NUTHURST
Acreage: 693.
Population: 1911, 100; 1921, 112; 1931, 699.
This hamlet, 2 miles long from north to south by
about 1 mile broad, was formerly a detached portion of
Hampton-in-Arden, from which it is 6 miles distant.
In 1878 it was formed into an ecclesiastical parish with
the addition of the modern village of Hockley Heath
from Tanworth. It lies for the most part between two
roads from Henley-in-Arden to Birmingham which
meet in the extreme north of the civil parish, where the
church of St. Thomas, a red-brick structure in the
Early English style, was built in 1879. In the small
part of the parish lying between the western of these
roads and the parish of Tanworth the site of the medieval chapel of Nuthurst is marked by the present mortuary chapel; and between this and St. Thomas's Church
is the large Baptist chapel of Christ Church, built in
1877 by G. F. Muntz. By the Warwickshire Review
Order of 1932 the civil parish was transferred to
Tanworth.
MANOR
Nuthurst has been identified (fn. 1) with the
woodland 'aet Hnuthyrste' given with Shottery to Worcester Cathedral by Offa c. 705, (fn. 2)
but no later connexion with Worcester is known. It was
a member of Hampton-in-Arden, and 1/5 knight's fee in
NUTHURST was held of Niel de Mowbray c. 1230 (fn. 3)
and of Roger de Mowbray in 1242. (fn. 4) The overlordship
descended in this family, being held by Roger de Mowbray at his death in 1297, (fn. 5) and by John Mowbray,
Duke of Norfolk, in 1432. (fn. 6)
The tenant in 1230 and 1242 was Robert Hastang,
and in 1297 his son Robert held a half-fee in Nuthurst
and Hopsford (in Withybrook). (fn. 7) A quarter-fee held of
the Mowbrays by Peter de Montfort in Hampton-in-Arden (fn. 8) was apparently in Nuthurst, as in 1262 Robert
Hastang held ¼ knight's fee here of Peter and undertook
to do service therefor. (fn. 9) By 1331 Nuthurst had come
into the hands of William son of Edmund Trussell,
who in that year had a grant of free warren (fn. 10) and
licence to impark his wood in Nuthurst. (fn. 11) In this family
it remained for 300 years. In 1432, on the death of
William Trussell, a grant of the custody of the manor
during the minority of his son John was made to John
Brown. (fn. 12) In 1640 Edward Trussell sold the manor
to William Jesson, (fn. 13) an alderman of Coventry. (fn. 14) His
descendant Pudsey Jesson was lord of the manor in
1745, (fn. 15) but by 1754 it had been acquired by Benjamin
Palmer, (fn. 16) after which it was presumably absorbed into
the manor of Knowle [q.v.], with which it is now held
by H. G. Everitt.
Trussell. Argent fretty gules bezanty at the crossings.
Jesson. Argent a fesse battled sable between three cocks' heads razed gules.
In about 1170 Bishop Richard of Coventry confirmed to the Priory of Kenilworth the church of
Hampton with its chapels, (fn. 17) of which one is definitely
said in 1216 to be at Nuthurst. (fn. 18) As late as 1567
Edmund Fulwood of Tanworth granted certain lands
to trustees for the support of a resident priest and the
repair of the chapel, (fn. 19) but by 1591 the chapel
was 'decayed' and as such was among properties
granted to the notorious land speculators Tipper and
Dawe. (fn. 20)