Parishes: Shustoke

SHUSTOKE

Acreage: 2,094.

Population: 1911, 342; 1921, 446; 1931, 391.

The ecclesiastical parish of Shustoke includes the detached chapelry and hamlet of Bentley, the details of which are given separately. Shustoke proper is about 3½ miles in length from east to west, with an average depth of about 1 mile. Its western boundary is formed by the River Blythe, to the east of which is the hamlet of Blyth End, and by branches of the River Tame. On the east and north the parish was bounded by the River Bourne, but on the north this has been partly canalized and its old course now runs through the Birmingham Corporation's great Shustoke Reservoir, which with the neighbouring Whitacre Reservoir, also in this parish, covers about 100 acres. Between these two reservoirs lies Whitacre Station, in this parish, a junction of three lines: (1) the main L.M.S. line from Derby, which here turns west past Coleshill Station (formerly Forge Mills) to Birmingham; (2) a branch line running south to Hampton; (3) another branch east to Shustoke Station and on to Nuneaton.

Just east of Shustoke Station is Furnace End Bridge over the Bourne, originally a pack-horse bridge of the 14th or 15th century, 4 ft. wide, having a round arch with four chamfered ribs. It was widened to the south in the 17th century and again in 1925. South of the station is the church, standing at a height of 350 ft. on a slight hill, with a road running south, and another west to Shustoke Green and then south-west over Blyth Bridge to Coleshill.

Church Farm, south of the church, was a timber-framed building of the early 17th century. It is of H-shaped plan facing west; the main block and south wing are original, but except for the east end of the wing were encased with red brick in the 18th century and altered inside. The north wing is built of stone and is dated, on the west gable end, 1669 with the initials C/TK. The gable-heads have parapets with copings, and two or three original mullioned windows survive. The east room has a wide fire-place of brick with chimney-corners, perhaps later. The ceiling beams are chamfered. South of the house is a barn with some 17th-century timber-framing, and east of it a red-brick pigeon-house with four gables.

The old Rectory nearly opposite Church Farm (now two cottages) was the birthplace of Sir William Dugdale in 1605. It was the place where Anthony à Wood chronicles that a swarm of bees came into the garden at his birth, presaging possibly his future industry. (fn. 1)

Shustoke Hall, ¾ mile south-west of the church, dates from c. 1680. It is a rectangular house of two stories and attics with walls of red brick having a stone plinth and a wooden cornice with modillions on the front and ends. The middle west entrance has moulded stone jambs and lintel and retains the ancient door with two X-shaped panels formed by raised mouldings, and with ornamental plates to the ring-knocker. The windows are tall, with flat arches, and have wood casement frames with transoms and mullions. The two internal chimney-stacks have pilastered rectangular shafts above the tiled roof; the northern has moulded stone fire-places and the southern a wide fire-place to the kitchen. The north-west room is lined with late-17th-century panelling and has a wall-painting over the fire-place of a classical subject—a hunter offering a boar's head trophy to a woman; another is of putti. The middle entrance hall is large and has a fine staircase with heavy turned oak balusters and square newels with moulded caps. A rectangular moat partly revetted with masonry surrounds the house; the south arm is crossed by a brick bridge and has steps down to the water. The west arm is dammed for another entrance which has a pair of gate-posts with stone ball-heads. A human-head corbel has been reset in the south moat-wall.

Moat Farm, ¼ mile north-east of the Hall, is a house of c. 1540 with walls mostly of modern brickwork. The plan is T-shaped; the cross-wing, at the south end, has an original projecting chimney-stack of red sandstone with tabled sides and three diagonal shafts of thin bricks: on it is scratched a sun-dial. The fire-places are modern. The stem has an internal chimney-stack with a wide fire-place; the front (east) wall by the chimneystack has a patch of original masonry. Both parts have original stop-moulded ceiling beams to the lower story, and in the upper story chamfered and channelled beams. The upper partitions are of close-set studding, and the roof has queen-post trusses. Several of the doors are hung with strap-hinges with flowered ends. There are remains of the moat to the north and west of the house.

West of the church is a row of three small stone-built almshouses of 1712, of one story and attics with gabled dormers in the tiled roof. They have square-headed doorways with oak frames and small two-light mullioned windows. A fourth house, at the west end, is now a school.

The Griffin Inn opposite (south-west of) the church has 18th-century red brick walls, but has earlier beams and a wide fire-place inside.

