BINLEY
Acreage: (before 1931) 1,688; (after 1932) 865.
Population: 1911, 220; 1921, 835; 1931, 564 (on
pre-1931 area, 3,189).
Binley is a village 3 miles east of Coventry on the
road to Lutterworth, which here makes two sharp
bends, around which the nucleus of the village lies,
and from which branch roads radiate to Walsgrave on
the north, Brandon on the south-east, and Baginton on
the south-west. The area of the parish has undergone
changes in the present century, a large part having been
transferred to the City of Coventry (fn. 1) and other parts to
the parishes of Baginton and Combe Fields. (fn. 2) The
surface is fairly level, varying from 311 ft. in the southeast to 225 ft. at Binley Bridge on the west. This
bridge, which carries the main road over the River
Sowe, was 'very ruinous' in 1669, when £100 was
ordered to be collected for the repair of the portion
in Warwickshire (fn. 3) (the remainder being in the County
of the City of Coventry). Higher up the river, near
the village, is Binley Corn Mill. The south-east portion
of the parish has extensive woodlands, and the RugbyBirmingham line of the former L.M.S. Railway skirts
the southern edge, but there is no station. Near the
railway is Binley Colliery, at present the most easterly
pit of the Warwickshire coalfield. This, and the proximity of the city of Coventry, have caused much residential development in the present century.
A survey of the manor of Binley, temp. James I, (fn. 4)
gives the names of the tenants and the extent and value
of their holdings. The bounds of the manor are there
stated to run from Binley Bridge to Ernesford, thence
to Mynolds Gate, eastward to Brawns Park and
Brawns Common Gate, northwards to Combe and to
Colly Bridge, thence as far as Wasbrow Gate and along
the Sowe to Binley Mill and back to the bridge, a
circuit by estimation of 2½ miles.
Manor
BINLEY was originally a 5-hide vill;
3 hides, which had formerly been in possession of Ealdgyth, wife of Griffith of North
Wales, being held in 1086 by the Cathedral Priory of
Coventry, who had bought them from Osbern son of
Richard; the other 2 hides were held both in the time
of Edward the Confessor and in 1086 by Hadulf of
Turchil of Warwick. (fn. 5)
The overlordship of the Coventry portion remained
connected with Osbern's honor of Richard's Castle on
the Welsh border. In 1211–12 David de Lindesy held
a quarter of a knight's fee in Binley of this honor, (fn. 6)
and in 1235–6 a similar amount was held by an unnamed tenant of William de Stutevill, (fn. 7) then in possession of Richard's Castle. (fn. 8) In 1242–3 the Abbot of
Combe and Geoffrey de Bilney are entered as tenants
of the honor, (fn. 9) and in 1279 the abbot was stated to hold
a quarter-fee of Geoffrey, who held of Robert de
Mortimer (of Richard's Castle). (fn. 10) This holding began
with a grant to Combe by Joceline and Robert, sons
of Ralph de Bilney, of a hide of land (apparently at
Binley Common) rated as 1/6 knight's fee. (fn. 11) Geoffrey
son of Robert son of Joceline, confirmed to the abbey
in detail lands in the west, south, and north fields. (fn. 12)
Laurence, Prior of Coventry in the middle of the 12th
century, had also given half a hide to be held in frank
almoign at a yearly rent of 8s. (fn. 13) In 1287 it was stated
that the Abbot of Combe held half the manor of Binley
and the Prior of Coventry a free chapel, of Robert de
Mortimer. (fn. 14) In 1307 the Abbot of Combe was
returned as having held half a knight's fee in Binley
of Hugh de Mortimer of Richard's Castle, (fn. 15) who had
died in 1304, (fn. 16) and in 1401 (fn. 17) and 1407 (fn. 18) it was held
of the Earl and Countess of Warwick respectively. A
few years later the Prior of Coventry was said to be
lord of one quarter of Binley, having a messuage and a
virgate of land which Henry de Rokeby and Michael
de Grenburgh gave for Michael's obit. (fn. 19)
A long series of licences to alienate land in mortmain
to the abbey of Combe (fn. 20) left little of the original estate
in possession of Coventry priory, whose lands in Binley
in 1535 were worth only £1 6s. as compared with the
Combe holding of £13 19s. 8d. value. (fn. 21) The remaining
Coventry lands were after the Dissolution granted, in
1544, to Robert Burgoyne and John Scudeamore.
