OFFCHURCH
Acreage: 2,286.
Population: 1911, 279; 1921, 306; 1931, 323.
Offchurch is a parish and village 3 miles east of
Leamington Spa. On the north and west it is bounded
by the river Leam, and on the south by a small stream
running close to the Warwick branch of the Oxford
Canal and joining the Leam near Quintonhill; this was
called the Quensenbrok in 1411. (fn. 1) The Fosse Way
crosses the parish diagonally from south-west to northeast, being a metalled road throughout its limits though
not a main road, and another ancient highway, the
Welsh Road, crosses the Fosse Way more or less at right
angles in the centre of the parish and runs through the
village, which is connected by other by-roads with
Hunningham, Long Itchington, and Radford Semele.
There is a little woodland, and the park of Offchurch
Bury, once a seat of the Knightleys and later of the
Earls of Aylesford, occupies a large loop in the river
Leam in the west. The ground rises from 175 ft. above
sea level near the river to 346 ft. on the eastern edge
of the parish. The L.M.S. railway from Rugby to
Leamington crosses the parish but there is no station.
Dugdale (fn. 2) quotes a tradition that 'this hath been a
town of no small note in the Saxons time', considering
the manorial name 'Bury', more common in the Home
Counties in this sense, to signify a fortified place and
linking the name of the village with King Offa. Camden (fn. 3) went further and indulged in a romance about
Offa's son Fremund, 'a man of great renown', being
murdered and 'buried at his Father's Palace, now called
Offchurch'. It is not, however, mentioned at all in
Domesday Book, or earlier, and at no time since accurate records of population were kept has it been of more
than average size. (fn. 4) Traces of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery
were found about 1875 south of the church close to the
road to Long Itchington. (fn. 5)
Plan of Offchurch Bury
Offchurch bridge, carrying the Welsh Road over the
Leam, was in 1661 a horse bridge of stone and wood
construction and in need of repair; two years later the
inhabitants of Offchurch and Cubbington were presented at Quarter Sessions about this, and the cost of
rebuilding it entirely in stone was to be referred to the
Grand Jury at the next assizes. (fn. 6) In 1654 the 'mounds'
in the churchyard were in decay, and were ordered to
be repaired by all parishioners able to pay levies, though
they conceived themselves not bounden thereto. (fn. 7) In
1664 the Lord Chancellor was petitioned to allow a
brief to be issued on behalf of Edward Arnold of
Offchurch, who had within a year suffered two serious
fires at his premises, the total damage being £255. (fn. 8)
The village, mostly lying at the foot of a hill to the
north-east of the church, contains a few timber-framed
cottages, the majority of which have modern additions.
Offchurch Bury, the seat of Henry Leslie Johnson,
stands near the north-east corner of its extensive park
which occupies a bend of the River Leam. The house
is built of stone, the earlier part, now servants' quarters,
dating from the time of Henry VIII and retaining many
of the original roof timbers. The east front of this wing
retains its large stone mullioned and transomed windows
and small gables. Modern alterations have obscured
the development of the northern and eastern portions
of the house, most of which was probably built in the
17th century, though the porch and lobby on the north,
with a four-centred arch to the doorway, may be earlier.
The walls of the dining-room are of exceptional thickness. In this and the drawing-room the bay windows
were added, replacing sash windows, early in the 19th
century. (fn. 9) A few of the rooms have 17th-century oak
panelling, and in the drawing-room there is a fine
carved mantelpiece in the style of the late 18th century.
There is a good range of 18th-century stabling, with
a clock-tower containing a contemporary clock. A
brick dovecote of the same period, with pepperpot roof,
stands at the north end of the North Walk. Uncertain
traces of a possible moat can be seen in the neighbourhood of the house.