Hollyers Farm, ¼ mile south-west of the church, is an early-17th-century house with some original timber-framing, but largely refaced with later brickwork. Two gable-heads in the north front towards the road have lattice framing. The central chimney-stack has three square shafts with V-shaped pilasters.

The main village, or Shustoke Green, a mile west of the church, has eleven or twelve ancient buildings, all detached.

The largest, north of the Coleshill road, is a red brick farm-house called the Priory, dating probably from c. 1600, but much altered. It is of L-shaped plan: the west side has a projecting chimney-stack of red sandstone with three square shafts of thin bricks.

The Old Manor House opposite it is a small rectangular building facing east, of the late 16th century, with a modern east wing. The walls are of close-set studding, with some patterning of diagonal timbers. The gabled north end has a jettied upper story with a moulded bressummer, and the projecting gable-head has moulded brackets which have masks incised on them. The south end is similar, but has been underbuilt. On the west side is a massive projecting chimney-stack covered with rough-cast.

The other nine or ten are scattered about two looproads south of the main road. They are of the late-16th- to mid-17th-century period and preserve more or less of their original timber-framing. Two or three are or have been farm-houses, one has the smithy, others are cottages.

Blyth Hall stands at the west end of the parish near Coleshill. The estate was purchased by Sir William Dugdale the antiquary in 1625, and he built or rebuilt the house soon afterwards. The date 1629 appears on the south chimney-stack. The building was entirely refronted and remodelled about 1690 by Sir John Dugdale; a rain-water-head is dated 1733. A middle hall-wing at the back is a later addition.

The east front, of two stories, is of 18th-century red brickwork and has a moulded wooden eaves-cornice. The middle entrance has a curved pediment and the windows have sash frames. In the roof are five dormers to the attics, with alternate curved and straight-sided pediments. The entrance has a singularly small entrance-hall and has an archway through what was probably the 17th-century central chimney-stack. The room to the south has a Tudor fire-place in the stack. Some of the ceilings have chamfered beams, and one of the two main staircases is of the 17th century with turned balusters and moulded handrail. Much of the antiquary's own furniture and a number of 17th-century portraits are preserved in the house. The stables north-west of the house have curvilinear gables, and a rectilinear pigeon-house has a pyramidal roof. There are large fish-ponds west of the house, perhaps in part a former moat.

About ½ mile north of the Hall is a pack-horse bridge across the River Tame. It is of three bays with semi-circular arches of the 17th century and cut-waters to the piers, all of red sandstone; the middle bay being higher than the others causes a 'hump-back'. The haunches and parapets are of red brick with stone copings, and square piers above the cut-waters, of the late 18th century. The gangway, 4 ft. 2 in. wide, has stone pitching to the rises.

MANORS

Shustoke was held as 4 hides in 1086 by Sotus of Geoffrey de Wirce. (fn. 2) There was woodland 1 league long by ½ league wide, and all this land had formerly been held by Lewin. Geoffrey is thought to have died without heirs (fn. 3) and Shustoke with the rest of his land was granted by Henry I to Niel d'Aubigny, the ancestor of the Mowbrays, (fn. 4) who retained the overlordship, while Shustoke was held in demesne by members of the Camvile family, to whom it had been granted apparently in the reign of Henry I. (fn. 5) It was presumably part of the 9 knights' fees which Walter de Camvile held of Roger Mowbray in 1166, (fn. 6) and he had been succeeded by Roger Camvile by 1207. (fn. 7) In 1230 Roger's heirs were said to be holding this knight's fee in Shustoke of Niel de Mowbray. (fn. 8) Roger's heirs were his three sisters, but the manor of SHUSTOKE is said to have gone to one of them, namely Alice wife of Robert de Esseby. (fn. 9) It was certainly held by their grandson William de Asseby, who was outlawed in 1268 for killing a man in the priory of Catesby. (fn. 10) Shustoke escheated to the overlord Roger de Mowbray, a minor, (fn. 11) who in 1296 became the first Lord Mowbray, (fn. 12) and was succeeded in 1297 by his young son John. (fn. 13) John was captured at Borough-bridge when fighting against Edward II, was hanged in March 1322, and his estates were forfeit. (fn. 14) The king then gave this manor to his own niece Eleanor wife of Hugh Despenser the Younger. (fn. 15) In 1327, on the accession of Edward III, however, the manor was restored, with the rest of his father's lands, to John, the next Lord Mowbray. (fn. 16)

