Willoughby, Warwickshire
Encyclopedia
Willoughby is a village and civil parish about 5 miles (8 km) south of Rugby, Warwickshire
, England. The village is only about 4.5 miles (7 km) northwest of Daventry
in neighbouring Northamptonshire
and the eastern boundary of the parish forms part of the county boundary.
Willoughby's toponym
is derived from Old Norse
Viligbýr meaning "willow farmstead".
The parish is bounded to the south by the River Leam
and to the west by one of its tributaries. The village is just west of the main road between Daventry and Coventry
, now the A45 road
.
The 2001 census
recorded a parish population of 381.
in 1066 Willoughby consisted of five small estates. Ordric held two hides
, Leuiet and Goduin held half a hide and Ulvric held three small estates totalling one and a half virgate
s. The Domesday Book
of 1086 records that the tenants still held their respective holdings, with Turchil of Warwick as their feudal
landlord, but also the Norman baron Hugh de Grandmesnil
held one and one sixth hides at Willoughby and Hillmorton.
Henry I
(reigned 1100–35) granted the Grandmesnil estates at Willoughby and Shrewley to a man called Wigan in return for service. Wigan's son Ralph died by 1215 and the estate eventually descended to Ralph's brother William and nephew Ivo. By 1242 Ivo had died without an heir so his uncle Thurstan enfeoffed
his 10 virgates at Willoughby to the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, Oxford. The Augustinian
Canons Ashby Priory
in Northamptonshire also had an interest in the manor
of Willoughby so the master of the hospital had to give the prior 50 marks of silver. However, landowners made further grants of land to the hospital and by 1316 it held the lordship of the manor
.
In 1457 William Waynflete
, Bishop of Winchester
founded Magdalen College, Oxford
on the site of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist. All of the hospital's endowments were transferred to the new college, and remained in its possession until the 20th century.
certainly since 1215 and probably before. The font has Early English Gothic carvings on its rim and dates from 1230. Thurstan had granted the advowson
to the Hospital of St. John the Baptist by 1246. However, the present Church of England parish church
of Saint Nicholas
is a Perpendicular Gothic building dating entirely from the early part of the 16th century. It has north and south aisles and arcades with characteristically late-Perpendicular four-centred arches. The chancel
was later rebuilt in brick, probably early in the 19th century.
The tower has a clock that may date from early in the 17th century. It has also a ring
of six bells. Joseph Smith of Edgbaston
cast five of them in 1713; William Chapman of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
cast the tenor bell in 1781.
St. Nicholas' parish is now part of a single benefice with the parishes of Flecknoe
, Grandborough
, Leamington Hastings
and Birdingbury
.
. The Tuesday market was still held in the 1830s.
Pye Court was originally Pie Court and was the seat of the Court of Pie Powder
. This was a court associated with the market whose business included licencing hawkers and punishing acts of misdemeanour or nuisance.
In October 1642 Parliamentarian
troops on the way to the battle of Edge Hill tried to pull down an ancient cross in Willoughby but were dissuaded by the Vicar. It may have been a market cross
or a preaching cross
.
Construction of the Oxford Canal
began north of Coventry
in 1769 and was dug through Willoughby parish, reaching Napton-on-the-Hill
by 1774. The canal passes east of Willoughby village and Willoughby Wharf was established 1/2 mi northeast of the village where the road to Barby, Northamptonshire
crosses the canal. Between 1794 and 1805 the rival Grand Junction Canal
was built from Braunston
to Brentford
, with a wharf at Braunston competing with the Oxford's wharf at Willoughby. However, in the Act of Parliament
authorising the Grand Junction the Oxford succeeded in obtaining a clause to levy "bar tolls" from the Grand Junction to compensate for any loss of trade from Willoughby Wharf.
Willoughby had a post office
by 1865. It closed down in May 2002.
