RADWAY
Acreage: 1,463.
Population: 1911, 266; 1921, 252; 1931, 269.
Radway is a small parish, 2 miles in depth from north
to south by about a mile in breadth, mostly of rich
pasture-land. The eastern boundary is formed in its
southern half by the steep wooded ridge of Edge Hill,
slightly over 700 ft. in height; from its highest point,
720 ft., the boundary line drops rapidly to about 400 ft.,
whence it follows a small stream which flows north for
¾ mile and then turns west to form the northern
boundary of the parish. On Edge Hill, near the
southern extremity of the parish, is an octagonal tower,
erected in 1750 on the position occupied by the centre
of the army of Charles I before the Battle of Edge Hill, (fn. 1)
23 October 1642; the actual battlefield lies more than
a mile to the north-west, on the borders of Radway and
Kineton, around the 300-ft. contour line. At the foot
of the hill, north of the tower, which commands very
extensive views, is the park of the Grange, about 100
acres in extent and containing a clump of trees planted
by William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. The Grange is
built of local stone and was originally of square plan,
with two gable-heads on each face, but it was enlarged
and altered in the 19th century and has been completely
modernized inside. The original windows, probably
dating from Sanderson Miller's purchase of the
property in 1712, when he seems to have remodelled
the house, have mullions and moulded labels; and on
the west side is an original one-storied gabled porch.
'In the dining-room Fielding, the novelist, read "Tom
Jones" in manuscript to Earl Chatham, Sir George
Lyttleton and Sanderson Miller for their approval
before it was printed.' (fn. 2) East of the house is an
ancient two-gabled pigeon-house built of rubble-work,
with a lantern in the middle of the roof. It retains the
nests from ground to roof.
Manor
In 1086 three estates were held in
RADWAY. The largest, 3 hides, belonged to the Church of Coventry, of whom it
was held by Ermenfrith. (fn. 3) Another 2 hides, held before
the Conquest by Harding, had belonged to Earl Aubrey
(de Couci) but was then in the king's hands and in the
custody of Geoffrey de Wirce. (fn. 4) There was also 1 hide,
held by Earl Ralph in the time of King Edward, which
was farmed by Richard the Forester, or Hunter. (fn. 5)
The Coventry holding came into the hands of Roger
de Clinton, Bishop of Chester (1129–48), who granted
2 hides in Radway to the newly founded Abbey of
Radmore in Cannock Chase (Staffs.), to which Geoffrey
de Clinton, the Chamberlain, added another hide which
he held of the bishop. (fn. 6) The abbey, which was moved
in 1154 to Stoneleigh in Warwickshire, (fn. 7) received a
number of smaller grants in Radway, among the benefactors being Osbert, Nicholas, John, and Thomas,
each styled 'the Hunter', (fn. 8) and the administration of
these properties centred on the Edge Grange, on the
slopes of Edge Hill. Henry II, by a charter which was
confirmed by John in 1204, (fn. 9) granted to the monks
that their Grange of Radway should be held in pure
alms, free of all exactions. In 1279 the Abbot of
Stoneleigh held 'a part' of the vill of Radway of the
Honor of Leicester as a quarter of a knight's fee, (fn. 10) and
in 1284 this was among the vills in which the monks
were granted free warren. (fn. 11)
The Leicester overlordship presumably came through
a grant of Earl Aubrey's land to one of the Earls of
Leicester. In December of 1207 the Sheriff of Warwickshire was ordered to restore to Earl Roger (of
Norfolk) seisin of half a fee in Radway of which he had
been deprived when it was taken into the king's hand
as having belonged to Simon de Montfort, Earl of
Leicester. (fn. 12) In 1222 it was again seized as the king's
escheat, but was restored to Hugh Bigot, Earl of Norfolk. (fn. 13) It evidently reverted to the Honor of Leicester,
with which it came to Edmund of Lancaster, of whom
the Abbot of Stoneleigh held 1/8 fee in 1296. (fn. 14) After the
death of Henry, Duke of Lancaster, this 1/8 fee was
assigned in 1361 to his daughter Maud. (fn. 15)
Small gifts, or sales, of land in Radway continued to
be made to the abbey, (fn. 16) two of these, in 1392 (fn. 17) and
1398 (fn. 18) respectively, being for the upkeep of tapers in
the abbey church. As late as 1497 Sir Thomas Cokesey
and others made a substantial grant of messuages and
lands which they had acquired from Benet Medley,
who had obtained them from John, son of William
Malyns and Sibyl his wife. (fn. 19) In 1535 the Stoneleigh
property in Radway produced £18 4s. 4d. yearly. (fn. 20)
The Radway estate does not seem ever to have been a
manor, and as it was built up mainly of small parcels
so after the Dissolution it was disposed of piecemeal. (fn. 21)
A rental (fn. 22) of the abbey estates made about the time
of its dissolution enters £3 from the farm of 'Thegge
graunge' and £7 4s. from that of 'Radway graunge'.
