Parishes: Arrow

ARROW

Acreage: 2,634.

Population: 1911, 317; 1921, 339; 1931, 293.

The parish of Arrow is bounded on the east by the River Arrow as far north as Oversley Mill, and then by the Spittle Brook, running south-east from Coldcomfort Wood, where the boundary turns west to reach the Redditch-Evesham road, which forms the western boundary. On the south the limit of the parish is the line of the road from Wixford to Weethley Gate. From the river, where the elevation is only about 120 ft., the ground rises rapidly to the west and north, reaching 300 ft. in the south-west corner and 415 ft. in the north-west corner of the parish.

The village lies on the road from Wixford to Alcester, with the church, the rectory, and a farm between the road and the river. Another road branches westward from the village to Worcester. Between this road and Weethley Gate lies Ragley Park (500 acres in extent) with the Hall, a large lake, apparently constructed in 1630, (fn. 1) and extensive woods on the edges of the park. The manor at the time of the Domesday Survey had woodland 1 league by 2 furlongs in extent, (fn. 2) and there is reference to the assarting and inclosure of land in Arrow in 1230. (fn. 3) The parish is still well wooded; north of the Worcester road are Three Oak Hill Wood and Old Park Wood, the latter perhaps representing the woodland in Arrow which Robert Burdet was licensed to impark in 1333. (fn. 4)

Arrow Rectory is partly of 16th-century origin but has been much altered and enlarged. It faces south and has an approximately symmetrical front: the west cross-wing shows some close-set studding in the lower story of the west elevation, the upper being plastered, and there are traces of other framing inside. A stonebuilt chimney-stack has a modern shaft. A coved ceiling in the upper story has grape-vine ornament in the cornice, probably of the 17th century, but other parts are of the 18th century and later.

On the main road to Alcester are several ancient buildings. One, opposite the roadway to the church, is a 17th-century house, with a jettied east gable-end towards the road, and on the north side is an original projecting chimney-stack of thin bricks with two diagonal shafts, each with small square pilasters on the four faces.

Another, farther north, at the corner of the Worcester road, is a long building of one story and attics, all of square framing of the 17th century, and another a few yards farther north is similar: both are divided into tenements. Nearer to Alcester on the same side is a house of similar framing but with a north lower and narrower extension that has close-set studding in the upper story and in the north gable-head, probably of the late 16th century.

Two small thatched cottages on the west edge of the parish near Weethley Church have remains of 17thcentury framing.

Ragley Hall (fn. 5) is a large building about 175 ft. by 120 ft., facing east and west. The walls are of squared rough ashlar with rusticated angle-dressings. It consists of a basement and two upper main stories, with attics or roof-space above. Some of the fabric of the original house of 1598 may be incorporated in the building, but as it stands to-day the mansion dates from about 1680 (fn. 6) when it was built or rebuilt from designs by Dr. R. Hook, Curator of the Royal Society. The work was incomplete when the Earl of Conway died in 1683, and it was continued by the trustees of his heir. A view of the house in 1697–9, engraved by Kip, shows it much as it is now, except for the later alterations to the middle bay and the roofs; it then had a forecourt and side wings, which were pulled down about 1780. In 1813 the architect Wyatt was called in. He built the portico with the colonnade to the middle bay of the east front and probably it was he who heightened the great hall by taking in the story above it and furnishing it with the vaulting. The whole of the roofs have also been altered either by him or subsequently: they are covered with slates. Many repairs were effected in 1891, the date that appears on many of the rainwater-pipe heads.

