LOXLEY
Acreage, 1,596.
Population: 1911, 239; 1921, 221; 1931, 230.
The parish of Loxley lies on the former south-western
border of the county, (fn. 1) about 3 miles from Stratford.
Its north-western portion includes the flat meadowlands, about 150–200 ft. above ordnance datum, of the
broad valley of the Avon, and the ground rises steeply
to over 400 ft. on top of the ridge that bounds the valley
on its southern side. From the ridge, at Long Hill
overlooking Goldicote, there are extensive views of the
Malvern Hills, the Cotswolds, and the Avon valley.
The main village lies on the lower slopes of the ridge
along two roads, leading uphill to Alderminster and
downhill to Stratford. Where these roads fork is a
small green with the War Memorial. Loxley Hall
stands close to the church, west of the green, on the
road to Wellesbourne. It is largely a modern building,
but abundant traces of red Kenilworth sandstone in the
cellars may indicate that it is on the site of a grange of
the Priors of Kenilworth, who held the manor. It includes also a late-17th-century portion of the house
with 10 hearths mentioned in 1667. (fn. 2) It was largely rebuilt by John Milward about 1850. (fn. 3) None of the houses
and cottages is ancient, except a small farm-house
on the north side of the Stratford road, which shows
some 17th-century timber-framing and has a thatched
roof with dormer windows. There are also some eight or
ten isolated farms. Of these, Oakham Farm stands on
the high ground near the Wellesbourne-Eatington road.
It is a T-shaped house with the main block facing west
and built of lower lias stone, considerably repaired at
the north and south ends with brick. The wing has
been largely rebuilt in brick, on a Keuper sandstone
plinth, but some of the lias masonry remains on the
north side. The main block has a central chimneystack with two open hearths, and there are traces of
open fire-places at the south end of the block and in the
wing. The ceilings of most of the rooms have stopchamfered cross-beams and some also have joists similarly treated.
In 1640–2 the inhabitants of Loxley and Walton
disputed the course of the road from Warwick to Bath,
which each side maintained ran through the other's
parish. (fn. 4) The question at issue was the cost of carriage
of cripples to Bath, which was chargeable on the poor
rates of the parishes through which they passed. The
inhabitants of Loxley alleged that the 'usual and common way' was the road that now joins the Fosse at
Elder Tree Copse near Pillerton; but the inhabitants of
Walton and Thornton eventually produced 'the testimony of five or 6 aged witnesses', some of whom deposed that the road through Loxley had been the usual
Bath road 'for 60 years and more', and won their case.
Neither road, from Wellesbourne onwards, is marked
on any 18th-century map, and both probably fell into
disuse after the modern road, which forms the eastern
boundary of Loxley parish, was turnpiked in 1754. (fn. 5)
The way through Loxley followed the present road
from Wellesbourne almost to the church and went southwest past Oakham Farm, joining the modern road in
Eatington parish. Beyond the church it is now only a
field path, with two stretches of bridle-road, at Blackwells Coppice and descending the hill to Oakham
Farm. From the corner near the churchyard a lane
runs northwards alongside the grounds of Loxley Hall
down to a small brook and is said to have once
continued across the fields to Hunscote and Charlecote. (fn. 6)
At the foot of the hill on the Stratford road is a lane
branching westwards, which later becomes a field path
leading straight across the parish to Alveston Pasture.
As two of the fields along its course are called Portway (fn. 7)
it is presumably of some antiquity, and beyond the
Goldicote brook it crosses a field called Miller's Way.
It probably once led into the Stratford-Eatington road,
which is of Roman origin and was used as a salt way
in the Middle Ages. The Inclosure Award of 1758
gives this as a private cartway for the use of the owners
of the new inclosures and mentions as a public bridleroad the field path leading from the Alderminster road
above the village to Eatington.
The open fields of the parish were inclosed by Act of
Parliament in 1758 (fn. 8) and the Award reveals very clearly
the disintegration of the manor described below. The
962 acres dealt with constituted 18½ yard-lands, which,
after allowance for roads, gives the high average of 52
acres to the yard-land. It was divided into the Upper
and Lower Fields and the Upper and Lower Pastures.