Manor
OFFCHURCH is not mentioned by name
in Leofric's foundation charter of Coventry
priory, or in Domesday Book, but the wording of the confirmation of the charter by Henry III in
1267 (fn. 10) implies that the place was in possession of this
priory from its foundation. In 1236 John son of
William held one tenth of a knight's fee of the prior, (fn. 11)
in whose 'barony' Offchurch and Ufton were returned
in 1316. (fn. 12) Free warren was granted in 1257, (fn. 13) and in
1279 the prior held 3 carucates in demesne, 5½ virgates
held by 8 free tenants, and 14½ virgates let out to 28
tenants at will, with 3 water-mills, also court leet, gallows, and assize of bread and ale. (fn. 14) The total revenue
of the monastic estate in 1291, including rents, livestock, and perquisites of court was £26 12s. 0¾d. (fn. 15) One
of the mills was that quitclaimed to the priory by Hugh,
rector of Offchurch, with 2 acres of land and common
of fishery in the Leam from Quensen Bridge to Guy's
Cliff, in exchange for 2 acres called Milneacre, a croft,
and half a virgate, except the messuage thereto belonging, in 1252. (fn. 16) Small alienations of messuages and land
were made to the priory at various dates between 1223
and 1349, (fn. 17) and the total value of the Coventry estates
in 1535 was £38 18s. 10d., including £13 6s. 8d. for
the rent of the manor. (fn. 18) For some time before the
Dissolution the manor and its appurtenances were leased
by the priory; to Richard Palmer and Margery his wife
before 1504, (fn. 19) and to various members of the Alcocke
family, who were in possession in 1542 when the capital
messuage of Offchurch was granted to Sir Edmund
Knightley and Lady Ursula his wife, in tail male, with
contingent remainder to his brother Sir Valentine, or to
the right heirs of his mother. (fn. 20) At this date the premises included a chapel and burial-ground, a stone
dovecote, the lofty hall of 'le Yate Howse Volte Porte',
the buildings lying between the hall and the 'Frenche
Walle', and several water from 'le vycars takkyng'
beside 'le Conyngre' as far as Radford mere. Sir
Edmund died within a year of this grant (fn. 21) but his
widow seems to have had a life tenure, (fn. 22) and in 1561–2
a fresh grant, in accordance with the terms of the one
of 1542, was made to Sir Valentine Knightley. (fn. 23) He
bequeathed Offchurch to his fourth son Edward, (fn. 24) who
was dealing with the manor in 1585 (fn. 25) and 1604. (fn. 26)
The Offchurch branch of the Knightley family remained Roman Catholics, and in 1626 the manor was
taken into Crown hands and
leased for 21 years to John
Pecke. (fn. 27) The direct male line
died out with Sir John Knightley, Edward's great-grandson,
who died in 1688, having quarrelled with his own kin and
bequeathed the manor to John
Wightwick, his wife's grandson
by her first husband, on condition that he took the surname
Knightley. (fn. 28) The Wightwick
Knightleys held the manor till
the middle of the 19th century; (fn. 29) Jane, only
daughter and heir of John Wightwick Knightley married Heneage, Lord Guernsey, afterwards 6th Earl of
Aylesford, in 1846, (fn. 30) and in 1850 he was lord of the
manor. (fn. 31) His widow held the lordship in 1900 (fn. 32) and
was still living at Offchurch Bury in 1910. (fn. 33)
Knightley, Quarterly ermine and paly or and gules a border azure.
Two of the three Offchurch mills mentioned in 1279
can be traced to the 16th and 17th centuries. One,
known as Offchurch Mill, formerly held by William
Chanonhouse, was in 1546–7 in the tenure of Edward
Sadler of Fillongley, to whom the priory had granted
a 41-year lease in 1536 for 66s. 8d., and one, Quins'
Mill (on the Quensen brook), had been let in 1530 for
31 years at 28s. 4d. to Henry Phillippes, and was in
1547 in the hands of Edward Phillippes, his assignee. (fn. 34)
These two water-mills are mentioned in 1631. (fn. 35)
Church
The parish church of ST. GREGORY
stands on the crest of the hill above the
village. It consists of chancel with north
vestry, nave with south porch, and west tower, and is
built of the local red sandstone.
