A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 5, Kington Hundred. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1949.
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'Parishes: Wellesbourne with Walton', in A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 5, Kington Hundred, ed. L F Salzman( London, 1949), British History Online https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol5/pp193-198 [accessed 17 November 2024].
'Parishes: Wellesbourne with Walton', in A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 5, Kington Hundred. Edited by L F Salzman( London, 1949), British History Online, accessed November 17, 2024, https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol5/pp193-198.
"Parishes: Wellesbourne with Walton". A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 5, Kington Hundred. Ed. L F Salzman(London, 1949), , British History Online. Web. 17 November 2024. https://prod.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol5/pp193-198.
In this section
WELLESBOURNE WITH WALTON
Wellesbourne Hastings, with Walton:
Acreage: 2,953.
Population: 1911, 682; 1921, 689; 1931, 710. Wellesbourne Mountford:
Acreage: 1,653.
Population: 1911, 676; 1921, 582; 1931, 623.
The Wellesbournes form an irregular block of country roughly 4 miles in breadth from east to west and about 2 miles in depth, with a southern projection containing Walton, about 2 miles in breadth and depth. The chapelry of Walton, which was constituted a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1842, is bounded on the east by the Roman Fosse Way, which rises gradually from 200 ft. at the southern end of the parish to 380 ft. at the point where the boundary diverges from it to the north-west. The Dene Brook, originally the Wellesbourne and still called the Wellestreme in 1399, (fn. 1) runs northwards through Walton, being dammed up to form a lake in the grounds of Walton Hall and again a mile farther north for a mill-pond. At this point it turns north-west and forms the boundary between Wellesbourne Hastings to the north and the township of Wellesbourne Mountford to the south. There were three watermills in Walton in 1086, each valued at 6s.; (fn. 2) one in Wellesbourne is mentioned in 1385; (fn. 3) and two attached to the united manors of Wellesbourne and Walton during the 16th and 17th centuries. (fn. 4)
The country in the north of the parish is low-lying and open, but in the south it is hilly, rising on either side of the valley of the Dene Brook, and is heavily wooded.
The main road from Warwick to the village of Wellesbourne Hastings, after being joined by the Charlecote road near the church, is deflected southeastwards to Kineton and beyond. A few of the buildings, of no great age, lie along the main road, but the village street forms a kind of back road close to and parallel with the south side of the main road, the church and vicarage standing at the north-west end of it. It is probable that the long, narrow island, now partly built over, between the two roads represents the medieval village green. The Vicarage, south-west of the church, was built in 1698 and is a house of red brickwork with rusticated stone quoins. Despite later alterations it still retains a few of the original windows with wood mullions and transoms; others on the north side have been walled up.
The few surviving 17th-century buildings in the village street are on the south-west side (facing the former green). One or two are of the farm-house status, others are cottages, all with remains of timberframing and two with thatched roofs. From this road another, forming a T-joint with it, runs southwards, crossing the Dene to join with the closely adjacent village of Wellesbourne Mountford.
A farm-house about ¼ mile south-east of the village on the Kineton road also has some 17th-century timberframing and a chimney-stack with three diagonal shafts.
Wellesbourne Mountford has no parish church. The village lies on the left bank of the Dene Brook, opposite that of Wellesbourne Hastings. A little southwest of the bridge over the Dene is a small triangular green about which are three or four old buildings forming a picturesque group. The Stag's Head Inn at the corner of the main village street, north of the green, is a small building of 17th-century timber-framing with a thatched roof. Another thatched house and shop west of the green retains a little 17th-century framing. South of it is a red-brick house of two stories with a tablet on the east front inscribed w. & a. c. 1699. Adjoining it on the north side is a lower timber-framed wing, of the late 16th century; the front gable has a braced cambered tie-beam. Farther south-west the main road to Stratford meets the village street at right angles. At its north angle is the Hall, an early-18th-century house of red and black brickwork. The south front has slightly projecting end-wings with stone angle-dressings. The round-headed middle doorway has flanking pilasters and a pediment. The roofs are tiled and the chimneystacks are plain. A cottage opposite and another farther west on the north side have 17th-century framing and thatched roofs. It is said that some ten or twelve others along the Stratford road have been demolished in recent years.
