WELFORD-ON-AVON
Acreage: 1,843.
Population: 1931, 751.
This parish was originally partly in Gloucestershire
and partly in Warwickshire, but by an Order of 1894
the Warwickshire portion was constituted the distinct
parish of Bickmarsh. By the Transfer Order of 1931
Welford-on-Avon was also incorporated in Warwickshire, while Bickmarsh was divided between the
parishes of Pebworth in Worcestershire and Dorsington, transferred at this time from Gloucestershire to
Warwickshire.
Welford lies to the south of the River Avon, its
eastern boundary striking the river just where it turns
sharply northwards to make a deep bend, within which
lies the village. The present roads seem to have been
laid out for the most part in 1801, when the common
fields were inclosed, (fn. 1) as Rudder, writing in 1779,
says: 'The public roads in all this part of the county
are very incommodious, and almost impassable in the
winter season. They are either carried through miry
lanes, or along head lands in the common fields, so that
the traveller is obliged to shape his course in a zig-zag
direction, as the ground will permit.' (fn. 2) An older road,
known locally as Buckle Street, (fn. 3) but actually part of the
Roman road from Alcester to Chipping Campden,
the so-called Icknield or Rycknield Street, runs along
the western edge of the parish through Bickmarsh, the
eastern boundary of which is formed by a small brook
that runs northwards and joins the Noleham Brook
near Little Dorsington.
The soil is fertile and many of the inhabitants are
engaged in market gardening. Most of the parish lies
at elevations between 100 ft. and 200 ft. and the
country is open, with little timber except for plantations
in the neighbourhood of the village.
The village, larger than most in the locality, is
situated at the base of the deep bend in the river and is
noted in the district for its picturesqueness. It has a
fair number (some 30) of small timber-framed buildings,
apparently none earlier than the 17th century. About
two-thirds of them have thatched roofs, the others are
tiled. The main village street forms part of the main
road from Binton Bridge southwards to Long Marston
and has a maypole at the south end in a small triangular
green.
The church stands on the north side of a road, running west from the north end of the village street,
which ends at the river by the mill. Here was the
ancient ford, and the tall church tower close to it must
have formed a conspicuous landmark and guide to
travellers. The Rectory and another 18th-century
house stand north of the church. The framing of the
smaller houses is mostly of the ordinary 17th-century
type; about a third of them are grouped near the church.
Another third or more are scattered along the village
street, and others in a side road that runs eastward
from the maypole to end at the river on the east side of
the deep bend. One, north-east of the maypole, is of
farm-house size and has a chimney-stack with three
diagonal shafts of brick. Another farther east has an
X-shaped chimney-stack and a stone-tiled roof.
The only building with framing out of the ordinary
stands at the corner where the church road meets the
village street. It was a cottage that has been rebuilt and
forms an annexe to the adjoining modern Welford
House, being fitted up to serve as a hall for meetings,
&c. It is uncertain whether the framing is indigenous.
The lower story is of close-set studding and the upper
of large square panels, each with four quadrant
brackets. The east gable-head has a cambered tiebeam and more close studding.
At the northern edge of the parish where the Binton
Bridges carry the road across the Avon is an island
which is referred to early in the 13th century as lying
between the mill of Binton and the mill of Welford. (fn. 4)
In 1291 there were two mills valued at 20s. each. (fn. 5) The
two mills were still attached to the manor in 1609. (fn. 6)
Manors
At the time of the Domesday Survey
the Abbey of St. Denis near Paris held 15
hides in WELFORD, (fn. 7) as part of the pos
sessions of the ancient Priory of Deerhurst, which had
been given to the abbey in 1059 and re-established as
a cell. (fn. 8) From 1190 till 1203 Ralph of Welford was
suing the Prior of Deerhurst for 5 hides of land there. (fn. 9)
The manor remained in the prior's hands; in the 13th
century there were 2 ploughlands in demesne and the
total value was about £12. (fn. 10) In 1447 Deerhurst with
all its estates was given by Henry VI to his College
of Eton. Edward IV, however, revoked the grant and
restored the priory to St. Denis, putting a Westminster
monk, William Bokeland, in charge. (fn. 11) As he proved
thriftless and fraudulent, the king in 1467 gave Deerhurst to the Abbey of Tewkesbury, (fn. 12) who therefore
held Welford until the Dissolution, when the site of the
manor was farmed for £10 14s. 2d. and the copyhold
rents and other issues brought in £22 9s. (fn. 13) In 1553 the
manor, with its two mills and fishing rights in the Avon,
was granted to William Willington with remainder, in
default of male issue, to his daughter Margaret and her
husband Edward Greville. (fn. 14)
When Sir Thomas West died in 1386 he was seised
of the manors of Weston-on-Avon (q.v.) and Welford,
which he had leased for life to John Rous of Ragley. (fn. 15)
In both manors he had been succeeded before 1445 by
John Greville, who died in that year seised of the manor
of Welford, held of the Prior of Deerhurst by grant of
Leonard Stapulton and Mary his wife. (fn. 16) This was
evidently part of the main manor, but seems to have
acquired or retained a separate identity, as on the
death of Ludovic Greville in 1589 he was found
seised of the manor 'commonly called Welnesford
Grevill, and of another manor there commonly called
Abbot's Welneford', late belonging to the monastery of
Tewkesbury. (fn. 17) Ludovic's son Sir Edward Greville
sold the manor to Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, (fn. 18)
and it descended with Weston (q.v.) and is now owned
by Lord Sackville.