The lady Alice, John's mother, held ⅓ of the manor in dower and granted her right in it to Sir Richard de Peshale, whom she married. (fn. 17) In May 1328 John confirmed this grant and extended it for the life of Sir Richard, (fn. 18) who in the next year was complaining that John, among others, had entered his manor of Shustoke and carried away his goods. (fn. 19) Alice was dead in 1331, (fn. 20) but Richard de Peshale was still living in 1342. (fn. 21)

In 1343, by a series of transactions, John de Mowbray exchanged this manor with William de Clinton, Earl of Huntingdon, for Hinton, co. Cambs.; the earl granted it to the newly established priory of Maxstoke, from whom it passed to his nephew John son of John de Clinton in return for land in Maxstoke. (fn. 22) John de Clinton then in 1346 enfeoffed William, Earl of Huntingdon, for life, with reversion to himself and his heirs, (fn. 23) and in 1348 the king made to the earl a grant of free warren in his demesne lands there, with view of frankpledge and other liberties, to pass, with the manor, to John de Clinton. (fn. 24) William de Clinton died in 1354. (fn. 25) In 1384 John de Clinton settled Shustoke on himself and his third wife Joan and their heirs. (fn. 26) In 1391 he settled the manor on himself and his fourth wife Elizabeth. (fn. 27) He died in 1398, (fn. 28) his heir being his grandson William, Lord Clinton, (fn. 29) who in 1399 conveyed it to his stepmother Elizabeth and her next (and fourth) husband Sir John Russell. (fn. 30) Shustoke returned to William de Clinton on Elizabeth's death in 1423. (fn. 31) His son John succeeded him in 1432, (fn. 32) but was attainted and forfeited his lands in 1459, as a result of joining the Yorkist party. (fn. 33) In 1460 Henry VI granted the manor in fee tail to his carver, Sir Edmund Mountfort, (fn. 34) but in 1461, on the accession of Edward IV, John de Clinton was reinstated (fn. 35) and held Shustoke until his death in 1464. (fn. 36) He left a son and heir John (fn. 37) and a widow Margaret, who married, secondly, Walter Hungerford, and with him in 1468 and 1477 claimed one-third of the manor as her dower. (fn. 38) The manor appears to have descended with the title. (fn. 39) Thomas, Lord Clinton and Say, who died in 1517, had settled Shustoke on his wife Joan or Jane, who survived him (fn. 40) and was still holding the manor in 1540, when Edward, Lord Clinton and Say, conveyed his reversionary interest to James Leveson (fn. 41) of Wolverhampton, a rich merchant of the Staple. (fn. 42) In 1541 Leveson conveyed the manor to trustees (fn. 43) and in 1544 or 1545 is said to have given it to Walter, son and heir of Sir Edward Aston of Tixall, co. Staffs., (fn. 44) and husband of Elizabeth, Leveson's daughter, though Richard Leveson, his son, was holding Shustoke in 1548. (fn. 45) Sir Walter Aston died seised of it in 1589 leaving a son Sir Edward, (fn. 46) from whom it passed in 1597 to his son Walter. (fn. 47) In 1631 Sir Walter, now Lord Aston of Forfar, sold it to George Devereux, (fn. 48) afterward Sir George Devereux, of Sheldon, who was still holding it in 1640. (fn. 49) His son George Devereux held it in 1692, (fn. 50) but in 1754 it was conveyed, as the manor of Shustoke otherwise Shustoke with Bentley, by Robert Moxon, Richard Price, Thomas Staunton, and Catherine his wife to Richard Geast, (fn. 51) lord of Blyth Hall (q.v.) with which it subsequently descended.

There was a water-mill in Shustoke at least by the middle of the 13th century when the farm was given to the chapel of Bentley (q.v.). (fn. 52) Two water-mills in Blyth End and Shustoke were conveyed to William Blythe in 1587 by Thomas Mootley and Francis his son and heir, (fn. 53) and in 1597 by Humphrey and Mary Morris, with warranty against the heirs of Mary. (fn. 54) A fishery in the river Blythe was conveyed in 1625 by Sir Walter Aston and his wife Gertrude to John Cottrell, (fn. 55) and in 1637 by John Cottrell and his wife Isabel to Michael Danyell, with the addition of water-mills in Shustoke. (fn. 56)

In 1348 view of frankpledge and other liberties in the hamlet of Blyth were given to William de Clinton, lord of Shustoke. (fn. 57) In 1525 the manor of BLYTH was said to be held of the heir of Walter Camvile, (fn. 58) and in 1626 it was proved to be held of Lord Berkeley, one of the Mowbray co-heirs, as of his manor of Melton Mowbray, co. Leics. (fn. 59)