The east front of five bays has moulded stringcourses marking the floor-levels and a cornice with enriched brackets and open-balustraded parapets. The late-17th-century windows of the upper stories have eared architraves, pulvinated friezes, and moulded cornices. The middle bay projects slightly and has a portico of c. 1813 with four Ionic columns carrying a pediment. The first-floor windows behind it are round-headed, evidently also part of the alterations; the second floor has square-headed windows. The windows of the ground floor or basement have rusticated architraves and flat arches, and the walling is generally in better condition than the upper. The first floor of the middle bay containing the entrance to the great hall is approached by a double flight of steps. The west front is similar, but without Wyatt's portico: all the windows are of the 1680 design, tall and narrow. The only addition is an attic story over the middle bay, which has three bull's-eye windows and is treated with swag and festoon ornament. The north and south elevations are of three bays, the middle deeply recessed. The projecting bays have original windows as in the fronts, but in the recessed bays they are round-headed and probably later alterations.

The plan is of the utmost symmetry. It is based on a great cross about 45 yards east to west (containing the great hall and smaller hall west of it) and about 55 yards north to south. In the angles of this are smaller chambers forming the second and fourth bays of the main fronts, and beyond these are wings, about 13 yards square, projecting at the angles of the mansion. The main staircases occupy the west halves of the north and south arms of the basic cross plan. The great hall is divided into five bays by three by Corinthian pilasters below an entablature with a frieze enriched by ribbonbound oak leaves, and a moulded cornice which marks the original second-floor level. Above this is the later semi-vaulting of the heightening, with rococo ornament.

Generally the interior decoration, chimney-pieces, and main staircases appear to be not earlier than the second half of the 18th century, but the small chamber south of the hall on the east front—the Library—has bookcases of Charles II period, and there are one or two secondary staircases of the same date. In some alterations in the north half of the house some brickwork has been exposed in the room east of the north main staircase. These bricks are larger than the usual bricks of 1680, in red and black, and every fourth or fifth course is of stone: there are also remains of round arches on the east and west walls that appear to belong to earlier construction than the 1680 walling. It is possible that this is part of the Elizabethan house. Several beams now covered up but revealed during recent repairs are also claimed to be of the earlier period. The basement below the hall is built with a series of piers and vaults, but these do not appear to be earlier than 1680.

The original stables and coach-houses and the lodgings of the outside staff stand north-east of the mansion, and were built symmetrically about courtyards. The stables, now altered to dwellings, were on the east and west sides of a large square quadrangle. On the south side are three residences with doorways that have rusticated jambs and entablatures. The wall is divided into five bays by pilasters and in front of it is a covered way with a colonnade of fifteen bays with Doric shafts and an enriched entablature. On the north side is a round-headed archway leading to the north courtyard. This is of semicircular plan and contained the coachhouses: the round arches to these are now mostly walled up, but a few are used for motor-cars. The gateway between the courtyards and that at the north of the arc are of similar treatment, the round archways being flanked by round-headed niches and having pediments over them. Above the intermediate gateway is a clock and above the north gateway an octagonal attic. The arc springs from short wings that are treated with the same motif as the gateways, but the round arches are blanks or recesses and contain doorways like those of the southern range. One coach-house on the east side of the arc has been cut through to form another gateway. In the centre of the quadrangle is another Doric shaft as a post with a ball and iron ornament on top of it. The walls towards the courts are of stone; externally they are of plain brickwork. The roofs are covered with slates.

On the river, ¼ mile south of the village, is Arrow Mill, presumably on the site of the mill mentioned in Domesday (fn. 7) and in 1210. (fn. 8) About the same distance north of the village is Oversley Mill; there was a mill here in 1086, (fn. 9) and 'mills' in about 1155, (fn. 10) two watermills and a fishery being attached to the manor in 1287. (fn. 11) A court roll of 1585 mentions £5 12s. 4d. rent 'of the milners of Oversleie Milles'. The mill was used as a needle mill by the firm of Holyoake of Redditch from 1825 to 1844, when they transferred to the Hoo Mill at Haselor. (fn. 12) Somewhat higher up the river is Oversley Bridge, connecting Oversley Green and Alcester.

