Shotteswell
Encyclopedia
Shotteswell is a small village in south Warwickshire
surrounded on three sides by Oxfordshire
. It is located 4.5 miles north-west of Banbury
and is part of Stratford-on-Avon district
.
The village occupies part of a range of heights gradually rising from north to south to 600 feet. The River Avon, a tributary of the Cherwell
, separates the parish from Oxfordshire on the east with a smaller tributary doing the same to the west. The village was not mentioned in the Domesday Book
but may have been "the two hides of Warmintone (Warmington)" owned by Roger de Beaumont, Count of Meulan and "a man-at- arms from him". In 1316 Shotteswell was described as a hamlet. The population of the village in 2001 was 230. There is no public house although in the 19th and early 20th centuries there was an inn called "The Flying Horse" which became known as "The Flying Horse Stores" and was granted Grade II Listed Building status on 8 April 1987. Most of the village was designated a conservation area in 1969 with minor additions to the boundaries in 1995. The M40 motorway
passes close by to the east of the village. The local economy is agriculture-based.
The village has largely lost its public facilities. There is a village hall but the previous post office is now a private residence as is the former Flying Horse Stores. The public telephone box does not accept coinage and there is a bus shelter but, from 2009, only one bus per week leaves the village for Banbury, at 1017 hours on Thursdays with the return bus leaving Banbury at 1330 hours. The bus service is operated by A & M Group.
or Horton stone and was restored in 1875. The earliest recorded Vicar of Shotteswell was Father Stotterwell in 1287 but no Vicarage existed until 1381.
A Wesleyan Chapel was opened in the village in 1854 and is now a private house but an inscription placed on one wall continues to identify its previous religious role in the village.
in 1388, the estate passed to his son, John. Sir John Beauchamp and Sir Baldwin Bereford shared the fees in Shotteswell in 1400 and when Sir John died in 1420, his widow, Alice, held the manor for life to be succeeded by Margaret, Sir John's daughter and her husband, John Wisham, in 1423. Margaret's three daughters, Alice, Joan and Elizabeth were co-heirs. Elizabeth's son, John Croft and his wife, Joan, held one third of the manor in 1499 and one half in 1501. Simon Rice, a London merchant, purchased the moiety of the manor in 1514 and was succeeded by his widow, Lettice who held lands in 1531.
The FitzWytes had retained as much of the manor as represented one quarter of the fee and the rest was held by the Wandard family and in 1262 Robert Wandard had agreed to do suit to John FitzWyth's court in Shotteswell twice-yearly. In 1319, the Wandards sold the manor to William de Bereford who was succeeded by his son, Sir Edmund, who died in 1354 settling the manor on his illegitimate son, Sir John and after his death the manor passed to his brother, Baldwin. He was succeeded firstly by his widow, Elizabeth and then by her daughter, Maud. After her death the manor was held by Thomas Sinclair, great great nephew of Sir Edmund, who died in 1435 and, despite having three daughters, settled the manor on trustees "to defraud the king of the custody and marriage of his heirs". Trustee and subsequent owner, John Aston, sold the manor in 1436 to the head of the le Botiler or Butler family, James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond, the husband of Joan Beauchamp, and he was succeeded by his son, James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond and Earl of Wiltshire, who was beheaded after the Battle of Towton
on 1 May 1461 at Newcastle. In 1462 the manor of Shotteswell was granted to Richard Harcourt for services to King Edward IV but the Botilers/Butlers were restored subsequently with the succession of John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond, James' brother, who died childless in 1515 when the manor passed to Richard Farmer, a Calais merchant, who then sold it in 1537 to Sir Thomas Pope for £400. In 1555 Shotteswell was granted a license to grant for the endowment of Trinity College, Oxford
. Edmund Hutchins, Pope's nephew, inherited the manor in 1559 and when he died in 1602, another of Pope's nephews, William, succeeded and afterwards, the latter's grandson,Thomas, second Earl of Downe
, inherited the manor on 2 June 1631. His uncle, Sir Thomas Pope, held the manor in 1655 and from 1667-8, his son, also Sir Thomas, held the title but after his death the title became extinct although his four sisters inherited the estates. The Norths, later Earls of Guilford, the family of the husband of Frances, the third sister, gained possession of the entire manor of Shotteswell until George Augustus died in 1802 to be succeeded by his brother Francis, who held the manor as a trustee for his three nieces. Col. John Sidney Doyle married the second niece, the Hon. Susan North, in 1838 and adopted her surname and became lord of the manor of Shotteswell in 1841 after the death of the eldest sister, Maria, when Susan became Baroness North. William Henry John, Lord North succeeded in 1894 when his father died and the manor was sold to B. J. Daunt of County Cork in September 1937.
, the first major encounter of the war on 23 October 1642, there having been a minor skirmish the evening before at the nearby village of Wormleighton. Prior to the actual battle, the Parliamentary forces under the Earl of Essex
had been camped a short distance to the north of Shotteswell, at Kineton
, and the Royalist forces were camped 4 miles to the south, at Banbury - Shotteswell more or less lay half-way between the two armies. Later in the war, another significant battle was fought between the two forces, only about two miles from Shotteswell, at Cropredy Bridge
on 29 June 1644.
