BURTON HASTINGS
Acreage: 1,488.
Population: 1911, 169; 1921, 197; 1931, 227.
Burton Hastings is a parish in the north-east of
Knightlow hundred, 3½ miles south of Hinckley in
Leicestershire, the parish reaching to within a few
hundred yards of Watling Street, the county boundary.
The Soar Brook divides it on the north from Stretton
Baskerville, and the River Anker on the west and south
from Nuneaton, Bulkington, and Wolvey. The eastern
boundary with Wolvey mainly follows the road from
that village to Hinckley. The ground slopes from
just over 400 ft. along this road to just under
300 ft. near the Anker. The Ashby de la Zouch
Canal, a branch of the Oxford and Coventry Canal
system, runs through the west of the parish, and near it
is the small secluded village, connected by minor roads
with the Coventry-Hinckley and Nuneaton-Lutterworth roads. The latter on its west to east course
through the south of the parish passes Shelford, now
a hamlet of six farms, but formerly a separate manor
and as late as 1625 contributing a third part of the
payments and levies on Burton parish. (fn. 1) Depopulation
probably set in after the inclosures of the early 16th
century, Henry Smyth in 1509–10 imparking 30 acres
of arable and 100 of woodland and pasture in Shyrford, (fn. 2)
now Shelford. (fn. 3) In 1783, 600 acres of Burton Hastings
were inclosed. (fn. 4) There is now no woodland in the
parish.
Manors
Siward Barn, who held BURTON in the
time of Edward the Confessor, was an
adherent of Hereward in the Isle of Ely. (fn. 5)
In 1086 his lands, assessed at 4 hides and including
2 mills, were held by Ralf of Henry de Ferieres. (fn. 6) In
1235 one knight's fee in Burton and Shelford was
held of the Earl Ferrers, (fn. 7) and in 1242 Henry de
Hastings held this fee of the same overlord. (fn. 8) In 1266
the castles and lands of Robert de Ferrers were granted
to Edmund (Crouchback), son of Henry III, (fn. 9) but the
next tenants in chief were the Hastings, Earls of
Pembroke, from whom the manor was often, after the
beginning of the 14th century, called BURTON
HASTINGS; in 1348 Laurence de Hastings, Earl of
Pembroke, held one knight's fee, extended at £20
yearly, (fn. 10) as tenant in chief, his tenant being the heir
of Nicholas de Turvill, (fn. 11) which Nicholas had been the
actual tenant in 1269, when the fee was assigned in
dower to Joan, widow of Henry de Hastings (fn. 12) (son
of the tenant in 1242). It was again held of the Earl
of Pembroke in 1375 at the death of John, 2nd
(Hastings) Earl, (fn. 13) who in 1369 had obtained royal
licence to settle many of his
estates on his cousin Sir William
Beauchamp. (fn. 14) The widow of
the latter held a knight's fee in
Burton and Shelford at her death
in 1435, (fn. 15) when the overlordship passed to Sir Edward Neville, husband of Sir William
Beauchamp's granddaughter; he
held the fee at his death in
1476, (fn. 16) after which date it cannot be separately identified.
Hastings. Or a sleeve gules.