A meeting held at Wellesbourne by Joseph Arch on 7 February 1872 was followed by the formation of the Warwickshire Agricultural Labourers' Union, and may be regarded as the starting-point of Arch's campaign for the improvement of conditions of life for workers on the land. (fn. 5)
Manors
Wellesbourne was a royal vill and the scene of at least occasional meetings of the witan of Mercia under King Burgred (in 862 and 872) (fn. 6) and apparently under his predecessor Berhtwulf (in 840). (fn. 7) It was held by King Edward the Confessor at the time of his death and was in the hands of King William in 1086. (fn. 8) At this time WELLESBOURNE went with Kineton, of which manor it was a berewick, (fn. 9) the two being assessed together at only 3 hides although there were nearly 120 bond tenants and 38 plough-teams on the estate. (fn. 10) The whole of Wellesbourne was evidently granted to Henry de Newburgh, Earl of Warwick, who built and endowed the church. (fn. 11) The overlordship descended with the earldom and is last mentioned in 1629, when the manor was said to be held of the King as of the Castle of Warwick. (fn. 12)
It was probably Earl Roger who divided Wellesbourne, enfeoffing Thurstan de Montfort in that portion south and west of the Dene Brook, and perhaps one of the Hastang family in that north and east. Thurstan's elder son Robert was deprived of the manor by the king (fn. 13) in 1175 (fn. 14) and seems to have died about 1178, (fn. 15) or soon afterwards, when he was succeeded by his brother Henry, who in 1190 recovered Wellesbourne from King Richard by payment of £100. (fn. 16) After this the manor of WELLESBOURNE MOUNTFORD descended with Beaudesert (fn. 17) (q.v.). It was held of the Earl of Warwick as one knight's fee in 1235 and 1242 by Peter de Montfort, (fn. 18) who was killed at Evesham fighting against the king in 1265, when he held 2 carucates of land and £10 of rents in Wellesbourne. (fn. 19) His son Peter was lord of Great Wellesbourne in 1279, when he had 5 free and 20 bond tenants. (fn. 20) At this time William son of Thomas de Bishopsdon held of Peter half a carucate here as a quarter-fee. (fn. 21) This had been granted by Henry de Montfort with his daughter Julian in marriage to William de Bishopsdon; (fn. 22) and in 1345 Roger de Bishopsdon held land here. (fn. 23) The later descent of this quarter-fee is traced below.
On the death of the last legitimate Montfort, Peter, in 1369, his estates were divided between the representatives of his two sisters and Wellesbourne fell to Sir Thomas Boteler; on the death of his son, Sir Ralph Boteler, another partition took place and this manor was assigned to Sir John Norbury, (fn. 24) whose granddaughter Jane married Sir Edmund Bray and died in 1558, leaving five daughters and a grandson as her coheirs. (fn. 25) The manor was assigned in 1561 to the grandson, William, Lord Cobham, son of the eldest daughter of Lady Jane. (fn. 26)
The second daughter, Elizabeth, married first Sir Ralph Verney, by whom she had a son Edward Verney (born 1538), secondly Sir Richard Catesby, thirdly William Clarke, and fourthly William Phillips. (fn. 27) William, grandson and heir of the above-named Sir Richard, came of age in 1568 and inherited a manor of Wellesbourne, valued at £5 6s. 8d., (fn. 28) in which his halfbrothers had life interests which they surrendered to him in 1580. (fn. 29) In 1586 this Sir William Catesby demised the 'capitall messwadge or tenemente fearme or mannor of Wellesborne' to the use of Elizabeth (Porter), widow of his brother Edmund, for life with remainder to her second son Richard. (fn. 30) This, however, was not the main manor but represented the quarter-fee held by William de Bishopsdon in 1279 (see above). His descendant Sir William Bishopsdon, the last of his line, left two daughters coheirs; the elder, Philippe, married Sir William Catesby, whose grandson George married Elizabeth Empson (fn. 31) and evidently settled the manor on her. George Catesby held a court of the manor in 1495, as did his widow Elizabeth in 1507 and, with her second husband Sir Thomas Lucy, in 1516 (fn. 32). On 6 February 1537 Richard Catesby, esquire, held his first court after the death of his mother, the Lady Elizabeth Lucy. (fn. 33) This was the Sir Richard who married Elizabeth Bray.
