BISHOP'S ITCHINGTON
Acreage: 3,052.
Population: 1911, 818; 1921, 980; 1931, 915.
Bishop's Itchington is a parish and large village
3 miles south-west of Southam. The river Itchen, from
which it derives its name, flows northward through the
parish, which accounts for the large amount of meadow,
50 acres, recorded in 1086. (fn. 1) The ground slopes from
Christmas Hill (fn. 2) (425 ft.) on the western boundary to
269 ft., where the Itchen leaves the parish at its northeastern corner. There are no main roads through the
parish, though the Southam-Kineton road, which
crosses it from north to south and passes through the
village, has or had milestones. (fn. 3) Minor roads connect
the village with Harbury, Ladbroke, and Knightcott
in Burton Dassett. The present village in the north
of the parish was formerly known as Upper Itchington,
Lower Itchington being about a mile to the south-east,
probably near the present Old Town Farm, where there
are traces of buildings having once existed. (fn. 4) Lower
Itchington was at one time the more important, and
contained the church (St. Michael's Church in the
upper village is on the site of a medieval chapel), but
Thomas Fisher, who purchased the manor from the
Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield in 1547, 'pulled down
the church for the building of a large manor house . . .
actually changed the name from Bishop's to Fisher's
Itchington, but is only remembered as the ruthless
depopulator'. (fn. 5) In 1730 this manor-house had been
abandoned and converted into two of the six dwellings
that then existed in Lower Itchington, (fn. 6) and traces of the
depopulation remained as late as 1801, when the first
census showed a population (370) much below that of
most neighbouring parishes, having regard to the large
area. Since then the population has risen almost continuously to a figure about two and a half times what it was
in 1801, a noteworthy increase for a rural parish, though
caused partly by the development of lime and cement
works on the northern boundary with Harbury. (fn. 7) As
in Harbury, the soil is rather heavy but productive.
The former G.W. R. main line to Birmingham crosses
the northern part of the parish, the nearest station
being at Harbury, a mile and a half distant. In the
south-west corner of the parish is the large wood known
as Itchington Holt.
There are a Congregational chapel, erected in 1837,
and a Methodist chapel, erected in 1859. (fn. 8)
A windmill is mentioned in 1279 (fn. 9) and in 1602. (fn. 10)
Many 'old coins, bones, musket balls and foundations
of stone' were found in 1849, (fn. 11) no doubt relics of the
destroyed lower village.
A grant of 24 acres made to the church of All Saints
by Mabel de Hagley in 1246 shows that they lay in
the East and West Fields, (fn. 12) which seems to imply a
two-field system of cultivation at that date. An
Inclosure Act for Bishop's Itchington was passed in
1774. (fn. 13)
Sir John Willes (1685–1761), Chief Justice of
Common Pleas, was the son of John Willes, vicar from
1681 to 1700. (fn. 14) In 1638 a warrant was issued for
commitment of Edward Tompkins of Bishop's Itchington for 'giving ill language and reviling speeches against
the collectors of ship money'. (fn. 15)
East of the church is the Manor House, which now
forms six cottages, with two added to the north and
south ends in red brick. Although adapted for eight
families the external elevation has suffered little alteration. It is a two-story building, T-shaped in plan,
dating from about the middle of the 16th century, and
is built of limestone ashlar with sandstone dressings,
moulded plinth, and tiled roof. The windows throughout have a single splay in a square rebate. The south
front has a porch, with a steep-pitched gable, two
stories high, and has a wide entrance with a flat head,
moulded architrave, plain pilasters and a moulded
pediment with a two-light window above, and a
blocked two-light in the gable. The entrance doorway
has a chamfered four-centred head. There is a moulded
string-course at first-floor level carried up over the
windows as a hood-moulding. The upper story is
projected slightly on a moulded corbel stopping against
the pilasters. East of the porch is a four-light transomed window, with two lower lights removed to
insert a modern door, and above a three-light window;
to the west there are two-light windows to each floor.