In the reign of Henry II half of Burton Hastings
was granted by Geoffrey le Abbe and Emma his wife,
with the consent of their heirs Richard le Abbe and
Ralph de Turvill, who was son of Emma, to the priory
of Nuneaton. (fn. 17) The grant was confirmed c. 1170 by
Earl William de Ferrers. (fn. 18) In 1316 Fulk de Orreby
granted his lands in Burton to William de Herle, (fn. 19)
who, with the prioress of Nuneaton, was the immediate
lord of Burton with its members in the same year. (fn. 20)
William heads the list of contributors to the subsidy
in 1332. (fn. 21) His son Robert de Herle was licensed in
1344 to grant additional land in mortmain to Nuneaton
priory, (fn. 22) and in the following year was appointed a
justice of the peace. (fn. 23) He died in 1364, when his
holding in Burton (of Agnes, Countess of Pembroke,
as of her dower), was valued at £4 and passed to his
nephew Sir Ralph de Hastings, of a cadet branch of
the Hastings, Earls of Pembroke, tenants in chief at
this time. (fn. 24) His grandson, another Ralph, was beheaded
in 1405 for his part in Archbishop Scrope's rebellion, (fn. 25)
but his brother Richard obtained restitution of his
estates in 1410 (fn. 26) and was sheriff of Warwickshire at
various dates between 1414 and 1433. (fn. 27) In 1428 the
land in Burton and Shelford formerly held by Robert
de Herle and John de Sherford was reckoned as half
a knight's fee. (fn. 28) At Richard de Hastings's death in
1436–7 his holding in Burton consisted of 6 messuages,
9 virgates of land, 2 cottages, and a water-mill, (fn. 29) which
he left to his widow Elizabeth, with succession to his
brother Sir Leonard Hastings. At her death in 1447
she was stated to hold the manor of Burton near
Wolvey in dower, of Edmund, Lord Grey de Ruthin,
whose grandfather was heir general of the last Hastings,
Earl of Pembroke. (fn. 30) Sir Leonard Hastings was sheriff
in 1453–4. (fn. 31) His son Sir William was created a baron
by Edward IV, (fn. 32) but was beheaded for high treason
in 1483, (fn. 33) when his son Edward, aged 17, succeeded. (fn. 34)
Edward's son George was created Earl of Huntingdon
in 1529 (fn. 35) and sold the manor to Thomas Harvey,
merchant, (fn. 36) after whose death the manor became
divided amongst his four daughters and coheiresses, of
whom the youngest, Lucy, married Thomas Cotton
of Conington (Hunts.). (fn. 37) In 1565 they obtained two
other quarters from Francis Haslerig (fn. 38) and Thomas
and Anne Croftes, (fn. 39) and in 1570 they were dealing
with three-quarters of the manor. (fn. 40) Burton came into
the possession of Robert Cotton,
one of Thomas's younger sons,
who died without male issue in
1586, when it passed to his
brothers Philip and John jointly,
and on the death of the latter
in 1636 to Sir Thomas Cotton,
2nd baronet, son of the antiquary. (fn. 41) Sir Thomas conveyed
his three-quarters of Burton
manor in 1637 to William
Fitton, (fn. 42) and, in association with
Richard Perkins, senior and
junior, and Rebecca the wife
of the latter, to Gilbert Fitch and William Perkins
junior in 1650. (fn. 43) In 1708 the Cottons sold their share
to Thomas Perkins, and he in 1714 to Sir Nathan
Wright, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, (fn. 44) who died
in possession in 1721. (fn. 45)
Cotton. Azure an eagle argent with beak and legs or.