Edge Grange was sold in June 1542 to Richard
Andrewes and Leonard Chamberleyn, (fn. 23) who in July
sold it to John Leke and Edward his son. (fn. 24) Edward
sold it in 1549 to John Warner and his second son
George; (fn. 25) from the latter, who inherited it on his
father's death in 1552, (fn. 26) it passed in 1589 to his son
Walter Warner. (fn. 27) On this occasion it is styled 'Edge
Graunge alias Radway Grange alias Ratley Graunge';
it is therefore possible that the Edge Grange corresponds to the present Ratley Grange on the east side of
Edge Hill and that the present estate known as The
Grange, on the west of Edge Hill, represents Radway
Grange, which is practically always distinguished as
'in the parish of Bishop's Itchington'. This parish is
separated from Radway by the full width (4 miles) of
Burton Dassett and is in the Hundred of Knightlow;
but the Precentor of Lichfield, who was rector of
Bishop's Itchington, held 8 virgates in Radway, concerning which an agreement was made with the monks
of Stoneleigh in 1275, (fn. 28) and apparently the land remained attached for certain ecclesiastical purposes to
Bishop's Itchington.
Radway Grange, with the tithes belonging to it, was
granted in 1545 to Francis Goodyere. (fn. 29) He died in
December 1546, leaving a son Henry, then aged 13, (fn. 30)
who on coming of age seems to have conveyed it to
James Longworth of Wolford, as the latter in 1554
had licence to grant the property to Walter Lyght. (fn. 31)
Walter's daughter and heir Elizabeth married Robert
Washington of Sulgrave (Northants) in 1564, (fn. 32) and
their third son Walter, 'of Radway in the parish of Bishop's
Itchington', died in 1597, (fn. 33)
leaving a son John. (fn. 34) He, with
John Danvers, his brother-inlaw, (fn. 35) sold Radway Grange to
William Goodwyn, whose son
Thomas settled it on his son
Thomas at his marriage with
Elizabeth Wainwright in 1685
and subsequently went bankrupt, so that in 1691 the younger
Thomas Goodwyn had to obtain
a Private Act enabling him to sell the estate to pay his
debts. (fn. 36) It was bought in 1712 by Sanderson Miller, (fn. 37)
whose son Fiennes Sanderson Miller was styled 'lord
of the manor' of Radway between 1784 and 1818, (fn. 38)
as was his son Lt.-Col. F. S. Miller in 1850; (fn. 39) but
the title was probably incorrect, and there were 'no
manorial rights' in 1932. (fn. 40)
Miller. Azure four voided lozenges in cross or.
The hide held in 1086 by Richard the Forester
descended as part of his serjeanty of Chesterton (q.v.)
and was held in 1198 by Hugh de Loges. (fn. 41) His son
Hugh alienated ½ virgate to the Abbot of Stoneleigh,
and 7½ virgates to Thomas son of Richard Paveye, who
enfeoffed Alan de Morcote. (fn. 42) When Alan died in 1253
he was said to hold 8 virgates in Radway of Thomas
son of Richard 'of Warwick'; he left a son John, then
aged 3. (fn. 43) John may have granted some of his land to
the Abbey of Stoneleigh in 1286, (fn. 44) but at an inquiry
held in 1298 it was stated that Hugh de Loges had
alienated to Alan de Morcote 4 messuages and 4 virgates
in Radway, of which Richard Payn was then holding
3 messuages and 3 virgates and John le Faukener the
remainder; as these were parts of a serjeanty they were
seized into the king's hand. (fn. 45) It is possible that the
7½ virgates in Radway which Robert Walden gave to
Stoneleigh for the maintenance of a taper in the abbey
church in 1398 (fn. 46) may represent this Morcote estate, of
which the later history is otherwise unknown.
