CHILVERS COTON
Acreage: 4,056.
Population: 1911, 10,492; 1921, 12,766; 1931,
13,269.
The parish of Chilvers Coton lies to the south of
Nuneaton, into which borough it was absorbed in 1920.
It is about 4½ miles from east to west and about 2½ miles
from north to south. Its eastern boundary is formed by
the Wem Brook, which runs into the Anker below
Nuneaton; and on the south a branch of the River
Sowe forms the boundary for a considerable distance.
From the Wem Brook and Anker, where the elevation
is about 275 ft. and the ground is liable to floods, the
country rises to 480 ft. in the south-west angle and
525 ft. in the north-west. There is a good deal of woodland, especially in the neighbourhood of Arbury Park.
The park, which occupies 400 acres in the south of the
parish, contains a series of lakes or pools, and north of it
is Seaswood Pool, while there are many other pools and
small streams in the parish. The Coventry Canal runs
through the parish on the east, sending off a branch to
Griff Colliery, where there is also a branch railway connecting with the Coventry-Nuneaton line of the L.M.S.
Railway, which has a station at Chilvers Coton.
The site of the original village, including the church,
is where a road running south from Nuneaton to
Bedworth is crossed by one running west from Attleborough to Health End, from which place another road
leads south to the hamlet of Griff. Near Heath End
are the Griff Brick and Tile Works, while Griff has
been for centuries a centre of coal mining. (fn. 1) This has
always been the chief industry here, but until a few
years ago the manufacture of ribbons was also carried
on extensively.
An Inclosure Act was obtained in 1764, under which
1,100 acres were inclosed.
Arbury Hall is a large castellated stone house of
square courtyard plan. The original house is said to
have been erected in brick in 1586 by Sir Edmund
Anderson, after which it passed to the Newdigate
family. Sir Roger Newdigate, famous as the founder
of the Newdigate Prize for English poetry at Oxford,
from about 1775 to 1790 completely altered the building to its present appearance, 'Gothicizing' the win
dows, encasing the walls with stone, furnishing many
of the best rooms with vaulted ceilings, &c. How far
the original house coincided with the present one is not
certain, but probably the main lines were the same and
Sir Roger added the top story, the one-story facade or
widening to the south front, the north portico, and the
claustral-corridors around the courtyard.
Of the external masonry probably the two lower
stories of the wings on the south front are the oldest
parts; these are of grey-white ashlar in small courses.
They have two-storied bay windows, and against the
outer angle of each wing is a three-quarter octagonal
turret with a pinnacle. The recessed middle portion
of the front has a pretentious tall one-storied addition
as a widening to the Dining-room, with large fourcentred windows, angle turrets, and intermediate
pilasters with crocketed finials, &c. Between it and the
sides of the wings are lower walls, the eastern with a
four-centred doorway to a lobby and the western containing a staircase. The third story is of larger and later
masonry than the lower stories of the wings; it has
embattled parapets with pilasters and crocketed finials.
Towards the interior courtyard above the claustralcorridor are two wide square turrets with embattled
parapets and a lower parapet between them; the
arrangement is rather suggestive of a former gatehouse,
but the turrets seem to be only disguised chimneystacks.
The east elevation is generally of the later larger
ashlar but the ground story, covered with creeper, may
be earlier. The windows are four-centred with sashframes and south of the middle is a large bow-window
to the Saloon. There are no third-story windows on
the front, but towards the courtyard is one in a middle
gable which is possibly an encased relic of the original
house. The west range has a similar gable. The west
elevation, containing the kitchen and offices, is rather
less symmetrical than the others in the lower part. The
north elevation contains the middle main entrance with
an arched doorway and a one-storied portico of three
bays with moulded jambs and four-centred arches.
The upper story has a middle Gothic window to the
long gallery; two others are blocked. At the outer
angles are turrets like those of the south front, and the
parapets are embattled. Towards the courtyard is a
projecting three-sided bay housing the main staircase.
The entrance-hall is plain-vaulted. South of it the main
staircase leads up to the Long Gallery. It has been
remodelled, but apparently incorporates late-16thcentury material, including the moulded handrail and
balustrade, rising in five short flights around the interior
of the bay. The balusters, 5½ in. wide, are flat and
pierced with conventional foliage ornament. Above
them below the handrails are sloping friezes also pierced
with scroll ornament; the square newels have modern
acorn heads.