Early tenants of the manor appear to have been a family taking their name from it. It has been suggested that William, a younger son of William de Waver of Cesters Over in Monks Kirby, settled here in King John's time and took his surname from here. (fn. 60) The family has been traced down to a Thomas de Blithe who was living in 1400 and who left two daughters Margaret and Alice, who appear to have succeeded their father in 1425 or 1426. (fn. 61) Alice is said to have married Gerard Ringley. (fn. 62) A John Ringley was seised of half the manor in 1500 (fn. 63) and was succeeded by his son Edmund Ringley, who died in 1525 leaving a daughter Barbara wife of Richard Lawley. (fn. 64) In 1545 Barbara and Richard Lawley conveyed their half of the manor then known as BLYTH alias BLYTH END or BLYTHE HALL to Reynold Belhurst, otherwise Bellers or Bellewes. (fn. 65)

The other moiety appears to have descended from Margaret de Blithe and her first husband William Bishbury, to Ralph Bishbury their son (c. 1455), and afterwards to Rose, daughter and heir of Richard, another son. (fn. 66) Rose married John Cleyton of Harwood Parva, co. Lancs., and was holding this half-manor in 1525. (fn. 67) She conveyed it in 1540 to William Leveson, husband of Helen, one of her daughters. (fn. 68) Their son John and his wife Elizabeth were dealing with the half-manor in 1558 (fn. 69) and in 1562 conveyed it to Reynold Belhurst, who thus held both moieties. (fn. 70) In 1579 Reynold and his wife Elizabeth conveyed the manor to their second son William Belhurst or Bellers, (fn. 71) who in 1596 sold the reversion, after the death of himself and his wife, to Sir Edward Aston of Tixall, co. Staffs. (fn. 72) Sir Edward bequeathed it to Henry Skipwith of Tugby, co. Leics., and Jane his wife, and their issue. (fn. 73) Henry and Jane were dealing with it in 1598, (fn. 74) but Sir Walter Aston, afterwards Lord Aston of Forfar, Sir Edward's son, bought it back from them again in 1607 or 1608, (fn. 75) and, with his wife, sold it in 1625 to the great Sir William Dugdale, (fn. 76) who lived there, and there completed his Antiquities of Warwickshire. Blyth has descended in the Dugdale family. (fn. 77) On the death without male heirs of Sir William's great-grandson John, in 1749, the inheritance passed to his nephew Richard Geast, son of Jane Dugdale and Richard Geast of Handsworth, (fn. 78) who subsequently changed his name to Dugdale. Blyth Hall is now the property of Sir William Francis Stratford Dugdale, bart., F.S.A., D.L., J.P.

A lease in reversion for 21 years of what was described as either Packer's Farm or the manor of PARKERS in the lordship of Shustoke was given by the Crown in 1552 to Hugh Ellys, (fn. 79) and was said to be parcel of the lands of Sir James Fitzgarret (fn. 80) (i.e. Fitzgerald, who was attainted in 1537). (fn. 81) This is evidently the manor of 'Pakkarse' held by Simon Mountfort when he was attainted in 1495, (fn. 82) and granted in the following year to Gerald, Earl of Kildare. (fn. 83) It was held, as 'Pakkers', by his widow Elizabeth at the time of her death in 1516 (fn. 84) and by her son Sir Thomas Fitzgerald, on whose death in 1531 it passed, as 'Pakkarse alias Pakkars', to his brother Sir James. (fn. 85) On his attainder it came to the Crown and in 1554 'landes called Packers' were granted to Michael Throckmorton. (fn. 86) It is met with as the manor of 'Parkers or Parkhurst' in the hands of Francis Throckmorton in 1584; (fn. 87) Fisher Dilke 'of Pakers' is mentioned in 1636 and 1650, (fn. 88) and his son Samuel was concerned with the manor of 'Packhurst' in 1662. (fn. 89) After this no more is known of the manor, but the name of Packhurst (alias Packers in 1680) survives as a field-name. (fn. 90)

CHURCH

The parish church of ST. CUTHBERT consists of a chancel with a north organchamber, nave, south porch, and west tower with a spire.

The church was erected in the time of Edward II, according to Dugdale on the evidence of a figure in a north window of John, Lord Mowbray, who was probably a benefactor of the new church.

The top stage of the tower (resembling that at Sheldon dated 1461) and the spire were added in the second half of the 15th century.

