Great Packington, historically known as Packington Magna, is a hamlet, civil parish and country park in the North Warwickshire district of Warwickshire, England. [1] The parish of Meriden is to the south-east, and Little Packington to the west. At Great Packington is Packington estate, which includes Packington Hall, Packington Old Hall and the Greek revival style St James' Church.
At the publication of the Domesday Book in 1086, (Great) Packington and Little Packington were recorded as Patitone, where the first t is a mistake for c, i.e. Pacitone. [2] The settlement of 15 households was then within the hundred of Coleshill in Warwickshire. [3] The tenant-in-chief was Thorkil of Warwick, who let it to his brother Godmund. Either Thorkil or his son Siward then granted it to Geoffrey de Clinton, who later gave it to the Priory of Kenilworth, Warwickshire. This was confirmed by Henry II in 1163. The hundred was first called by its present name of Hemlingford Hundred in the Pipe Roll of 8 Henry II (1161–62).
The estate land continued to belong to Kenilworth Priory until the dissolution of the monasteries. [4] The estate was then granted to John Fisher. [5] From 1538, churches were required to keep a record of all births, marriages, and burials in parish registers. Great Packington's records survive from 1538. Poor law records for the parish begin in 1715.
After the English Civil War, the ‘Great Packington Parish: Loss Account’ included claims from 36 parishioners. [6] There are also references in records to Parliamentarian soldiers plundering fish from the Packington pools for food. [7]
Packington Manor House (now known as Packington Old Hall) was built in red brick in 1679 for Sir Clement Fisher, 2nd Baronet, [8] and his wife Jane Lane. In 1693 Sir Clement Fisher's nephew, also Sir Clement Fisher, 3rd Baronet, built another larger mansion on the estate, Packington Hall. [9]
Heneage Finch, 2nd Earl of Aylesford, married Mary Fisher, daughter and sole heiress of Sir Clement Fisher, 3rd Baronet in 1712. When the 3rd Barnet died without male heirs in 1729 the Packington estate passed to Mary and her husband and became the seat of the Earls of Aylesford.
In 1787, it was found that the steeple of Great Packington's parish church was in a bad condition and the church was demolished. It was replaced by St James' Church by the 4th Earl of Aylesford, [10] following designs after the temple at Pæstum [11] by Italian architect Joseph Bonomi. The foundation stone for St. James was laid on 23 April 1789. During the construction of St James' Church baptisms and marriages were held at St Bartholomew’s Church in the neighbouring parish of Little Packington, Warwickshire.
A man was struck by lightning and died in 1789 in the parish, and a monument was placed where he died to commemorate the death and warn others of the dangers of sheltering under trees during a lightning storm. [12] The inscription read: "On Thursday September 3 1789, William Cawley, of London, Farrier, was on this spot struck dead by lightening. To commemorate this awful event, as well as to warn others from exposing themselves to the same danger, by taking shelter in a thunder storm under trees, this monument is erected."
Great Packington has a small population, with the historic peak between 1801 and 1861. There were 340 inhabitants in 1848 [13] and The Population Gazetteer of England and Wales and the Islands in the British Seas reported the population in 1864 as 336 inhabitants. [14]
Great Packington became part of the Poor Law Union of Meriden in 1836. [15] The Meriden Union workhouse housed two inmates who were born in Great Packington when the 1881 census was taken. [16] The church living was united with the living of Little Packington in 1860. [1]
A memorial was erected inside St James Church in memory of men of the parish who served during the First World War, including six who gave their lives.
An article in the Midland Daily Telegraph, recorded that the joint population of Great and Little Packington in 1939 was 250 inhabitants. [17]
During the Second World War, Packington Hall hosted a barracks for the United States Army, with a capacity for 4,490 men. [18] From 5 July 1944, the grounds of Packington Hall were also used by the United States Army as a Rehabilitation and Reconditioning centre for wounded soldiers, designated as the 825th Convalescent Center. [19]
Several Great Packington men served in the Second World War, including 9th Earl of Aylesford who was killed in action at Dunkirk.
