LEA MARSTON
Acreage: 1,554.
Population: 1911, 286; 1921, 277; 1931, 322.
Lea Marston is a small parish 3 miles long from
north to south and about a mile wide, lying for the
most part to the west and north of the River Tame.
The village of Lea lies in the centre of the parish on
the left bank of the Tame, which is here crossed by a
road from Nether Whitacre. A little to the south of
it the church lies in among the trees at the north end
of Hams Park, which occupies most of the southern
part of the parish. Hams Hall, the 18th-century seat
of the Adderley family, has in recent years been pulled
down to make room for a power station, the property
having been acquired by the Corporation of the City
of Birmingham. A road runs north-eastwards from
the village to the hamlet of Marston, where the
vicarage is situated. The soil is light and there is a
good deal of excellent meadow land.
An Inclosure Act affecting 770 acres in Lea Marston
and Dunton (in the neighbouring parish of Curdworth) was passed in 1775. (fn. 1)
Lea has several old houses about the village green
or near by; apparently none is earlier than the 17th
century, and all have been more or less well repaired
or reconditioned by the late owners of the former
Hams Hall. A farm-house, now tenements, on the
west side of the green is of square framing with later
brick additions. A cottage to the north is of modern
red brick on the north front, but has old framing in the
back wall and east end. Lea Farm, north of the green,
is of 18th-century and later brickwork. A barn on the
south-east side of the green is also mainly of 18th-19th-century bricks, but the southern of the two gable-ends
is of framing.
In the short blind lane running south, east of the
green, are two other timber-framed cottages; and at
the south end of it a timber-framed barn belonging to
an 18th-century brick farm-house.
Blackgreaves Farm, ½ mile north-west of Lea, is of
18th-century red brick except for a timber-framed
gable-head to a lower back wing.
A small farm-house 5/8 mile north of Lea on the
Marston road has a rough-casted south front. The
other walls, including a lower east outbuilding, are of
framing of c. 1600. A cottage next south is brickfronted to the east, but shows a heavy tie-beam, &c.,
in the north gable-head of the same period.
MANOR
Lea Marston may probably be identified
with the 'Merston' (9 hides) and 'Leth'
(1 hide) held in 1086 by Robert Dispenser. (fn. 2) By 1235 MARSTON was in the hands of
Robert Marmion of Tamworth Castle as half a fee. (fn. 3)
The overlordship of Lea Marston follows the descent
of Tamworth Castle.
LEA
LEA was presumably granted by one of the Marmions to a member of the de la Launde family, as in
1253 James de la Launde and his
heirs were granted free warren
on all his demesne lands in Lea,
Marston, Stratford, and Longdon; (fn. 4) and his son John in 1290
held the half-fee of Lea of Philip
Marmion. (fn. 5) In 1329 (fn. 6) it was
found that John de la Launde
and his ancestors from time immemorial had had view of frankpledge in their manor of La Lee,
amercements for breach of the
assize of bread and ale, bloodshed, hue and cry, and all things
appurtenant, all of which together with the right of
infangenthef, tumbril and pillory were confirmed to
John and his heirs by a charter of the same year. (fn. 7) On
the failure of the male line of this family on the death
of John de la Launde (fn. 8) the manor appears to have
reverted to the overlord, subject to the life interest of
John's widow Eleanor. (fn. 9)
De la Launde. Party gules and azure three leopards or.
The manors of Marston and La Lee appear separately in the inquisition taken after the death of Sir
Baldwin Freville in 1400, (fn. 10) and in 1428, (fn. 11) but early
in the following century the two had become one in
name, (fn. 12) and they seem to have been generally held
together.
From 1400 there appear to have been no subtenants of Lea Marston and the descent follows that
of Tamworth Castle. On the death of Baldwin
Freville in 1419 his co-heirs were his three sisters:
Elizabeth wife of Thomas Ferrers; Margaret wife of
Sir Hugh Willoughby; and Joyce wife of Roger
Aston. (fn. 13) The major part of the manor seems to have
fallen to Thomas and Elizabeth Ferrers, though their
right was challenged in 1431 by Eleanor, granddaughter, and Alice, great-granddaughter, of the last
John de la Launde, and their respective husbands,
William Newton and Nicholas Basset. (fn. 14) A third of
the manor, settled in 1435 on Sir Hugh Willoughby
and Margaret, (fn. 15) appears in 1585 as the 'manor of
Blakegreaves' in the hands of Sir Francis Willoughby, (fn. 16)
but it is doubtful if this estate was ever really manorial. (fn. 17)
In 1626 Sir John Ferrers
made conveyances of the manor
of Lea Marston to John Noel and
Ralph Floyer. (fn. 18) In 1637 Ralph
Floyer and Elizabeth his wife
(the daughter of John Noel and
widow of Ralph Adderley), (fn. 19)
with Charles Adderley conveyed
the manor to Robert Arden, (fn. 20)
probably for a settlement on the
marriage of Charles with Anne
Arden. (fn. 21) It then descended in
the Adderley family (fn. 22) to Charles
Bowyer Adderley, who was
created Baron Norton in 1878 and died in 1905,
and is now in the hands of his grandson the 3rd Lord
Norton.