In the return wall of the west wing there is a small
single-light window at first-floor level. On the north
side there are two two-light transomed windows with
two two-lights above, one blocked. At the west end
there is a door with a slightly cambered chamfered
head, with a small single-light window east of it. In
the return wall of the west wing there is a similar door
and window, and a two-light transomed window to
each floor. On the west there is a central doorway
with a four-centred moulded arch with a square head,
carved spandrels, and moulded stops, and south of it is
a four-light transomed window with a three-light
above. North of the doorway a two-light transomed
window has been converted into a door by removing
the two lower lights, and above it is a two-light window.
The chimney-stacks have all been rebuilt in red brick
and the roof re-tiled. Internally nothing of interest
remains.
Manors
ITCHINGTON was one of the fifteen
Warwickshire lordships granted by Earl
Leofric to his newly founded priory of
Coventry in 1043, (fn. 16) and was in 1086 held by the
church of Coventry for 5 hides, worth £12. The fact
that in 1066 it had been worth £10 and afterwards £3
suggests that it may, like the Coventry holding in the
neighbouring parish of Harbury, have been laid waste
by the king's army. (fn. 17) At some date early in the 12th
century the monks seem to have been dispossessed of
some of their estates; they were restored by command of
Pope Eugenius III (1145–53), the grant being confirmed by King Stephen, with special mention of
Itchington, in a charter recited in 1348. (fn. 18) The exact
date when this manor became the exclusive property
of the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield is not certain;
Dugdale (fn. 19) puts it at the beginning of the episcopate of
Roger Molend (1257), but it was already called
BISHOP'S ITCHINGTON in 1247, (fn. 20) and the bull
issued in 1152 by Eugenius III expressly confirmed
Itchington to Bishop Walter Duredent and his successors. (fn. 21) In any case Bishop Molend was in 1259 granted
free warren in his demesne lands, a weekly market on
Wednesdays and an annual fair in connexion with the
feast of SS. Peter and Paul, at Itchington. (fn. 22) In 1285
he claimed and was allowed view of frankpledge, assize
of bread and ale, and infangthief or the right to try
and to hang thieves caught within the bounds of his
Warwickshire manors. (fn. 23) Six years earlier Itchington
had been returned at 5 carucates, with a windmill,
held in demesne, 8 free and 26 unfree tenants holding (fn. 24)
in all 42¼ yardlands, and 16 cottagers with 17 cottages.
The value of the bishop's manor in 1291 was returned
as £19 18s. 8d. (fn. 25) In 1322 a commission of oyer and
terminer was issued regarding persons who during a
vacancy in the see had broken into the bishop's estates
at Itchington and elsewhere, burnt the houses, fished
in the stews, and cut down the trees. (fn. 26) An extent taken
after the death of Bishop Northburgh (1359) shows
the manor-house as of no value: the pasture in the
garden was worth 2s.; there were a windmill, and
32 acres of arable in the demesne worth only 4d. an
acre because in fallow: also 24 acres (cultivated) worth
3s. an acre. A pasture called Smethys was worth 6s.
The 30 customary tenants had commuted for 4s. each
per year, and in Nether Itchington there were 10
'acremen' each holding a messuage and half a virgate.
The rents of the free tenants amounted to £6 5s. 8d.
and perquisites of court to 5s. 10d. An aid called
'Stuth' was payable by the customary tenants at
Michaelmas, realizing 18s. a year. (fn. 27)
The bishops of Coventry and Lichfield remained
lords of Itchington till 1547, when Richard (Sampson),
then bishop, granted it with the advowson (fn. 27a) and all
appurtenances to Thomas Fisher for a yearly rent of
£50. This was confirmed by the dean and chapter
the same year, as also a release of the £50 rent in 1548,
the whole being ratified by the king, to be held in chief
as of the manor of East Greenwich. (fn. 28) Fisher was also
granted the return and execution of writs within the
manors of Itchington and Tachbrook, which were
henceforth to be known as the Liberty of Thomas
Fisher in the county of Warwick. (fn. 29) The only survival
of this concession is the brass matrix of a seal executed
for his son Edward and now in the Museum at
Birmingham. (fn. 30) It bears the figure of St. Edward the
Confessor, and in front of him a shield charged with a
kingfisher, between the initials E. and F., with the
date 1581 above. The legend is: sigillvm. peculiaris.