Between 1995 and 1999 sand and gravel were extracted from land on the Packington Estate. When the quarrying ceased, work began to convert the area into a 22-hectare nature reserve and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) supported the development of a ten-year biodiversity strategy. [20] The reserve opened to the public in 2001. In 2010, Natural England supported the conversion of a further 16 acres of former farmland at the site into wet grassland.
Great Packington is also notable for the number of pools of water in the parish, many of which are now used by Packington Fisheries. The parish also features some of the highest land in England and is neighbour to the traditional centre of England, Meriden.
Earl of Aylesford, in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. The junior branch of the Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham. It was created in 1714 for the lawyer and politician Heneage Finch, 1st Baron Guernsey. He had already been created Baron Guernsey in the Peerage of England in 1703.
Meriden is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England. Historically, it is part of Warwickshire and lies between the cities of Birmingham and Coventry. It is located close to the North Warwickshire district border within a green belt of the countryside known as the Meriden Gap and is in the ecclesiastical parish of the Diocese of Coventry.
Joseph Bonomi the Elder was an Italian architect and draughtsman who spent most of his career in England where he became a successful designer of country houses. Bonomi was Robert Adam’s leading draughtsman.
Little Packington is a hamlet and civil parish in the North Warwickshire district of the county of Warwickshire, England, and is sometimes known by the names Packington Piggott or Packington Parva. The hamlet is situated just to the northwest of Great Packington, close to the boundaries of Packington Park and sits on the River Blythe.
Nether Whitacre is a small village and larger rural civil parish in North Warwickshire, Warwickshire, England.
John Jaques (1728–1800) was a priest of the Church of England.
There have been two baronetcies created for persons with the surname Fisher, both in the Baronetage of England.
Heneage Finch, 4th Earl of Aylesford, PC, FRS, FSA, styled Lord Guernsey between 1757 and 1777, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1772 to 1777 when he succeeded to a peerage. He was also a landscape artist.
Packington Old Hall is a 17th-century manor house situated at Great Packington, near Meriden, Warwickshire. It is a Grade II listed building. It stands in gardens enclosed by late 17th century brick walls.
Packington Hall is a 17th-century mansion situated at Great Packington, near Meriden in Warwickshire, England and is the seat of the Earl of Aylesford. It is a Grade II listed building.
St James' Church is an 18th-century chapel situated in the grounds of Packington Hall, near Meriden, Warwickshire. It is a Grade I listed building.
William Courtenay, 1st Viscount Courtenay, also de jure 7th Earl of Devon, was a British peer. He was the son of William Courtenay, 6th Earl of Devon and 2nd Baronet Courtenay, and Lady Anne Bertie.
Heneage Finch, 6th Earl of Aylesford DL, styled Lord Guernsey until 1859, was a British peer and politician.
Heneage Finch, 2nd Earl of Aylesford, styled Lord Guernsey from 1714 to 1719, was an English politician, courtier and peer who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1704 to 1719, representing the constituencies of Maidstone and Surrey. Born in Albury, Surrey into an aristocratic family, he also served as the Master of the Jewel Office from 1711 to 1716.
Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Aylesford, styled Lord Guernsey between 1719 and 1757, was a British peer and politician.
Savile Finch was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1757 to 1780.
Charles Ian Finch-Knightley, 11th Earl of Aylesford,, styled Lord Guernsey between 1940 and 1958, was a British peer.
Louisa Finch, Countess of Aylesford was an English naturalist and botanical illustrator who made studies and paintings of the plants, algae, and fungi from the Warwickshire area.
The Woodmen of the Ancient Forest of Arden are an exclusive society of longbow shooting toxophilites, founded in 1758 in the village of Meriden, in the Borough of Solihull, in the ancient Forest of Arden.
Heneage Finch, 7th Earl of Aylesford, styled The Honourable from birth until 1859, then Lord Guernsey until 1871, and also known as Joseph Heneage Finch, was a British aristocrat and friend of the Prince of Wales. Finch enjoyed many outdoor pursuits, and in his social circle was nicknamed "Sporting Joe."
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