The Priory of Arbury held lands in the parish. In
1203 Maud de Willenhale released to Adam, Prior of
Arbury, her claims to 1 virgate in Radway as dower
from her late husband Ralph. (fn. 47) Towards the end of
the same century an exchange of lands in the parish was
made between the priory and Stoneleigh Abbey, (fn. 48) and
in 1279 the prior had 2 virgates here, held by five bond
tenants. (fn. 49) The land seems to have been treated as part
of the prior's manor, Burton Dassett, (fn. 50) and was included in the grant of the dissolved priory and its lands
made to Sir Edward Wotton, Sir John Dannet, and
Anthony Coke in December 1538. (fn. 51)
Church
The parish church of ST. PETER,
rebuilt on a new site in 1866, consists of
a chancel (29 ft. by 15 ft.) with a north
vestry and organ-chamber, nave (39½ ft. by 16 ft.),
north and south aisles (9½ ft. wide), south porch and a
west tower (11½ ft. square) with a spire. The walls are
of local Edge Hill stone: some of it may be re-used
material but the only ancient carved or moulded
stones are two gargoyles reset in the west face of the
tower.
In the chancel against the north wall are the remains
of a stone recumbent effigy of a priest in mass vestments,
probably of the 15th century. The head is missing.
The feet rested on a dog.
Set in a south recess in the tower is the effigy of
Henry, second son of Sir Henry Kingsmill of Sydmonton, Hants, who was killed at the battle of Edgehill in
1642. The effigy, in military dress of the period, in
full trunks and wearing a sash over his right shoulder,
reclines on a rush pallet with a cushion. It is much
mutilated, (fn. 52) the legs from below the knees and the left
hand being broken off, and the top of the head is missing;
the last was evidently a separate piece of stone originally.
The inscription is on an adjacent slate slab, adding that
the monument was erected by his mother Lady Bridgett
in 1670. On the slab is an incised shield of the arms of
Kingsmill, surmounted by a helmet and a crest of a hand
grasping a mill-rind.
High up in the south wall is a plain tablet to Richard
son of Thomas and Laetitia Goodwyn, who died from
a fall in 1668 aged 8. Another is an oval tablet with
scrolled ornament to Charles Hughes, 25 March 1734.
Reset in the north window of the chancel are four
late-17th-century panels of painted glass depicting biblical scenes and said to have been brought from a Dorsetshire farm-house. Two with round arched heads of
guilloche pattern illustrate the parable of the merciless
servant (Matthew, chapter 18), the one showing him
attacking his debtor and the other showing the king
ordering him to prison. The third, a rectangular panel,
depicts an enthroned king with his retainers and before
him a bound, half-naked prisoner with a man tying or
untying him. The legend has no relation to the scene
and reads in black letter 'Adam and Eva ware begiled
off the serpent'. The fourth is a round panel depicting
two archers, one shooting, the other receiving a cake
from a serving man at the door of a kitchen in the background. Below are the words beati pacifi and the
legend in black letter: 'The Samaritā set him on his
hors and brought him to an inn'. In the head of the
south-west window is the bearded head of a man.
The five bells are of 1868 by Mears and Stainbank.
The registers begin in 1600.
Advowson
The church of Radway was appropriated to the Abbey of Stoneleigh
before 1291, when it was valued at
only £1 6s. 8d. (fn. 53) From the last quarter of the 14th century it was usually served by one of the monks of
Stoneleigh, (fn. 54) but in 1535 the vicar appears to have
been a secular priest, and the vicarage was rated at
£5 12s. (fn. 55) After the Dissolution the patronage was
retained by the Crown until the second half of the 19th
century, when it was acquired by the vicar, George
Miller, great-great-grandson of Sanderson Miller. After
his death the advowson was bought by Andrew Richard
Motion, who died in 1934, (fn. 56) after which it was in the
hands of his trustees until 1947, when they transferred
the united advowsons of Radway and Ratley to the
Bishop of Coventry. (fn. 57)
Charity
The Church Institute. The endowment of this charity consists of a piece of
land in Radway with the building thereon
known as the Radway Church Institute and a sum of
£268 6s. 5d. 2½ per cent. Consols (John Chamber's Endowment) producing an annual income of £6 14s. The
charity is regulated by a Scheme of the Charity Commissioners dated 21 December 1906 which appoints
trustees and directs that the Institute shall be appropriated and used as a parish room or reading-room in
connexion with the Church of England.