From the entrance hall to the east end of the north
range is the Chapel. This is lined with late-17thcentury panelling; the bolection-moulded panels have
ears below which, between the panels, are pendants of
fruit, &c., from cherubs' heads, carved by Grinling
Gibbons. For this the accounts are extant. The ceiling
has deep plastered enrichment of fruit and flowers
forming panels and an oval centre. In the half-round
panels at the ends are shields of arms, the western with
the Newdigate arms and the eastern charged ermine
three cheverons. At the west end is an organ with a
panelled casing or screen in which are two doors and a
small opening with dummy pipes.
The room in the east range south of the chapel has
a fan-vaulted ceiling. The east fire-place is a mixture
of styles, a four-centred opening with an ogee-arched
hood-mould with a classic Renaissance surround of
inlaid marble within it, and cameos with classic figures.
The room next south has a similar ceiling and a white
marble fire-place with classical figures carved in high
relief on the frieze. Among the pictures is a 16thcentury painting presented in 1773 by Sir John Astley
to Sir Roger Newdigate; it depicts a tournament of
1438 and a combat of 1441 in which Sir John de
Astley was engaged. (fn. 2) The Saloon next south is a large
chamber with a fan-vaulted ceiling with pendants and
shields of arms. (fn. 3) The large bow-window is also fanvaulted and has many painted shields. The fire-place
is a high Gothic arched recess at the north end with
a detached stove.
The Drawing-room, the southernmost chamber,
with the oldest external masonry, has a four-centred
wagon-head vault with traceried panels, and with
shields of arms and the initials RNS. The bay-window
has fan-vaulting.
The Dining-room takes up most of the south range;
it has an elaborate fan-vaulted ceiling with pendants
and shields of arms. Three four-centred arches divide
it from the one-storied annexe parallel south of it,
which is also fan-vaulted. The north fire-place has a
wide four-centred arch flanked by large panelled buttress-pilasters and over it eight niches with canopies.
In the walls are niches with carved figures. East of the
room is a corridor and a low lobby and west of it a
stone staircase.
The Library, the southernmost chamber of the west
range, has a segmental arched ceiling with late-18thcentury paintings. The Long Gallery occupies the
whole of the upper floor of the north range. It has
a four-centred wagon-head ceiling like the Drawingroom. In the north wall, over the Chapel, is a stone
fire-place of c. 1600 with moulded jambs and lintel,
between shaped and carved flat pilasters. The frieze
or mantel has carved lozenge and oval medallions or
panels, and an enriched cornice. Over that is another
frieze of guilloche ornament and the main cornice or
shelf. The oak overmantel has a middle achievement
of arms with 36 quarterings, flanked by Ionic shafts
with guilloche enrichment. On each side of it are two
Corinthian shafts supporting an entablature carved with
running vine ornament. The walls are lined with oak
panelling, some if not all of it of the 17th century, with
fluted pilasters. In the windows are many roundels or
panels of ancient glass, mostly heraldic. The kitchen
courtyard west of the house has a south closing wall on
which is re-set a pierced balustrade, perhaps from the
house when the battlements were substituted. West of
it is a gatehouse, dated 1754.
North-west of the house is a long building of late17th-century date, of two stories and attics. The walls
are of red brick with rusticated stone angles, moulded
string-courses and cornices. The south front has three
curvilinear gables, one to a middle porch-wing, the
others to a shallow projection at each end. The stone
middle entrance is ascribed locally to Sir Christopher
Wren. It is flanked by pairs of Ionic shafts carrying an
entablature and pediment in which is an achievement
of arms. The side wings have smaller round-headed
doorways with pediments. The windows generally are
tall and narrow with transoms. Above the middle is
a clock and weather-vane, and, lower, between two
windows is a sun-dial.
North of Arbury Hall on the main road at Stockingford, 2 miles west of the church, is a four-centred gateway between two round towers, which are built of
yellow sandstone rubble and have small four-centred
windows. Lower Farm, ½ mile farther west, has a
similar tower. Both may be part of Sir Roger Newdigate's 18th-century quasi-medieval architecture.