The building was restored in 1873 at a cost of £3,000 when the chancel and porch were rebuilt. Lightning in 1886 destroyed the roofs and internal fittings and restoration in 1887 cost £6,000. Out of many Dugdale monuments mentioned in Dugdale (fn. 91) only that of the antiquary himself survives. A sketch of the church made in 1854 shows the building much as it is now except for the east window, which was a large round-headed light, and the angle buttresses, which were shallow and wide instead of diagonal.

The chancel (about 33½ ft. by 18 ft.) has a modern east window of three lights and tracery. In the north wall is a window of two pointed lights and plain spandrel in a two-centred head. The hollow-chamfered rear-arch and two little carved human heads in the hollows at the tops of the splays are ancient. West of the window is a modern recess for the Dugdale monument and west of that an arch to the organ-chamber. In the south wall are two modern similar windows, a priest's pointed doorway and a restored low-side lancet at the west end. The original piscina and credence has been reset: it is of twin trefoiled arches to the single recess and a quatrefoil piercing in a two-centred main head formed by a hood-mould, the jambs and dividing shafts being moulded. In the west half is a quatrefoil basin. In the north wall is a partly ancient locker with rebated jambs and lintel. The roof is of trussed rafter type.

The modern pointed chancel arch is of two chamfered orders, the inner carried on corbels carved as crowned heads. The nave (about 55 ft. by 30 ft.) has three pointed windows in the north wall of two chamfered orders, the outer orders with the hood-moulds being 14th-century, the rest modern. The eastern is of three lights and net tracery, the second of two trefoiled lights, and the third of two plain lights, both with plain spandrels. The north doorway between the second and third is blocked; it is of an ovolo-moulded order with a pointed head and a hood-mould with ball-flower stops. The eastern south window is like that opposite but higher in the wall. The other two are each of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and tracery: all have old outer orders and hood-moulds. The pointed south doorway, also original, is of two ovolo-moulded orders with defaced head-stops to the hood-mould. The walls are of ashlar, modern inside and old outside, with plinths of two splayed courses: they drop to lower levels westward so that only the top course is seen above ground in the west wall. The buttresses divide the walls into three bays, those at the west angles being diagonal. High up on the south-east buttress is scratched a mass-dial; another is half covered by the west wall of the modern porch. The modern roof is divided into five bays by arched trusses.

The west tower (about 10 ft. square inside) is of three stages divided by plain set-backs and with a chamfered plinth. At the west angles are diagonal buttresses finishing with four or five short stages at the top of the second main stage. The two lower stages are of 14th-century ashlar. In the east wall is a modern pointed doorway to the nave. The west window of one chamfered order is of two pointed lights and a plain spandrel. In the second stage is a plain loop in each outer wall.

The late-15th-century top stage contains the clock-chamber and bell-chamber, undivided by a string-course. It has smaller diagonal angle-buttresses with moulded offsets. The clock-chamber has small ogee-headed lights with crocketed and finialled hood-moulds: over them are skeleton clock-faces. The windows of the bell-chamber are each of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoiled spandrel in a depressed four-centred head. The hood-moulds have large stops carved as winged monsters. The parapet is embattled and has gargoyles in the string-course and pinnacles above the angles. Above the tower is an octagonal stone spire with three tiers of spire-lights. The lower two tiers have ogee trefoiled lights and hood-moulds with crockets. The third tier are plain pointed loops with a string-course carried over them as hood-moulds. Above the string-course the masonry has been restored. At the apex is a ball and weather-cock.

Reset in the east window of the organ-chamber are some pieces of ancient glass including a former foil with two yellow pyxes (?) with ruby infilling and another with plain green and ruby, both 14th-century, also 15th-century white quarries with yellow foliage.

In the west window of the tower is a shield of the Dugdale arms.

The font is modern, said to be a copy of the 12th-century font that was damaged by the fire. It has interlacing arches with pellet-enriched caps. There is a dug-out chest of exceptional length—8 ft. 3 in. The lid is a single 2-in. plank hung with strap hinges and with straps and hasps for three locks.

In the recess in the chancel is the high tomb of Sir William Dugdale, Garter King at Arms; married Margery daughter of John Huntbach of Seawall, Staffs.; died 10 February 1685(6). It is of stone and has a shield of his arms. On the wall of the recess is a black tablet with a Latin inscription set in a stone moulded frame which has a cornice and curved broken pediment with a cartouche of the same arms. Above the sides are ballfinials. On the north wall of the organ-chamber is another tablet, blackened, and the inscription nearly obliterated, to Mary eldest daughter of Sir William Dugdale.