Edward Venour died in 1627 seised of a capital messuage and a moiety of the services of the manor of Wellesbourne Mountford, which had been settled in 1577 by his grandfather Richard Venour on his wife Mary and his son Richard, Edward's father. (fn. 34) Edward's heir was his son John, and in 1651 John Venour and Barbara his wife conveyed 'the manor' to Robert Boyse. (fn. 35) In 1635 Richard Eades died holding certain tenements in Wellesbourne and leaving a son John, (fn. 36) who in 1675 conveyed 'the manor' of Wellesbourne Mountford to William Robinson. (fn. 37) Whether these 'manors' had any connexion with those of which the history has just been given does not appear.
The history of the portion of Wellesbourne north and east of the Dene Brook is obscure. Dugdale's assertion that it was granted by 'one of the ancient Earls of Warwick' to a member of the Hastang family (fn. 38) is based only on the fact that in 1279 a very small estate, half a virgate, in Little Wellesbourne was held by Godfrey Giffard, Bishop of Worcester, of William Pacy, who held of Robert Hastang and he of the earl; (fn. 39) if there was any such mesne lordship it has left no trace. In January 1246 Mr. Simon de Wauton (or Walton) received a grant (fn. 40) of a weekly market on Wednesday and a fair on the eve and day of SS. Peter and Paul at his manor of LITTLE WELLESBOURNE. This Mr. Simon, who bought property in Walton Deyville (see below), became Bishop of Norwich in 1258 and died in 1265. (fn. 41) His successor Sir John de Wauton died in or shortly before 1277, (fn. 42) leaving a widow Isabel, who married Henry le Foun, (fn. 43) and a young daughter Maud. She married Sir John de Strattelinges, or Stradling, and they had a regrant of the market and fair at Little Wellesbourne in 1290. (fn. 44) Sir John was dead by February 1293 (fn. 45) and Maud married John Lestrange of Knockin, who died in 1309, leaving a son John. (fn. 46) As her third husband she married Thomas Hastang, (fn. 47) who was returned in 1316 as holding Walton with the hamlet of Wellesbourne, (fn. 48) which from this time onwards becomes known as WELLESBOURNE HASTANG, (fn. 49) or more often HASTINGS, or WELLESBOURNE LESTRANGE, and descends with the manors of Walton.
