WHITNASH
Acreage: 1,239.
Population: 1911, 525; 1921, 570; 1931, 586.
Whitnash occupies a strip of country about 3 miles
long but less than a mile wide, running from the Fosse
Way towards the Leam valley. On the north-east it is
separated from Radford Semele by a tributary of the
Leam; the surface is fairly level, at an altitude of 200
to 250 ft. above sea level. The parish is partly bounded
on the south-west by the road from Warwick to
Harbury, and is crossed by that from Leamington Spa
to Tachbrook, the village being built along a loop on
the east side of this latter road. There are a few black
and white timber-framed cottages, but most of the
houses are of modern red brick, as the village is only
about a mile from Leamington and there has been considerable ribbon development at the ends of the village
street and along Tachbrook Road; for this reason the
population density (nearly 50 per 100 acres) is high
for a rural parish. The former G.W.R. main line runs
the length of the parish, following the course of the
stream above mentioned, but there is no station. There
is little woodland and much of the parish is taken up
with the 18-hole golf course of the Leamington and
County Golf Club. Whitnash was a very late-inclosed
parish, the Act, relating to 1,090 acres, not being
obtained till 1847 or the award till 1851. (fn. 1)
Dr. Thomas Holyoake (? 1616–75), in turn soldier,
medical practitioner, and priest, was rector here
1660–74, (fn. 2) and the family of Walter Savage Landor
has held manorial rights here for over a century.
Manors
WHITNASH, a 2-hide vill, was in 1086
held by Humfrey of Hasculf Musard. The
pre-Conquest tenant had been Alured. (fn. 3)
The overlordship of Robert Musard as to two fees in
Leamington (Hastings), Whitnash, and Haseley was
recognized in 1235–6, (fn. 4) and as late as 1503 the manor
of Whitnash was stated to have been held of him. (fn. 5)
Humfrey the Domesday tenant was the ancestor of
the Hastang family, Whitnash again being grouped
with Leamington and Haseley, but as one knight's fee
only, formerly held of John Hastang, in 1428. (fn. 6) In the
early 13th century Thomas de Charlecote seems to have
been the Hastangs' tenant, his 'court' (? manor-house)
being mentioned in a fine of 1221, (fn. 7) and his son Thomas
receiving a messuage and a virgate in 1262 from Simon
de Radefford and Emma his wife. (fn. 8) The younger
Thomas was also lord of Haseley, being sometimes
known as Thomas de Haseley; he held the manor of
Robert de Hastang for half a knight's fee in 1279,
when the demesne included 3 carucates of land and a
water-mill with a great pool, and there were 6 freeholders of 3½ virgates and 19 servile tenants with
7 virgates and 6¼ acres. (fn. 9) His son Robert de Haseley
granted a messuage, carucate of land, and 117s. 5½d.
rents in Whitnash to Robert de Kington and Alice his
wife in 1313. (fn. 10) In 1373, when
this estate was occupied by Margery widow of William de Kington, the reversion of it was
granted by Simon le Hare of
Stony Stratford (Bucks.) and his
wife Maud (Kington) to James
de Benyngton of Coventry. (fn. 11)
Medley. Sable two gimel bars argent and a chief argent with three molets sable thereon.
Robert's grandson Thomas
granted the manor in 1346 to
Thomas Savage of Tachbrook
Mallory, in whose family it
descended till another Thomas
Savage granted it (1483) to Benedict Medley of Warwick; (fn. 12) at the death of the latter in 1503 it was worth £8
and was assessed at a quarter of a fee. (fn. 13) His great-grandson Henry made a settlement on his marriage in 1563
with Frances, elder daughter of Clement Throckmorton
of Haseley, and died in 1578, when his son Henry was
14. (fn. 14) Clement, son of the younger Henry Medley,
sold the manor in 1604 to Robert Wale, (fn. 15) whose family
seem to have possessed it when Dugdale was writing.