The nave dates from the early part of the 12th century; owing to the failure of the foundations the chancel
arch, of which the piers are badly out of the perpendicular, collapsed and had to be reconstructed, apparently
in the 14th century, with the addition of buttresses on
the south and, probably, north. The chancel seems to
have been partly rebuilt at the same time and perhaps
lengthened, and a south porch erected. In the 15th
century the tower was erected. Late in the 16th century the roof of the nave was reconstructed at a lower
pitch, and it may have been at this time that the clumsy
and very massive buttress on the north side, overlapping
the north door, was built. (fn. 36) In the 18th century,
square-headed two-light windows were cut in the side
walls of the nave, immediately under the eaves, probably to light galleries. In 1866 the chancel was almost
entirely rebuilt, (fn. 37) in the course of which operation
there were found in the wall parts of a stone coffin (now
outside the north wall of the nave) and the heads of
two (fn. 38) small round-headed windows (described below),
which were set in the north and south walls when
rebuilt. A combined vestry and organ-chamber was
built on the north of the chancel in 1898.
In the chancel the east window, of three cinquefoiled
lights with geometrical tracery, is modern, as is the
small trefoil opening in the gable above it. In the north
wall are two deeply splayed 12th-century lights; their
heads are each cut from a single block of stone and
externally are surrounded by in the one case a single
and in the other a double row of cable moulding. (fn. 39) In
the south wall is a third window, smaller and with the
cable replaced by a conventionalized serpent. (fn. 40) West
of the two windows on the north is a modern archway
containing the organ and the entrance to the vestry.
East of the window in the south wall is a modern twolight window, and west of it a narrow priest's door with
hollow-chamfered two-centred head and hood-mould
ending in moulded stops. Between this and the chancel
arch is a low side window of a single rectangular light
with a shouldered head, in a deeply chamfered recess;
one jamb has a bolt-hole, presumably for a shutter.
Externally the buttresses at the angles and in the middle
of the south wall are modern; early-19th-century views
show clumsy semi-pyramidal buttresses or ramps, one
at the south-east angle and the other west of the priest's
door, adjoining the nave buttress; they were probably
set up in the 18th century. Internally there are bad
cracks in the masonry at the eastern angles, particularly
on the north. Close to this angle, in the north wall, is a
square aumbry; opposite to it is a piscina with round
bowl under a chamfered two-centred head.
Plan of Offchurch Church
As already stated, the imposts of the chancel arch are
much out of the vertical, the southern by more than
9 inches. They are of two square orders with detached
angle-shafts, which have plain cushion capitals and
abaci with diaper ornamentation; the bases resemble
inverted cushion capitals. The flat pointed arch, rebuilt in the 14th century, has two wave-moulded orders.
In the nave the windows are all modern: in the north
wall those at the east and west are single lights and
between them are two two-light windows; in the south
wall are three, each of two lights with a cinquefoil in
the head, and at the extreme east, at a higher level, a
small single light. At some uncertain period the north
wall evidently showed signs of slipping; the north door
was blocked and plastered over, and a huge buttress
was set up, overlapping its east jamb. In 1833 the
plaster was removed and part of the buttress cut back (fn. 41)
to show this fine early-12th-century doorway. It has
a semicircular head of two orders, the first square and
the second with an edge roll, and above this is a band
of varied diaper carving. The shafts and bases have
been renewed, but the cushion capitals, with scrolls cut
at the corners, and the plain splayed abaci are original;
on the face of the stones beside the capitals is more
diapering. Internally the north doorway is a much
narrower plain round-headed arch, suggestive in proportions and general appearance of pre-Conquest
work.
The 14th-century south door has a two-centred head
with two moulded orders, the inner continuous, while
the outer falls on detached pillars with capitals and
bases of which the stonework has been renewed. The
porch, of the late 14th century, has a small modern
two-light window in each side wall. The doorway has
a segmental pointed head of three moulded orders, continued on the jambs, where the two outer are provided
with capitals and bases; there is a hood-mould. The
roof of the porch appears to have collapsed at some time
and the whole gable, including the arch of the doorway,
to have been reconstructed. At each side of the entrance
is a low buttress with a chamfered offset, above which,
at the springing level of the door arch, are remains of
the moulded and panelled bases of shafts, presumably
once carrying pinnacles. The door into the church is
massive, with moulded ribs, and is ancient but of uncertain date.
