Exhall | |
---|---|
St Giles' parish church | |
Location within Warwickshire | |
Population | 203 (2011 Census) |
OS grid reference | SP1055 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Alcester |
Postcode district | B49 |
Dialling code | 01789 |
Police | Warwickshire |
Fire | Warwickshire |
Ambulance | West Midlands |
UK Parliament | |
Exhall is a village and civil parish about 1+1⁄4 miles (2 km) south-south-east of Alcester in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. Its parish includes the hamlet of Little Britain and part of Ardens Grafton, the greater part of which is in the neighbouring civil parish of Temple Grafton. The 2011 Census recorded Exhall parish's population as 203. [1] Exhall is on Hay Brook, a tributary of the River Arrow. The civil parish neighbours those of Alcester and Wixford, with which it shares both an ecclesiastical parish [2] and a cricket club. [3]
Exhall is known as one of the "Shakespeare villages". William Shakespeare is said to have joined a party of Stratford folk which set itself to outdrink a drinking club at Bidford-on-Avon, and as a result of his labours in that regard to have fallen asleep under the crab tree of which a descendant is still called Shakespeare's tree. When morning dawned his friends wished to renew the encounter but he wisely said "No I have drunk with Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston, Haunted Hillboro’, Hungry Grafton, Dodging Exhall, Papist Wixford, Beggarly Broom and Drunken Bidford' and so, presumably, I will drink no more." The story is said to date from the 17th century but of its truth or of any connection of the story or the verse to Shakespeare there is no evidence. [4] The nickname "Dodging Exhall" may have arisen from the fact that the village was not, at any rate in the 18th century, directly approachable either from Alcester or Stratford. [5]
Exhall is first mentioned in the grant by Ceolred of Mercia to Evesham Abbey in 710. It also appears in the list of manors acquired by Abbot Ethelwig and the estates for which William I directed Bishop Wulfstan to give the abbot protection, but it was among the manors seized by Bishop Odo of Bayeux after Ethelwig's death in 1077, being then assessed at 2 hides. [5] By 1086, it is recorded in the Domesday Book as part of the lands of William son of Courbucion; who was appointed Sheriff of Warwick soon after 1086; where it reads, "In Ferncombe Hundred, Thorkell holds 1 1/2 hides in Ecleshelle (Exhall). Land for 1 plough. 2 smallholders. Meadow, 10 acres. The value was 10s now 5s. Swein held it freely before 1066." [6]
Exhall is part of the Bardon ward of Stratford-on-Avon District Council, represented by Councillor Valerie Hobbs, Conservative Party. [7] Nationally it is part of Stratford-on-Avon parliamentary constituency. Prior to Brexit in 2020 it was part of the West Midlands electoral region of the European Parliament.
The parish church for Exhall and Wixford, located in Exhall and dedicated to St. Giles, is a small building with a nave dating from the 12th century, a 13th-century chancel, a south porch and a bell turett. The Norman origin of the nave is proved by the built up doorway on the North side, [8] with scalloped capitals and a one-step arch. [9] The church was much restored and in part rebuilt in 1862, mainly at the cost of the then rector. [5] However, the Worcester Diocesan Architectural Society protested in 1861 against the plans of the builder, Soloman Hunt, to remove the Norman doorway, the old windows and the original bell turret and so the Church Building Society refused to make a grant. [9]
The font has a tapering round bowl on an octagonal stem; it is possibly an ancient bowl reworked but shows no signs of former staples for the lid. In the chancel floor are small brass standing effigies of John Walsingham, died 20 January 1566, and Eleanor Ashfield his wife. He is shown in Elizabethan armour and is incised on an irregularly rectangular plate, only silhouetted on his left side below the shoulder, possibly a palimpsest. She is in silhouette and wears a close cap, brocaded dress with padded sleeves, and a long cloak. Above the figures are two shields set upside down. The dexter charged with a trefoil between three molets (Ashfield); the sinister charged quarterly the first, destroyed, the second and third, a checky cross between sixteen roundels, and the fourth, a paly of six a fesse (Walsingham). [5]
The Arden Way long-distance footpath passes through Exhall.