The remaining quarter of the manor was granted
in 1597 by William and John Nowell to Michael
Parkyns, (fn. 46) and by the latter in 1605 to Thomas
Gilbert and Richard Orton; (fn. 47) it is perhaps to be
identified with the 'manor' of Burton of which Thomas
Poughfer (1749–56) and John Finch (1784) were
lords. (fn. 48) John Finch Simpson and others conveyed this
manor to Charles Thomas Hudson and James Morrice
in 1799. (fn. 49)
By 1744 the Wright portion had passed to the
Aston family, who were lords till 1760. (fn. 50) In 1777
Philippa, widow of John Grove, joint lord of Shelford,
was lady of Burton manor, (fn. 51) which in 1783 became
united with Shelford under William Cooper of
Hinckley (Leics.). (fn. 52)
In 1900 Mrs. Barrs of Odstone Hall, Leics., was
lady of the manor. (fn. 53)
SHELFORD or SHERFORD. Early in the 13th
century Thomas Trove granted lands in Sherford to
Combe Abbey, styling himself lord of Sherford. (fn. 54)
Later in that century, one Simon attested a deed as
lord of Sherford, (fn. 55) and in 1304 Joan de Bristol,
Prioress of Nuneaton, leased land to John, son of Simon
de Schireford, and Ellen and their sons Simon and
Edmund. (fn. 56) In 1327 John de Shirford granted to his
son John, with contingent remainder to Eleanor,
Margaret, and Catherine, sisters of the latter, property
in Sherford, including a mill, (fn. 57) and in 1346 John de
Shirford, with Robert de Herle, held land assessed at
half a knight's fee in Sherford and Burton. (fn. 58) By the
end of the 14th century the Sherford property had
passed to the Purefey family, Philip Purefey of
Misterton (Leics.) having married Margaret de Shirford, (fn. 59) no doubt the Margaret mentioned above. In
1394 William Purefey obtained
lands in Sherford, reckoned as
a third of the manor and perhaps
representing the portion of one
of the other two coheiresses
Eleanor and Catherine de Shirford, from Thomas Bosevyll and
Katherine his wife, (fn. 60) who had
been wife of Simon de Shirford. (fn. 61)
John Purefey, brother of Henry,
released the manor in 1472–3 to
John Denton and Isabel his
wife; (fn. 62) in 1491, John and Henry
Purefey being both dead, Denton was given the keeping
of their lands in Berks., Bucks., Leics., and Warwickshire, with the wardship and marriage of their cousin
and heir Nicholas. (fn. 63) This Nicholas, with Alice his wife,
conveyed the manor in 1507 to Sir Richard Emson
and others. (fn. 64) By 1515 it had apparently been leased
to the Smyth family of Coventry, when at the death of
Joan Stafford, late wife of Henry Smyth, it was held
by her son Walter, aged 14; (fn. 65) two years previously she
had been granted the wardship of Walter, or of Henry
his brother in the event of Walter's death. (fn. 66) The manor
was finally sold to Sir Walter Smyth in 1545 by
Nicholas Purefey, presumably the son of the previous
Nicholas, and Katherine his wife. (fn. 67) Sir Walter was
murdered in 1554 by his wife Dorothy, daughter of
Thomas Chetwynd of Ingestre (Staffs.), (fn. 68) when his
son Richard, who was originally to have been betrothed
to Dorothy, was 22 years of age. Richard conveyed
Sherford manor in 1564 to Sir Edward Lyttleton and
others, (fn. 69) and died in 1593 leaving a son John aged 13, (fn. 70)
to whom he intended to leave the manor in default of
issue of the marriage of his daughter Margaret with
William Lyttleton. But, according to Dugdale, (fn. 71) he
was tricked by Sir John Lyttleton, William's father,
and the manor actually passed to George, William's
brother, who married Margaret Smyth after William's
death, with reversion to the eldest brother Gilbert,
who died in 1599. (fn. 72) The manor passed to the Crown
on the attainder of John Lyttleton, Gilbert's son, for
his share in the conspiracy of the Earl of Essex, but
was granted back to Muriel Lyttleton his widow by
James I. (fn. 73) In 1605 she and Edward Bromley leased it
to Sir Thomas Cornewall and Ann his wife, (fn. 74) and
shortly afterwards sold it to Sir John Hele, the lawyer,
who disposed of it to his five sons. Dugdale may be
right in connecting these frequent changes of ownership
with the insecure title passed by the Lyttletons to the
Heles, and refers to litigation between the Hele sons.
The manor seems to have passed finally to Sir Francis,
the second son, who died seised in 1623; (fn. 75) his son John
was vouchee in a recovery in 1632. (fn. 76) The last mention
of the Heles, by origin a Devonshire family, in connexion with this manor is in 1664, when Sir John Hele
was vouchee in a recovery. (fn. 77) At this time Jane, Sir
Francis's granddaughter, and her husband Sir Edward
Hungerford (whose sister also had married into the
Hele family) (fn. 78) were dealing with the manor. (fn. 79)
Purefey. Sable three pairs of clasped hands in armour argent.