The hamlet, or civil parish, of Oversley (Acreage: 1486. Population: 1911, 306; 1921, 276; 1931, 293) was part of Arrow until 1909, when it was joined, for ecclesiastical purposes, to the parish of Alcester. It lies on the opposite bank of the Arrow and extends north of Alcester to the boundaries of Coughton and Kinwarton.

At Oversley Green is a 17th-century farm-house; the gabled east cross-wing is of square timber-framing with a central chimney-stack and tiled roof; the western cross-wing has rough-cast and brick walls but has an original brick chimney-stack on its west side, with two square shafts with V-shaped pilasters. The middle block is modernized.

A little farther to the south-west is a group of four timber-framed cottages of the same period. The easternmost and latest of them has a tiled roof and gabled dormer window. The others are thatched and have low flat-topped dormers.

Manors

In 710, according to the chronicles of the abbey of Evesham, Ceolred, King of Mercia, gave land in ARROW to the abbey. (fn. 13) It was subsequently wrested from them but regained by Abbot Agelwy II (fn. 14) (1070–7), only to be lost again to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, (fn. 15) who at the time of the Domesday Survey held 7½ hides in Arrow, which he sublet to Stephen. At this time the manor contained a mill worth 6s. 8d., 30 acres of meadow, and some woodland. (fn. 16) Odo subsequently granted his lands in Arrow to Robert Marmion, (fn. 17) from whom they descended to Geoffrey Marmion, whose daughter Auberée married William de Camville, of Clifton, Staffordshire. (fn. 18) He held them in 1195, when he sued Ralph Boteler and two others for stealing goods from his land in Arrow while he was on the king's service in Wales. (fn. 19) In 1220 Auberée was holding half a knight's fee here of Robert Marmion (fn. 20) for life, with reversion to her son William de Camville. (fn. 21) He was in possession in 1229, when he was fined for cutting down woodland at Arrow which was then in the king's forest. (fn. 22) In 1231–2 he had to defend his right to the manor against Maurice le Boteler, (fn. 23) and two years later against Richard de Camville, the son of his brother Geoffrey, (fn. 24) whose descendants held the mesne lordship of this fee. He was holding half a knight's fee in Arrow of the fee of Robert Marmion in 1235–6, (fn. 25) and in 1275 jurors reported that William de Camville, who was now dead, had withdrawn his tenants of Arrow from suit at the hundred and county courts and had paid an annual fee of ½ mark to the sheriff for this privilege. (fn. 26) At this time Arrow was in the possession of his brother (fn. 27) Thomas de Camville, who paid to Geoffrey de Camville, of Clifton, Staffs., grandson of the earlier Geoffrey, scutage for half a knight's fee, homage, and relief. (fn. 28) He was succeeded by his son, Sir Gerard de Camville, who held Arrow in 1288, when it was seized by the king for his default against the Bishop of Worcester. (fn. 29) Sir Gerard died in 1303 and lies buried in Arrow Church. He left as heir a daughter Elizabeth, (fn. 30) but the manor appears to have come into the possession of a Henry de Camville, who was patron of Arrow Church in 1309 and 1311; (fn. 31) he had possibly married Elizabeth and taken her name, as in 1312 he complained against Robert Burdet for abducting his wife Elizabeth from Arrow. (fn. 32) Elizabeth later married Robert Burdet, (fn. 33) who was summoned before the King's Council in 1326 to answer concerning the wood pertaining to his manor of Arrow. (fn. 34) The next year he obtained a grant of free-warren in Arrow, (fn. 35) and in 1333 a licence to impark his woods. (fn. 36) Robert was succeeded by his son Gerard, who died in 1349 holding the manor of Sir Richard Stafford, the representative of the elder branch of the Camville family at Clifton. His son and heir, Sir John Burdet, was at this time 21 years old. (fn. 37) He held the manor in 1379, (fn. 38) but by 1390 had been succeeded by Sir Thomas Burdet, (fn. 39) who died before 1428, (fn. 40) being followed by his son Sir Nicholas. This latter was dead by 1448, (fn. 41) and Thomas Burdet, his son, was executed for treason in 1477, when the manor passed to his wife Margaret, with reversion to his second son John. (fn. 42) In 1485 Arrow was conveyed to John's half-brother Richard and his wife Joyce, who upon his death married Sir Hugh Conway and held one-third of the manor in dower, while the remainder was held by her daughter and heir Anne, who married Sir Hugh's younger brother Edward. (fn. 43)