In 1086 the Count of Meulan held two estates of WALTON. One of these was rated at 5 hides and had been held by Saxi; the other, formerly held by Gida and Saied, was of 10 hides. (fn. 50) Both came to the Earls of Warwick and in 1166 Earl William, in the return of his fees, notes that Walton used to render the service of one knight's fee but was then in demesne and held by his mother, the Countess Gundred, in dower. (fn. 51) The overlordship continued attached to the earldom and is mentioned as late as 1639. (fn. 52)
In the time of Henry I one part of Walton seems to have been held by Theodoric, or Tierry, and the other by Spilebert. (fn. 53) When the family of Deyville, (fn. 54) from whom the manor of WALTON DEYVILLE acquired its name, became enfeoffed here is uncertain, but Walter Deyville gave the tithe of his mill at Walton to the nuns of Pinley, probably about 1230. (fn. 55) Robert Deyville was holding a knight's fee here from the Earl of Warwick in 1242 (fn. 56) and Walter was granted free warren in his manor of Walton in 1252. (fn. 57) His successor, Roger Deyville, became heavily indebted to the Jews (fn. 58) and sold the manor to Simon de Wauton, who granted it to his son John. (fn. 59) This Simon may have been identical with the Mr. Simon who held the manor of Wellesbourne Hastings (see above) and who in 1240 bought from William Mauduit and Alice his wife 6 acres in Walton called Litlemede lying beside the Portwey. (fn. 60) Mr. Simon was elderly when he became bishop and may well have been married when young. (fn. 61) John de Wauton died in 1277 (fn. 62) and his widow Isabel married Henry le Foun. (fn. 63) John's heir, his daughter Maud, was a child, and in 1278 Henry and Isabel conveyed the manors of Walton and other lands to Walter Giffard, Archbishop of York. (fn. 64) On the death of Walter in the following year these estates passed to his brother Godfrey Giffard, Bishop of Worcester, who in 1281 conveyed them to Robert Burnel, Bishop of Bath and Wells, for life, with remainder to Maud, whom he undertook to marry to one of the elder sons of either his brother Hugh Burnel or of Sir Robert de Escales. (fn. 65) As already mentioned, however, Maud married first Sir John de Strattelinges and secondly John Lestrange of Knockin, and thirdly Thomas Hastang. At the time that Henry le Foun and Isabel conveyed their rights to Walter Giffard, Thomas son of Gervase de Wauton lodged a protest against the fine, and in 1285 he granted to Bishop Robert Burnel the homage and ser vice of Maud for these estates, which she held of him. (fn. 66) Although Burnel's interest was apparently only for life, his heir Edward Burnel at his death in 1316 was said to possess a knight's fee in Walton Deyville which Thomas Hastang was holding in right of his wife Maud. (fn. 67)
In 1200 Waleran, Earl of Warwick, granted to Godfrey, Bishop of Winchester, the manor of Walton, worth £18, to hold so long as the Countess Maud (his brother's widow) retained the manor of Knoyle (Wilts.), which she had in dower. (fn. 68) It was probably in connexion with this that in 1200–1 Waleran de Mara brought a suit against the earl concerning the vill of Walton, which his father had held in the time of Henry II. (fn. 69) The earl seems to have given the manor in marriage with his daughter Alice to William Mauduit, as when the latter was involved in rebellion against King John the manor of Walton was among his lands seized and granted on 3 March 1216 to Fawkes de Breauté. (fn. 70) But the representative of the de la Mare family must have protested his right, as on 19 April the manor was assigned to Robert de Mara to hold during the king's pleasure. (fn. 71) On the death of John, William Mauduit returned to his allegiance and his estates were restored to him in October 1217. (fn. 72) William's son William became, in right of his mother, Earl of Warwick in 1263 and on his death in 1268 it was noted that he had alienated the manor of WALTON MAUDUIT; (fn. 73) it is not stated to whom, but probably it was bought by Mr. Simon de Wauton, who may also have acquired the de la Mare interest, as in 1279 Maud daughter of John de Wauton was lady of Walton Mauduit, held as 1/20 fee, (fn. 74) and in 1316 Thomas Hastang held both the knight's fee in Walton Deyville and 1/20 fee in Walton Mauduit, (fn. 75) and the two henceforward descended together, with Wellesbourne Hastings.