BICKMARSH was given by King Edgar in 967 to
his thegn Brihtnoth, who at once conveyed it with his
son, who was entering the monastic life, to Oswald,
Archbishop of York, to the use of the monks of St.
Mary's, Worcester. (fn. 19) They were deprived of it by
Eadwine, brother of Earl Leofwine, (fn. 20) and by the end
of the reign of Edward the Confessor it was held by one
Edith. She retained the estate in 1086, when 5 hides
in Bickmarsh were held by her in Warwickshire under
the heading 'The King's Alms' (fn. 21) and 1 hide in
Gloucestershire among 'The Lands of the King's
Thegns'. (fn. 22) Richard Foliot gave a virgate in Bickmarsh to the Priory of Little Malvern at, or shortly
after, its foundation in 1171, (fn. 23) which gift was confirmed after his death and not later than 1178 (fn. 24) by his
son William, who added another virgate, half in the
field of Thushul and half in Elfnadesmer; in consideration of which grant the monks were to receive him into
their community when he desired. (fn. 25) The charter was
witnessed by his wife Cecily and his son Richard. This
Richard Foliot was apparently holding Bickmarsh in
1200, (fn. 26) and Robert Foliot was dealing with land there
in 1221 (fn. 27) and 1231. (fn. 28) In 1235 Bickmarsh was
returned as a knight's fee 'of
the fee of Corbet', (fn. 29) but Corbet
seems to have had a mesne lordship under the Earl of Gloucester, of whom Robert Foliot held
the fee in 1242. (fn. 30) It may be this
Robert who died in 1245 leaving
a widow Christiane, (fn. 31) who was
still living in 1255, when her heir
was Reynold Foliot. (fn. 32) In any
case Robert Foliot was dead before 1275, when it was recorded
that he had withdrawn the suit to
the hundred court of Barlichway due from Bickmarsh
by arrangement with Philip de Ascellis the sheriff (in
1240). (fn. 33) The hide in Gloucestershire had also ceased
to do suit to the hundred of Kiftsgate and had been
'transferred to another county' by 'the lord of Bickmarsh' in the time of King John. (fn. 34) In 1247 Rose
Foliot sued William Corbet for lands here, as did Joan
Foliot in 1260, (fn. 35) and Dugdale suggests (fn. 36) that the
latter was Robert's heir and identical with the Joan who
with her husband Richard de Williamescote was concerned in a suit for land in Bickmarsh in 1267. Richard
was holding the vill in 1275, (fn. 37) and in 1307 Henry de
Williamescote sold the manor to John de Bloxham, (fn. 38)
who conveyed it in 1325 to William de Bereford. (fn. 39) He
died the following year, when the manor, which was
rated at a yearly value of £8 15s. 6d., was granted to
his wife Margaret in dower. (fn. 40) His son and heir
Edmund had obtained possession by 1341, when he
sued his bailiff for an account of his stewardship at
Bickmarsh, (fn. 41) and in 1342 he settled it on himself with
contingent remainders in tail to his sons John and
Baldwin. (fn. 42) In 1380 Sir Baldwin de Bereford was
granted free warren in his demesne lands and woods
there. (fn. 43) On the death of Baldwin's widow, Elizabeth,
in 1423 the manor reverted to Thomas, son and heir
of Philip St. Clair. (fn. 44) He was the great-grandson of
Margaret, daughter of the William de Bereford who
had died in 1326. (fn. 45) During his wardship the custody
of Bickmarsh was granted to John Throckmorton, (fn. 46)
to whom Thomas St. Clair conveyed the manor in
1427. (fn. 47)
Foliot. Argent a lion purpure crowned or with a forked tail.