The Medleys had also been lords of Tachbrook
Mallory, later the property of a branch of the Wagstaffe
family of Harbury, of whom Sir Combe Wagstaffe
appears as vouchee in a recovery of Whitnash in 1665. (fn. 16)
John Rouse, a beneficiary under Sir Combe's will, (fn. 17)
his wife Mary, and Cecily Wagstaffe were dealing
with the manor in the same year. (fn. 18) Frances, daughter
of Sir Combe Wagstaffe's nephew Thomas, of Bishop's
Tachbrook, brought the manor by marriage to the
Bagot family, her husband Sir Edward dealing with it
in 1710, (fn. 19) his son Sir Walter in 1758–9, (fn. 20) and his
grandson William, 1st Lord Bagot, in 1799. (fn. 21) The
Tachbrook estate, and also apparently manorial rights
in Whitnash, were bought by the 2nd (Brooke) Earl
of Warwick, who was returned as lord of the manor
in 1802. (fn. 22)
The Frevilles of Tamworth Castle had an interest
in Whitnash, which descended through Margaret,
third daughter and coheir of Sir Baldwin Freville
(died 1400) to her husband Sir Hugh Willoughby;
it was worth 48s. at the partition of the estates in
1423. (fn. 23) They made a settlement of their third of this
manor in tail male, with contingent remainder to
Margaret's right heirs, in 1435, (fn. 24) and she with her
second husband Sir Richard Bingham settled the
entire manor (there having been a redistribution of the
estates in 1452) (fn. 25) on themselves for their lives in 1454. (fn. 26)
Sir Henry Willoughby, Sir Hugh's grandson, sold this
manor to Benedict Medley, who already possessed the
main manor, in 1499. (fn. 27)
Another manor appears at the end of the 16th
century when John Colborne died (1600) holding a
manor of Whitnash of the Crown. (fn. 28) His son Edmund
passed it to Henry Colbourne in 1605 and the latter
and Katherine Colborne, widow, to William Searle in
the following year. (fn. 29) This may be the manor of which
Robert Olney was vouchee in 1638, (fn. 30) and which he
and his wife Elizabeth passed to William Bolton, senior
and junior, in 1648. (fn. 31) Edward Bullocke and his wife
Elizabeth (Bolton) dealt with the manor in 1666, (fn. 32)
and their son Edward with Mary (Child) his wife in
1695. (fn. 33) From 1730 a manor in Whitnash was held
by the Willes family, (fn. 34) including (1767) Sir John
Willes, Chief Justice of Common Pleas, whose father
was rector of Bishop's Itchington. (fn. 35) Sir John's grandson Edward, who succeeded his father the Rev. Edward
Willes of Newbold Comyn in 1820, (fn. 36) conveyed it the
following year to John Campion, (fn. 37) who was possibly
acting for Henry Eyres Landor, to whom Edward
Willes sold the manor about this time. (fn. 38) Mr. Landor,
who had previously inherited four farms in Whitnash
from his mother, (fn. 39) who was descended from the family
of Savage, formerly lords of Whitnash, held the manor
at his death in 1866, (fn. 40) when it passed to a niece and
eventually to his great nephew the Rev. R. E. H. Duke,
who was said in 1932 to hold two-thirds of the manor,
the other third being held by 'Miss Landor'. The
Rev. R. E. H. Duke died in 1932, (fn. 41) his heir being his
grandson Peter J. H. Duke. (fn. 42)
A mill, a virgate of land, and 8 acres of meadow,
valued at 20s., were given to Kenilworth Priory by
John Lok and William Neweman in 1338; (fn. 43) and
rents of 117s. 10½d. in Whitnash and Wellesborne to
the chantry of God and St. Mary in Guy's Cliffe
chapel by Richard, Earl of Warwick, in 1430. (fn. 44) The
Knights Hospitallers had in 1279 four messuages held
by them of Aitrop Hastang. (fn. 45) About 1200 Richard
Kenteis granted to Oseney Abbey (Oxon.) the lordship
of two virgates in Whitnash held by Eleutherius the
priest and by Margaret, this gift being confirmed by
Aitrop and by Humfrey Hastang. (fn. 46)
Church
The church of ST. MARGARET stands
in a very small churchyard at the northern
end of the village. It consists of a chancel,
nave, south aisle, west tower, vestry, and south porch.
Except for the tower the church has been practically
rebuilt within recent times, the chancel in 1855, the
aisle in 1867, and the nave in 1880. The old church,
judging from a drawing in the Aylesford Collection,
consisted of chancel, aisleless nave (both probably of
13th-century origin), and the existing tower, and an
18th-century south porch. The modern walls are
built of brickwork faced with ashlar, the roofs are
of trussed rafters of steep pitch, covered with tiles, and
the floors are tiled. The east tracery window of the
chancel is of three trefoil lights with pointed arch and
hood-mould, with head-stops. On the south side there
are three lancet windows and a narrow doorway,
probably 15th-century, with a segmental-pointed head
of one splay carried down to moulded stops, restored
but partly original. The north side has two lancet
windows with hood-moulds, and a vestry with a
window of two trefoil lights and a quatrefoil in the
head. The lancet at the western end has a transom to
form a low-side window, mostly restored but partly
original. The south aisle has a pitched roof, and a
porch at the west end with doors opening into the nave
and aisle lighted by two trefoil lights on the west.