ivrisdictionis. de. ffysshers. itchyngton. Fisher,
who was a confidential agent of John Dudley, Viscount
Lisle and later Duke of Northumberland, and of the Protector
Somerset, (fn. 31) seems to have been
a typical nouveau riche of his
time, and Dugdale suggests that
the conveyance of two valuable
manors to him by Bishop Sampson was to gain favour at court
in view of the changes in religion,
regarding which the bishop was
conservative. (fn. 32) Fisher died in
possession of the manor in
1577; (fn. 33) it had been settled,
probably in 1558, (fn. 34) on his
wife Winifred, now deceased,
and his son and heir, Edward,
was then 30. The latter dealt
with the manors of Upper and Nether Itchington in
1576, (fn. 35) and 1592, (fn. 36) as did his son John in 1602, when
he conveyed land and a windmill to James Enyon. (fn. 37) By
this time the Fisher estates were heavily encumbered
owing to Edward's extravagance, and the manor of
Over Itchington had been taken into the queen's hands
in 1597 to liquidate his debts, and was still so in 1601
after the death of the then tenant Richard Stoneley. (fn. 38)
In 1610–11 John Fisher sold the manors to Thomas
Coxe of Hunningham, (fn. 39) after which the upper and
lower manors parted company. Thomas Coxe, junior,
son of the preceding, (fn. 40) is said to have married Judith
Fisher of Warwick Priory (? sister of John); (fn. 41) he, in
association with William Tym and Alice his wife,
conveyed to Thomas Wood and Humphrey Lee a
part of the manor of Itchington Episcopi alias Over
Itchington in 1631. (fn. 42) Ten years later Over Itchington
was in the hands of Samuel Cranmer, who held this
manor of the king as of East Greenwich, (fn. 43) and his son
Caesar was dealing with it in 1656 (fn. 44) and 1696. (fn. 45)
Caesar was created a knight in 1677, and it was probably
his only surviving son Charles, who was unmarried in
1696, (fn. 46) who about 1719 sold the upper manor to
Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy. (fn. 47) He was lord in
1731 (fn. 48) and died the following year, (fn. 49) his son Thomas
being lord in 1747. (fn. 50) The manor was held in 1753
by George and Constance Denton, (fn. 51) and their daughter
married Wenman Coke who dealt with Upper
Itchington manor in 1770 (fn. 52) and was lord in 1773; (fn. 53)
he died in 1776, and his widow Elizabeth was lady
of the manor in 1786. (fn. 54) She died in 1810, but between
1800 and 1822 Edward Tomes was lord of the upper
manor. (fn. 55) After this date only one manor is mentioned
in Bishop's Itchington, of which H. T. Chamberlayne
of Stoney Thorpe, who married Mary, only child of
Edward Tomes, was lord in 1838, (fn. 56) and after his death
in 1875 the manor apparently went to his third son
S. B. H. Chamberlayne of Witherley Hall, who was
lord in 1900 (fn. 57) and at his death in 1931, (fn. 58) when he was
succeeded by his son Col. E. Tankerville Chamberlayne.
Fisher. Gules a fesse vair between two hawks with wings expanded in chief and a dolphin in base argent all within a border engrailed argent.
The manor sold by the younger Thomas Coxe
to James (afterwards Sir James) Enyon of Flore
(Northants.) about 1636 (fn. 59) must have been the lower
manor. According to Dugdale, Enyon re-sold his
manor within five years of purchase to Sir David
Conyngham, (fn. 60) but in 1662 Nether Itchington 'lately
belonging to Sir James Enyons' was in crown hands
owing to the forfeiture of William Purefoy, the late
holder, for his share in the execution of Charles I.
It then comprised 752 acres and was worth £415 4s. 3d.