No further mention has been found of Bickmarsh
until 1558 when Richard Newport held the manor (fn. 48)
and transferred it to Roland Heyward, George Bafford,
and Francis Bowyer, (fn. 49) from whom it was shortly afterwards acquired by Edward Griffin. (fn. 50) In 1608 Sir
Richard Griffin held the manor, (fn. 51) and in 1638 Edward
Griffin levied a fine on it. (fn. 52) During the civil wars
Bickmarsh was sequestered for recusancy, and in 1653
Anne Griffin, widow, complained
to the Committee for Compounding that the estate, which was
valued at £300 a year, had been
over-rated. She had had to pay
£185 rent besides £50 taxes for
two-thirds of the farm, and out of
the remaining third she had to
maintain 'old Mr. Griffin and
his wife, both 70 years old, his
brother, four sons, two daughters,
a widow and three children besides
herself and children'. (fn. 53) In 1666 Edward Griffin and
Anne his wife held the manor; (fn. 54) and Elizabeth and
Anne Griffin, who were ladies of the manor in 1713, (fn. 55)
were probably the members of the Griffin family who
still held it in 1730. (fn. 56) By 1763 Nathaniel Ryder,
who was created Baron Harrowby in 1776, (fn. 57) held
Bickmarsh; (fn. 58) his son, Dudley Ryder, was created Earl
of Harrowby in 1809, (fn. 59) and the manor has descended
to the present Earl of Harrowby.
Griffin. Sable a griffin argent.
An estate in Bickmarsh is said by Dugdale to have
been held in 1346 by Amice de Morehale and William
de Audley of William Corbet, who held of the
Honor of Gloucester, as a knight's fee. (fn. 60) It descended
with Moor Hall in Wixford (q.v.), (fn. 61) but in 1418,
when it reverted to William Clopton on the death
of Thomas de Cruwe, it amounted to less than 2 virgates. (fn. 62)
In 1086 Stephen 'the Steersman' was holding of the
King in (LITTLE) DORSINGTON 1 hide which
before the Conquest had belonged to Ordui. (fn. 63) This
estate, lying in the extreme west of Welford parish on
the bounds of Bidford and Dorsington parishes, descended with Milcote in Weston-on-Avon (q.v.), being
held by the Langley family from about 1250 to 1359.
In 1373, however, the Langley heiress Joan and her
husband Sir John de Trillowe alienated Little Dorsington to John Rous of Ragley, (fn. 64) after whose death it
passed in 1396 to his eldest surviving son Robert. (fn. 65) He
made a settlement of his lands in 1408, (fn. 66) and his wife
Alice, who survived him and married Thomas Paynell,
held the property in dower until her death in 1437,
when it reverted to their son John Rous. (fn. 67) Maud,
widow of John's son Thomas, was holding the manor
in 1502, when she converted 200 acres of arable into
pasture, causing 6 ploughs and 24 people to be put
out of employment. (fn. 68) On her death the estate came to
her son Thomas Rous and probably became part of the
Ragley estate, losing any manorial character that it ever
possessed.
Church
The parish church of ST. PETER consists of a chancel with a modern north
vestry, nave, north and south aisles, south
porch, and west tower.
The nave and narrow aisles are of mid-to late-12thcentury date and probably the lowest part of the tower
is of about the end of the same period but cement facing
obscures much of the evidence. The second stage was
added early in the 13th century as the original bellchamber. The tower was considerably heightened in
the 15th century and is tall compared with the rest
of the church, probably to serve as a landmark and
beacon for the ford from which the parish takes its
name.
The chancel was rebuilt and much enlarged c. 1330–40 and subsequently larger windows were inserted in
the aisles, when probably also the south wall was
buttressed and in part rebuilt.
The building was restored by Sir G. G. Scott in the
19th century at a cost of £1,200.
In 1884 the tower was damaged by a fire but its
walls were left standing and it was repaired the following year at a cost of £520, and the bells were recast.
The chancel (30½ ft. by 20½ ft.) has an east window
of three trefoiled lights and tracery of mid-14th-century
style. It is all modern except the ashlar splays and
possibly the ovolo-moulded rear-arch.
The north wall has one and the south wall two windows of c. 1330, each of two cinquefoiled pointed
lights and leaf-tracery in a two-centred head with a
hood-mould.
