Parishes: Shotteswell

SHOTTESWELL

Acreage: 1,305.

Population: 1911, 198; 1921, 198; 1931, 203.

Shotteswell is a small parish, forming a peninsula on the south-eastern extremity of the county, almost surrounded by Oxfordshire. It occupies part of a range of heights rising gradually from south to north to 600 ft., at the point where the road from Banbury to Warwick leaves the parish; and extensive and beautiful views are obtainable in all directions. The Avon, a tributary of the Cherwell, separates the parish from Oxfordshire on the east, as does another small tributary on the west, the northern boundary being formed by a still smaller stream. In the middle of the 19th century, when the population was almost double its present size, it was described as 'a poor and very unimportant village and parish', and the approach to the church was termed 'very bad'. (fn. 1) It is now, however, a pleasant rural community, consisting of cottages and farms clustered round the church, and forming steep and narrow lanes. The buildings are mostly of the local dark-brown sandstone, and the majority are thatched, the remainder being tiled or slated. The Manor House and some of the other larger houses have mullioned windows of the 17th century. The Flying Fox Inn is of the local stone, built around a courtyard. There are remains of a village green. The soil is red clay over a stratum of rock, and the land is principally pastoral. (fn. 2)

The main road from Banbury to Warwick passes through the parish to the west of the village, and a secondary road branches from it through the village north-eastwards to join that from Warmington to Mollington, Oxon.

A mill is mentioned here in 1291, (fn. 3) and two in 1616, (fn. 4) but none now remains. Free fishery in the Avon is mentioned in 1576 (fn. 5) and 1667. (fn. 6)

The parish was inclosed under an Act of 1793, (fn. 7) and a copy of the award is preserved at the County Muniment Room, Warwick. A small portion was allotted to the Maidens' Dole, the origin of which is lost; about an acre was reserved in lieu of the right to cut furze, as were public stone and gravel pits. 'Old enclosures' are mentioned in the award.

Manor

SHOTTESWELL is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey and was presumably then included in Warmington, (fn. 8) of which it was still termed a hamlet in 1316. (fn. 9) The overlordship was in the hands of the Earl of Warwick in the second quarter of the 12th century (fn. 10) and so continued, being last mentioned in 1438. (fn. 11)

Shotteswell, which may have been the 2 hides of Warmington (q.v.) held in 1086 by an unnamed knight, (fn. 12) seems to have been given in about 1100 by Ralph son of Helebold to Richard father of the Ralf de St. Sanson who gave the tithes thereof to the Abbey of Préaux, which gift was confirmed by Roger, Earl of Warwick (1123–53). (fn. 13) One of the earls of Warwick is said to have granted the fee to a member of the family of Dyve, who enfeoffed an ancestor of the FitzWyth (filius Widonis) family, (fn. 14) in whose line a mesne lordship descended. Wydo, or Guy, son of Robert, (fn. 15) held 1¼ knight's fee here in 1235 and 1242, (fn. 16) and his son John held it in 1268 (fn. 17) and in 1279 held of John Dyve ¼ fee and had 1 carucate in demesne and 2 servile tenants. (fn. 18) John FitzWyth was living in 1301, (fn. 19) but had been succeeded by his son Robert by 1309. (fn. 20) Robert held 1¼ fees here of Guy, Earl of Warwick, in 1316 (fn. 21) but evidently died in that year, when his widow Elizabeth is mentioned. (fn. 22) Late in 1316 Robert's son Guy also died, leaving a widow Joan and an infant daughter Elizabeth, who was in ward to Henry Dyve. (fn. 23) The Shotteswell fee passed to John FitzWyth (apparently Robert's nephew), who held it in 1326, (fn. 24) and in 1352 Robert FitzWyth conveyed it to his nephew Robert. (fn. 25) The latter's widow Joan (his second wife) married William Tyrington and conveyed her life interest in the estate to John Catesby. (fn. 26) Robert's daughter (by his first wife, Agnes Catesby) Joan married Sir John Beauchamp of Holt, and after her death, when Sir John was executed in 1389, the estate passed to their son John, then aged 9. (fn. 27) In 1400 Sir John Beauchamp and Sir Baldwin Bereford (see below) were holding the 1¼ fees in Shotteswell. (fn. 28) Sir John died in 1420, leaving an only daughter Margaret, wife of John Pauncefoot, who married as her second husband John Wisham, (fn. 29) and they settled the manor, held for life by Sir John's widow Alice, in 1423. (fn. 30) Margaret left three daughters coheirs: Alice married John Guise; Joan married John Croft; and Elizabeth married Thomas Croft and died childless about 1500. (fn. 31) In 1472 Thomas Croft and Elizabeth, his wife, held ⅓ of the manor; (fn. 32) and John Croft and his wife Joan held ⅓ of the manor in 1499, (fn. 33) and ½ in 1501. (fn. 34) In 1514 he sold his moiety of the manor to Simon Rice, citizen merchant of London. (fn. 35) Lettice, widow of Simon, held lands here in 1533, (fn. 36) after which no subsequent history of this estate has been traced.