yearly, (fn. 61) and seems to have returned to Enyon's
descendants; in 1670 Dorothy and Katherine, two
of his coheiresses, (fn. 62) with their respective husbands
Thomas Stanley and John Garrard, and Sir Henry
Puckering (fn. 63) and Sir Charles Adderley, conveyed Nether
Itchington to Fulke Greville, afterwards Lord Brooke. (fn. 64)
A 'manor' in Bishop's Itchington was similarly dealt
with between William Peyto and John Verney in
1683. (fn. 65) The Hon. Doddington Greville was lord of
the manor of Nether Itchington in 1713 (fn. 66) and Fulke
Greville's great-grandson, Francis, 8th Baron (afterwards Earl) Brooke, in 1730 (fn. 67) and 1749. (fn. 68) Between
1755 and 1819 this manor was in the hands of the
Taylor family of Birmingham. (fn. 69)
A portion of the Stoneleigh Abbey property in
Radway, known as RADWAY GRANGE, was
reckoned as part of Bishop's Itchington, apparently
because the precentor of Lichfield Cathedral, who
was rector of Bishop's Itchington, held 8 virgates in
Radway for which by an agreement in 1275 he
received 13s. 4d. annual rent from Stoneleigh Abbey. (fn. 70)
For the descent, see Radway. (fn. 71) Thomas Cowper of
Wellingborough, who was surveying the neighbourhood for inclosure purposes in 1758–9, noted 'the
castle or high summer house (built by Mr. Miller of
Radway) on the very top of Edge Hill, which commands
a vast part of this kingdom, for with a telescope from
the summit of this mountain places may be seen about
100 miles distant'. (fn. 72)
Church
The church of ST. MICHAEL is situated
on the north side of the village and stands
in a small churchyard. The old church,
which originated as a chapel to the church of All Saints in
Lower Itchington (destroyed by Thomas Fisher), at the
beginning of the 19th century consisted of a chancel
and nave, structurally undivided, with a bell-turret at
the west end. Judging from the view of it in the
Aylesford Collection it had no external features earlier
than the 17th century. In 1834 a small brick tower
was added. (fn. 72a) The whole church was rebuilt in 1872
and consists of a chancel, nave, north aisle, west tower,
organ chamber, and south porch. It is built of squared
and coursed stonework and has a tiled roof of steep
pitch. Internally all the walls are plastered and the
floors tiled. The chancel is lighted by a tracery window
of three trefoil lights on the east, on the south by a
square-headed window of four trefoil lights, using old
stone mullions, and a similar one of two lights. The
south side of the nave has a porch with a trefoiled
light on either side; the doorway has a moulded pointed
arch, the mouldings dying out on splayed jambs. East
of the porch are three tracery windows, one of four
trefoil lights and the others of two. The north aisle
has three tracery windows, one of three trefoil lights and
the others with two, and on the west another of three.
The organ chamber is at the east end of the aisle; it is
lighted by a window of two trefoil lights on the east
and has an entrance door on the north side with a flat
shouldered head. The tower, which is without buttresses, is in two stages, with a weathered offset to the
upper stage, gargoyles at each corner, and a plain
parapet. The west door has a pointed arch of two
splayed orders with a two-light tracery window over,
and above a narrow rectangular light; on the south side
there is a similar light with a clock dial above it. In the
north-west angle there is a staircase turret with an
external entrance, and on the north face another clock
dial. The belfry has tracery windows of two trefoil
lights on all four faces.
The chancel (19 ft. 6 in. by 20 ft. 1 in) has a mosaic
reredos at the east end and one step to the altar. On
the north side there is an arch to the organ chamber.
In the floor there is a white marble slab to Margaret,
wife of Lord Chief Justice Willes, died 1757; and two
slate slabs, one to John Willes, D.D., died 1700, the
other to William Willes, son of John Willes, Chief
Justice of Chester, died 1729; and on the south wall
of the tower there is a memorial to John Willes,
died 1761.
The nave (33 ft. 1 in. by 20 ft. 1 in.) has a trussed
rafter roof, plastered between the rafters. The font,
in the south-west corner, is octagonal and made up of
old stones, probably from the arcade of the earlier
church. The chancel arch of two orders rests on short
shafts of coloured marble resting on fluted stone
corbels. The pointed tower arch is of two splayed
orders, the outer carried down to the floor and the
inner dying out on the wall. The nave arcade of three
bays has pointed arches springing from circular shafts
with moulded bases.
The north aisle (33 ft. 1 in. by 14 ft. 11 in.) has an
arch at the east end to the organ chamber similar to
that from the chancel.
The tower (11 ft. by 11 ft.) has a mural monument
in marble, flanked by Doric pilasters, in memory of
Thomas, the son of Sir Thomas Hardy, Rear Admiral,
died 1749; on it is a shield, sable on a cheveron or
three griffin's heads erased sable between three
scallops or.