Temple House, ½ mile north-west of Arbury Hall,
said to have been a cell of the Knights Templar, has
little to indicate an early origin. It appears to have
been a small L-shaped house facing south with later
additions behind. The front is of coursed rough ashlar
in cream-white sandstone with dressings in the same
stone and modern repairs, &c., in red sandstone. The
gable end of the west wing projects a little in front.
It has a 16th- or early-17th-century window of four
lights with moulded jambs and a modern lintel. The
front, setting back a little, has a four-centred entrance,
within a small porch against the side of the west wing,
and next it is an old two-light window with a hoodmould which (if genuine) is of the 14th or 15th century; another window is of the late 17th century. At
the east angle is a square turret. The east wall of the
wing is of old uncoursed rubble, the remainder of the
house is covered with rough-cast cement. Over the east
side of the west wing are early-17th-century diagonal
shafts of a chimney-stack. The fire-place to the front
room is arched in stone and has an overmantel with
one round-headed panel of the early 17th century. The
room is lined with oak panelling of the same period and
has two moulded ceiling-beams. The stone fire-place
in the other room is modern but it has an overmantel
made up of 17th-century woodwork mostly late. The
back part of the house is modern.
A farm-house on the east side of the Astley road
about 5/8 mile west of Temple House is mostly of
modern brick, but retains a west wing of 17th-century
timber-framing.
The old Vicarage stood north of the church; all that
is left of it now is part of a stone chimney-stack, probably Elizabethan, with a 5½-ft. fire-place that has lost
its lintel and much of the chimney-breast over it. The
brick floor was of herring-bone pattern.
South-east of the churchyard is a rather derelict
cottage that has a wide fire-place and 17th-century
timber-framing and ceilings.
Griff House Farm, about a mile south of the church,
is mainly a tall 18th-century brick house facing east
with north and south gable ends. It has very tall upper
windows and a modern bay-window at the north end.
Over the entrance is a tablet to George Eliot who lived
here many years. At the back is a lower wing with
some 17th-century timber-framing.
A cottage a little farther south on the west side of
the main road opposite the Griffin Inn has 17th-century
square framing and a pantiled roof.
About the beginning of the 17th century the records
of Chilvers Coton contain many references to mills.
There was a water-mill on the lands of the Hospitallers
in 1541, (fn. 4) and in 1556 there was also a windmill, the
property of Edward Scarminge. (fn. 5) In the 16th century
one John Ruding was seised of a water-mill, a close
called Milnehamme otherwise Wall greene otherwise
Goose greene, and a stream which had served the mill
for 300 or 400 years. He conveyed this to John
Wright, yeoman, who became involved in 1601 in a
suit with Margaret Knollys, lady of the manor of
Attleborough. (fn. 6) He evidently won his case, for five
members of his family later gave a quitclaim to Thomas
Wood of land and six mills in Chilvers Coton. (fn. 7) Possibly some of these were used to drain the flooded coalmines there, as lengthy proceedings took place in
Chancery in 1602 between Jeffery Foxe and Robert
Osbourne, Walter Gifford and others, in which Gifford
states that the plaintiff drained the mine by means of mills
and a pond, 'thereby destroying a very good orchard'. (fn. 8)
Among distinguished residents in the parish were
Henry Beighton (1686–1743), the surveyor and illustrator of Dr. Thomas's edition of Dugdale's Warwickshire, and Mary Ann Evans (fn. 9) ('George Eliot'), who
was born in 1819 at Arbury Farm. Her father was
Francis Newdigate's agent for his estates at Kirk Hallam, co. Derby, and Arbury. A year later, the family
moved to Griff House, and Chilvers Coton is the setting
of her Scenes of Clerical Life. 'George Eliot' finally
left the parish in 1841, having taken charge of her
father's household for the previous four years. (fn. 9)
MANORS
At the time of the Conqueror's Survey
Harold, the son of Earl Ralf, held
8 hides in CHILVERS COTON of the
King, (fn. 10) which his father had held before him. John
son of this Harold took the surname of Sudeley from
his estates in Gloucestershire, and his son Ralph
founded the Priory of Arbury in Chilvers Coton, (fn. 11) and
endowed it with lands and the advowson of the church
there. He also granted lands to the Templars, who are
returned in the inquest of 1185 as holding lands there
of the fee of Ralph Sudeley, which he himself held to
farm for the annual rent of 6½ marks. (fn. 12) In 1267 the
right of free warren was granted to Bartholomew
Sudeley for this lordship. (fn. 13) After this time the Sudeley
estates descended with their manor of Griff in this
parish.