They then consisted only of the holding of Richard
Hall of Winnall and Agnes his wife, including two
crofts formerly in the possession of Nicholas Taillour
and John Elton. (fn. 22)
The 2 hides held from Turchil by Hadulf passed to
Thurbert son of Hadulf (Hadhellwlfi) who gave the
land, described as stretching from the stream of
Ebleswelle (fn. 23) to the borders of Smite (i.e. Combe
Fields), to the monks of Combe, his gift being confirmed between 1149 and 1153 by Robert Basset, (fn. 24)
and by Henry de Arderne, (fn. 25) who held mesne lordships
here. Henry de Rokeby, son of Thurbert de Bilney,
confirmed his father's gift and added a moiety of his
grove of Munechet and the mill of Binley (fn. 26) (which
Hadulf held in 1086). His son Henry remitted his
claims to the mill, its pond, and the monks' meadow
from the upper issue of the pond over the mill-bay as
far as the entry of the stream below the mill, conditionally on their not swamping his hay. (fn. 27) William
Basset confirmed the grants made in his fee, (fn. 28) and in
1279 the Abbot of Combe held a quarter-fee of Henry
de Rokeby, (fn. 29) who held of Ralph Basset of Sapcote,
who held of Thomas de Arderne under the Earl of
Warwick. (fn. 30) In 1291 the abbey's grange of Binley contained 2 carucates of demesne land, worth 50s., rents
to the value of £4, stock worth £2 10s., and a windmill
valued at 6s. 8d. (fn. 31) At this time the abbey had also the
grange of Ernesford, where was a carucate of land,
with waste attached, worth 10s., and stock valued at
£2. (fn. 32) About 1410 Combe was said to have a manor
in Binley and also a manor of Ernesford in the same
parish; (fn. 33) but the latter was never manorial, and in 1544
it was granted as a grange to Thomas Broke, merchant
tailor of London, and John Wyllyams, (fn. 34) and later in
that year was conveyed to Christopher Warren, (fn. 35) whose
namesake also acquired the Coventry Priory land in
1603 from William Cave, (fn. 36) to whom they had been
sold by Robert Burgoyne. (fn. 37) The manor of Binley,
however, after the Dissolution was granted in 1539
to Mary, Duchess of Richmond, (fn. 38) and has since
descended with the estate of Combe Abbey (q.v.).
Other portions of Binley were held by local religious
houses before the Dissolution. In 1279 the Hospitallers
of Grafton held a small estate under Combe Abbey, (fn. 39)
but no more appears to be known of it. In 1542
2½ acres of meadow beside the bridge, which had
belonged to the Coventry Charterhouse, were granted
to Richard Andrewys and Leonard Chamberleyne, (fn. 40)
who sold the freehold to Henry Waver or Over; (fn. 41) in
the following year a 21-year lease of these lands was
made to Elizabeth Foxall. (fn. 42) The lands in Binley
formerly held by St. John Baptist Hospital, Coventry,
which in 1535 produced 32s. 4d. in rents, (fn. 43) were in
1545 granted to John Hales. (fn. 44)
Church
The church of ST. BARTHOLOMEW
is situated at a road junction in the middle
of the village, standing in a long but narrow
churchyard. It is a small church of severe classic design
and consists of an apsidal chancel, nave, north chapel,
vestry, and porch. It was built at the expense of William,
Lord Craven, and completed in 1773. (fn. 44a) It is built of a
light-coloured stone, now washed over with cement,
and the roofs are slate-covered, with projecting eaves.
