Fawsley is a hamlet and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England.[1] The population at the 2001 census was 32. At the 2011 census the population remained less than 100 and is included in the civil parish of Charwelton.
The hamlet’s name possibly means 'fallow deer wood/clearing' or 'fallow-coloured wood/clearing'. It was created out of the combination of the 'Egelweardesle' and 'Grauesende' Hundreds in the 12th century. According to Morton, the hundred-court was held under a beech-tree called Mangrave (perhaps a combination of '(ge)maene' and 'graf').[2]
The Domesday Book (1086) confirms the population of Fawsley (Falelau) as around 50, but the Knightley family of Fawsley Hall developed sheep farming at the expense of their peasant tenants, who were all evicted by the turn of the 15th century. The hall and the church are all that remain of Fawsley.
Fawsley Hall
Fawsley Hall and landscape park was created by the Knightley family. Richard Knightley, a well-to-do Staffordshire lawyer, bought the manor of Fawsley in 1416. His grandson Richard, knighted by Henry VII,[3] built the first wing of the present house.[4]
Interior courtyard of Fawsley Hall
Sir Richard's son,[5] Sir Edmund Knightley, was a commissioner concerned with the confiscation of monastic lands after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. King Henry VIII granted the manors of Badby and Newnham in 1542 to Sir Edmund Knightley and his wife Ursula and their heirs in exchange for Alderton and Stoke. Sir Edmund ordered the building of the Elizabethan hall, which was visited by Elizabeth I in 1575, after it had passed to Edmund's nephew, Richard Knightley, a prominent Puritan. He ran a secret printing press at the house on which were printed Puritan pamphlets and for which he was briefly imprisoned.
The dower house in Fawsley Park, last inhabited in 1704 and now in ruins, was built for Lady Ursula after Sir Edmund died. It was placed on the Heritage at Risk register by English Heritage in 2014. Major stabilisation of the ruins was undertaken during 2016, including the construction of a steel support for the northeastern gable.[6] The Fawsley Estate has also been working with English Heritage and Natural England to prepare a comprehensive scheme of historic landscape restoration.
The estate descended in the wider Knightley family, many of them Members of Parliament, to Lucy Knightley, who inherited in 1754 and built the Georgian wing of Fawsley Hall. Lucy Knightley was High Sheriff of Northamptonshire for 1770–71.
In 1798 Sir John Knightley was created a Baronet. His nephew, Sir Charles Knightley, 2nd Baronet, carried out the Gothic alterations to the Georgian Wing, and his son Sir Rainald, the 3rd Baronet, commissioned architect Anthony Salvin to re-model the North Wing. Sir Rainald married Louisa Knightley and served as MP for South Northamptonshire for 40 years. He was created Baron Knightley in 1892 but died childless in 1895. During this time Joseph Merrick (the 'Elephant Man') was invited by the family to holiday at the estate and lived in the gamekeeper's cottage.[7] Sir Rainald's widow kept possession of the hall until 1913, after which financial restraints necessitated the auction of the house's contents after her death. She was the last Knightley to live at the Hall, completing 500 years of Knightley occupation.
When her eventual heirs Sir Charles Valentine Knightley, 5th Baronet died in 1932 and his brother, Sir Henry Francis Knightley, 6th and last Baronet, died in 1938, the estate passed to the Gage family of Firle Place, Sussex, by virtue of an earlier marriage of Sir Rainald's sister, Sophia, to Viscount Gage.
Fawsley Hall is now a country house hotel and spa, owned by Hand Picked Hotels. It is one of two buildings in Fawsley listed as Grade I, the other being St Mary's Church.[8] There are three bodies of water near the hotel named Big Waters, The Canal and Horse Pond, the first of which was created using a small dam.[9]
St Mary's church
Standing isolated on a grassy knoll and surrounded by a ha-ha, St. Mary's Church contains the Knightley family tombs including effigies of the 16th-century Sir Richard Knightley and his wife Jane. Dating to the early 13th century, the church has many fine features such as carved poppy heads and stained glass thought to be from Sulgrave Manor. A considerable amount of the copper roof covering was stolen in 2015,[10] and temporary sheeting had to be applied whilst considerable funds are amassed to replace the metal.
