HARVINGTON
Herefortune, Hereforda (ix cent.); Herefordtun-juxta-Avene (x cent.); Herferthun (xi cent.); Herfortune (xii cent.); Hervertun (xiii cent.); Hervyngton (xv cent.).
The parish of Harvington lies on the eastern
boundary of the county. It is divided from Warwickshire by a tributary of the River Avon, (fn. 1) forming
the greater part of the eastern and northern boundaries of the parish. The Avon itself bounds it on
the south and east, while one of its tributaries, flowing south-east, forms the western boundary. There
is a ferry across the Avon in the extreme south of the
parish.
The area of Harvington is 1,310 acres, (fn. 2) of which
780 are arable, 383 permanent grass and 2 acres are
woodland. (fn. 3) The village of Harvington stands at a
height of some 100 ft. to 150 ft. above the ordnance
datum. To the north-west the land rises slightly,
attaining near the northern border a height of 200 ft.
The soil is sand, with a subsoil of gravel and Keuper
Marl, and the chief crops are wheat, barley and beans.
Harvington village spreads over a series of steep
and irregular slopes, the houses being scattered along
several by-roads. The roads run between banks and
hedges, and the country is wooded close to the
village. (fn. 4) The church stands prominently on a ridge
at the meeting of three roads, the rectory in wooded
ground on the west at the foot of the hill. In the
village are several houses of 15th and 16th-century
date, the half-timber work being well preserved.
Adjoining the churchyard on the south-east is
Harvington Manor, a fine two-storied house of stone
and half-timber, dating in part from the 14th century,
but much altered by the insertion, probably in the
17th century, of new floors and partitions. The
floors throughout appear to be hung up by iron straps
to the tie-beams of the roof principals. The original
arrangement of the plan seems to have consisted of a
large open hall on the north with a two-storied block
of buildings on the south. The position of the
original screens is marked by a passage across the
house, and the present door on the east is a later
opening. The walls of the ground story are of stonerubble masonry, the first floor being of half-timber
construction. The roof is covered with stone slates.
Two of the original window openings with their
moulded oak mullions still remain. The entrance
doorway at the north-east of the original hall still
retains its moulded frame and door of oak. To the
north of the entrance is a central newel stair, probably
of later date, leading to the loft over this portion of
the house. A little to the north of the house, immediately adjoining the churchyard on the east, is a fine
pigeon-house of rubble masonry lined internally with
stone cells and having a ridge roof covered externally
with stone slates. This is probably contemporary
with the house, and is an extremely fine example.
In the garden of the rectory, an old house with
modern additions, are portions of early 14th-century
tracery, removed from the east window of the
church at the time of its restoration.
The Manor House, Harvington
The village contains a reading room, opened in
1887.
There is a wharf on the Avon and to the north of
the village a disused gravel-pit. There is a sand-pit
in the north-west of the parish.
In 1868 there was a curious old custom still
observed at Harvington; the children used to go
round to all the houses on St. Thomas's Day and
St. Valentine's Day repeating a doggerel rhyme as
follows (fn. 5) :—
'Wissal, wassail, through the town,
If you've got any apples throw them down,
Up with the stocking and down with the shoe,
If you've got no apples money will do.'