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...
surrounded on three sides by Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
. It is located 4.5 miles north-west of Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
and is part of Stratford-on-Avon district
Stratford-on-Avon (district)
Stratford-on-Avon is a local government district of southern Warwickshire in England.The district is named "Stratford-on-Avon" to distinguish it from its main town of Stratford-upon-Avon where the district council is based, although this name often causes confusion .The district is mostly rural and...
.
Overview
The name of the village has been spelt in various fashions over the centuries in a range of documents:- Sotteswalle around 1135, Shoteswell (1165), Schoteswell (1189), Schotewell (1190), Scoteswell (1221), Sotteswell (1235), Schetteswell (1315), Shotteswell (1428 and 1535), Shatswell (1705) as well as Cheleswell, Seteswell, Scacheswell and Shotswell, the latter in censuses of the mid-nineteenth century. It is said to derive from the Anglo-Saxon "Soto", a family name, and "will", a well - that is - "the well of Scot". In the past, an alternative explanation was put forward that the name derived from "sceota" or "scota" meaning the offshoot or brow of a hill - that is - the well at the brow of a hill. For a large part of its history the local inhabitants have called the village "Satchel" and, indeed, a sign at the door of St. Laurence Church states:- "Local pronunciation of Shotteswell - Satchel".The village occupies part of a range of heights gradually rising from north to south to 600 feet. The River Avon, a tributary of the Cherwell
River Cherwell
The River Cherwell is a river which flows through the Midlands of England. It is a major tributary of the River Thames.The general course of the River Cherwell is north to south and the 'straight-line' distance from its source to the Thames is about...
, separates the parish from Oxfordshire on the east with a smaller tributary doing the same to the west. The village was not mentioned in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
but may have been "the two hides of Warmintone (Warmington)" owned by Roger de Beaumont, Count of Meulan and "a man-at- arms from him". In 1316 Shotteswell was described as a hamlet. The population of the village in 2001 was 230. There is no public house although in the 19th and early 20th centuries there was an inn called "The Flying Horse" which became known as "The Flying Horse Stores" and was granted Grade II Listed Building status on 8 April 1987. Most of the village was designated a conservation area in 1969 with minor additions to the boundaries in 1995. The M40 motorway
M40 motorway
The M40 motorway is a motorway in the British transport network that forms a major part of the connection between London and Birmingham. Part of this road forms a section of the unsigned European route E05...
passes close by to the east of the village. The local economy is agriculture-based.
The village has largely lost its public facilities. There is a village hall but the previous post office is now a private residence as is the former Flying Horse Stores. The public telephone box does not accept coinage and there is a bus shelter but, from 2009, only one bus per week leaves the village for Banbury, at 1017 hours on Thursdays with the return bus leaving Banbury at 1330 hours. The bus service is operated by A & M Group.
St. Laurence Parish Church
The parish church of St. Laurence probably dates from before the mid-12th century. One of the supporting stones of the old Norman font is believed to be of Saxon origin with its characteristic wheat sheaf shape. The church has been a grade II listed building since 30 May 1967. It is believed that the small cell which is now the vestry was the original church with the old altar stone placed under the east window in the present day vestry. The north window is only two inches wide which is a feature of early windows when glass was not used in them. There is an early thirteenth century tower which has six bells and an early fourteenth century chancel with a north chapel dating from the latter part of that century. A spire was added in the fifteenth century. The church is constructed from the local ironstoneIronstone
Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical repacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron compound from which iron either can be or once was smelted commercially. This term is customarily restricted to hard coarsely...
or Horton stone and was restored in 1875. The earliest recorded Vicar of Shotteswell was Father Stotterwell in 1287 but no Vicarage existed until 1381.
A Wesleyan Chapel was opened in the village in 1854 and is now a private house but an inscription placed on one wall continues to identify its previous religious role in the village.
History of the Manor Of Shotteswell
The overlordship of Shotteswell belonged to the Earls of Warwick from the twelfth century until at least 1438. In 1235 &1242, Wydo (Guy) held a knight's fee in Shotteswell as did his son, John, in 1268. Their successors, the FitzWyth family, held the manor after John Dyve in 1279 - John FitzWyth in 1301, his son, Robert FitzWyth in 1309 until 1316 when he was wife, Elizabeth, is mentioned but in 1316, Robert's son, Guy, also died and he was probably succeeded by his cousin, John FitzWyth, recorded as holding it in 1326. He was succeeded by Robert and he then passed the manor to his nephew, Robert FitzWyth, in 1352. Robert's widow, Joan, conveyed her life interest in the estate to John Catesby. Robert's daughter by his first wife, Agnes Catesby, married Sir John de Beauchamp of Holt, a favourite of King Richard II, but after his execution for treason during the Merciless ParliamentMerciless Parliament
The Merciless Parliament, a term coined by Augustinian chronicler Henry Knighton, refers to the English parliamentary session of February through June 1388, at which many members of Richard II's Court were convicted of treason. The session was preceded by a period in which Richard's power was...
in 1388, the estate passed to his son, John. Sir John Beauchamp and Sir Baldwin Bereford shared the fees in Shotteswell in 1400 and when Sir John died in 1420, his widow, Alice, held the manor for life to be succeeded by Margaret, Sir John's daughter and her husband, John Wisham, in 1423. Margaret's three daughters, Alice, Joan and Elizabeth were co-heirs. Elizabeth's son, John Croft and his wife, Joan, held one third of the manor in 1499 and one half in 1501. Simon Rice, a London merchant, purchased the moiety of the manor in 1514 and was succeeded by his widow, Lettice who held lands in 1531.