The Common Fields lay all round the village, but extended chiefly on its west and south-west sides, the
pasture grounds lying close to the south-western boundary of the parish. The latter included the common
woodland which was separately allotted in the Award. (fn. 9)
The east and north-east portions of the parish, including
Loxley Farm and Oakham Farm and the former
demesne of the manor, (fn. 10) were not covered by the
Award, being apparently already inclosed. There were
7 proprietors in the Common Fields with holdings of
from ¼ to 6½ yard-lands. As only 7 farms are given for
the whole parish in 1730 (fn. 11) there had probably been
some quite recent subdivision, a process which was
certainly stimulated by the inclosure, for 12 farms are
recorded in the Land Tax Assessment of 1775. (fn. 12) The
proprietors were compensated in the Award at rates
varying from 39 to 77 acres per yard-land. (fn. 13)
A series of banks about 3 miles in length runs along
the slope of the ridge, beginning in Walton and crossing
the parish of Loxley from north-east to south-west.
They have often been supposed to be the remains of
ancient earthworks, (fn. 14) but are now believed to be
natural. (fn. 15) Their traditional name probably survives in
a field called Chilversditch (fn. 16) near their western extremity.
The tradition that Loxley was the birth-place of
Robin Hood appears to have originated with J. R.
Planché, who, in a paper read in 1864, followed up
Stukeley's derivation of his name from Fitzooth and
connected the outlaw with Robert FitzOdo, lord of the
manor in the later 12th century. (fn. 17)
Manor
At some date between 782 and 795 Offa
gave LOXLEY to the cathedral church of
Worcester. (fn. 18) But in the time of Canute
the monks were deprived of 3 hides here together with
the townships of Luddington and Drayton (q.v.),
apparently for failure to pay Danegeld. (fn. 19)
In 1086 there were three holdings in Loxley which
together make up a 5-hide manor. One hide was still
retained by the Bishop of Worcester; (fn. 20) Hugh held of
the Count of Meulan 4 hides less a virgate, which
Estan had held freely before the Conquest; (fn. 21) the remaining virgate, formerly in the possession of Manegot,
was held by Hugh son of Constantius of Hugh de
Grantmesnil. (fn. 22)
The count's portion passed to his younger brother
Henry de Newburgh, created Earl of Warwick, with
whose descendants the overlordship remained at least
down to the early 14th century. Thus in 1207 Henry
de Newburgh, the 5th earl, granted a knight's fee in
Loxley to his mother Alice (widow of Waleran, 4th
earl) to hold as her dower, (fn. 23) and in 1315 the Prior of
Kenilworth was found to be holding a knight's fee here
of Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. (fn. 24)
By the reign of Henry II the manor had come into
the possession of Robert FitzOdo of Loxley. (fn. 25) From
now on there is increasing evidence of the process of
division and subinfeudation which, already apparent in
Domesday, characterizes the manorial history of Loxley
down to the 19th century. A knight's fee here held in
many portions is returned in 1236. (fn. 26) But most of the
land was acquired, from various sources, by the canons
of Kenilworth. Robert FitzOdo himself sold them 120
acres of his demesne, which the church of Stone (a cell
of Kenilworth) had formerly held of him; (fn. 27) and in
addition made them a gift of pasture for 10 oxen and
100 sheep in his demesne. (fn. 28)
Robert FitzOdo was dead by 1196 (fn. 29) and left as his
heirs three daughters—Basilia, married to Peter de
Mora, Agnes, married to William Trussell of Billesley,
