of the poor-house was receiving 2s.
weekly for washing and feeding the six regular
occupants. This poor-house was wholly or partly
demolished between 1828 and 1832, and the
National School on Stoke Green built from the
materials. The paupers were transferred to separate
tenements in 1830, and given allotments in 1831.
The parish meeting was at times called a select
vestry, but it functioned as a parish council and
dealt with a wide variety of affairs, including health,
relief, commons, and schools. (fn. 31)
After the creation of Foleshill Union in 1836 most
of the Stoke paupers went to the Foleshill workhouse,
but five parish tenements were at least for a time
kept for old and infirm people. A parish surgeon was
also appointed during the 1830s for the treatment of
the sick poor. The parish meeting was still active in
the 1880s, particularly in connexion with the inclosures of the commons; in addition to the churchwardens, there were then a headborough and a
pinner. (fn. 32) The parish meeting was replaced by a
parish council after 1894, but many of the more
important local matters became the responsibility of
the Foleshill Rural District Council. Part of the
parish was transferred to Coventry in 1899 and the
remainder, despite strong local opposition, was
finally absorbed by the city in 1928. (fn. 33)
CHARITIES FOR THE POOR.
LORD BERKELEY'S CHARITY. In 1833 the rent of
£3 3s. received from the Cottage Bit (c. ¾ a.) in
Blind Man's Lane, near Binley Road, was distributed by the churchwardens to the poor of Stoke
in sums of 1s. to 2s. 6d. In 1831 the distribution had
been made in the form of blankets. According to a
tradition then current among the older members of
the parish the Cottage Bit had been bought by the
churchwardens, and the Brougham Commissioners
suggested a connexion between it and a gift of
£16 10s. to the poor of Stoke by Lord Berkeley
mentioned in the returns of 1786 when it was vested
in the churchwardens and yielded £1 5s. interest. (fn. 34)
In the 1860s the Cottage Bit was leased. (fn. 35) By the end
of the century the charity income was regularly spent
on blankets, which, after the annexation to Coventry
of the greater part of Stoke in 1899, continued
to be distributed throughout the whole ancient
parish. (fn. 36)
The charity was regulated by a Scheme of 1916
whereby the income, then amounting to £3 a year,
might thenceforward be applied to the purchase of
clothes, linen, bedding, fuel, and other necessities,
for the poor of Stoke ancient parish. In 1922 the
Cottage Bit was sold for £700 to the Triumph Cycle
Company Ltd. and the proceeds invested in £704
stock, yielding between £35 and £40 in 1963. (fn. 37)