Parishes: Amington and Stonydelph

AMINGTON AND STONYDELPH

Acreage: 2,306.

Population: 1911, 1,396; 1921, 1,577; 1931, 1,506.

On the north the parish and county boundary runs along the road from Tamworth to Ashby de la Zouch. Much of the eastern boundary is formed by a small stream which runs north to join the River Anker, which river winds through the northern part of the parish with the Coventry Canal to the south of it. Where the river and the canal approach within 200 yards, the Trent Valley section of the L.M.S. Railway passes between them; and here is the village of Amington, with the parish church of St. Editha, erected in 1864 from the designs of G. E. Street. It is a small stonebuilt edifice in the late-13th-century style and consists of a chancel with a south vestry, nave, south aisle of three bays, and a central bell-turret. The church is in the middle of a small green around which are several houses, mostly of 18th-century brickwork, but the oldest to the south-east of the church is an early-17th-century building known as Fir Tree House or the 'Home of the Martyrs'. It is a low building with rough-casted walls, two gables in the north front, and tiled roof with an original central chimney-stack of thin bricks. This has an 8-ft. wide fire-place, but the interior generally has been modernized.

Wood House Farm, about ¼ mile south of the church, is a small L-shaped building chiefly of 18th-century brickwork but retaining some fragments of 16th- or 17th-century timber-framing. Two thatched cottages near by also show some 17th-century framing, but have been much altered.

Old Amington Hall stands ⁵/8 mile north-north-west of the church, on the north bank of the River Anker. The older part of the present building, of L-shaped plan, is obviously only a small portion of the ancient hall. The walls are of 18th-century brickwork, and the kitchen is all that survives of a late-16th-century timber-framed house. It retains, inside, original story-posts and heavy stop-chamfered ceiling beams and wall-plates, and had a great 15-ft. fire-place with a segmental-pointed arch of two 9-in. brick rings. This is now built in for a smaller fire-place and may have included the original oven below the arch. The chimney-stack above the tiled roof is of brick of cross-shaped plan. The south-east brick wall (outside the story-posts) is very thick and in the middle between the two 18th-century windows is a tall round-backed recess of uncertain purpose. The entrance in the projecting north-west wing has a more ancient nail-studded door. The walls have plain string-courses at the first-floor level, and the south-east front has a gable-head in the middle over the old kitchen, and moulded wooden eaves cornices to the other parts. The staircase is of modern construction, but on the upper landing are refixed a number of 17th-century 3-in. turned and twisted balusters, and the upper floor has ancient wide floor boards. The narrow extension north-eastwards has modern windows but, from the traces of other blocked openings in the walls, appears to have been a former outbuilding converted in modern times to residential purposes and containing the drawing room and other principal rooms.

A little east of the village a branch of the railway runs south to Amington Colliery and then south-west to Glascote Heath on the road from Tamworth to Atherstone. Between this road and the Watling Street, which forms the southern limit of the parish, is Stonydelph.

MANORS

AMINGTON

AMINGTON has been identified with the 'Ermendone' recorded in the Doomsday Survey as held by William son of Corbucion, (fn. 1) but there appears to be nothing to support the identification. On the contrary, it was stated in 1246 that Amington and Tamworth were the king's ancient demesne until he gave them to the Earl of Warwick in exchange for the manor of Oakham (Rutland). (fn. 2) The overlordship remained with the earls, of whom it was held as 1 knight's fee. (fn. 3) In the first half of the 12th century Hugh son of Richard, of Hatton (q.v.), held the manor, (fn. 4) and is said to have given 2 virgates here to his kinsman Alexander son of Atrop. (fn. 5) Hugh's grandson Hugh son of William, in 1208, granted 4 virgates in Amington to William de Arderne and Amice his wife and her heirs, to hold by the render of a yew bow at Easter. (fn. 6) His brother and heir Richard son of William in 1213 assigned to Hugh's widow Hawise de Tracy as dower certain rents and ⅓ of the woodland of Amington and the right of fishing in the River Anker. (fn. 7) Richard's sister and co-heir Margery married Osbert de Clinton and brought this manor to him, and their grandson Sir Thomas de Clinton held it in 1246. (fn. 8) In 1300 John de Clinton had a grant of free warren in Amington, (fn. 9) and the manor was the object of a series of settlements by members of the family during the next two hundred years. (fn. 10)

In 1422 Sir William Clinton conveyed to William Repington the reversion of a messuage and land in Great and Little Amington, formerly in the occupation of Adam Seynclere, of which ⅓ was then held by the said William Repington and Alice his wife for her life, and ²/3 were held by Elizabeth de Clinton (Sir William's mother) for her life. (fn. 11) In 1468 William Repington recovered what was apparently the same property against John Harecourt and Margaret his wife, one heir of John Broun of Lichfield, and Richard Ruggeley, the other heir. (fn. 12) A William Repington died in 1511 seised of these tenements and was succeeded by his grandson William, (fn. 13) who in 1533 settled a messuage in Amington on his son Francis and his wife Maud daughter of Richard Cotton. (fn. 14) Five years later Edward, Lord Clinton, sold to Francis Repington other lands here. (fn. 15) Francis died in 1550, leaving a son Thomas, aged 16. (fn. 16) In this family the estate descended, the manor of Amington being held by Sir John Repington, who died in 1660 and was succeeded by his son Sebright. (fn. 17) His great-grandson Charles Edward Repington died in 1837 and left Amington to his cousin Edward Henry à Court. (fn. 18) After the death of Lt.-Col. Charles A'Court Repington, whose Diaries were a notable feature of the literature of the war of 1914–18, in 1925 the manor passed to Mrs. Sydney Fisher.