By the marriage of Mary, niece of Sir Francis Hele,
to Thomas Hooke of Flanchford (Surrey) (fn. 80) the manor
passed to her son Sir Thomas Hooke, bart., who dealt
with it in 1664, (fn. 81) as did his son Sir Hele Hooke and his
wife Hester in 1687. (fn. 82) On Sir Hele's death in 1712
it passed to his three sisters as coheiresses and so by
their marriages to the Grove, Dyer, and Hamond
families. (fn. 83) John Grove, Hele Dyer, and William
Hamilton (? Hamond) were joint lords in 1765, (fn. 84) and
the first-named with Michael and Elizabeth Heathcote
and William Watson in 1766. (fn. 85) By 1778 the manor
had apparently become reunited in the hands of
William Cooper of Hinckley (Leics.), (fn. 86) who from
1783 also held Burton manor.
The half of Burton Hastings given to Nuneaton
priory in the 12th century was valued at £5 17s. 8d.
in 1535, (fn. 87) and in 1540 was granted to Sir Marmaduke
Constable, junior, of London, (fn. 88) being confirmed to
Robert Constable and his heirs by letters patent in
1561. (fn. 89) It passed with Stockingford (q.v.) (fn. 90) to Anne
daughter of Sir Henry Willoughby (fn. 91) and presumably
by her marriage to Sir Thomas Aston came to that
family. It apparently lay in the Shelford portion of the
parish, as Sir John Hele, who purchased the manor of
Shelford at the beginning of the 17th century, held it
of the heirs of Marmaduke Constable as of the manor
of (Nun)eaton. (fn. 92)
The portion of Shelford granted to Combe abbey
was the subject of legal proceedings in the middle of
the 15th century between Richard, Abbot of Combe,
and William Purefey. (fn. 93) Probably it was sold to the
Purefeys before the Dissolution, as it is not mentioned
in the Valor.
Church
The church of ST. BOTOLPH consists
of chancel, nave, south porch, and west
tower. It is built of cream-coloured sandstone and the chancel is roofed with bluish tiles; the
nave and tower roofs, of slight pitch and concealed
behind parapets, are covered with lead. Only the
chancel and perhaps a portion of the tower masonry
appear to date back to the 14th century. The present
nave was rebuilt about the beginning of the 16th
century, followed by the rebuilding of the tower.
During modern restorations the whole church has been
re-roofed, the exterior walls partly renovated, with the
new south porch added, and the interior (particularly
the chancel) refitted.
Much of the east chancel wall has been refaced.
Each diagonal buttress has two weathered offsets, the
upper moulded, and the plinth, which returns round
its base, also has two offsets, plain and moulded. Above
a modern string-course a moulded parapet leads up to
a modern gable-cross. Both mullions and all the tracery
have been replaced in the three-light east window, of
which the 15th-century hood-mould has a chamfered
top and bottom and the fillet is widened at the springing
into square stops enriched by rosettes. The jambs have
two chamfered orders, the outer narrow, and each
light has a trefoiled ogee head with a vertical bar over,
dividing the window-head into trefoiled panels.