An Inclosure Act for Harvington was passed in
1786, (fn. 6) and the award is dated 19 March 1787. (fn. 7)
Thomas James, head master of Rugby School, was
presented in 1797 to the rectory of Harvington,
where he died in 1804. (fn. 8)
A bronze celt was found in the ditch which divides
Harvington from Warwickshire. (fn. 9)
The following place-names occur in the 17th
century: Harfordes, Mowes, the Meere, Hingle,
Bitton, Portway Peece, Haynes Close, and Sherrowes. (fn. 10)
Wistanes Brycge, Heopanhylle, Hunighommesstreote,
Caersawealla are places mentioned on the boundaries
of Harvington in an Anglo-Saxon charter. (fn. 11)
MANOR
In 799 Balthun Abbot of Kempsey
gave to King Coenwulf of Mercia, in
return for privileges for his house, 12
'manentes' at 'Hereford.' (fn. 12) At the beginning of
the 9th century Deneberht, Bishop of Worcester
(798–822), gave 2 cassates of land at HARVINGTON
to Eanswyth for her life on condition that if she
survived him it should pass to the church of Worcester
after her death. (fn. 13) Harvington is included in King
Edgar's spurious charter of 964, granting the hundred
of Oswaldslow to the church (fn. 14) of Worcester. At
the date of the Domesday Survey Harvington, which
then included Wiburgestoke, was held by the monks
of Worcester. (fn. 15) In 1207 they let it at a farm of
24 marks and 12 quarters of oats to the men of the
vill for twelve years. (fn. 16) This lease was renewed in
1230 for ten years. (fn. 17) In 1240 the annual money
rents from the manor amounted to £2 14s. 10d. (fn. 18)
In 1254 the prior leased the manor to Simon de
Wauton, afterwards Bishop of Norwich. (fn. 19)
At about this time John D'Abitot made an exchange with the monks of Worcester of 4 acres of
land for a part of a messuage in Harvington, and a
case (fn. 20) in which this John appears was taken at the
Worcester Eyre of 1254. Roger de Pershore and
Marchia his wife complained to the judges that on
the Thursday before St. Peter ad Vincula last certain
strangers had stolen away Maud their daughter and
abandoned her at Harvington, where John D'Abitot
kept her at his house against her will. John D'Abitot,
however, denied any fault of his. On the Thursday
he was leaving his courtyard at Harvington, when he
heard a great noise, and on looking for the cause
beheld a monk and some Welshmen dragging along
an unwilling girl who made a great outcry. Seeing
D'Abitot her captors fled and she, left alone, begged
him for shelter. This he willingly gave her till she
could return to her own friends. The girl confirmed
the story; so the parents, who had sued the rescuer for
100s., went disappointed away.
In the Taxation of 1291 Harvington was included
with Cleeve Prior. (fn. 21) After the dissolution of the priory
in 1540 (fn. 22) the manor of Harvington was granted to the
Dean and Chapter of Worcester in 1542, (fn. 23) and was
confirmed to them in 1609. (fn. 24) On 23 June 1641
they granted it to Kempe Harward for three lives,
but in 1652 the commissioners for the sale of the
dean and chapter lands sold it to Thomas Bound. (fn. 25)
He still held in 1658, (fn. 26) but at the Restoration the
manor was recovered by the dean and chapter, (fn. 27) and
remained with them until 1859, (fn. 28) when it was taken
over by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. In 1862
the commissioners sold to the trustees of the Duc
D'Aumale the reversion of certain leasehold land and
the lord's interest in some copyhold land and a fishery
in the Avon. (fn. 29) This estate has since passed with
Bishampton Manor (q.v.) to Sir Charles Swinfen Eady.
At the date of the Domesday Survey there was a
mill at Harvington which was worth 10s. a year. (fn. 30)
This mill was granted by David, Prior of Worcester
(1143–5), to William Rupe at a yearly rent of 17s.
and 30 'stiches' of eels, (fn. 31) and in 1212 was the subject
of a lawsuit between Thomas Rupe and his wife
Joan and Richard and Hugh Sandford and their
wives Maud and Olivia. It was finally settled by
Thomas Rupe acknowledging the right of the Sandfords to the mill, while they yielded to him certain
lands which were part of his mother's dowry. (fn. 32) In
1294–5 an agreement was made between William
Lench and Alice his wife, on the one hand, and
Henry de Chester, John his son and Henry Austyn
on the other, (fn. 33) concerning mills in Harvington, which
may have been those acquired by the prior and
convent from Henry Austyn of Sandford in 1311. (fn. 34)
After the dissolution of the priory both these mills
passed to the dean and chapter, who sold them to
George Willoughby in 1549–50. (fn. 35) In 1818 cornmills at Harvington were advertised for sale, a paper-mill there being at that time held under a lease for
thirty years by a Mr. Phillips. (fn. 36) There is still a
mill in the parish to the south of the village, and
near it is a weir which is said to have been repaired
with fragments and even some of the statues from
Evesham Abbey. (fn. 37)
CHURCH
The church of ST. JAMES consists
of a chancel measuring internally 32 ft.
by 20½ ft., south vestry, nave 25 ft.
by 40 ft., north porch, and west tower 9 ft. by 9½ ft.
The earliest existing remains belong to the 12th
century or earlier, and the church at that date
was considerably smaller than the present building,
the nave being about 16 ft. wide. The extreme
height of the early nave, the west wall of which is
still clearly visible, would even suggest a pre-Conquest
date, but the earliest detail, that of the tower (which
has been rebuilt in recent years), is of the first
quarter of the 12th century. Early in the 14th
century the whole church was rebuilt, with the
exception of the tower, and enlarged to its present
dimensions. The east window was replaced by a
modern one at a recent restoration, and the tower
was largely restored and crowned with a modern
timber spire.