Edward Conway died in Aug. 1546 seised of the manor of Arrow, his son John being his heir. (fn. 44) Sir John Conway was succeeded by his son Sir John, who died in Oct. 1603, leaving the manor to his son Edward, who obtained a grant of freewarren there in 1619. (fn. 45) He was created successively Baron Conway of Ragley and Viscount Killultagh and Conway, and died in Jan. 1631, being succeeded by his son Edward. (fn. 46) On the death of his son Edward, who had been created Earl of Conway in 1679, the estates passed to his second cousin Popham Seymour-Conway. He died in 1699, being succeeded by his brother Francis, who was created Baron Conway of Ragley in 1703. He died in 1732 while his son Francis was still a minor. Francis was created Viscount Beauchamp and Earl of Hertford in 1750 and Earl of Yarmouth and Marquess of Hertford in 1793. His descendant, the Marquess of Hertford, is the present lord of the manor.

The manor of RAGLEY seems to have been a distinctive part of the parish of Arrow from a very early date, for the Evesham chronicler claimed that Ceolred, King of Mercia, had given land in Ragley to the abbey in 710. (fn. 47)

Towards the close of the 11th century the monks certainly had land there, (fn. 48) part of which was held by Wybert Trunchet in Henry II's time. With the consent of the abbey he granted it to Roger son of William, from whom it descended to Ralph son of Nicholas of Kingley, who held the estate in 1325. (fn. 49)

In 1370 John Rous of Ragley exchanged with the abbey lands in Ombersley, Worcs., for land and rent in Ragley and Kingley. (fn. 50) In Dec. 1381 he received a pardon for crenellating a house above the gate of his manor of Ragley without licence, and was given leave to crenellate the remainder of the manor. (fn. 51) John Rous died before the close of 1396, followed shortly after by his eldest son John. (fn. 52) The elder John had held the manor jointly with his wife Christiane, on whose death in 1416 it descended to their grandson William, a minor of 7 years. At this time the overlordship of the manor belonged to Sir Thomas Burdet of Arrow. (fn. 53) William died in 1420 while still under age, being succeeded by his brother John, then 15 years old. (fn. 54) John Rous died in 1476 holding the manor jointly with his wife Margaret, who outlived him. (fn. 55) His son Thomas died in 1499 and lies buried in Quinton Church with his wife Maud. (fn. 56) On the death of their son Thomas Rous in 1523, Ragley passed to their daughter Margaret, wife of John Brome of Halton. (fn. 57) In Oct. 1591 her grandson George Brome sold this manor with that of Pophills to Sir John Conway for £3,000. (fn. 58) Ragley became the principal seat of the Conway family in the 17th century and follows the same descent as the manor of Arrow.

During the abbacy of Abbot Adam (1160–91) the monastery of Evesham acquired the reversion of an estate in KINGLEY which Wybert Trunchet had held and granted to Roger son of William. (fn. 59) Roger's descendants held the estate until the early 14th century, when Nicholas of Kingley disposed of it to Malcolm Musard, who released all his rights to the abbey in 1316. (fn. 60) The abbey held also 150 acres in Kingley which in 1221 they let to Stephen of Ragley. (fn. 61) In 1290 the Abbot of Evesham successfully claimed view of frankpledge in his manor of Kingley and exemption of his tenants from suit at the county and hundred courts. (fn. 62) The land in Kingley obtained in 1370 by John Rous with Ragley (see above) by exchange with the abbey (fn. 63) descended to his grandson William, (fn. 64) whose brother and heir John (fn. 65) may have alienated it to Sir Nicholas Burdet, the holder of Arrow, for it does not appear in the inquisition taken after John's death in 1476, (fn. 66) and in 1485 Thomas Burdet's widow Margaret, then the wife of Thomas Woodhull, and his son John, settled the estate with that of Arrow on John's brother Richard and his wife Joyce. (fn. 67) On the marriage of their daughter Anne, the manor passed to the Conway family and follows the same descent as Arrow.