and Margery, married to William Bagot. (fn. 30) Basilia's
grandson, Peter de Mora, granted
the manor-house and all his possessions belonging to it to Kenilworth Priory in 1253. (fn. 31) The
Trussell estate appears to have
descended to Agnes's son and heir
Richard, (fn. 32) but afterwards to a
younger branch of the Billesley
line, represented in the reign of
Edward III by William Trussell
of Floore (Northants.) and Nuthurst, Admiral of the King's fleet
in the west and escheator south of
the Trent. (fn. 33) In 1351 Gilbert
Chasteleyn declared that he had acquired in see a messuage, 2 carucates, 12 acres of meadow, and £8 rent in
Loxley of the inheritance of William Trussell and
petitioned to be discharged from all demands that
might be made on the premises on the ground of
Trussell's having been a minister of the King. (fn. 34)
Trussell's great-grandson, William Trussell of Nuthurst, and Baldwin Freville, husband of his halfsister Elizabeth, jointly accounted for half a knight's
fee in Loxley in 1428. (fn. 35) William Bagot and John de
Curly were said to be lords of Loxley in 1258, (fn. 36) and
Gilbert Bagot paid 4s.—the highest contribution in
the village—to the subsidy of 1332. (fn. 37)
Trussell. Argent fretty gules with a beant at each crossing of the fret
In 1288 the Prior of Kenilworth made an agreement
with the Bishop of Worcester whereby certain of his
lands in Loxley were exempted from suit of court
called 'rodknyt' at the bishop's hundred of Pathlow. (fn. 38)
In 1291 Kenilworth was holding a carucate of land,
a mill, (fn. 39) and certain rents of the total value of £1 8s. (fn. 40)
Certain lands in Loxley were sold with the manor of
Walton Mauduit by the Earl of Warwick to Simon de
Wauton, Bishop of Norwich (1258–66). (fn. 41) The bishop
conveyed them to John de Wauton, (fn. 42) who was probably
his great-nephew. Subsequently John de Wauton
received from Walter Giffard, Archbishop of York
(1266–79), a grant of the two Walton manors and all
his land in Loxley; (fn. 43) this was possibly the carucate and
100s. in rents which Henry le Foun and Isabel his wife
quitclaimed to the archbishop in 1278. (fn. 44) The archbishop was perhaps acting as trustee for John de Wauton
whose daughter and heir, Maud, was in 1279 a ward of
Godfrey Giffard, Bishop of Worcester, Walter's
younger brother. (fn. 45) Maud married, first John de
Stradling, by whom she had no issue, and secondly
John le Strange. (fn. 46) In 1294 it was said that John de
Wauton had done homage for his land in Loxley to the
Prior of Kenilworth and that John de Stradling had
offered to do so, but that, as he had had no issue by his
wife, the prior was unwilling to receive it. (fn. 47)
In the 14th century a considerable estate in Loxley
was held by John de Peyto, the younger, of Chesterton. (fn. 48) In 1351 he granted part of it, including 14
messuages, 2 carucates and 5 virgates of land, to Kenilworth Priory. (fn. 49) On his death in 1374 his estates,
including 9 messuages, 4 carucates, 12 acres of meadow,
and 20s. rent in Loxley, were seized for debts owed to
the Crown and custody of them was granted 20 years
later to William de Arundel. (fn. 50)
In 1535 Kenilworth received a total sum of
£10 7s. 4½d. from the manor, (fn. 51) of which the site and
demesnes had been leased since 1521 to Matthew
Croft. (fn. 52) By 1538, when there were nine copyholders
and one freeholder with 10¼ virgates between them,
the lessee was John Croft, (fn. 53) and he seems to have been
succeeded by Robert Croft. (fn. 54)
The manor of Loxley was granted in 1539–40 to
Lady Joan Rochford for her life (fn. 55) and in 1542 to
Thomas Cawarden in tail. (fn. 56) On the latter's death