The former north-west window has been reset in the
east wall of the vestry. The wall below the south-east
window is recessed for an old sedile and east of it is a
14th-century piscina with moulded jambs and ogee
head and hood-mould. The bowl is modern: there are
grooves for two shelves. The doorway at the west end
of the north wall opening into the vestry is also of the
14th century and has been reset inside out. The walls
are cemented but in the north wall some coursed bluewhite lias rubble is revealed. The diagonal buttresses
at the east end are 15th-century additions. The
plinths are chamfered.
The roof and the chancel arch are modern.
The nave (38 ft. by 19 ft.) has mid-to late-12thcentury arcades of two 15-ft. bays, the southern
slightly earlier than the northern, judging from the
bases. Both have middle circular pillars and square
responds, all with scalloped capitals, varying slightly,
and moulded abaci which are all alike. The base of the
northern pillar approaches the typical 13th-century
'hold-water' mould, that of the southern is simpler; the
reveals of the responds have chamfered bases. The
pillars are short, little more than 4 ft. between base and
capital. The arches are semicircular and of two plain
square orders with small voussoirs, and with plain
chamfered hoods towards the nave; where these meet
over the south pillar is a human-head stop.
The roof is modern, of three bays with king-post
trusses: it is tiled. Above the gabled east wall is a small
arched bell-cote.
The north aisle (5 ft. 8 in. wide at the east end and
6 ft. at the west) has one north window of the 15 th
century, of three trefoiled ogee-headed lights and trefoiled piercings in a square head with an external label.
The jambs externally are moulded, including a shallow
hollow; inside, the splays are sunk and mostly of stone
but the inner arrises are plastered. Farther west, not
visible inside, is a blocked 12th-century plain doorway
of one square order with chamfered abaci and a
chamfered hood to the round head. The west wall has
a small round-headed window, probably of 12thcentury origin but all restored outside and with
plastered internal splays and a four-centred rear-arch.
Plan of Welford-on-Avon Church
The walls are cemented and have no plinths. The
leaded roof has modern timbers.
The south aisle (5 ft. 10 in. wide at the east end and
6 ft. 3 in. at the west) has an inserted 15th-century east
window of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and trefoiled piercings in a four-centred head with an external
hood-mould; the jambs and arch have deep casement
hollows. The south window has similar jambs but is of
three plain square-headed lights under a main square
head with a label and head-stops of a king and queen,
the latter with a square head-dress of the Queen
Philippa style. There is little doubt that the window
had foiling and tracery originally.
The south doorway retains its 12th-century outer
order with hollow-chamfered abaci; the round head
has cheveron ornament on face and soffit, all of yellow
stone. The east jamb is probably of 15th-century or
later repair and is of red stone. The chamfered inner
order is modern. The rear-arch is segmental. In the
west wall is a small cemented round-headed window,
probably original; its inner splays and splayed round
head are plastered.
The walls are cemented but broken patches reveal
some mixed rubble of lias, yellow stones, &c., suggesting
some reconstruction. The east end preserves its original
steep half-gable, with coping stones, and sets back about
a foot above it to a later (15th-century) heightening
with a plain parapet which continues along the south
wall and west end. This has pinnacles, above the
angles. The three buttresses against the south wall may
also be of the 15th century but repaired or altered in
the 17th century; they are mixtures of lias stone and
red sandstone. That west of the porch has 17th-century moulded offsets and fluting, and one re-used stone
on its west side set sideways shows a shield in a foliated
panel. Another reset red stone in the wall-face above
the buttress is carved with part of a frieze pattern; these
fragments may have belonged to a 16th-century funeral
monument. The buttresses have heavy chamfered
plinths, but not the wall. The low-pitched leaded roof
has modern timbers.
The modern south porch has a chamfered pointed
entrance.
The west tower (about 10½ ft. square) is of three
stages, the lowest of c. 1200, the second (the original
bell-chamber) of the 13th century, and the tall top
stage added in the 15th century. The lowest stage is a
tall one, the string-course marking the top of it being
level with the apex of the nave roof. Its lower story has
a small round-headed light set low in the wall, the
only piercing in this stage. The walls are cemented but
patches expose streaky lias rubble-work with yellow
angle-dressings.
The archway to the nave is plain and pointed.
The short second stage has in each wall a pair of
large lancet windows of the 13th century with edgerolls to the jambs and heads. The tall third stage has
in each wall a window of two cinquefoiled lights and a
quatrefoil in a four-centred head with a hood-mould,
all much restored. The walling, where exposed, shows
coursed lias rubble-work. The embattled parapet
has returned copings to the merlons and angle pinnacles.