The entrance has a pointed moulded arch, moulded
capitals and bases with red sandstone shafts. The door
to the nave has a pointed arch of two continuous orders,
and that to the aisle a segmental-pointed arch of two
moulded orders on moulded capitals and bases with
red sandstone shafts. The aisle is lighted by a tracery
window of two trefoil lights, and one of three lights;
there is a similar one of three lights at the east end,
with a pierced trefoil in the gable. The north wall of
the nave is divided by buttresses into three bays with
a tracery window of two trefoil lights, a pointed arch
and hood-mould in the east bay, and similar windows,
but of three lights, in the other two bays. The tower
is built of sandstone ashlar and dates from the latter
part of the 15th century; it rises in two stages, with a
moulded plinth, an embattled parapet, and diagonal
buttresses, in five stages at the western angles and of
three stages on the eastern corners, splayed on their
west faces. The west door-way has a four-centred head
of one wide splay carried down to moulded stops, and
immediately above is a window, in two chamfered
orders, of three trefoil lights with a pointed arch and
hood-mould with head-stops; above is a clock dial.
The belfry windows on all four faces have four-centred
heads, of two splays, with two trefoil lights. On the
south face there are two loop-lights to the tower staircase, and a small rectangular light to the ringingchamber.
The chancel (27 ft. 10 in. by 15 ft.): the east window
has a moulded rear-arch on attached shafts, moulded
capitals and bases, and hood-mould with foliated stops.
On the south side there is a piscina and sedilia with
cinquefoil heads and hood-moulds. The lancet windows
have wide-splayed jambs and pointed rear-arches.
Fixed to the wall is a brass, 24 in. high, with two
figures in civilian costumes of c. 1500, assigned by
a modern inscription (1856), to Benedict Medley
(d. 1503) and his wife. (fn. 47) Also on this wall is a memorial
to Thomas Morse, Rector of Ashow and Whitnash,
died 1784. On the north side there is a wide pointed
entrance arch of two splays to the vestry and organ.
Fixed on this wall is an incised brass with traces of red
and black enamel, of a cleric holding a chalice with a
paten, and an inscription to Richard Bennet, M.A.,
rector, who died 8 February 1531(2). There is also
a mural tablet to Nicholas Greenhill, for 40 years rector
of the parish, died 1650. Below is a small brass
inscription by R. Boles who was Greenhill's successor,
as follows:
This Greenhill Periwiged with snow
Was leauild in the Spring
This Hill the Nine and Three did know
Was Sacred to his King
But he must Downe, although so much Divine
Before he rise never to set but shine.
Ri. Boles Mr. Art. 1689.
Opposite there is a similar small brass by the same
hand, with a long epitaph written by Boles to himself
and dated 1689.
The nave (52 ft. 5 in. by 17 ft. 8 in.) has two small
dormer lights in the trussed rafter roof, and the aisle is
separated from the nave by two pointed arches springing from responds and a shaft with foliated capitals.
The pointed tower arch is of two continuous chamfers,
and the chancel arch of two orders is supported on
short coloured marble shafts, with floriated capitals,
resting on carved corbels. The pulpit is on the
south side of the arch and has carved trefoil panels,
coloured marble shafts, and an octagonal stem of
coloured marble shafts with carved capitals. The font
stands to the west of the south door and is dated
1848.
The south aisle (28 ft. 9 in. by 14 ft.) has a trussed
rafter roof, with a small rose window in the west gable.
The windows have chamfered pointed rear-arches and
the door to the porch a segmental one.
The tower (10 ft. 3 in. by 10 ft.) has a splay in the
south-west angle for the staircase doorway which has
a four-centred head and is fitted with its original door
hung on strap hinges. The west door has a four-centred
rear-arch and has an early counterboarded door. The
tower is curtained off for use as a vestry.
There are two bells by Mathew Bagley, 1680, and
four by J. Taylor, three of 1892 and one of 1896. (fn. 48)
The registers begin in 1679.
Advowson
The church was originally given,
between 1121 and 1129, by Lesceline
widow of Humfrey the Domesday
tenant of Whitnash, to Nostell Priory (Yorks.), (fn. 49) but
she subsequently made a new grant of it, in conjunction with her husband Ralph de Mare, including
60 acres of land and the priest's manse, (fn. 50) to Kenilworth
Priory, this latter grant being confirmed by Aitrop
Hastang, who conceded the gifts made by his men when
the church was dedicated, namely '8 acres of land in
one part of the vill and 10 acres in the other'. (fn. 51) The
grant was further confirmed by Henry II. (fn. 52) The prior
and convent held the advowson up to the Reformation,
but the church was not appropriated; in 1291 it was
worth £4 (fn. 53) and in 1535 £5 9s. 8d. over and above an
annual pension of 2s. to the monastery, dating back to
the reign of John, and 8s. for procurations and synodals. (fn. 54) After the Dissolution the advowson remained
with the Crown till 1587–8 when it was granted to
Richard Branthwaite. (fn. 55) By 1615 it had been acquired
by Sir Thomas Leigh. (fn. 56) Sir William Bromley presented in 1675 and his son William in 1690, (fn. 57) probably
by concession of the Lords Leigh, whose representative
still holds the advowson.