without issue in 1559 (fn. 57) it reverted to the Crown and
was sold to Lewis Greville of Milcote, (fn. 58) who sold it in
1568 to William Underhill of Idlicote. (fn. 59) William died
seised of the manor in 1570 (fn. 60) and in 1588 his son
William sold it to his second cousin, Thomas Underhill
of Eatington. (fn. 61) Thomas died in 1622 and his son
Thomas was lord of the manor in 1632 (fn. 62) and was
living here as late as 1653. (fn. 63) The manor next came to
Sir Simon Clarke of Broom Court, (fn. 64) who settled it in
1640 on his daughter Elizabeth and her husband
Mark Parker, probably the son of Thomas Parker of
Spernall. (fn. 65) Mark Parker left
Loxley in 1662 or 1663 (fn. 66) and was
buried at Spernall in 1666. (fn. 67)
In 1665 he conveyed the manor
to Edward Nash, (fn. 68) 'a captain in
Oliver's Army', (fn. 69) and second
cousin of Thomas Nash of Stratford, husband of Shakespeare's
granddaughter, Elizabeth Hall. (fn. 70)
His daughter and heir Mary
married Reginald, son and heir of
Sir Reginald Forster, bart., of
Greenwich. (fn. 71) Nash died in 1679
at Greenwich, (fn. 72) but Forster had apparently settled at
Loxley at some time between 1667 and 1670. (fn. 73) He succeeded his father as 2nd bart. in 1684, was Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1688–9, and died in 1705. (fn. 74) His daughter
Jane succeeded to his estates and married Franklyn Miller
of Hyde Hall, Herts, (fn. 75) who was holding the manor in
Dr. Thomas's time. (fn. 76) He died in 1728 and his widow
in 1732, and their grandson, Nicholas Franklyn Miller,
who succeeded, died before attaining his majority. (fn. 77)
The estates therefore passed to Jane, daughter of Franklyn and Jane Miller, who had married William Norcliffe
of the Inner Temple. (fn. 78) William Norcliffe died in
1735 and Reginald Miller Norcliffe, their only son, in
1740, at the age of 20. (fn. 79) Jane Norcliffe's heir was
Edward Mundy of Shipley, Derbyshire, who had
married her niece Hester (sister of Nicholas Franklyn Miller). (fn. 80) He is given as lord of the manor in
1757 (fn. 81) and his son Edward Miller Mundy in 1776. (fn. 82)
Edward sold it in the latter year to Leonard Court of
Shottery, (fn. 83) whose son William sold it to Charles Henry
Hunt, a banker of Stratford, in 1789. (fn. 84) In 1800 Hunt
went bankrupt and his estates were sold. (fn. 85)
Underhill. Argent a cheveron sable between three trefoils vert.
In 1801 the manorial rights were said to attach to
Oakham Farm (fn. 86) and the evidence of field-names makes
it clear that this and no more was the 'manor . . . or
reputed manor . . . of Loxley' held by Leonard Court
in 1776. The association may go back still farther,
since Jane Norcliffe was occupying Oakham Farm, in
right of which she had a pew in the church, in 1741. (fn. 87)
The farm was apparently sold by Charles Henry Hunt's
trustees to John Hunter, (fn. 88) but Bernard Dewes of
Wellesbourne is given as lord of the manor in 1805 (fn. 89)
and had acquired all Hunt's property here by 1810. (fn. 90)
His son John Dewes was dealing with the manor in 1829 (fn. 91)
and this is the last authentic reference to a manor of
Loxley. By 1872 the manorial rights had been extinguished. (fn. 92) The Dewes property was for sale in 1831 (fn. 93)
and was apparently bought by John Milward (fn. 94) who
rebuilt Loxley Hall. (fn. 95) He was succeeded in the later
1850's by James Cove Jones, (fn. 96) from whose son C. W. B.
Cove Jones the property passed about 1914 to Mr.
George Kendall. (fn. 97) Mr. Kendall's executors sold it in
1928 to Major Gregory-Hood, the present owner of
Loxley Hall. Oakham Farm is now the property of
Lady Mordaunt.