Willoughby Cricket Club was founded in 1901 and Willoughby Women's Institute was founded in 1920.
was built from the north of England to London Marylebone. It passed north-south through the parish, passing under the road to Barby on the west side of the canal wharf and under the Daventry – Coventry main road just east of the village. The new main line crossed the River Leam on a 13-arch viaduct almost 1 miles (1.6 km) south of the village. This was called Willoughby Viaduct but the site is not in the parish and half of it is not even in Warwickshire.
The Great Central Railway
opened the line in March 1899 with a station at the village named "Willoughby for Daventry". In 1904 the GCR renamed the station "Braunston and Willoughby for Daventry". Both names were rather optimistic, as Daventry is 4.5 miles (7 km) away, Braunston is 1 miles (1.6 km) away and both had their own stations on a branch of the London and North Western Railway
. In 1938 the GCR's successor the London and North Eastern Railway
renamed the station . British Rail
ways closed the station in April 1957 and the line in September 1966. Little remains of the station itself but the Station Master's red-brick house survives.
, The Rose, that dates from the 16th century. The parish had three other pubs including the Four Crosses Inn and the Navigation. The Four Crosses has been turned into apartments and the other two former pubs are now private houses.
Willoughby has a hair salon and other retail businesses.
Rugby, Warwickshire
Rugby is a market town in Warwickshire, England, located on the River Avon. The town has a population of 61,988 making it the second largest town in the county...
, England. The village is only about 4.5 miles (7 km) northwest of Daventry
Daventry
Daventry is a market town in Northamptonshire, England, with a population of 22,367 .-Geography:The town is also the administrative centre of the larger Daventry district, which has a population of 71,838. The town is 77 miles north-northwest of London, 13.9 miles west of Northampton and 10.2...
in neighbouring Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
and the eastern boundary of the parish forms part of the county boundary.
Willoughby's toponym
Toponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
is derived from Old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
Viligbýr meaning "willow farmstead".
The parish is bounded to the south by the River Leam
River Leam
The River Leam is a river which flows through eastern and southern Warwickshire. It is a small river about 25–30 miles long. The town of Leamington Spa lies on, and is named after, the River Leam....
and to the west by one of its tributaries. The village is just west of the main road between Daventry and Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, now the A45 road
A45 road
The A45 is a major road in England. It runs east from Birmingham past the National Exhibition Centre and the M42, then bypasses Coventry and Rugby, where it briefly merges with the M45 until it continues to Daventry...
.
The 2001 census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
recorded a parish population of 381.
Manor
Before the Norman Conquest of EnglandNorman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
in 1066 Willoughby consisted of five small estates. Ordric held two hides
Hide (unit)
The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...
, Leuiet and Goduin held half a hide and Ulvric held three small estates totalling one and a half virgate
Virgate
The virgate or yardland was a unit of land area measurement used in medieval England, typically outside the Danelaw, and was held to be the amount of land that a team of two oxen could plough in a single annual season. It was equivalent to a quarter of a hide, so was nominally thirty acres...
s. 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...
of 1086 records that the tenants still held their respective holdings, with Turchil of Warwick as their feudal
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
landlord, but also the Norman baron Hugh de Grandmesnil
Hugh de Grandmesnil
Hugh de Grandmesnil , also known as Hugh or Hugo de Grentmesnil or Grentemesnil, is one of the very few proven Companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Subsequently he became a great landowner in England.He was the elder son of Robert of...
held one and one sixth hides at Willoughby and Hillmorton.
Henry I
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
(reigned 1100–35) granted the Grandmesnil estates at Willoughby and Shrewley to a man called Wigan in return for service. Wigan's son Ralph died by 1215 and the estate eventually descended to Ralph's brother William and nephew Ivo. By 1242 Ivo had died without an heir so his uncle Thurstan enfeoffed
Enfeoffment
Under the European feudal system, enfeoffment was the deed by which a person was given land in exchange for a pledge of service. This mechanism was later used to avoid restrictions on the passage of title in land by a system in which a landowner would give land to one person for the use of another...
his 10 virgates at Willoughby to the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, Oxford. The Augustinian
Augustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...