At an early date the manor of GRIFF was included
in that of Chilvers Coton, and thus belonged to the
Sudeley family. When Ralph Sudeley gave most of
Chilvers Coton to the Templars and to Arbury Priory
Griff became the seat of the family. His great-grandson
John Sudeley in 1285 claimed to hold there view of
frankpledge, assize of bread and ale, gallows, infangentheof, waifs, and free warren, the last by charter and
the rest by prescription. These claims were allowed on
his acknowledging that he was bound to make suit at
the hundred court and to contribute ward-penny and
sheriff's aid. (fn. 14) John's grandson John Sudeley died in
1367 holding the manor of Griff, worth £8 a year,
in which Thomas of Merynton held 1 / 7 of a knight's fee.
He also held the right of presentation to Arbury Priory.
His heirs were Thomas Boteler, son of his sister Joan,
and Margery his younger sister. (fn. 15) In the next year the
latter received Griff and other manors as her purparty, (fn. 16) but on her death in 1380 it went to Thomas
Boteler, (fn. 17) who in 1385 settled the manor on himself and
his wife Alice, (fn. 18) and she received livery thereof in
1398. (fn. 19)
Sudeley. Or two bends gules.
Boteler. Gules a fesse checky argent and sable between six crosses formy or.
The Botelers continued to hold the manor, the descent being fully set out in a patent to Ralph Boteler
in 1469. (fn. 20) After his death in 1473 without issue living,
Griff was assigned to his nephew Sir John Norbury as
co-heir, (fn. 21) from whom it passed to Edward Belknapp,
the other co-heir. (fn. 22) On his death it evidently reverted,
as by 1539 it was in the hands of Sir Edmund Bray
and his wife Jane granddaughter of John Norbury. (fn. 23)
On her death in 1558 the manor seems first to have
been divided between her six co-heirs, (fn. 24) but subsequently to have been assigned to the youngest daughter
Frances and her husband Thomas Lyfield, (fn. 25) who sold
it in 1561 to John Gifford and Joyce his wife. (fn. 26) It
was settled by John Gifford on his son Walter when
he married, (fn. 27) and Walter and his son Peter sold it in
1633 to Richard Chamberlain, (fn. 28) whose daughter Elizabeth had married Walter's brother Gerard. (fn. 29) It would
seem, however, to have already come into the hands of
the Newdigates, as in a suit of 1631 between Richard
Chamberlain and John and Richard Newdigate the
interrogatories imply that John Newdigate was holding
courts leet and baron for Griff and Coton, Arbury and
Morebarne; (fn. 30) and in 1621 Griff is among the manors
settled by John Newdigate on his marriage with Susan
daughter of Arnold Lulls, (fn. 31) after which it descended
with the Arbury manor of Morebarne (q.v.).
The lands in Chilvers Coton which Ralph Sudeley
had given to the Templars passed to the Knights
Hospitallers when the former Order was disbanded.