At the Domesday Survey the Count of Meulan, later created Earl of Leicester, held 3 hides of land in OVERSLEY, (fn. 68) and until the close of the Middle Ages the manor remained part of the honour of Leicester. In 1086 Fulk held the estate, but it later passed to one of the second Earl of Leicester's officials, Ralph le Boteler, who probably built a castle there, making it his principal seat. (fn. 69) In the middle of the 12th century the earl and Ralph jointly founded the monastery of Alcester, and granted to it lands in Oversley. (fn. 70)

The abbey of Bordesley also acquired lands in Oversley about the same time by the gift of Walter of Stanes. (fn. 71) Ralph le Boteler's descendant William died shortly before 11 Dec. 1283 holding the manor of Oversley of the Earl of Leicester, and lands there also of the Abbot of Bordesley. (fn. 72) One-third of the manor was assigned to his wife Angareta in dower; his son and heir John died in 1287, (fn. 73) and his brother Gawain shortly after him. Their younger brother William held the manor in 1293, being then a minor in ward to Walter de Langton. At this time Alice the widow of Gawain, Angareta, now married to Robert de Neville, and Eleanor, sometime the wife of John le Boteler and now of John de la Mare, all held land in the manor in dower. (fn. 74) William le Boteler died in 1334, being succeeded by his son William, (fn. 75) who died in 1361; (fn. 76) and on the death of his son William in 1369 (fn. 77) without male heirs the manor passed to his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Sir Robert Ferrers. (fn. 78) She died in 1411, leaving two daughters, Elizabeth wife of John, Lord Greystock, and Mary wife of Sir Ralph Nevill, younger son of the Earl of Warwick. (fn. 79) In the division of her lands, Oversley was assigned to Mary. (fn. 80)

On her death in 1458 Mary was succeeded by her son John Nevill. (fn. 81) He died in 1482 and Oversley passed to his grandson Sir William Gascoigne of Gawthorpe, Yorks. (fn. 82) On the marriage of his second son Henry with Elizabeth daughter of Sir Henry Boynton, the manor was settled on him and became the subject of a series of law-suits in Chancery in the early years of the 16th century. (fn. 83) In 1537 Sir William Gascoigne and his son Sir Henry sold the manor to Sir Thomas Cromwell. (fn. 84) After Cromwell's attainder Henry VIII granted Oversley, in exchange for lands in Bedfordshire, to Sir George Throckmorton of Coughton, who had been anxious to acquire it for several years. (fn. 85) From this time the manor follows the same descent as Coughton (q.v.).

Oversley was a valuable and extensive manor, comprising in 1566 the present parishes of Exhall and Wixford, part of Grafton and part, at least, of King's Broom; (fn. 86) presentments from all four townships were made at the manor court of Oversley in 1385, and from the 16th century onwards the constables, tithingmen, and supervisors of the fields of Wixford, Exhall, and Broom were elected there. The manor was divided from Bidford on the south by a holding known as the 'Twenty Hide Meere', which was claimed in 1595 as part of Bidford lordship, but which was no doubt the 'balliva viginti hidarum' granted by the lord of Oversley to William de Brome at a rent of 8s. yearly in 1321. (fn. 87) The northern boundary of the manor, in 1566, with Coughton and Kinwarton, seems to have been that of the present parish. The manor was valued, c. 1320, at £53 0s. 11¼d. It then comprised 872 acres, of which 387 were in the park and another 375 consisted of demesne scattered in the east, west and north fields. In 1541 the rents of Oversley alone amounted to £51 17s. 4d., and those of Exhall, Wixford, Grafton and Broom to £9 18s. 6½d. By 1603 the value of the manor had risen to £237 19s. 0½d., including £100 for the park. Lands held by indenture accounted for £80 19s. 4d. and the customary rents of Oversley Green, Exhall, Broom and Wixford for £22 6s. 3d. (fn. 88)