Adderley, Lord Norton. Argent a bend azure with three voided lozenges argent thereon.
There was a mill at Marston in 1086, (fn. 23) and there
was one attached to the manor of Lea Marston in
1703. (fn. 24) The latter may have been at Ouston Grange,
on the south-east edge of Hams Park, an estate which
had been given to the Abbey of Merevale before 1221 (fn. 25)
and on which there was in 1291 a mill worth 4s. (fn. 26)
After the Dissolution the lands of Merevale, including
Ouston with two mills, were given to Walter Devereux,
Lord Ferrers of Chartley, (fn. 27) whose descendant sold
the estate to Charles Adderley, lord of Lea Marston,
early in the 17th century. (fn. 28)
CHURCH
The parish church of ST. JOHN
THE BAPTIST consists of a chancel,
nave, south porch, and north-west tower.
It dates from the late 13th century, but only the south
wall of the nave and perhaps the substance of the
north wall survive. It seems to have been lengthened
westwards about 9 ft. for a former bell-turret in the
15th century, when also the south porch was added and
other work done.
In 1876–7 the chancel was entirely rebuilt, the
tower added, and considerable renovations to the nave
carried out.
The modern chancel (about 25½ ft. by 16 ft.) has
an east window of three lights and tracery, and two
windows in each side-wall of two lights and tracery in
the early-14th-century style. The walls are of red
sandstone and have square buttresses at the east angles.
The modern roof has a barrel-vaulted ceiling of stained
deal. It is tiled. The modern chancel arch is of two
moulded orders, the inner carried on short double-shafts supported by corbels.
The nave (40½ ft. by 21 ft.) has two pointed windows on the north wall, each of three trefoiled lights
and tracery of early-14th-century character. Only the
jambs and head of the eastern and its hood-mould are
ancient; the western window is an entirely modern
copy, and there are traces of a former doorway below
it. At the west end is a pointed doorway to the modern
tower. The wall is faced outside with pink ashlar,
comparatively modern but older than the tower. The
return at the east end is ancient masonry, but its buttress is modern. The middle and western buttresses
(against the tower) are old, and perhaps some of the
ashlar walling is of old stones reworked.
In the south wall are two windows in the east half
of the wall, each of two cinquefoiled lights and a sexfoiled spandrel in a two-centred head with an external
hood-mould. The moulded jambs, heads, and hoodmoulds, of white stone, are of late-13th-century date;
the tracery is modern. The south doorway, west of,
and close to, the second window, has red sandstone old
jambs of two moulded orders, which are continued in
the pointed head in white stone: the late-13th-century
hood-mould is like those of the windows and has
returned stops: under the west end and partly covered
by the west wall of the porch is a small square corbel
carved in low relief with a fleur de lis in a circle. The
rear-arch is four-centred and has a small edge-roll of
the 15th century.
There is no window in the 11½-ft. stretch of wall
west of the doorway, but a slight break 2½ ft. from the
doorway probably indicates where the wall was lengthened in the 15th century. The wall is of ashlar outside, mostly cream-tinted, with a few red stones. It has
a moulded plinth east of the porch and an embattled
parapet largely restored. At the south-east angle and
between the windows are 14th-century buttresses of
two stages, the lower with a trefoiled gabled head and
the upper a trefoiled ogee head at the foot of the
tabling. A heavy plain buttress of two stages west of
the doorway is incorporated with the porch, and at the
south-west angle is a diagonal buttress, both of the
15th century. Inside, the wall west of the break is of
ashlar, but east of it a fair amount of plaster remains:
where the masonry is exposed it is of roughly squared
ashlar.