A reference in 1338 to rents of £15 17s. 6d. received
by the Hospitallers in 'Chelidcote' in Warwickshire
presumably refers to Chilvers Coton. (fn. 32) In the 15th
century the land was leased to Sir Edward Grey, (fn. 33) and
in 1481 (fn. 34) Edward Grey, Lord Lisle, was granted the
stewardship of the lordship of Chilvers Coton, with a
fee of 26s. 8d. Thenceforward the property is always
referred to as a manor. About the year 1529 an action
was brought in Chancery by William Weston, Prior of
the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England,
against Martin Docwra, a kinsman of Thomas Docwra,
late Prior, concerning his detinue of deeds relating to
the commandery of Balsall and its possessions, among
them the manor of CHILVERS COTON. (fn. 35)
After the dissolution of the Order these lands went
to the Crown and surveys made in 1541 (fn. 36) state that
the farm of the manor was demised to Robert Akers at
£18 a year. It was not apparently returned to the
Order by Philip and Mary in 1558, as it is not mentioned in the patent of that year which recited their
possessions county by county. The tenancy of the land remained with the Acres family, and Henry Acres, by his
will dated 15 September 1567 and proved in the following
August, bequeathed to his wife a life interest in the 'capital
house called the Temple, with the barn, barn yard,
chapel yard, the dove house', and various named fields. (fn. 37)
By 1591 the land had come into the possession of
one George Toone, who died seised of it, together with
land in Lutmansend. (fn. 38) After that it evidently changed
hands fairly frequently until it came into the hands of
Richard Chamberlain, who lived in the Temple
House in 1632, for one of the questions (unfortunately
remaining unanswered) in an Exchequer Deposition of
that year asks whether it was not previously owned by
George Toone, Richard Toone, John Parker, Edmund
Parker, Robert Goodall, and George his son. (fn. 39)
The manorial rights, however, seem to have been
retained by the Crown until 1562, when the manor of
Chilvers Coton, late belonging to the preceptory of
Balsall, was granted to Thomas Dabridgecourt. (fn. 40) His
granddaughter Christian married William Belcher, who
died in 1609, (fn. 41) when she and her son Dabridgecourt
Belcher sold the manor to Walter Giffard, (fn. 42) who
transferred it in 1629 to Richard Chamberlain. (fn. 43) His
sons John and Thomas Chamberlain in 1669 conveyed
the manor to German Pole and George Parker, (fn. 44) who
were probably acting for Sir Richard Newdigate, as the
manor of ST. JOHN IN JERUSALEM was among
the Newdigate estates in Coton in 1711, (fn. 45) and continued to be accounted a separate manor until at least
the middle of the 19th century. (fn. 46)
After the Dissolution various leases were made and
the reversion of the site of ARBURY PRIORY was
given to Charles, Duke of Suffolk. (fn. 47) A survey made
at about the same time gave the demesne of the priory
as in all 232 acres, bringing in a total of £13 19s. 4¾d.
a year. (fn. 48) After the death of the duke it passed to his
daughter and co-heir Frances Stokes, in spite of an
attempt by her half-sister Anne, wife of Randall Hayward, to upset her title. (fn. 49) The site of the priory had
been let by the duke to Edmund Scarminge, and by
him had been sublet to Thomas Arundel, whose widow
he sued for waste in the early years of Elizabeth's reign.
The property then consisted of the site of the monastery, one mill, the lands called the Church close, the
park meadow, the Great Haunche, the Little Haunche,
the Millfelde, the Quarrellfelde, the Stockinge, the
wyndemill field, and the wyndmill meadow. (fn. 50)
In 1567 Francis Carsey or Kersey, cousin and one
of the co-heirs of the Duke of Suffolk, conveyed the
manor, now called MOREBARN, to Sir Edmund
Anderson (fn. 51) who, on 20 Nov. 1586, conveyed it with
the site of Arbury Priory to John Newdegate in exchange for the manor of Harefield, co. Middlesex. (fn. 52)
By this date the old priory had been pulled down and
'a very fair structure in a quadrangular form' erected
in its place. (fn. 53) This house and lands were settled by
John Newdegate on his son John
on the occasion of the latter's
marriage with Anne, daughter of
Sir Edward Fitton (fn. 54) and younger
sister of the Mary Fitton who was
maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth. (fn. 55)
Newdigate. Gules three lions' legs razed argent.
Sir Richard Newdigate, the
younger son of John and Anne,
succeeded his brother at Arbury in
1643 and was created a baronet
in 1677. On the death of his
great-grandson Sir Roger, 5th baronet, in 1809 the
main line became extinct and the estates passed to Sir
Roger's cousin Millicent and her husband William
Parker, who assumed the name of Newdigate and with
whose descendants the property has remained. On the
death of Francis Alexander Newdigate-Newdegate in
1936 it passed to his daughter Lucia Charlotte Susan,
wife of John Maurice Fitzroy, the present owner. (fn. 56)
CHURCH
The parish church of ALL SAINTS
consists of a chancel, nave, north and
south aisles, north-east organ-chamber,
north-west vestry, and a west tower. (fn. 57)
The chancel, and probably also the nave, date from
the second half of the 13th century. The north aisle
was added in 1837. The south aisle was an earlier
addition and has 13th-century masonry at the east end,
suggesting that there was a transept of this period which
was afterwards lengthened to form an aisle. (fn. 58) This was
almost entirely rebuilt and a new arcade inserted in
1889–91. The organ-chamber and vestry are of the
same date. The west tower was added in the 15th
century. The clasping buttresses in the lower part are
unusual for this period and may indicate an earlier
origin.