The park referred to c. 1320 is mentioned in 1283, when William le Boteler died holding a park and two gardens in Oversley of the abbot of Bordesley as of the manor of Bidford Grange, paying 5s. yearly for housebote. (fn. 89) By James I's time it is referred to as Oversley Park or the New Park, (fn. 90) though there is no evidence that its boundaries had been extended or a second park made; a great part of its extent is now covered by Oversley Wood. The sale of timber became a very important source of profit to the lord of the manor in Elizabethan times, amounting in 1581, for instance, to £146 4s. 0d., compared with a rental of £173 19s. 8d., and this may explain why, in 1603 and 1608, Thomas Kempson was holding the park at the high rent of £100. (fn. 91)

Church

The parish church of ST. JAMES consists of a chancel with a north chapel and vestry, nave, north aisle, and west tower.

The building dates from the 12th century, but the only evidence of this period is the south doorway, which may have been reset at a later period. The nave has windows of the end of the 13th century, and the chancel appears to have been rebuilt from early-to mid-14th century. The west tower is said to have been added or rebuilt in 1767. The north aisle was added in 1865 and the rest of the building restored.

The chancel (32 ft. by 15½ ft.) has an east window of three trefoiled lights and vertical tracery in a twocentred head: the jambs may be of the 14th century, the other stonework is modern: the two-centred reararch is chamfered. In the south wall are two windows and in the north wall one, each of two cinquefoiled lights and mid-14th-century leaf tracery (partly restored) in a two-centred head with a moulded external label and chamfered pointed rear-arches. Between the south windows is a priest's doorway with moulded jambs, two-centred head, and label. In the west half of the north wall is a modern arcade of two bays to the north chapel. The chancel arch is modern. The north wall is of squared rubble; the gabled east wall and the south wall are rough-cast. The walls have an old moulded plinth, and at the east angles are diagonal buttresses of ashlar. The roof is tiled and has modern timbers.

In the south wall is a 14th-century piscina with ogee head and semi-octagonal sill with a shallow basin. The chancel floor has been raised four steps and the altar pace two steps more, so that the piscina-sill is now only 9½ in. above floor-level.

The modern north chapel has two north windows, the eastern of which resembles those of the chancel and has been reset here.

The nave (49 ft. by 20 ft.) has a modern north arcade of three bays. In the south wall are three windows: the easternmost is of c. 1300 and has three plain pointed lights and intersecting tracery in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould. This has carved headstops, the western a woman's with a veil head-dress, the eastern probably a man's with a gorget or high collar. The window is recessed down to the floor inside and has in it a tiny piscina, only 6¾ in. wide and 5½ in. deep: this has an ogee head with trefoiled soffit cusps and a moulded projecting sill and basin. The second window is of three trefoiled lights and tracery of early14th-century character but all of modern stonework. The third is similar to the first, but all modern. The south doorway, between the second and third windows, has 12th-century square jambs with shafts or edge-rolls worked in the solid: they have moulded bases and plain cushion capitals with modern chamfered abaci. The head is half round and of two orders, the inner is square and the outer has a roll-mould. A modern inscription has been cut in the face of the inner order. The round rear-arch is plastered. The doorway is of a hard yellow stone, the windows of a soft grey limestone. The walling east of the doorway is of a rubble of rough irregular stones, except near the east end, where there is a vertical band of grey stone ashlar which may be another relic of the 12th-century walling. West of the doorway the wall is rough-cast. At each end of the wall is a square buttress; the eastern, perhaps of the 16th century, is of red stone; the western, later, is of grey stone.