The west end has a slightly projecting central portico
with a moulded pediment in line with that of the nave
wall. The entrance has columns of the Doric order on
either side with half-columns as pilasters, supporting
an entablature, over which there is a shallow roundheaded recess with a lunette. Above the recess there
is a clock dial and on either side of the pediment a vase
on a square pedestal. On both sides there is a plain
round-headed window with a plain flat string-course
at sill level, and above each window there is a shallow
rectangular sunk panel. At the west end of the nave
there are cupboards on the north side and a staircase
to a gallery on the south, formed by a cross wall to
support the stone cupola. The cupola is octagonal with
a moulded cornice and crowned with a circular dome
finished with a ball finial and a weather vane; it rests
on a square pedestal with a moulded capping, and has
windows on the cardinal faces and dummy windows
on the others. The south side has three windows and
the flat string is continued. The north side has two
similar windows, and towards the east end it is flanked
by a building with a portico on the north with a moulded
pediment supported on two columns of the Doric order.
This porch leads into the vestry, beyond which is the
chapel, with a round-headed window on the east and
a dummy on the west to correspond. Externally the
apse is quite plain and is lighted by a single window;
the string-course is omitted.
The chancel is 16 ft. wide, with a radius of 7 ft. 3 in.
The floor is of white marble with black circles in a
radial pattern. The walls are decorated with rectangular moulded panels, one each side of the altar, and
the ceiling, which is coved, is decorated with gilt stars
on a blue background and gilt radiations from a dove
in relief. The east window, said to have been painted
by William Peckitt of York, represents the Madonna
and Child. There is one step to the altar, which is a
marble slab fixed to the wall and supported in front
on two legs. The entrance to the apse has two alabaster
columns with carved capitals and half-columns as
pilasters with an entablature supporting a slightly
cambered lintel. On each side of the entrance, which
is closed with contemporary rails, there is a coved
round-headed niche.
The chapel (14 ft. by 14 ft.) has an open alabaster
screen of the Ionic order, the frieze carved with swags.
The ceiling is slightly coved and decorated with an
oval of bay leaves in low relief, with a central rosette,
medallions, and sprays of leaves. The walls are made
out in panels with plaster mouldings.
The nave (48 ft. 6 in. by 21 ft.) ceiling is similar to
that of the chapel. The walls, between the windows,
have medallions with swags of leaves tied with ribbons. (fn. 44b)
Over the entrance to the apse there is the Craven shield
and crest with swags held at each end by a wyvern.
Across the west end there is a small gallery with an
oak-panelled front. The pulpit, placed on the south
side of the chancel, is of oak, open panelled with turned
balusters and an egg-and-tongue capping. Also on the
south side at the west end is the font, a small octagonal
one of stone, each side decorated with a sunk quatrefoil,
and resting on a marble shaft with a form of Ionic
capital. The floor is black and white marble, boarded
under modern varnished oak seating.
There is one bell, (fn. 45) dated 1728, by Joseph Smith.
The plate consists of a silver gilt flagon, chalice, and
two patens, the gift of the Rt. Hon. Lord Craven, 1773.
The registers commence 1656.
Advowson
Ranulf, Earl of Chester, in the reign
of Henry I granted to the priory of
Coventry the church of St. Michael,
Coventry, with its chapels, including that of Binley, (fn. 46)
which grant was confirmed by his grandson Earl Ranulph
in 1192. (fn. 47) It remained in the hands of the priory until
the Dissolution, after which the 'rectory', presumably
including the right of appointing to the chaplaincy,
passed with the Coventry lands in Binley to the Burgoynes and in 1603 to Christopher Warren. (fn. 48) By 1730
the chapel was a donative in the gift of the Earl of
Craven, (fn. 49) with whose descendants it remained until
shortly before 1929, when it became a perpetual curacy
in the gift of the Bishop of Coventry. (fn. 50)
Charities
It is recorded that William, Earl
Craven, gave by his will £100 to the
parish where he should be buried. He
died in April 1697 and was buried at Binley.
It appears that in 1755 Stephen Sleamaker gave £10,
which was added to the above-mentioned bequest.
The charities are now regulated by schemes of the
Charity Commissioners dated 19 December 1924 and
10 November 1933 which appoint a body of trustees
to apply the income of the charities under various heads
for the general benefit of the poor of the parish. The
annual income of the charities amounts to £2 7s. 8d.