Plan of Chilvers Coton Church.
The modern traditions of the church and parish are
associated with George Eliot the novelist (Mary Anne
Evans), and the visitor is shown entries in the registers
in connexion with her and her family, also graves of
relatives and friends said to be originals of characters
in her novels.
The chancel (about 27 ft. by 17 ft.) has an east
window of three pointed lights with intersecting tracery
in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould;
the jambs and hood are of the 13th century. In the
east half of the north wall is a window of two trefoiled
lights and modern tracery of late-13th-century style in
a two-centred head; the external hood-mould has headstops. This window was blocked before the 1891
restoration. Farther west is a modern archway to the
organ-chamber. In the south wall are two similar
windows, the eastern of the late 13th century; the
western is modern or restored. Between them is a
modern pointed doorway.
The walls are of cream sandstone ashlar with chamfered plinths. At the east angles are 15th-century
diagonal buttresses: much of the masonry has been
renovated. Under the south-east window is a blocked
light to a sub-vault. The gabled roof is modern; it is
of three bays with arched trusses.
The chancel arch has responds with three-quarter
round shafts with capitals and bases, and a two-centred
head of two chamfered orders with a west hood-mould.
The stonework is modern. The 1887 plan shows
responds with triple shafts.
The nave (about 47 ft. by 21 ft.) has a modern north
arcade of three 15½-ft. bays with octagonal pillars and
four-centred heads. The south arcade of 1890–1 is of
four 12½-ft. bays with octagonal pillars and two-centred
arches. If there is any ancient (late-13th-century)
masonry reused and retooled it might be the capitals
and bases of the second and third pillars from the east.
The pillars are also in smaller courses than would be
expected in modern workmanship. None of the voussoirs appears to be old. The roof is modern.
The north aisle (nearly 16 ft. wide) has an east
archway into the organ-chamber and vestry; in the
north wall are two tall windows of two lights under
four-centred heads, and between them an archway into
a small baptistry, formerly a porch. A west doorway
opens into the west vestry, and over it is a two-light
window.
The south aisle (the same width) has a restored east
window of three trefoiled pointed lights and intersecting tracery in a two-centred head with an external
hood-mould. In the south wall are three windows; the
eastern of two trefoiled pointed lights with soffit cusps
and a quatrefoiled piercing, in a two-centred head; the
external hood-mould has defaced head-stops. The 1887
plan shows another window east of this, but it has been
abolished. The other two are modern copies. At the
west end of the wall is a modern doorway and over it
a small round window to the gallery. East of them is
an upper doorway to the gallery, approached by an
external stone stair. In the west wall is another twolight window. The wall about the eastern south window is of ancient weatherworn cream-coloured ashlar
and it leans outward a little; the remainder is modern.
The gabled roof of three bays may be partly of the
16th century. It has trusses with moulded tiebeams
carrying sloping struts or posts and having modern
braces under the ends. The purlins have straight windbraces. There are modern intermediate trusses.
The west tower (10 ft. square) is of three stages with
walls of cream-white sandstone ashlar. There are
moulded string-courses at the springing line of the west
window and the base of the bell-chamber. The plinth
has a moulded top course and chamfered lower, the
space between them being panelled with quatrefoiled
circles in squares, &c., on the west face. The restored
parapet is embattled. At the angles are square clasping
buttresses up to the lower string-course level only:
above that are 15th-century diagonal buttresses up to
the bell-chamber. In the south-east angle is a projecting
square staircase; the vice has a four-centred inner doorway and modern outer doorway. The archway to the
nave, only 6½ ft. wide, is of two orders, the outer wavemoulded towards the nave and chamfered on the west;
the inner has a half-octagonal shaft with a moulded
capital; the head is two-centred. There is an additional
square order towards the nave, probably the piercing
of the earlier nave-wall. The west doorway is entirely
modern; the partly restored window over it is of three
cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery in a fourcentred head, the string-course being carried over it as
a hood-mould. In the second stage are rectangular
lights and the bell-chamber has windows of three trefoiled and cinquefoiled lights under a four-centred head
without a hood-mould.