Badby is a village and a rural parish of about 2,020 acres (820 ha) in West Northamptonshire, England.
Brockhall is a civil parish and village in West Northamptonshire in England. Brockhall, like many estate villages, is a small settlement that has developed around its eponymous hall. The village - Brocole in Old English - was recorded in the Domesday Book. Brocole means "Badger hole". The name is derived from "broc" and "hol". The population is included in the civil parish of Norton.
Canons Ashby House is a Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house located in the village of Canons Ashby, about 11 miles (17.7 km) south of the town of Daventry in the county of Northamptonshire, England. It has been owned by the National Trust since 1981 when the house was close to collapse and the gardens had turned into a meadow. "The Tower" of the building is in the care of the Landmark Trust and available for holiday lets.
Knightley is a hamlet and former manor in Staffordshire, England. It is situated near the villages of Gnosall and Woodseaves, now on the B5405 road.
This is a list of the High Sheriffs of Northamptonshire.
Offchurch Bury is a manor house one mile north-west of the centre of the village of Offchurch, Warwickshire, England. It is supposed to represent the site of a palace of the Anglo-Saxon King Offa of Mercia (d.796), after which Offchurch is named, "bury" being a corruption of "burh" meaning a fortified place. William Dugdale in his Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656) stated concerning the manor of Offchurch:
Upton is a civil parish north-east of Kislingbury and south-west of Dallington, in Northamptonshire, England about 3.5 miles (6 km) west of Northampton town centre along the A4500 road. Formerly a scattered hamlet, it is now part of the town. The area west of Northampton is now a major area of expansion of the town and named Upton after the parish.
There have been two baronetcies created for members of the Knightley family, one in the Baronetage of England and one in the Baronetage of Great Britain. Both creations are extinct. The Knightley family originated at the Staffordshire manor of Knightley, acquired by them shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066. In 1415 Sir Richard Knightley purchased the manor of Fawsley in Northamptonshire, where the senior line of the family became seated.
Hengrave Hall is a Grade I listed Tudor manor house in Hengrave near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England and was the seat of the Kitson and Gage families 1525–1887. Both families were Roman Catholic recusants.
Rainald Knightley, 1st Baron Knightley, known as Sir Rainald Knightley, 3rd Baronet, from 1864 to 1892, was a British Conservative Party politician.
Sir Richard Knightley of Fawsley Hall in Northamptonshire was an English Member of Parliament (MP) and leading patron of the Puritans during the reign of Elizabeth I. The Knightleys were one of the leading families of Northamptonshire.
Richard Knightley was an English lawyer and politician, who was a Member of Parliament, and Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1626.
Sir Richard Knightley KB (1617–1661), of Fawsley in Northamptonshire, was an English Member of Parliament (MP).
Hanwell is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about 2 miles (3 km) northwest of Banbury. Its area is 1,240 acres (500 ha) and its highest point is about 500 feet (150 m) above sea level. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 263.
Edmund Francis Law, usually referred to as 'E. F. Law', FRIBA was an English architect during the 19th century, notable for a large number of projects, particularly restorations, in the counties of Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Rutland.
Sir John Spencer was an English nobleman, politician, knight, sheriff, landowner, and Member of Parliament. He was an early member of the Spencer family.
Sir Valentine Knightley was an English landowner and Member of Parliament.
The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Church of England parish church in Fawsley, Northamptonshire, England. It serves the parish of Fawsley under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Peterborough. It was built in the 13th century and is a Grade I listed building.
Lucy Knightley (1742–1791) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1763 and 1784.
Sir Charles Knightley, 2nd Baronet was a British Conservative politician.
References
↑ - OS Explorer Map 207: Newport Pagnell & Northampton South (1:25 000) ISBN0319 46387 7
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