The Domesday holding of the monks of Worcester
seems by the 13th century to have taken the form of
rents, to the value of 18s., which were appropriated to
the chamberlain of the monastery. (fn. 98) In 1258 William
Bagot and John Curly, lords of Loxley, and others of
the inhabitants were excommunicated for the nonpayment of these rents. (fn. 99) There was further trouble in
1348 when Bishop Wolstan himself came to Loxley
and the parishioners swore before him to discharge the
arrears. (fn. 100) In 1542 the rents were granted to the Dean
and Chapter.
Stoneleigh Abbey received a grant of a messuage and
3 acres from Richard Trussell, son of William and
grandson of Robert Fitzodo, (fn. 102) and other land here from
Robert's other grandson Ralph de la More. (fn. 103) Abbot
Osbert (1235–58) leased land here to Roger de Ludlow. (fn. 104) Hugh de Mutona, son of Hugh, in the reign of
Edward I (fn. 105) and Hugh de Clifford (fn. 106) each gave another
virgate, and the abbey acquired in 1346 the reversion
of 12 acres of land. (fn. 107) The Stoneleigh property was
valued at £1 9s. 9d. in 1535 (fn. 108) and was granted three
years later to Leonard Worseley of Kineton. (fn. 109)
Church
The parish church of ST. NICHOLAS
is a small building consisting of a chancel,
nave, and a south-west tower, with a vestry
south of the chancel. The tower is medieval, probably a
part of the church dedicated by Godfrey Giffard, Bishop
of Worcester, in 1286. (fn. 110) It opened into a former south
aisle (east of it) as well as to the nave. The remainder of
the church was rebuilt about the middle of the 18th
century; the walls are plastered inside and out and have
wooden moulded and bracketed eaves cornices to the
tiled roofs. Restorations were carried out in 1923–4.
The chancel (16 ft. by 12½ ft.) has an east, a north,
and a south window all with semicircular heads. In the
east half of the south wall is re-set a 13th-century lancet
window of red sandstone. In front of it inside is set a
12th-century pillar piscina with a scalloped capital,
a half-octagonal stem, and moulded base. At the west
end of the wall is a round-headed doorway into the
vestry. The chancel arch also has a round head, all
plastered. All the window heads have key-blocks and
imposts.
The nave (c. 41 ft. by 20 ft.) has two north and two
south round-headed windows, and a west doorway with
a circular window over it. At the west end of the south
wall is an archway, probably late-13th-century, into the
tower; it has semi-octagonal responds; the east impost
is moulded, the western a plain grooved and chamfered
stone; they may be 12th-century stones adapted. The
head is pointed and of two chamfered orders. The arch
was revealed by the removal of the western gallery
during the restorations. Next east of it is one stone
voussoir, probably of the next arch in a former south
arcade.
The tower (8 ft. 4 in. square inside) is of three stages;
the lower two stages of the west wall are of rubble with
a chamfered plinth; between it and the nave is a buttress
in two stages and at the south-west angle a diagonal
buttress. In the upper story is a small round-headed
light of brown stone. The south face is of neatly coursed
but perished ashlar in thin squared stones of the same
brown material. It has a square-headed window of two
lights of the 16th century. In the upper story is a lancet
window. At the south-east angle are ashlar dressings.
In the east wall was an archway to the former south aisle
now filled in with rough masonry and fitted with a
doorway, now also blocked. The south respond of the
arch is partly exposed inside. South of the blocking is
a short stump of the former south aisle wall and above
it the weather-course of the lean-to roof. The bell
chamber is built of ashlar and has a round-headed
window in each wall. The parapet is embattled. The
tower seems to have been repaired and altered in detail
several times.
The vestry is probably of the same date as the 18thcentury main building: in its south window are re-set,
one above the other, in each jamb two moulded and
square stone balusters from a 17th-century building.
Against this wall outside are arranged nine well carved
gravestones and parts of a table tomb, all to members
of the Southam family, the earliest of 1681.
On the west wall of the nave is set a small coffin lid of
c. 1300, 3 ft. 7 in. long, with a raised cross having a
foliated head.