A memorial on the south wall is to members of the Dilke family, the earliest apparently 1716.

In the churchyard is the table tomb of Thomas Huntbach [1712, date obliterated] and Margaret his wife: also on the east wall of the nave a white stone tablet (date also missing) to them with an English verse of 20 lines.

In the churchyard is a plain square base of a cross and part of the octagonal shaft with broach stops.

There are five bells: the treble by Taylor's 1887; the second by William Bayley of Chacomb inscribed: 'Of fore he cast us into five, 1698'; the third inscribed: 'Repaird our church and bellfree here 1698'; the fourth and tenor by Lester and Pack, 1768.

The registers date from 1538 and include the paper original as well as the parchment copy which is carried on to 1642. The second has entries from 1605 to 1659, the third 1661 to 1721, all recently well rebound.

ADVOWSON

The advowson of the church of Shustoke seems at first to have followed the descent of the manor. In 1250 presentation was made by Ralph son of Nicholas, custodian of the young Robert de Esseby, (fn. 92) and the advowson was still described as being held by the heirs of Roger de Camvile in 1298. (fn. 93) Aline widow of John, second Lord Mowbray, conferred it with the manor on her second husband Sir Richard de Peshale in 1328, and her son John de Mowbray extended this grant to cover Richard's lifetime; (fn. 94) but though Richard only died in 1342, (fn. 95) yet John de Mowbray presented in 1335 and 1336. (fn. 96) In 1343 the advowson passed with the manor to Maxstoke Priory, (fn. 97) who appropriated it and from that same year appointed vicars down to 1536. (fn. 98) On the suppression of the priory the Crown retained the right of presentation to the vicarage of Shustoke, (fn. 99) and it is now in the gift of the Lord Chancellor.

A lease of the RECTORY of Shustoke for 21 years was given by the king in 1537 to Richard Breme, a member of his household, (fn. 100) and in 1538 the reversion of the rectory was granted, with the rest of the possessions of Maxstoke Priory, to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. (fn. 101) This grant included tithes of corn and hay, a meadow, pasture, and rent worth £6 13s. 4d. (fn. 102) The duke sold the rectory in 1540 to Robert Trappes, a London goldsmith, and his wife Joan. (fn. 103) Joan was dead by 1564, when it passed to a grand-daughter Mary, daughter and co-heiress of Nicholas son of Robert Trappes, who had died in 1544. (fn. 104) Mary married Giles Paulet. (fn. 105) The rectory then descended with the priory manor of Maxstoke (fn. 106) (q.v.), Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh being the present lay impropriator. (fn. 107)

CHARITIES

Thomas Huntbach the elder by will dated 6 December 1709 gave six almshouses for poor widows and others fallen into poverty, together with a yearly sum of £12 to be paid out of the rents and profits of the Moathouse and certain lands for the maintenance of the almshouses; and Randall F. T. Croxall by will proved 21 March 1887 bequeathed £1,000 to the trustees of Thomas Huntbach's Charity for the general purposes of the charity. The charities are now regulated by Schemes of the Charity Commissioners of 5 January 1869 and 24 June 1913 under the title of the Almshouse Charity of Thomas Huntbach and Randall Francis Tongue Croxall. The 1913 scheme appoints a body of eight trustees and the 1869 scheme provides for the management of the almshouses and directs the payment out of income of stipends to the almspeople, and the expenditure in providing fuel, clothing, and other necessities for the inmates. The endowment now consists of six almshouses and stock producing an income of £84 2s.

Dame Elizabeth Dugdale, who died in 1713, by her will gave an annual rentcharge of 12s. issuing out of a piece of ground lying on the north side of St. Michael's Church, Coventry, to be distributed by the minister and churchwardens to the needy poor of Shustoke. The charge was redeemed in 1903 in consideration of a sum of £25 Consols producing 12s. 4d. annually in dividends which are distributed to the poor of the parish in money or in kind.

William Hollier by will proved 9 August 1614 gave to his son a cottage adjoining Gennets Croft between Atherstone and Coleshill on condition that he should pay yearly to the use of the poor of Shustoke 5s. for ever. The charge is received and distributed to the poor in money.

George Pinder by will dated 10 July 1658 gave to the poor of Shustoke 7s. yearly issuing out of Calder Croft. The charge is received and distributed to the poor of the parish in money.