The south-east window of the chancel has some
scraps of late-14th-century or early-15th-century
coloured glass taken from the east window in 1936.
It is mostly white and yellow foliage, yellow roundels,
pieces of ruby, and a few white cinquefoils in black
line work. Also 13 quarries and parts of greenish-white
glass with outlined foliage, which may be earlier. The
piercings in the head of the north window have rosettes
in black line and the same outlined foliage.
The communion table is modern, but on the north
side of the Sanctuary is a 17th-century table with
turned legs and panelled top-rails on shaped brackets.
The font has a 13th-century round bowl with a rollmoulded lower edge and hollowed soffit in which are
carved out of solid the capitals of four shaffis that
originally surrounded the stem. These shafts were
replaced by 17th-century balusters. The base has a
13th-century edge-roll and the four bases of the original
shafts; the sub-base is of two chamfered courses.
The pulpit is of the early 17th century, having five
panelled sides of an octagon with raised centres and
fluted friezes: the lower part tapers.
In the vestry is a plain chest, probably of the 14th
century, on stilts. The lid has, attached at each end on
the soffit, a bevelled rail with moulded stops.
In the middle of the nave is a slate slab with the
indent of the brass of a priest and below it a scroll. A
marginal inscription reads: 'Hic jacet [dns] Waltherus
Williams quondam Rector istius ecclie qui obiit... die
mensis Augusti Anno dni. mcccclx[xxviii].'
On the south side of the chancel, outside, is a tablet
to Richard Rawlings, who bequeathed charities by a
will dated 22 October 1727.
The communion plate includes a cup and cover
paten of 1576.
The registers date from 1561.
At the south entrance to the churchyard is a rectangular lich-gate of skeleton framework on low stone walls.
It is of two bays, 7 ft. 3 in. and 3 ft. 6 in. wide, between
the walls, and the oak posts have foiled braces below
the tie-beams and eaves-plates of the gabled roof, which
is tiled. It is probably of the 15th century.
Advowson
The church of Welford belonged to
Deerhurst Priory (fn. 69) and was valued in
1291 at £15, in addition to a pension
of 20s. payable to Tewkesbury Abbey. (fn. 70) This 20s.
was still payable to the Sacrist of Tewkesbury in 1535,
when the rectory was valued at £29 15s. 10d. (fn. 71) After
the Dissolution the advowson was granted in 1541 to
the Bishop of Gloucester. (fn. 72) In 1547, however, Sir
Ralph Sadleir obtained a grant of it; (fn. 73) but in 1552 it
was regranted to the see of Gloucester, which had now
been reunited with that of Worcester under Bishop
John Hooper. (fn. 74) On the accession of Mary, Hooper
was deprived, the two sees were again separated, and
this advowson probably returned to Gloucester. Later
it was acquired by the lords of the manor, the Earl of
Middlesex presenting in 1631, (fn. 75) and it has since descended with the manor, the present patron being Lord
Sackville.
The chapel of Bickmarsh was said to have been
founded by William Foliot in the reign of Henry II,
and in the reign of King John the Abbot of Tewkesbury claimed that the founder of the chapel had given
two-thirds of the tithe of corn and half the small tithes
to the abbey. (fn. 76) Herbert the chaplain, priest of Bickmarsh, is mentioned in 1221, when his daughter
Denise appealed Roger son of Ralph of Bidford for
rape. (fn. 77) The chapel was appurtenant to the church of
Welford, and in 1325 John de Bloxham, who sold the
manor in that year, disclaimed to the Prior of Deerhurst any right to the advowson of the chapel. (fn. 78) No
later reference to it is known.
John Trapp, 'one of the prime preachers of his time',
was presented to the rectory of Welford by the Assembly
of Divines in 1646, where he had much difficulty in
collecting his tithes, owing to the opposition of the
ejected rector, Dr. Bowen, who was reinstated in
1660. (fn. 79)
Charity
John Frekelton's Charity. It is recorded in the printed reports of the
former Charity Commissioners for Inquiring Concerning Charities, dated in 1829, that John
Frekelton gave to the poor of the parish 13s. 4d. for
ever and he also gave 6s. 8d. to the church for ever to
be paid out of Millham Close.
The charity is now regulated by a Scheme of the
Charity Commissioners dated 12 June 1903 which provides that one-third of the yearly income shall be applied
by the rector of Welford towards the maintenance of
the parish church and the remainder shall be applied by
two representative trustees for the benefit of deserving
poor resident in the parish. The rent-charge of £1
issuing out of Milham Meadow is regularly received
and applied in accordance with the terms of the
scheme.