The side walls of the chancel are ancient, except for
the modern parapet, and the plinth is continuous,
stopping on the south side against the projecting walls
of the nave. On the north it stops against a modern
pier set in the re-entrant angle, which contains the
modern heating flue and ends in a blue-brick stack at
the parapet. A single two-light 14th-century window
pierces the north wall in the west half. It has a square
head, which has two chamfered orders, like the jambs,
divided by a single fillet, and no hood-mould; the lights
have trefoiled ogee heads. The south wall has two
windows, that to the west being only 2 ft. from the
nave, and of one light, similar to the opposite window,
with its sill immediately above the plinth; the other,
to the east, is two-light and similar, except that the
square head is of greater height, having a quatrefoil
above the trefoiled light. (fn. 94)
The nave plinth is 6 in. deeper than that of the
chancel; its upper moulding is crude and there is
hardly any offset, but two plain offsets are spaced out
below. It returns round the four buttresses at the
angles; they each have two weathered offsets, but they
are disposed differently. That at the north-east angle
is diagonal; the opposite east buttress is less in height
and is set between square and diagonal, to avoid
blocking the adjacent chancel window, the surface of
the east gable twisting slightly into the east side of the
buttress. Both west buttresses are set square. A modern
moulded parapet runs the whole length of the north
side; the east end stops against the embattled parapet (fn. 95)
of the east gable, which rises 2 ft. 6 in. higher and is
then pitched at the slope of the roof with a hollow
string-course beneath it. The latter returns round the
north end the thickness of the gable parapet (9 in.) but
continues with the embattled parapet along the south
wall to stop against the tower. The walls, which contain a few blocks of red sandstone, are pierced by three
openings. On the north side is an original three-light
window with a four-centred head, set in the eastern
half. It has two orders, the inner a shallow hollow and
the outer an ovolo. The detail is crude and the hoodmould is cut into the voussoirs, terminating in small
elongated heads. Each light has a two-centred head
without cusps and the mullions, continuing to the
window head, embrace a quatrefoil. In the west half
there was a doorway which is now blocked flush with
masonry. On the south side there is a door and a
similar window. The doorway has a two-centred head
without imposts, a wave-moulding forming the single
order. Both the doors and the porch are modern, the
latter is timber-framed with unglazed openings above
a stone base 3 ft. 6 in. high, (fn. 96) and it carries a tile roof,
above which is a square sundial of slate dated 1867 (fn. 97)
immediately below the string.
The square tower is divided into two stages by a
string-course at two-thirds of its height, and it stands on
a plinth which returns round two diagonal buttresses
at the western angles, having two offsets, the upper
moulded and the lower hollowed. It rises 1 ft. higher
than the nave plinth. (fn. 98) The buttresses extend 2 ft.
above the string-course, and each has four chamfered
offsets, spaced at increasing intervals towards the plinth.
The east angles are plain except for separate horizontal
lengths of splayed moulding facing east, 3 ft. below the
string, matching the second offsets from the top of the
west buttresses. There is a top hollow-moulded stringcourse surmounted by an embattled parapet with small
crocketed and gabled pinnacles on the angles. On the
south and west faces a lead spout projects from a vent
piercing the moulded string. Two-light belfry windows occur on each face immediately above the stringcourse; each has two chamfered orders and two-centred
heads. (fn. 99) The west face is also pierced by a three-light
window, set low, the chamfered sill being raised one
stone course only above the plinth. It has two chamfered orders, the outer one being deep and carried over
as a depressed four-centred head. The centre light,
like the others, is trefoiled but is stilted to reach the
head. There is a small dripmould with head-stops.
The two other windows are unglazed, small, and rectangular, with chamfered surrounds, one immediately
above the window last described, and the other lighting
the tower vice on the south side, 6 ft. above the plinth
and close to the west buttress.
The chancel has a modern oak roof with an octagonal
boarded soffit treated with ribs and bosses. The main
four-centred ribs divide the length into two bays and
are supported on wall-posts above modern carved stone
corbels. The roof of the nave is of modern open timber,
although the massive tie-beams of the trusses may have
been re-used from original 16th-century trusses. All
the walls are unplastered, and those of the chancel have
an oak-panelled dado, apparently formed out of 18thcentury box-pews and topped by a modern embattled
rail. The floors are paved in modern stonework. (fn. 1)
The east window is set between deeply splayed
jambs, and the stone sill is formed with square bases
to the mullions, having slightly rounded angles. To the
north of it is a recess sunk in the stonework and cutting
the upper line of the dado; it is 10 in. high by 7 in.
wide. There is also a small piscina, 9 in. wide, with an
ogee head, immediately below the east side of the south
window. The window on the north side of the chancel
has an internal head of later date, (fn. 2) consisting of two
cambered stones worked into a four-centred profile
with a hollow-chamfered edge. The two south windows have been similarly treated; and probably at the
same time the splayed jambs were replaced, that next
the chancel arch being roughly cut back afterwards to
widen the angle of light. The south wall in this corner
is cut back high up. (fn. 3)
The chancel arch has a segmental head of two chamfered orders which are carried down into the jambs.