The three-light east window is modern, replacing
a 14th-century window, the remains of which are in
the vicarage garden. On either side of the chancel
are three single-light windows, of 14th-century date,
with trefoiled heads. At the east end of the south
wall is a curious 14th-century piscina with a trefoiled
head and an abnormal development of the cusps into
a thin stone shelf. There is no sedile, but the sill of
the south-east window was originally carried down to
form a seat. The north door to the chancel and the
pointed chancel arch of two chamfered orders both
date from the 14th century.
In the east wall of the nave is a small image bracket
and at the east end of both north and south walls
appear the sockets for the rood beam. The nave is
lit by four 14th-century windows, each of two lights
with traceried heads, and though all are of similar
detail the eastern one in the south wall is of notably
finer design. There are 14th-century north and south
doors to the nave, the latter blocked, with chamfered
jambs and heads and labels with curiously mitred
drips. The north porch is modern. The circular
tub-font at the west end of the nave is of doubtful
date. The west wall of the nave bears clear traces of
the earlier church, the line of the nave walls and the
pitch of the roof being quite distinct. There is also
a blocked-up square door which must originally have
opened on to a western gallery and above this is a
small round-headed window, originally external.
The door between tower and nave is of late 12th-century date with a plain slightly pointed arch of two
square orders and chamfered capitals. The early
12th-century west window is a single deeply splayed
light with a round head. The original belfry windows
in the second stage of the tower are of two roundheaded lights, the mullion taking the form of a column.
The broach spire, added in 1855, is covered with oak
shingles. On the west wall of the nave are two
monuments, to Thomas Ferriman, who died in 1619,
and to Thomas his son, both rectors of the church.
Harvington Church: West Tower
The belfry contains a peal of tubular bells.
The plate consists of a chalice without marks, of
late 17th-century design, a plated salver and a pewter
flagon.
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) baptisms from 1573 to 1733, burials 1570 to 1731,
marriages 1570 to 1729 (1633 to 1660 missing);
(ii) baptisms from 1653 to 1690, burials 1653 to
1687, marriages 1678 to 1687 in a dilapidated
minute book; (iii) baptisms and burials from 1734
to 1812, marriages 1734 to 1752; (iv) marriages
from 1755 to 1812.
There is a Baptist chapel in the parish with 160
sittings, erected in 1886.
ADVOWSON
According to the register of Worcester Priory, Deneberht, Bishop of
Worcester, gave the church of Harvington to the priory at the same time as he gave
the manor. (fn. 38)
The prior and convent were the patrons until
the Dissolution. (fn. 39) After the dissolution of the
priory the advowson was granted to the Dean
and Chapter of Worcester in 1542 (fn. 40) and confirmed to them in 1609. (fn. 41) The dean and chapter
have made the presentations (fn. 42) ever since, and
are still the patrons of the church of Harvington.
A cottage at Harvington given for the maintenance of lights in the church was valued at
3s. 4d. at the time of the dissolution of the
chantries. (fn. 43)
CHARITIES
The eleemosynary charities are
regulated by a scheme of the
Charity Commissioners 6 May
1884. They comprise the charities of (1) William
Chaunce (fn. 44) and others, trust fund, £120 consols, representing the gifts of various donors mentioned
on the church table; (2) Mrs Lydia Ward, gift
in 1841, trust fund, £22 7s. 4d. consols, and
(3) Mrs. John Marshall, gift in 1857, trust fund,
£26 18s. 7d. consols. The several sums of
stock are held by the official trustees, producing
£4 4s. 8d. yearly, of which in 1909 £2 4s. 8d.
was distributed in coal and £2 was paid as bonuses
to clothing and boot clubs.
In 1887 the Rev. Arthur Henry WinningtonIngram, by his will proved at London 16 April,
bequeathed £100, now £100 consols, with the
official trustees, the annual dividend of £2 10s.
to be applied in memory of Mrs. WinningtonIngram in adornment of the churchyard with
trees, shrubs and flowers and in maintaining the
churchyard in beautiful order.
A reading room with site was by deed dated 3
September 1887 conveyed to trustees by Mrs. Winnington-Ingram in memory of her husband, the
Rev. Arthur Henry Winnington-Ingram, for the
use of the parishioners.