Canons Ashby Priory
Canons Ashby Priory
Canons Ashby Priory was an Augustinian monastic establishment in Northamptonshire, England.The Priory was founded by Stephen La Leye on a site to the south of the present church between 1147 and 1151, during the reign of Henry II....
in Northamptonshire also had an interest in the manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
of Willoughby so the master of the hospital had to give the prior 50 marks of silver. However, landowners made further grants of land to the hospital and by 1316 it held the lordship of the manor
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
.
In 1457 William Waynflete
William Waynflete
William Waynflete , born William Patten, was Bishop of Winchester from 1447 to 1486, and Lord Chancellor of England from 1456 to 1460. He is best remembered as the founder of Magdalen College and Magdalen College School in Oxford....
, Bishop of Winchester
Bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England diocese of Winchester, with his cathedra at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.The bishop is one of five Church of England bishops to be among the Lords Spiritual regardless of their length of service. His diocese is one of the oldest and...
founded Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
on the site of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist. All of the hospital's endowments were transferred to the new college, and remained in its possession until the 20th century.
Parish church
Willoughby has had a parish churchParish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
certainly since 1215 and probably before. The font has Early English Gothic carvings on its rim and dates from 1230. Thurstan had granted the advowson
Advowson
Advowson is the right in English law of a patron to present or appoint a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish...
to the Hospital of St. John the Baptist by 1246. However, the present Church of England parish church
Church of England parish church
A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative region, known as a parish.-Parishes in England:...
of Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas , also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century saint and Greek Bishop of Myra . Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker...
is a Perpendicular Gothic building dating entirely from the early part of the 16th century. It has north and south aisles and arcades with characteristically late-Perpendicular four-centred arches. The chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
was later rebuilt in brick, probably early in the 19th century.
The tower has a clock that may date from early in the 17th century. It has also a ring
Change ringing
Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes". It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody....
of six bells. Joseph Smith of Edgbaston
Edgbaston
Edgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a formal district, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Edgbaston ward and the wards of Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton....
cast five of them in 1713; William Chapman of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Whitechapel Bell Foundry
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry is a bell foundry in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. The foundry is listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain...
cast the tenor bell in 1781.
St. Nicholas' parish is now part of a single benefice with the parishes of Flecknoe
Flecknoe
Flecknoe is a village in the Rugby district of Warwickshire, England. The village is within the parish of Wolfhampcote. Its name came from Anglo-Saxon Fleccanhóh = "Flecca's hill-spur"...
, Grandborough
Grandborough
Grandborough is a small village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Calcutt, Grandborough Fields and Woolscott....
, Leamington Hastings
Leamington Hastings
Leamington Hastings is a small village and larger civil parish in Warwickshire, England.-The village:The village is about 7 miles south-west of Rugby and west of the A426 road between Rugby and Southam. To the north of the village is the Draycote Water reservoir...
and Birdingbury
Birdingbury
Birdingbury is a village and civil parish in the Rugby district of Warwickshire, England, just south of the River Leam, and not far from Draycote Water. It is located roughly half way between Rugby and Leamington Spa, about eight miles from each. According to the 2001 census it had a population of...
.
Economic and social history
In 1248 the Hospital of St. John the Baptist was granted the right to hold a weekly market at Willoughby every Tuesday and a two-day annual fair at WhitsunPentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
. The Tuesday market was still held in the 1830s.
Pye Court was originally Pie Court and was the seat of the Court of Pie Powder
Court of Piepowders
A Court of Piepowders was a special tribunal in England organised by a borough on the occasion of a fair or market. These courts had unlimited jurisdiction over personal actions for events taking place in the market, including disputes between merchants, theft, and acts of violence...
. This was a court associated with the market whose business included licencing hawkers and punishing acts of misdemeanour or nuisance.