There are two bells: one with Lombardic letters,
mostly alphabet, and crown and [IHS] stops, probably
by John Appowell of Buckingham (c. 1560–70), the
other of 1632 by Hugh Watts of Leicester. (fn. 111)
The communion plate includes a cup, paten, almsplate, and flagon given in 1740 by Mrs. Jane Norcliffe. (fn. 112)
The registers of baptisms and marriages begin in
1540 and of burials in 1601, but there are many gaps
for the 16th and 17th centuries. (fn. 113)
Advowson
There was a priest on the Count of
Meulan's holding in 1086. (fn. 114) Robert
FitzOdo made a grant of the advowson
of the church to the Priory of Stone in Staffordshire. (fn. 115)
In 1196 the Prior of Stone was summoned to show by
what right he had deprived Basilia de Lokele (sic)
(Robert's daughter) of the right of presentation, but
refused to answer without his superior, the Prior of
Kenilworth. (fn. 116) An agreement was evidently reached,
as Basilia de Mora in 1199 granted that the church of
Loxley was to remain to Stone as her father had given
it. (fn. 117) In 1253 Peter de Mora gave the church, with
other property in Loxley, to Kenilworth, (fn. 118) who retained it until the fall of the monasteries. (fn. 119) The Prior
of Stone released all his rights in the church to the Prior
of Kenilworth in 1292. (fn. 120)
In 1285 the Prior and Convent of Kenilworth were
involved in a dispute with Giffard, Bishop of Worcester
over the latter's right of visitation of Loxley and others
of their appropriated churches in his diocese. (fn. 121)
The advowson was granted with the manor to
Thomas Cawarden in 1542. (fn. 122) After his death the
advowson was retained by the Crown, (fn. 123) and in 1845 the
Lord Chancellor was patron (fn. 124) but by 1872, Sir R.N.C.
Hamilton, 6th bart., of Avoncliffe, Stratford-on-Avon. (fn. 125)
On the latter's death in 1887 the advowson descended
to his son the 7th bart., of Baraset near Stratford, who
was holding it in 1890. (fn. 126) But before 1896 it passed by
some means to the trustees of the late Miss Frances
Smith and in 1913 to George Kendall. It was acquired
from Mr. Kendall's executors by Major Gregory
Hood, the present patron, in 1928.
The church was valued at £6 13s. 4d. in 1291 and
1340. (fn. 127) In 1535 it was worth £5 6s. 8d., (fn. 128) and a
pension of 13s. 4d. was paid by the Abbey of Kenilworth for the augmentation of the vicarage. (fn. 129)
The rectory appears to have descended with the
advowson until about 1758, the year of the Inclosure
Award, when it was held by Tempest Hay of Loxley.
The great tithes of the open field portion of the parish
then commuted were valued at £54. Tempest Hay
died in 1764, having bequeathed all his estates to his
son Thomas and his children by any future wife (provided that Thomas did not remarry with any connexion
of his then wife, Muriel Ayshcombe); with remainder
to the children of John Hay, his late brother. (fn. 130) The
repair of the chancel of the church was said in 1802 to
be chargeable on the farm that Tempest Hay had occupied. (fn. 131)
The vicarial tithe was commuted in the Inclosure
Award for £25.
To the list of vicars given by Dugdale may be added
two, intruded most probably during the Commonwealth period: 'Mr. Jones', who occurs in 1651, and
Henry Ballard in 1652. (fn. 132) Among later vicars who
became minor celebrities, George Huddesford (1803–9) achieved some reputation as a satirist and painter and
was a pupil of Reynolds, to whom he sat for the 'Portrait
of Two Gentlemen', now in the National Gallery. (fn. 133)
James White (1833) was the author of The Eighteen
Christian Centuries and a number of historical tragedies.
Most of his work, however, was done at Bonchurch, Isle
of Wight, whither he retired after vacating the living
at Loxley. (fn. 134)
Charity
Margaret Underhill by will dated
22 Dec. 1780 gave £100 to the minister,
churchwardens and overseers, the interest
on which, amounting to £2 8s. 8d. annually, is distributed in calico to the poor of the parish.