Offchurch Bury - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Offchurch Bury is a manor house

Manor house

A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...

located one mile to the north west of the village of Offchurch

Offchurch

Offchurch is a village and civil parish on the River Leam, east of Leamington Spa in Warwickshire.-History:There is a possibility that it was home to Offa, who was King of Mercia from 757 to 796. King Offa had a church built in the village...

, Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

It was originally built in the 17th century, but most of the current house dates from the 19th century. In 1954 approximately 75% of the house was demolished. It is in private occupation and not open to the public.

History

In the 13th. century the manor was held by Coventry Priory. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

, the manor was acquired in 1542 by Sir Edmund Knightly. The family held the manor until after the death in 1911 of Jane Knightley, wife of Heneage Finch, 6th Earl of Aylesford

Heneage Finch, 6th Earl of Aylesford

Heneage Finch, 6th Earl of Aylesford DL , styled Lord Guernsey until 1859, was a British peer and politician.-Background:...

(d.1871). The manor was purchased afterwards by Joseph Watson

Joseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton

Joseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton was a prominent English industrialist and philanthropist.Watson was the only son of George Watson, soap manufacturer, of Donisthorpe House near Moor Allerton, Leeds, Yorkshire...

(d.1922), a soap manufacturer from Leeds, in 1922 created 1st Baron Manton of Compton Verney

Baron Manton

Baron Manton, of Compton Verney in the County of Warwick, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1922 in recognition of war services for the Leeds industrialist Joseph Watson...

. Watson used the estate for his venture into industrialised agriculture, but continued to live at Linton Spring, near Wetherby, Yorkshire, until 1921 when he purchased the mansion at Compton Verney

Compton Verney

Compton Verney is a manor and parish in the county of Warwickshire, England.Compton Verney House is an 18th century country mansion which has been converted into an art gallery....

, near Offchurch, where he intended to reside, yet he died unexpectedly in 1922, and was buried at Offchurch. His son and heir Miles resided for a while at Compton Verney, whilst his widow Claire, Baroness Manton, lived at Offchurch Bury until her death in 1936, when the manor was purchased by Harry Johnson, a textile manufacturer from Coventry and Macclesfield, whose descendants still occupy the property in 2011.

External links

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