There are no ancient fittings or monuments. A piece
of board said to have come from the bell-chamber is
inscribed ANNO 1601 TC TC. All along the north aisle
and west part of the south aisle are galleries, the latter
entered by the outside stair. The boarded-up north
window of the chancel contains some ancient glass
including two shields one, or two bends gules (Sudeley),
the other with a cheveron, (fn. 59) and an inscription that it
was formerly in the east window. Inscriptions record
the enlarging of the church in 1837 and the recasting
of the three bells into eight in 1908. The three ancient
clappers are preserved in the tower by the west doorway.
The plate includes a communion cup of 1641.
The registers date from 1654, the first book ending
in 1699.
ADVOWSON
The advowson of the church of
All Saints Chilvers Coton was granted
to Arbury Priory on its foundation in
the 13th century. On 12 May 1401 it was confirmed
to them by Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury. (fn. 60) In
1291 the church was valued at £5 6s. 8d., (fn. 61) and in
1535 at £7 4s. (fn. 62) After the Dissolution the patronage
went to the Crown, with whom it remained until at
least 1786. (fn. 63) It is now in the hands of Mrs. Fitzroy.
In 1546 the rectory of Potters Coton (fn. 64) was in the
hands of John Yonge and Robert Browne, of London,
who sold it to Edward Scarminge, (fn. 65) the lessee of
Arbury, and he conveyed it to Thomas Starkye. (fn. 66) The
latter sold it in 1583 to Stephen Kyrton. (fn. 67) In 1598
William Wright and Ursula his wife granted it to
Henry Mounford, (fn. 68) but eight years later they combined to convey it to Edward Baker, (fn. 69) who next year
sold it to Anne widow of Sir John Newdegate, (fn. 70) after
which it descended with the other property of that
family.
The vicarage tithes were the subject of a lawsuit in
1657, and the response of one of the witnesses in the
suit states explicitly of what they consisted:
'It has been the Constant Custome within the said parish
since the Respts remembrance that the vicar of the said
parish hath constantly enjoyed and had all small tithes and
vicars dues as Wooll lambes piggs geese Calves from the
Inhabitants there and at Easter his Easter booke and eggs
withal other vicars dues and small tithes and hath usually
had the lambe at Mayday and the Calve when it is a fortnight old or fitt for the butcher and piggs at the age of
three weekes and geese about Lammas And that the
parishioners of the said parish have Constantly paid to
the said Complainants and his predecessors ministers here
the like tithes aforesaid . . . and further saith that the usual
oblation payable to the vicar of the same parish of Chilverscoton aforesaid hath beene and yett is for every marryed
person two pence for euery servant two pence and for every
receiver of the Lord's supper two pence every tradesman
and Aleseller four pence a piece for Smoake one penny
garden one penny all which oblations are payable at Easter
yearly.' (fn. 71)
Certain lands in Coton and Griff given for the support of lamps in the church were granted in 1548 to
Thomas Fisher and Thomas Dabridgecourt. (fn. 72) They
seem later to have come to Edward Printopp, from
whom John Toone bought 'the Lampe lands' in about
1580. (fn. 73)
CHARITIES
Dr. Hinckley gave 20s. per annum
payable out of a field called Barley
Field to be distributed as follows:
6s. 8d. to the curate of the parish, and 13s. 4d. in
bread to the poor. The charge is received and distributed by the vicar and churchwardens as directed.
Unknown Donor's Charity. The endowment of this
charity originally consisted of a rentcharge of 12s.
charged on lands in Attleborough. The charge was
redeemed in 1884 in consideration of £20 Consols producing 10s. annually, which is paid to the churchwardens towards church expenses.
Church Money or Dugdale's Annuity. The origin
of this charity, the endowment of which consists of
a rentcharge of £2 13s. 4d. is unknown. The charge
is received from Sir William Dugdale and paid to the
churchwardens towards church expenses.
Thomas Garrett by will proved 26 Jan. 1881 bequeathed to the vicar and churchwardens £100, the
interest to be distributed among the deserving poor of
the parish. The legacy produces £2 10s. annually.