The FitzWytes had retained as much of the manor as represented one quarter of the fee and the rest was held by the Wandard family and in 1262 Robert Wandard had agreed to do suit to John FitzWyth's court in Shotteswell twice-yearly. In 1319, the Wandards sold the manor to William de Bereford who was succeeded by his son, Sir Edmund, who died in 1354 settling the manor on his illegitimate son, Sir John and after his death the manor passed to his brother, Baldwin. He was succeeded firstly by his widow, Elizabeth and then by her daughter, Maud. After her death the manor was held by Thomas Sinclair, great great nephew of Sir Edmund, who died in 1435 and, despite having three daughters, settled the manor on trustees "to defraud the king of the custody and marriage of his heirs". Trustee and subsequent owner, John Aston, sold the manor in 1436 to the head of the le Botiler or Butler family, James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond, the husband of Joan Beauchamp, and he was succeeded by his son, James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond and Earl of Wiltshire, who was beheaded after the Battle of Towton
Battle of Towton
In 1461, England was in the sixth year of the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster over the English throne. The Lancastrians backed the reigning King of England, Henry VI, an indecisive man who suffered bouts of madness...
on 1 May 1461 at Newcastle. In 1462 the manor of Shotteswell was granted to Richard Harcourt for services to King Edward IV but the Botilers/Butlers were restored subsequently with the succession of John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond, James' brother, who died childless in 1515 when the manor passed to Richard Farmer, a Calais merchant, who then sold it in 1537 to Sir Thomas Pope for £400. In 1555 Shotteswell was granted a license to grant for the endowment of Trinity College, Oxford
Trinity College, Oxford
The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...
. Edmund Hutchins, Pope's nephew, inherited the manor in 1559 and when he died in 1602, another of Pope's nephews, William, succeeded and afterwards, the latter's grandson,Thomas, second Earl of Downe
Earl of Downe
Earl of Downe was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 16 October 1628 for Sir William Pope, 1st Baronet. He had already been created a Baronet, of Wilcote in the County of Oxford, in the Baronetage of England on 29 June 1611 and was made Baron Pope at the same time as he was...
, inherited the manor on 2 June 1631. His uncle, Sir Thomas Pope, held the manor in 1655 and from 1667-8, his son, also Sir Thomas, held the title but after his death the title became extinct although his four sisters inherited the estates. The Norths, later Earls of Guilford, the family of the husband of Frances, the third sister, gained possession of the entire manor of Shotteswell until George Augustus died in 1802 to be succeeded by his brother Francis, who held the manor as a trustee for his three nieces. Col. John Sidney Doyle married the second niece, the Hon. Susan North, in 1838 and adopted her surname and became lord of the manor of Shotteswell in 1841 after the death of the eldest sister, Maria, when Susan became Baroness North. William Henry John, Lord North succeeded in 1894 when his father died and the manor was sold to B. J. Daunt of County Cork in September 1937.
The English Civil War
The villagers of Shotteswell would have been considerably affected by the events of the civil war which took place in the vicinity of the village since it is situated only a short distance from the site of the Battle of EdgehillBattle of Edgehill
The Battle of Edgehill was the first pitched battle of the First English Civil War. It was fought near Edge Hill and Kineton in southern Warwickshire on Sunday, 23 October 1642....
, the first major encounter of the war on 23 October 1642, there having been a minor skirmish the evening before at the nearby village of Wormleighton. Prior to the actual battle, the Parliamentary forces under the Earl of Essex
Earl of Essex
Earl of Essex is a title that has been held by several families and individuals. The earldom was first created in the 12th century for Geoffrey II de Mandeville . Upon the death of the third earl in 1189, the title became dormant or extinct...
had been camped a short distance to the north of Shotteswell, at Kineton
Kineton
Kineton is a village and civil parish on the River Dene in south-eastern Warwickshire, England. The village is part of Stratford-on-Avon district, and in the 2001 census it had a population of 2,278....
, and the Royalist forces were camped 4 miles to the south, at Banbury - Shotteswell more or less lay half-way between the two armies. Later in the war, another significant battle was fought between the two forces, only about two miles from Shotteswell, at Cropredy Bridge
Cropredy Bridge
Cropredy Bridge was first built in 1312 and carries a road into a village of the same name beside the upper reaches of the River Cherwell at Cropredy in Oxfordshire, England...
on 29 June 1644.