Stratford-on-Avon is a local government district in southern Warwickshire, England.
Bidford-on-Avon is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Warwickshire, very close to the border with Worcestershire. In the 2001 census it had a population of 4,830, increasing to 5,350 at the 2011 census.
Wootton Wawen is a village and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. The village is on the A3400 in mid-western Warwickshire, about 20 miles (32 km) from Birmingham, about 2 miles (3 km) south of Henley-in-Arden and about 6.5 miles (10 km) north of Stratford-upon-Avon. The soil is a strong clay and some arable crops are grown, but the land is mainly in pasture. The common fields were inclosed in 1776, but some inclosures had already been made about 1623.
Great Alne is a small village in Warwickshire, England, 7 miles (11 km) north-west of Stratford-upon-Avon, 3 miles (4.8 km) north-east of Alcester and 15 miles (24 km) from Warwick, on the road to Wootton Wawen. It takes its name from the River Alne and was first chronicled in the charter of King Ethelbald (723–737). In 1969 Warwickshire County Council designated part of Great Alne as a Conservation Area, including most of the village east of the Memorial Hall and twelve listed buildings of local architectural and historical value. At the 2001 Census the population was 587.
Arrow is a village in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. Together with the entirely rural hamlet of Weethley, it forms since 1 April 2004 the civil parish of Arrow with Weethley. The parish lies midway between Redditch and Evesham. From Alcester the River Arrow flows southwards to the river Avon, and to the west of the river the present road to Evesham joins that to Worcester at a busy junction where, near the Old Toll House, stands the hamlet of Arrow, a group of modernized black and white farm workers' cottages which have risen up the social scale to become homes for business people. Arrow with Weethley parish falls under the local government district and parliamentary constituency of Stratford-on-Avon, and the Church of England Diocese of Coventry. In 2001 the parish had a population of 208.
Bearley is a village and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. The village is about five miles (8 km) north of Stratford-upon-Avon, bounded on the north by Wootton Wawen, on the east by Snitterfield, and on the south and west by Aston Cantlow. The western boundary is formed by a stream running out of Edstone Lake; it would seem that the land, now part of Edstone in Wootton Wawen, between the stream where it flows west from the lake and the road running east from Bearley Cross, was originally included in Bearley. The land within the parish rises gradually from a height of 216 ft (66 m), in the north-west at Bearley Cross, to about 370 ft (110 m), at the south-east corner of the parish, and is open except along its eastern boundary, where part of the extensive wood known as Snitterfield Bushes is included in Bearley.
Kinwarton is a village in the valley of the River Alne, Warwickshire, to the north-east of the market town of Alcester. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 1,082. The ground is mostly low-lying, with a maximum altitude of 206 ft. and some of the fields near the river are liable to floods. The road from Alcester to Henley-in-Arden runs through the middle of the parish. A branch road leads off to the church and rectory about a quarter of a mile to the south and thence continues as a field-path down to a ford across the River Alne below Hoo Mill. From the north side of the main road a by-road branches off to Coughton.
Temple Grafton is a village and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England, situated about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Alcester and 14 miles (23 km) west of the county town of Warwick. The place name is misleading, the Knights Templar never having any association with the place but owing to a naming error made in the time of Henry VIII the mistake has been perpetuated. During the reign of Richard I the estate in fact belonged to the Knights Hospitaller. During the reign of Edward III in 1347 the village was recorded as Grafton Superior while neighbouring Ardens Grafton was named Inferior.
Snitterfield is a village and civil parish in the Stratford on Avon district of Warwickshire, England, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north of the A46 road, 4.5 miles (7.2 km) from Stratford upon Avon, 6.5 miles (10.5 km) from Warwick and 17 miles (27 km) from Coventry. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,226.