Maud de Wauton's second husband, who became 1st Lord Lestrange of Knockin in 1299, died in 1309, (fn. 76) and their eldest son John died in 1311, his heir being his brother Roger, 4th Lord Lestrange. (fn. 77) The Walton manors, however, came-into the hands of a John Lestrange who married one Ida and had a son John. (fn. 78) The latter Sir John in 1385 settled his estate here on himself and his wife Mabel, (fn. 79) who survived him and was holding the Walton fees of the Earl of Warwick in 1400. (fn. 80) John's son Alan died in 1417, leaving by his wife Margaret (daughter of John Wyard) (fn. 81) a daughter Alice, then aged 12. (fn. 82) Alice died without issue and was succeeded by her father's brother Sir Thomas Lestrange, (fn. 83) who died in 1436. (fn. 84) He had settled the manors in 1431 on himself and his wife Elizabeth, (fn. 85) who survived him by 55 years, dying in 1491, when the manors passed to Anne and Margaret, the daughters of her son Thomas, (fn. 86) who had died in 1486. (fn. 87) They married, respectively, Robert and John, sons of Henry Lestrange, or Strange, of Hunstanton (Norf.), (fn. 88) distant connexions. The Walton manors were divided and when Margaret Strange died in 1522 she held one moiety of them and her sister Anne, then remarried to Edward Knyvett, the other. (fn. 89) Margaret's heir was her daughter Barbara, wife of Robert Mordaunt. In 1541 Anne Knyvett, widow, with her son Sir Thomas Lestrange and his son Sir Nicholas, sold her moieties of the manors and advowsons to Robert Mordaunt. (fn. 90) Barbara's son Robert (fn. 91) died in 1602 and the manors passed to his brother Henry's son Lestrange Mordaunt, (fn. 92) who was created a baronet in 1611. After this the manors of Walton Deyville and Mauduit and Wellesbourne Hastings, alias Lestrange, descended with the baronetcy (fn. 93) until the death of the 11th baronet, when the title went to a collateral branch but the estates were held by Lady Mordaunt, on whose death in 1947 they passed to her daughter. (fn. 94)
Church
The parish church of S. PETER is a large one consisting of a chancel with a north organ-chamber and vestry, south chapel, nave, north and south aisles, south porch, and west tower.
The building dates from the 12th century, but the original plan is lost in later additions and all that survives of that period is the former chancel arch, which has been reset on the north side of the chancel. A south aisle was added to the nave in the 13th century and the west tower built late in the 14th century. The church was almost wholly rebuilt and enlarged in 1847 at a cost of £8,000 and the only parts left in situ were the south arcade and the tower. The nave was lengthened eastwards by one bay and the chancel was newly constructed. The south aisle, 10 ft. wide, is probably on the lines of the original aisle and retains a 14th-century west window, this wall being probably rebuilt when the tower was added.
The chancel (30½ ft. by 16 ft.) has a three-light east window, and, in the south wall, a two-light window and an archway to the south chapel. In the west part of the north wall is the reset 12th-century chancel arch, all of brown Edgehill stone. The jambs are of two orders, the inner with attached half-round shafts with plain cushion capitals. The outer has detached nookshafts with cushion capitals enriched with relief carving, the eastern with scroll ornament and the western with zigzag. The abaci are chamfered and the vertical faces decorated with various carvings—lozengy, doublebillet, hatch, diaper, and zigzag. The bases are moulded with a series of small rounds, partly buried below the floor. The inner order of the semicircular head is like that of the jambs but the face towards the chancel has two orders, a half-round and an edge-roll, the last flush with the shallow hood-mould, which has a hollow with a raised middle cable-ornament.
The south chapel (14½ ft. by 13 ft.) is lit by a twolight east window and three south lancets. Below the east window outside is reset the masonry of a late-13thcentury quatrefoil bull's-eye window surrounded by a chamfered hood-mould or ring, all of weatherworn Edgehill stone. It appears to have been previously reset in the gable-head of the nave above the chancel arch, where there is a circular patch in the plaster that seems to be of the same size.
The nave (about 60 ft. by 22 ft.) has north and south arcades of five bays. The southern is of late-13thcentury date, excepting the modern easternmost bay with the pier west of it. The other three piers are cylindrical with four small attached shafts standing on a hollow-chamfered base of octagonal plan. The moulded capitals follow the contours of the piers.