Only the inner order carries a capital, which has a
hollow mould set between a rounded necking and an
abacus of two rolls inset below a square top. The north
jamb continues down to the floor, but that to the south
has a base with a square lower portion rising 23 in.
above the present chancel floor; 18 in. above this the
two chamfered orders are combined with an offset into
a single splay. The splay on the side of the nave is
partly covered by a stone facing in the same plane as the
surrounding wall and may have been extended as backing to a small side altar. (fn. 4)
The upper and lower doorways to the vice, leading
to the former rood-loft, open onto the nave and pierce
the masonry north of the chancel arch, in a splay wall
built from the jamb of the arch to the north wall of the
nave. Each doorway carries a four-centred head in one
block, and a continuous wave-moulded chamfer frames
the opening, 20 in. wide; there are chamfered-stop
bases to the jambs. Both doors and doorways are
modern, these entrances to the vice having been reopened since 1902. (fn. 5) Some of the facing-blocks of the
splay wall have indications of red pigment.
The windows in the nave have internal four-centred
heads. Both sills are stepped, with the upper steps
chamfered in almost the same plane as the mullions,
and they are curiously set out of alignment with the
walls, the west end of each upper step being 4½ in. back
from the inner surface of the wall, and the east end
11 in. Farther west along the north wall the original
doorway is blocked by masonry, forming a deep recess;
a wrought-iron hinge projects from the re-entrant
angle of one of the square jambs and the head is faced
internally with two stone slabs, cambered and shaped
into a four-centred soffit. A single stone corbel, carved
into a human head, projects from this wall close to the
west angle and 5 ft. beneath the feet of the rafters.
The south door has square jambs, and the curved
head is cut away on the west side to make way for the
original single door; the present double doors are
modern. Farther east along the south wall (3 ft. from
the south-east angle) are the remains of a piscina, 18 in.
high. The trefoiled head is mutilated and the original
projecting bowl has been cut back. It is only recessed
2½ in., and 18 in. below there is a 12-in. horizontal
groove cut into the wall.
The west wall contains a tall four-centred arch
spanning the full width of the tower. It has a single
wide chamfered order, (fn. 6) plain and without imposts, it
stops 3 ft. above the floor level with pyramid-stops
above a plain square angle. On each side, 18 in. above
the nave floor, there is a roughly chamfered offset, and
this plinth is cut off at the jambs of the arch. This
work appears to be late 16th century and it is uncertain
whether the remainder of the tower was built at this
time or earlier in the same century. Traces of a former
two-centred west arch can be seen above the present
one, (fn. 7) and though its hood-mould has been cut off, it can
be traced down to a point one stone course below the
present springing.
The tower space has been screened off by an oak
screen to form a vestry; it has unpierced panels and a
door on the south side. Above the modern ringers'
gallery, with its open timber balustrade, light is admitted from the west window into the nave.
Except for two Chippendale chairs in the sanctuary,
the furniture is modern. But at the west of the nave are
two ancient iron-bound chests; each is made out of a
tree-trunk, and is 3 ft. 7 in. long, 18 in. wide, and 16 in.
high. The ends are bound with wrought-iron straps
and three iron strap-hinges extend over the lids, wrought
with tapered ends. Close by in the nave also is a creamcoloured sandstone font. It has a modern stone base
but the large block it supports appears to have been
carved in the late 15th or early 16th century. The circular top is 2 ft. 4 in. in diameter and the drum tapers
slightly downwards, becoming octagonal with round
projecting fillets at the angles. At one third of its height
the fillets divide, forming eight trefoiled heads over the
side panels, and the spaces above are filled mostly with
conventional flower-forms. It has a modern timber
canopy 2 ft. in height.