Spernall is a remote village 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Alcester in the parish of Oldberrow, Morton Bagot, and Spernall, in the Stratford-on-Avon District of Warwickshire, England. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 153. It is situated on the banks of the small River Arrow, the name meaning Spera's border. Early forms of the name are Spernore. and Spernoure in the 1327 Subsidy Roll. The village consists only of the church and rectory and a few scattered farms and cottages. At some time between 1195 and 1361 the parish was largely depopulated by pestilence, so that many of the villein tenements, which had hitherto accounted for almost the whole population, came into the hands of freemen. This may well refer to the Black Death; the priest at Spernall, Nicholas atte Yate, died in 1349 and there was another institution in 1351. In the 17th century the population seems to have mainly consisted of substantial farmers, for in 1625 it is described as a place with 'few or no poor at all in it and many wealthy inhabitants', and the Hearth Tax returns (1662–74) show the high average of about 2.5 hearths per house. By 1696, there were only two yeomen with an estate of £10 a year or more.
Wixford is a hamlet and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District of Warwickshire, England, situated 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of Alcester. The population at the 2011 census was 155. The area is largely agricultural with no large employers in the area, most residents commuting to larger towns nearby.
Coughton is a small village located between Studley 2.4 miles (4 km) to the North and Alcester, 2 miles (3 km) to the South, in the county of Warwickshire, England. The village lies 19.3 miles (31 km) from Birmingham on the Birmingham–Alcester A435 road, which here follows the line of the Roman road Icknield Street. The village mainly consists of a number of houses on Sambourne Lane, Coughton Lane and farms and is primarily noted as being the location of the National Trust property, Coughton Court, which lies 400 yards to the east of the A435. The population according to the 2001 Census was 139, increasing to 157 in the 2011 Census.
Long Marston is a village and civil parish about 5 miles (8 km) southwest of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. The southern and western boundaries of the parish form part of the county boundary with Worcestershire. The 2011 census recorded the parish's population as 436.
Pebworth is a village and civil parish in the county of Worcestershire, lying about 5 miles north-north-west of the town of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire. Until 1931, the parish – which includes the hamlet of Broad Marston – was itself also in Gloucestershire, as part of Pebworth Rural District. Pebworth is bordered to the north and north-east by the parishes of Dorsington and Long Marston, which are today in Warwickshire.
Ardens Grafton is a hamlet or small village in the Stratford-on-Avon District of Warwickshire, England, situated about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Alcester and 14 miles (23 km) west of the county town of Warwick. It has a main street and consists mostly of houses constructed of local stone with tiled roofs, with the exception of two properties, 'Manor Cottage' and 'Chapel House' both of which have timber-framed walls and a thatched roof. Two other buildings retain fragments of ancient framing. During the reign of Edward III in 1347 the village was recorded as Grafton Inferior while neighbouring Temple Grafton, 0.50 miles (0.80 km) to the East, was named Superior Other designations used during the Middle Ages were Nether Grafton, Grafton Inferior or Grafton Minor whilst the larger village of Temple Grafton was distinguished as Over Grafton, Grafton Superior, Church Grafton, or Grafton Major. A reference to 'Temple Grafton alias Ardens Grafton' occurs in 1650.
The Cotswold Hills League is a cricket league made up of clubs from Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. The spine of the geographic area covered by the League is a picturesque part of England known as The Cotswolds.
Broom is a village in the civil parish of Bidford-on-Avon in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England, about 1.7 miles (2.7 km) north-west of Bidford. The village lies in the north-west corner of the parish between the River Avon, which forms its western boundary, and the road from Bidford to Alcester. Broom formerly consisted of two hamlets known as King's Broom and Burnell's Broom. Burnell's Broom, the southern portion, was said to have been depopulated by Sir Rice Griffin of Broom Court during the reign of Elizabeth I. At the 2011 census Broom has a population of 550