The west respond is semi-hexagonal with an angle in the middle of the reveal, and has a double-round base on a square sub-base and a plain capital resembling that of the tower archway. The pointed arches are of two hollow-chamfered orders with medium and small voussoirs. The western bay is narrower than the others and therefore the arch is lower. It may have been altered when the west respond and aisle wall were rebuilt with the erection of the tower. There has been a fair amount of modern repair to the arcade.
The north arcade is a modern replica of the other.
The north aisle is 16½ ft. wide and the south 9¾ ft. wide. The south aisle has a rebuilt south wall of old brown and grey rough ashlar, but its west wall is ancient, with the buttress, of brown stone, south of it. It has a late-14th-century window of two cinquefoiled lights and foiled tracery under a square head with a label; the jambs and head are moulded with a wide casement. The other windows—of three lights and tracery in the side walls, a lancet in the west wall of the north aisle—and the north and south doorways, are modern.
The west tower (about 12½ ft. square) is of three stages with walls of smooth grey ashlar and a moulded plinth. At the west angles are diagonal buttresses with moulded offsets rising nearly to the parapet, which is embattled and has modern angle-pinnacles. The east buttresses are square. The archway to the nave is pointed and of two hollow-chamfered orders, the inner with a moulded capital. The bases are square, the northern higher than the southern.
The west window, of the late 14th century, is of three cinquefoiled ogee-headed lights and vertical tracery on a two-centred head. The external hoodmould is crocketed and has a foliage finial; it has abnormally large stops, the northern carved as an owl and the southern a human head. The jambs have a wide casement mould. The lower stones appear to be modern and possibly a later doorway (17th or 18th century) once encroached on the window. In the west and south walls of the second stage are small trefoiled lights with crocketed hood-moulds. The bell-chamber has windows of two cinquefoiled ogee-headed lights and a quatrefoil, also with crocketed hood-moulds with head-stops. In the south-west angle is a stair-vice entered by a four-centred doorway in a splay inside and lighted by crocketed loops in the south wall. The roof and all the fittings are modern.
In the floor of the chancel is a stone slab with a brass effigy, 23½ in. high, of Sir Thomas Strange, 1426. He is shown in armour, his hands in prayer, and his feet resting on a lion. There are four shields, two of them charged with two lions passant. The marginal inscription reads: 'Hic jacet dominus Thom' le Straunge miles|—nuper Constabularius Regis in Hibernia qui obijt|—tertio die Maij anno domini mcccc|—xxvi et Regni Regis Henrici sexti quarto cujus animae p.pitietur deus.'
On the south wall of the chancel is a small black marble tablet to Paul Aylworth, died 2 March 1659[60], and Isabella his wife, 1677: it is in a moulded stone frame and above is an achievement of arms. There are other later monuments including a tablet in the tower to Robert Boyse, 2 March 1714[15], and his wife Damaris, 1726. A pilastered high tomb in the churchyard with an almost obliterated inscription has the Aylworth arms and the date 1670.
There are six bells of 1681 by Henry Bagley.
The registers begin in 1560.
The church of ST. JAMES at Walton, originally a chapel of Wellesbourne, was rebuilt by Sir Charles Mordaunt in 1750 and was 'much admired for the modesty and simplicity of its architectural style'. (fn. 95) In 1842 it was very much enlarged and was constituted a parish church. It is built of grey stone and consists of chancel, nave, west porch, and a small turret containing one bell; the only medieval feature is the font, which was found in the churchyard and may be Norman. (fn. 96)
Advowsons
The church of Wellesbourne was given by Roger, Earl of Warwick, to the canons of Kenilworth Priory and confirmed to them by Henry I. (fn. 97) It was valued at £14 13s. 4d. in 1291 (fn. 98) and must have been appropriated to the priory about this time, as in 1303 the prior and canons presented a perpetual vicar. (fn. 99) A formal ordination of a vicarage, however, was made by Bishop Wolstan de Braunsford in 1348, when the small tithes were assigned to the vicar, who was also given a dwellinghouse with half a yardland and a yearly render of straw. (fn. 100) In 1535 the vicarage was valued at £7 11s. 8d., (fn. 101) while the rectory was farmed for £3 6s. 8d. (fn. 102) At the Dissolution the advowson of the vicarage came into the hands of the Crown and was not alienated, so that it is now in the gift of the Lord Chancellor.