High in the west wall is a modern window of three
cinquefoiled lights and tracery. The wall is of old
ashlar up to the base of the gable, above which it is
modern. Below the window is a modern patching
suggesting a former doorway. The gabled roof has
three trusses with tie-beams, tall king-posts up to the
ridge, and sloping struts in herring-bone fashion. The
west truss is modern, the others have older timbers
(probably 17th century) re-cut with chamfers. The
roof is tiled.
The modern tower projects a little to the west of
the nave and wholly to the north. It is built of red
sandstone in three stages. The lowest stage has a
traceried west window of two lights, the second a
single light in each side, and the bell-chamber windows
of two lights with transoms and tracery. The parapet
is embattled and has gargoyles at the angles.
The south porch is probably of the 15th century.
The entrance has hollow-chamfered jambs and a two-centred head with a hood-mould. In the side-walls
are small windows of two trefoiled lights. Its walls
are of rough ashlar, and the south gable has an old
chamfered plain coping.
The font and other furniture are modern. The
reredos, glass, &c., in the chancel are memorials to
members of the Adderley family of Hams Hall, and
there are ten funeral monuments to them. The oldest
is to Sir Charles, Knight and Esquire to Kings Charles
I and II, who died 1682. The monument is of white
veined marble and has four shields with his arms,
impaling those of his four wives Anne (Arden), Constance (Enion), Felicia (Snead), and Frances (Cresheld).
There are three bells, the second by J. Rudhall 1791,
the others of 1855 and 1873 by Taylor.
The registers date from 1570.
ADVOWSON
The advowson of the church of Lea
was granted by James de la Launde
in 1252 to the Prioress and convent
of Markyate (Beds.). (fn. 29) It was, however, in fact a
chapel attached to the church of Coleshill, and as such
was confirmed to the nuns of Markyate in 1280 by
John de Clinton. (fn. 30) In 1535 what was then called 'the
parish church of Leemerston' was said to be appropriated to the priory, who received all the tithes and
other endowments, so that it was not valued. (fn. 31) At
that time this and the other two chapels of Over and
Nether Whitacre were farmed to William Ryddell for
£7. (fn. 32) After the Dissolution the rectory and the advowson of the vicarage were sold by Henry VIII to Sir
Nicholas Bacon; but he in 1545 returned them to the
King, (fn. 33) who then granted them to Thomas Marowe. (fn. 34)
In 1552 Marowe conveyed the rectory and chapel of
Lea to Thomas Lysle. (fn. 35) After this the rectory and
advowson followed the descent of the manor of Moxhull in Wishaw (q.v.) in the families of Lysle (or
Lisley) and Hackett (fn. 36) until c. 1816, when it was acquired by Charles Bowyer Adderley and descended
with the manor. (fn. 37) Since 1925 the living has been in
the gift of the Bishop of Birmingham.
Thomas Bray, the founder of the S.P.C.K. and
S.P.G., was vicar of Lea Marston for a short time
about 1693, and Laurence Tuttiett, the hymn writer,
was vicar there from 1853 to 1870. (fn. 38)
CHARITIES
Charities of Dorothy and James Adderley. An indenture dated 26 May
1719 shows that sums of £70 and £10
given by these benefactors were used to buy a rentcharge of £4 per annum, whereof 50s. was to be given
to the poor of Lea Marston and 30s. for the instruction
of poor children.
Bowyer Adderley by will dated 26 September 1747
gave the yearly sum of £5 for ever to the poor of Lea
Marston to be charged on his estate in the parish.
John Chubbuck by will dated 10 December 1734
gave 20s. a year payable out of his estate at Lea
Marston to poor house-dwellers in the parish.
The endowment of the above-mentioned charities is
now represented by a rent-charge of £10 issuing out
of Hams Estate, owned by the Corporation of Biriningham. Of this sum 30s. is applied towards educational
purposes and the remainder for the benefit of the
poor.
Charity of Dorothy Adderley founded by Arden
Adderley. By an indenture dated 21 July 1693 certain
lands in Shustoke were conveyed to trustees to pay the
issues to the preaching minister of the parish church
of Lea Marston. Part of the land was sold in 1894,
and the endowment now consists of a house and land
at Marston, ground rents on property at Bow, London,
and Stock, the whole producing an annual income of
£194 approx. which is paid to the incumbent of St.
John the Baptist, Lea Marston, under a Scheme of
the Charity Commissioners of 18 June 1918 which
appoints a body of six trustees.