In October 1642 Parliamentarian
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
troops on the way to the battle of Edge Hill tried to pull down an ancient cross in Willoughby but were dissuaded by the Vicar. It may have been a market cross
Market cross
A market cross is a structure used to mark a market square in market towns, originally from the distinctive tradition in Early Medieval Insular art of free-standing stone standing or high crosses, often elaborately carved, which goes back to the 7th century. Market crosses can be found in most...
or a preaching cross
Preaching cross
A preaching cross is a cross, sometimes surmounting a pulpit, erected out of doors to designate a preaching place.In Britain and Ireland, many free-standing upright crosses – or high crosses – were erected. Some of these crosses bear figurative or decorative carvings, or inscriptions in runes...
.
Construction of the Oxford Canal
Oxford Canal
The Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
began north of Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
in 1769 and was dug through Willoughby parish, reaching Napton-on-the-Hill
Napton-on-the-Hill
Napton-on-the-Hill, , is a village and civil parish east of Southam in Warwickshire, England.-Manor:...
by 1774. The canal passes east of Willoughby village and Willoughby Wharf was established 1/2 mi northeast of the village where the road to Barby, Northamptonshire
Barby, Northamptonshire
Barby is a village and civil parish in the Daventry district of Northamptonshire, England. the parish had a population of 2,083.-Location:Barby is located approximately 5 miles south of Rugby, and about 7 miles north of Daventry. The village is located upon a hill overlooking the Rains Brook and...
crosses the canal. Between 1794 and 1805 the rival Grand Junction Canal
Grand Junction Canal
The Grand Junction Canal is a canal in England from Braunston in Northamptonshire to the River Thames at Brentford, with a number of branches. The mainline was built between 1793 and 1805, to improve the route from the Midlands to London, by-passing the upper reaches of the River Thames near Oxford...
was built from Braunston
Braunston
Braunston is a village and civil parish in the county of Northamptonshire, England. It has a population of 1,675 . Braunston is situated just off the A45 main road and lies between the towns of Rugby and Daventry....
to Brentford
Brentford
Brentford is a suburban town in west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located at the confluence of the River Thames and the River Brent, west-southwest of Charing Cross. Its former ceremonial county was Middlesex.-Toponymy:...
, with a wharf at Braunston competing with the Oxford's wharf at Willoughby. However, in the Act of Parliament
Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom
An Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom is a type of legislation called primary legislation. These Acts are passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster, or by the Scottish Parliament at Edinburgh....
authorising the Grand Junction the Oxford succeeded in obtaining a clause to levy "bar tolls" from the Grand Junction to compensate for any loss of trade from Willoughby Wharf.
Willoughby had a post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
by 1865. It closed down in May 2002.
Willoughby Cricket Club was founded in 1901 and Willoughby Women's Institute was founded in 1920.
Railway
In the late 1890s the Great Central Main LineGreat Central Main Line
The Great Central Main Line , also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway , is a former railway line which opened in 1899 linking Sheffield with Marylebone Station in London via Nottingham and Leicester.The GCML was the last main line railway built in...
was built from the north of England to London Marylebone. It passed north-south through the parish, passing under the road to Barby on the west side of the canal wharf and under the Daventry – Coventry main road just east of the village. The new main line crossed the River Leam on a 13-arch viaduct almost 1 miles (1.6 km) south of the village. This was called Willoughby Viaduct but the site is not in the parish and half of it is not even in Warwickshire.
The Great Central Railway
Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...
opened the line in March 1899 with a station at the village named "Willoughby for Daventry". In 1904 the GCR renamed the station "Braunston and Willoughby for Daventry". Both names were rather optimistic, as Daventry is 4.5 miles (7 km) away, Braunston is 1 miles (1.6 km) away and both had their own stations on a branch of the London and North Western Railway
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
. In 1938 the GCR's successor the London and North Eastern Railway
London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...
renamed the station . British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
ways closed the station in April 1957 and the line in September 1966. Little remains of the station itself but the Station Master's red-brick house survives.
Amenities
Willoughby has a public housePublic house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
, The Rose, that dates from the 16th century. The parish had three other pubs including the Four Crosses Inn and the Navigation. The Four Crosses has been turned into apartments and the other two former pubs are now private houses.
Willoughby has a hair salon and other retail businesses.