STONYDELPH

STONYDELPH first occurs in 1203 as the name of an assart in Wilnecote granted by William de Ludinton to Roger Monk to hold by payment of 2s. on the feast of St. Edith. (fn. 19) Nicholas and Henry atte Stanidelf were among the smaller contributors to the subsidy of 1332 in Amington, (fn. 20) and in 1365 Henry de Stanydelf was allowed to have service held in his oratory within his mansion in Wilnecote. (fn. 21) He is said to have been son of Geoffrey, and left as co-heirs two daughters, Joan wife of Robert de Aston and Catherine wife of William de Redburne. (fn. 22) It is first called a manor in 1480 when Sir John Ferrers conveyed it to Sir Edward Grey, Lord Lisle, (fn. 23) who died in 1492 seised of the manor, worth 40s., held of John Brabazon (lord of one manor of Wilnecote) by service of 6d. yearly. (fn. 24) His son John, Viscount Lisle, died similarly seised in 1504, (fn. 25) and after the death of his daughter as a child the manor passed to his sister Elizabeth. She married first Edmund Dudley and afterwards Sir Arthur Plantagenet (fn. 26) (illegitimate son of Edward IV). After her death the manor passed to her son John Dudley, (fn. 27) afterwards Duke of Northumberland. After his attainder the manor seems to have remained in the hands of the Crown until 1629, when the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster was instructed to sell the manors of Drayton Bassett and Stony Delph to Henry, Earl Holland. (fn. 28) Next year, however, the two manors were actually sold to Humphrey Colles and William Wingfield. (fn. 29) The subsequent descent is obscure, but it seems to have been held from 1734 to 1764 by John Beardsley (fn. 30) and then to have come to seven co-heiresses, who sold the manor in 1777 to Josiah Marshall. (fn. 31) He may have been acting for Viscount Weymouth, who held the manor in 1787 (fn. 32) and, as Marquess of Bath, in 1790. (fn. 33) In 1800 Robert Pickard and Elizabeth his wife, and William Browne and Mary were dealing with ²/3 of the manor of Stony Delph alias Kingswood; (fn. 34) William Brown and Thomas Wakefield held it in 1810, and Thomas Farmer in 1837, (fn. 35) but nothing more is known of its history.

Kingswood was from early times part of the manor of King's Newton (q.v.), and when that manor was divided between the two co-heiresses of Geoffrey Savage lands here were assigned to each moiety. One moiety descended to Sir Richard Hartshill, who died in 1390 seised of the homage of John Brabazon for a tenement called Kyngeswode. (fn. 36) From the Hartshills it passed by marriage to the Cockaynes, and in 1566 the manor of KINGSWOOD was settled on Sir Thomas Cockayne and Dorothy his wife. (fn. 37) He died seised thereof in 1592, (fn. 38) as did his son Francis on Christmas Day 1594. (fn. 39) Sir Edward Cockayne, brother and heir of Francis, sold the manor, (fn. 40) presumably to Sir Edward Brabazon, who was dealing with it in 1608. (fn. 41) William Brabazon, Earl of Meath, held the manor in 1675, (fn. 42) after which it was apparently absorbed into Wilnecote.

The second moiety of King's Newton came to Sir Hugh de Meynill, who in 1318 settled it with a carucate of land in Kingswood on himself for life, with remainder to his illegitimate son Hugh. (fn. 43) Accordingly the younger Hugh inherited on the death of his father in 1333, (fn. 44) and in 1350 he had a charter of free warren at Kingswood. (fn. 45) His son Sir Richard in 1365 sold the messuage called 'Wardeberne' and its appurtenances in Kingswood to Henry de Stanidelf and Maud his wife and the heirs of the body of Henry. The latter died shortly after this and his trustees conveyed the life interest in 1368 to Maud and her then husband John Charnells. (fn. 46) She died in 1390 and Wardbarn, held of the king by knight service as of the manor of King's Newton, reverted to the daughters of Henry de Stanidelf—Joan wife of Robert Aston, and Katherine wife of William de Redburn. (fn. 47) It seems probable that they left no issue and that the estate reverted to the Meynill representatives, as in 1460 a settlement of the manor of WARDBARNES was made by Thomas Dethick of Newhall (Derb.), (fn. 48) who was descended from Margaret granddaughter and one of the co-heirs of Sir Richard Meynill. (fn. 49) The manor is next met with in 1579, when Thomas Waring and Elizabeth conveyed it to George Bromley. (fn. 50) It subsequently came to George Corbin, who settled it on his son Thomas when he married Winifred daughter of Gawen Grosvenor (c. 1618). (fn. 51) Thomas died in 1637 seised of the manor of WARDBARNES alias CALLICE, leaving a son Thomas, (fn. 52) but the later history of the manor is unknown.