The only monuments are a small number of 19thcentury wall-tablets. A single medieval floor tile in a
frame is displayed against the base of the chancel arch.
It contains a quadrant of a circle decorated by leafpatterns. On the west side of the inner order of
voussoirs of the chancel arch are a series of wrought-iron
hooks, one at the apex, two (originally three) below
to the south and three to the north, the hooks facing
away from the void. They are of ancient workmanship
and evidently secured the lenten veil above the rood-loft.
On the north wall of the ringers' gallery there is a
painted panel depicting the royal arms.
There are five bells, of which three are ancient; two
are dated 1657, one by Brian Eldridge and the other by
Henry Bagley, and the third, undated, is probably by one
of the Newcombes. (fn. 8) Two more were added in 1937.
The registers begin in 1574.
Between the south gate to the churchyard and the
chancel there is a single yew tree, and facing the gate,
on the opposite side of the lane, is an 18th-century
farmhouse with a row of tall yew trees extending along
the frontage.
Advowson
There was a priest at Burton Hastings in 1086. (fn. 9) The church was granted
to Nuneaton priory in the reign of
Henry II by Ralph de Tureville at the request of his
mother Emma, who had become a nun in that house. (fn. 10)
In 1540 the estates of this priory in Burton, including
the advowson, were granted to Sir Marmaduke Constable, (fn. 11) who died in possession in 1560. (fn. 12) The
advowson then followed the descent of the manor of
Shelford or Sherford, being reckoned as a donative in
the 18th century. (fn. 13) In 1769 it was conveyed by John
and Philippa Grove, Elizabeth Heathcote, Sir Thomas
Dyer, bart., and William Watson (representatives of the
families amongst which the lordship of Shelford manor
was by this time divided) to Francis Wheler. (fn. 14) Mrs.
Grove was patron in 1786, (fn. 15) though the manor had by
then passed into other hands. In the 19th century the
patronage changed hands several times; G. Greenway
was patron in 1831, (fn. 16) the Rev. William Bucknill was
patron and incumbent in 1850, (fn. 17) and the Rev. Digby
Turpin similarly in 1900. (fn. 18) In 1915 Mr. F. D. Turpin
was patron. (fn. 19) Since 1927 the living (with which
Stretton Baskerville was merged during the 19th century) (fn. 20) has been in the gift of the Bishop of Coventry,
and held with Wolvey. (fn. 21)
The value in 1291 was £5, (fn. 22) and in 1535 the rectory
was farmed for 53s. 4d. (fn. 23) and the parish church was
served by a stipendiary, who received £4 14s. 2d., plus
9s. 6d. for procurations and synodals. (fn. 24)
Two acres of meadow called Moorishe Meadowe
and le Hassocks, in the field of Draycot, were given for
the upkeep of a lamp in Burton church. (fn. 25)
Charities
Feoffment Lands. This charity, the
endowment of which consists of hereditaments in the parish of Burton
Hastings, is regulated by a scheme of the Charity
Commissioners dated 1 September 1922. The scheme
appoints a body of trustees to administer the charity and
provides that the income of the charity shall, after the
payment of a yearly sum of £5 to an Extraordinary
Repair Fund, be applied primarily for repairing the
causeway and streets in the town of Burton Hastings
and subject thereto for the general purposes of the
town and for the benefit of the inhabitants thereof.
The annual income of the charity amounts to £40
(approximately).
Isaac Wells by will dated 22 July 1819 gave £40 to
the churchwardens of Burton Hastings, the interest to
be annually distributed by them in bread at the church
door on Christmas Day immediately after divine service
to the poor and indigent persons belonging to the
parish. The annual income of the charity amounts to
19s. 8d.