Of the five bells by Taylor & Co., 1874, two were
recast from bells of which one was probably by
Watts of Leicester and the other by Pack and Chapman. (fn. 73)
The registers commence 1585.
Advowson
By about the middle of the 12th
century the church of Itchington had
been attached as a prebend to the
precentorship of Lichfield; which arrangement was confirmed c. 1177 by Bishop Richard Peche. (fn. 74) Several
grants of lands and rents were made to the church of
All Saints in the middle of the 13th century, (fn. 75) and in
1253 the bishop granted to the precentor additional
land adjoining his rectorial house. (fn. 76) By 1279 the
precentor's holding included 1 carucate in demesne
and 4 virgates held by 8 free tenants. (fn. 77) A vicarage had
been constituted and in 1282 (?) was increased; at the
same time the ancient house of the church in Over
Itchington, in which the priest ministering there used
to live, was made over to the vicar, who was to provide
a chaplain there. (fn. 78) In 1291 the value of the church
with its chapels (of Over Itchington, Chadshunt, and
Gaydon) was £40; (fn. 79) and in 1535 the vicarage and
rectory were each rated at £26 13s. 4d. (fn. 80) The advowson remained with the precentor, except for one presentation by the Crown in 1586 (probably during a
vacancy) and one by Thomas Coxe, lord of the manor,
in 1621, (fn. 81) until it passed, under the Act of 1840, to
the bishop (the Bishop of Coventry since the formation
of that see).
Charities
Poor's Allotment. By the award of
the Commissioners under the Act for
Inclosing the Common Lands within
this parish dated 29 May 1775 an allotment was set
out and awarded to trustees of a parcel of land lying
on Bishop's Itchington Heath containing 8 a. o r. 1 p.
which the Commissioners adjudged to be equivalent
to the custom enjoyed by the poor people of the parish
of cutting furze, or furze bushes, in certain places of
the heath.
The Rev. Dr. Holt. It is stated in the Returns under
Gilbert's Act that the Rev. Dr. Holt by will in 1734
gave to the poor £20.
John Huckson. The same Returns mention a gift
of land and tenements by John Huckson for repairing
the bridges and highways of Over Itchington and to
the poor of Bishop's Itchington.
The above-mentioned charities are regulated by a
scheme of the Charity Commissioners dated 17 February
1871, which contains provisions for the application of
the income for the benefit of the most deserving and
necessitous inhabitants of the parish.
The annual income of the charities amounts to £21
approximately.
John Spraggett by will dated 1 August 1873 gave
to the resident minister, churchwardens, and overseers
of the poor of the parish £200, to apply the annual
income in the purchase of coals to be distributed in the
early part of January amongst the aged widowers and
widows living in the parish. The annual income of
the charity amounts to £5 7s.
The Rev. James Hamer Scowcroft by will dated
20 February 1897 devised to the vicar of Bishop's
Itchington the building known as the Conservative
Club and Village Reading-room, to be maintained for
the furtherance of Conservative principles and religious
and mental improvement. He also devised to the vicar
the freehold land known as Pool Yard and Brothers or
Vermin Close situated in the village, one moiety of the
income thereof to be used towards the church expenses
(especially the organist's salary) and the other moiety
for the maintenance of the Club and Reading-room.
The demised land was sold in 1899 and one moiety
of the net proceeds invested in trust for the Ecclesiastical Charity. The annual income of this charity
amounts to £2 15s. 0d.
The charity consisting of the Conservative Club
and Village Reading-room is now regulated by a
scheme of the High Court of Justice (Chancery Division) dated 19 June 1902, appointing managers to
maintain the Bishop's Itchington Parish Room for the
use and benefit of the inhabitants of the parish for the
purposes therein stated.
The Bishop's Itchington Memorial Hall. By an Indenture dated 6 April 1922 Sir Michael Henry Lakin,
bart., conveyed to trustees a piece of land in Bishop's
Itchington together with the Memorial Hall erected
thereon to hold the same upon trust to permit the
premises to be appropriated and managed by a committee of 12 members and 5 ex-officio members, and
empowers them to make rules for the internal management and use of the Hall, but subject to the approval
of the trustees.