There was a chantry in Wellesbourne Church to which Sir Thomas Hastang in 1320 nominated the chaplain to the prior and convent of Kenilworth, who presented. (fn. 103) The advowson of this chantry 'at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary' was held by Sir John Lestrange in 1385. (fn. 104) The endowment apparently consisted in a payment by the convent of 6 quarters of wheat and 4 of rye, 2 cartloads of straw, 8 pounds of wax, and 20s. in money. (fn. 105) In 1369 and 1391 the chantry is described as at 'the altar of SS. Stephen and Thomas, martyrs' and on the latter occasion the Lestrange rights of patronage are said to be derived from Simon de Wauton who founded the chantry. (fn. 106) The advowson of the chantry was still attached to the manor in 1529 (fn. 107) and, after the Dissolution, in 1542. (fn. 108)
The rectory of Wellesbourne with its tithes was leased by Kenilworth in 1538 for eighty years at £16 to Sir Andrew Flamock. (fn. 109) The lease passed to George Kevett and was bought from John Kevett by Sir Richard Verney. (fn. 110)
Walton Deyville was a chapel of Wellesbourne and during the reign of Henry II William Deyville made an agreement with the canons of Kenilworth by which they should provide a priest to serve it and the inhabitants might be buried either there or at Wellesbourne; in return William gave to the priory 40 acres of land and certain pasturage rights and undertook to contribute yearly 6d. and his tenants 1d. for every yardland towards the upkeep of the chapel. (fn. 111) The high altar in this chapel of St. James was dedicated in 1381, (fn. 112) which suggests that it was rebuilt, or enlarged, at this time. Subsequently the chapel appears to become independent of Wellesbourne; the advowson of the church of Walton Deyville had come to Robert Mordaunt by 1529, (fn. 113) and in 1535 'the parish church', served by a rector, was rated at £4 13s. 4d. (fn. 114) The patronage was apparently attached to the manor, as Sir Lestrange Mordaunt held the advowson of the chapel or rectory of Walton Deyville at his death in 1627, (fn. 115) as did his son Sir Robert in 1638; (fn. 116) and yet the Crown presented in 1618, 1629, and 1691, (fn. 117) and the rectory was united to the vicarage of Wellesbourne in 1633. (fn. 118) The union continued in force, the king presenting to Wellesbourne with Walton in 1730 and being returned as patron of both benefices at various dates for the next hundred years, but the chapel seems to have decayed until it was completely rebuilt by Sir Charles Mordaunt some time about 1750. (fn. 119) This, in turn, was much enlarged by Sir John Mordaunt in 1842, when it was constituted the church of the newly formed parish of Walton and the patronage was vested in the Mordaunt trustees. (fn. 120)
A grant made in 1588 to Edward Wymarke of a great number of estates formerly held for 'superstitious' purposes included both the free chapel or rectory of Walton Deyville and the chantry or chapel of Walton 'Mawdick'; (fn. 121) this was presumably 'the chapel of St. Michael' which, with its yard and lands at Walton, was included in 1570 in a grant to Nicase Yetsweirt and Bartholomew Brokesby. (fn. 122)
Charity
The Rev. Arthur Kennet HobartHampden by will proved 15 Feb. 1933 gave to the vicar and churchwardens £40 for the upkeep of the churchyard of the parish. The legacy was invested and the dividends, amounting to £1 4s. 2d. annually, are so applied.