On either side of the porch at roof level in the south
wall of the nave can be seen one of the blocked 18thcentury windows mentioned above, and another is
visible in the north wall. The low-pitched trussed
roof apparently dates from the late 16th century,
one of the cross-beams bearing a date said to be
1592. (fn. 42)
The 15th-century tower opens to the nave by a lofty
two-centred arch of two chamfered orders, which are
carried down the jambs but interrupted at the springing
of the arch by moulded quasi-capitals. The tower (fn. 43)
has western angle buttresses rising, with three offsets,
to the level of the belfry. At the south-east angle the
buttress is combined with the stair-vice, which is
entered by an inner doorway with a four-centred head
and is lit by three slits on the south. On the west face
is a doorway with four-centred arch, double-chamfered,
and above it is a modern three-light window, over which
is a clock-face, dated 1837. (fn. 43a) The belfry windows
are of two lights with a quatrefoil above, in a twocentred head, and appear to be original. The battlements of the parapet have a simple moulding which is
continuous round the merlons.
The font is modern. There is a good early-18thcentury pulpit of oak, inlaid and having a carved
cornice.
In the chancel are a number of marble tablets, dating
from the end of the 17th century onwards, to members
of the Knightley family. Built into the north wall of the
nave, outside, are fragments of a 14th-century coffinslab.
There are four bells: (fn. 44) the first and third by Robert
Handley of Gloucester (last quarter of the 15th century) inscribed respectively—
sancte micael ora pro nobis, and
virginis egregie vocor campana marie.
The second is by Newcombe of Leicester, 1605; and
the fourth by Mathew Bagley, 1681.
The communion plate includes an Elizabethan cup
of 1576 and a paten of 1699.
The registers (fn. 45) of baptisms begin in 1669 but are
irregular until 1682, after which date burials are
entered, but the record of marriages runs only from
1694.
Advowson
The church was appropriated to
Coventry Priory in 1260, (fn. 46) and was
worth £7 in 1291. (fn. 47) The vicarage
was valued at £7 7s. 6d., with 8s. for procurations and
synodals, in 1535, (fn. 48) at which time the great tithes were
farmed for £6 13s. 4d. (fn. 49) The tithes of the rectory had
been leased by the prior before 1538 for 60 years to
Thomas Gardener of Coventry, which lease having
been acquired by Henry Porter of Fletchamstead,
was renewed to him as a lease of 21 years in the
following year. (fn. 50) The rectory itself was granted to
John Hales of Coventry in 1545, (fn. 51) who bequeathed it
to his brother Bartholomew. (fn. 52) The latter passed it,
with the advowson, to Thomas Morgan in 1582, (fn. 53) who
settled it on his wife Mary (Saunders) for her life, and
then to his brother Anthony, the latter's daughter
Bridget, who married Anthony Morgan, and her male
heirs. (fn. 54) Her son Thomas Morgan was dealing with the
rectory and advowson in 1624. (fn. 55) By 1666 the advowson was in the hands of the Knightleys. (fn. 56) and it
descended with the manor till the present century, the
trustees of the Dowager Countess of Aylesford being
patrons in 1915. (fn. 57) The patronage is now held by the
provost and chapter of Coventry. (fn. 58)
Charities
John Haddon by will dated 21
August 1867 bequeathed £500 to the
vicar and churchwardens of Offchurch,
the income to be applied for the benefit of the poor of
the parish. The annual income of the charity amounts
to £12 19s. 4d.
William Haddon by will dated 31 March 1877 gave
£200 to the churchwardens and overseers of the parish,
the income to be distributed on St. Thomas's Day
among the aged or infirm poor of the parish. The
annual income of the Charity amounts to £4 11s.
Jane Wightwick, Dowager Countess of Aylesford,
by will dated 19 October 1906 bequeathed £200, the
interest to be applied in support of the dispensary in the
village of Offchurch. Trustees of the charity are appointed pursuant to a scheme of the Charity Commissioners dated 17 February 1914. The annual income
of the charity amounts to £7 10s. 4d.