The tower is of three stages and has an embattled parapet with angle pinnacles. The walls are rough-cast. The modern archway from the nave has a segmentalpointed head. In the west wall is a Tudor doorway and over it a bull's-eye window. The bell-chamber has two-light pointed windows.

The modern north aisle has three north windows. Reset below the easternmost of the three is a pair of tomb recesses with moulded jambs and three-centred arches: the recesses are 1 ft. 10 in. deep. In the spandrel between their arches is a tiny recess 8 in. wide with a pointed arch 7 in. high: it is 1 ft. 3 in. deep and may have been made to serve as a reliquary. In the eastern recess is set a tapering coffin-lid on which is carved a cross with a wheel-head, slender stem, and stepped base. The edges are chamfered: on that of the dexter edge is the inscription:

CI: GIT: GERARD: DE: CANVILL (fn. 92)

On the north wall of the chancel are two small shield-shaped brass plates. One reads:

Here is y^e right Honob^le Edward Lo: VicesCount Conway & Killultagh Lo: Presid^nt of his Ma^ts most hono^ble privee Councell, Lo: Lieutenant of y^e County of Southampton & Captaine & Governor of the Ile of Wight who discharged w^th much honor & fidelitie great offices of trust, att home principal Secretary of State abroad Ambassador extraordinary unto Germanie. His strength was exercis'd in honb^le Atcheevement of warr in ye time of Queene Elizab: His age imployed in Councells of State under King James & King Charles and having receaved y^e desert of virtue honor to himselfe & his familie Departed out of this life ye 3 of January in ye yeare of his redemptiō by Christ 1630.

The other is to Henege, infant son of Edward, Viscount Conway, who died in 1660.

On the south side of the chancel is a monument with an alabaster effigy of Sir George Francis Seymour, G.C.B., G.C.H., born 1787, died 1870; and a brass placed in position in 1872 commemorates other members of the Seymour Conway family interred below the chancel, from Frances (Popham), Viscountess Conway, 1671, to Francis Charles Seymour Conway, third Marquess of Hertford, K.G., 1842.

On the south wall is an ancient black and gilt funeral helmet with the Conway crest of a blackamoor's head; also a sword.

Glass: In the south-west window of the chancel two of the foils have 15th-century yellow and white round flowers of five petals. In the north window are two others of four petals.

The furniture is modern except for one 17thcentury bench which has shaped standards.

In the tower is one bell by Henry Bagley, 1657.

The plate includes a cup with cover-paten of 1670, a large bread-plate of 1727, and a flagon, undated, apparently originally a coffee-pot. (fn. 93)

The register of baptisms begins in 1592, of marriages in 1591, and of burials in 1588; the earlier volumes of registers are now deposited at the Shire Hall, Warwick.

Advowson

According to one of the charters of the monastery of Alcester ratified by Henry II, Ralph le Botiller granted to the monastery, with the consent of the Earl of Leicester, the advowsons of the churches of Arrow and Oversley (fn. 94) and of the chapel of his castle of Oversley. (fn. 95) If the monastery ever held the advowson of Arrow Church they did not retain it, for in 1309 Henry de Camville made the presentation. (fn. 96) The advowson seems to have passed with the manor to the Burdet family, for in 1390 Sir Thomas Burdet had it settled on his wife Isabel and himself in tail. (fn. 97) Thomas Burdet held it when he was attainted in 1477, and it passed with the manor to the Conway family and remains with the present Marquess of Hertford. It is a rectory with the chapelry of Weethley attached.

Charity

In 1811 William Langton left £100 to be distributed among the poor of the hamlet of Oversley, at the discretion of his executors. This was invested and the interest was given away annually. (fn. 98)