The FitzWyths had only retained in demesne so much of the manor as represented ¼ fee; the other whole knight's fee was held of them by the family of Wandard. (fn. 37) When Ralf de St. Sanson, c. 1130, gave tithes in Shotteswell to the Abbey of Préaux he included those from 1 hide which Roger Wandard held in demesne. (fn. 38) William Wandard held land in Warwickshire in 1169 (fn. 39) and his son Sir Robert held a free tenement in Shotteswell in 1200, (fn. 40) when he was sued for land here by Nichole wife of John de Winchecumbe (and apparently widow of Robert's grandfather). (fn. 41) He seems to have died between 1221 (fn. 42) and 1233, when one Thomas son of Denis with Beatrice his wife claimed a knight's fee in Shotteswell against Robert Wandard and Isabel his mother (fn. 43) (presumably widow of Sir Robert). This Robert held a knight's fee here from Guy son of Robert under the Earl of Warwick in 1235 and 1242. (fn. 44) In 1262 a Robert Wandard agreed to do suit to John FitzWyth's court of Shotteswell twice yearly, (fn. 45) and he is said to have held ½ fee of John FitzWyth in 1279. (fn. 46) This Sir Robert presented his son Robert to the rectory of Shotteswell in 1287 (fn. 47) and in 1300 settled land in the parish on himself for life with remainder to his son Thomas. (fn. 48) In 1319 Thomas sold the manor to William de Bereford, (fn. 49) who died in 1326 seised thereof, (fn. 50) leaving a son Sir Edmund, who had a grant of free warren in his lands here in 1335. (fn. 51) He died in 1354, (fn. 52) having settled the manor on his illegitimate son Sir John in tail, with contingent remainder to John's brother Baldwin. (fn. 53) Sir John died without issue in 1356 and Baldwin succeeded, (fn. 54) who in 1400, with Sir John Beauchamp, his overlord, jointly held 1¼ fees here. (fn. 55) Elizabeth, widow of Sir Baldwin, held the manor for life after his death. (fn. 56) Her daughter Maud, wife of John Barough, inherited under a settlement made in 1400, with remainder in default of issue to Philip Sinclair, (fn. 57) grandson of Sir Edmund's sister Margaret. (fn. 58) Maud appears to have died childless shortly after her mother, and Philip was also dead at the time of Elizabeth's decease, so the manor passed to Philip's son Thomas Sinclair, who held it in 1425, when he granted it to trustees, among them John Aston of Somerton, Oxon., who subsequently held it. (fn. 59) On his death in 1435 Thomas Sinclair left three young daughters, Elizabeth, Eleanor, and Edith: but it was stated that he had settled this manor, and that of Bickmarsh, on trustees in order to defraud the king of the custody and marriage of his heirs. (fn. 60) John Aston sold the manor in 1436, either as a trustee or as owner, to James le Botiler, Earl of Ormonde. (fn. 61) The latter's son and heir, also named James, was created Earl of Wiltshire on 8 July 1449; but on 1 May 1461, after the Battle of Towton, he was beheaded at Newcastle-uponTyne as a Lancastrian, and his estates escheated to the Crown. (fn. 62) On 16 September of the following year his manor of Shotteswell was granted to Richard Harecourt and Edith his wife (youngest daughter and coheir of Thomas Sinclair) (fn. 63) for his good services to King Edward IV and his father Richard, Duke of York. (fn. 64) This grant was evidently annulled when the Botilers were restored in blood and John succeeded his brother James as Earl of Ormonde. He died unmarried in 1478 and was succeeded by his brother Thomas, (fn. 65) who died in 1515. (fn. 66) After his death the manor was conveyed to Richard Farmer, merchant of the Staple of Calais, and other trustees by Margaret, widow of Sir William Boleyn, daughter and coheir of Thomas, Earl of Ormonde, and by her son Sir Thomas Boleyn, afterwards Earl of Wiltshire. (fn. 67) In 1537 Richard Farmer and Anne his wife sold it for £400 to Sir Thomas Pope, Treasurer of the Court of Augmentations, and Margaret his wife. (fn. 68) In 1555 Shotteswell was named among the many manors which he had licence to grant for the endowment of Trinity College, Oxford, and Jesus School, Hook Norton, Oxon. (fn. 69) It was not, however, so used, and Sir Thomas died seised of the manor on 29 January 1559, (fn. 70) and left it in tail male to Edmund Hochens, or Hutchins, son of his sister Margaret. (fn. 71) As Edmund left no male heir when he died in 1602, (fn. 72) the manor evidently reverted to Sir Thomas's heir, his brother John. The latter died on 22 June 1582, leaving as heir his only son William, aged eleven. (fn. 73) William was created a baronet in 1611, and Earl of Downe on 16 October 1628; he died on 2 June 1631, leaving as heir his grandson Thomas, aged eight, who became the second earl. He lived until 1660, but his uncle Sir Thomas and Beata his wife held the manor in 1655, (fn. 74) and the former died on 11 January 1667. His son and heir, a third Thomas, died unmarried on 18 May 1668, and the title became extinct, while his four sisters, Anne wife of Sir Bryan Broughton, Beata wife of Sir William Soames, Frances wife of Sir Francis North, and Finetta wife of Robert Hyde, succeeded to his estates. (fn. 75) By means of a series of fines, (fn. 76) the Norths, later Earls of Guilford, gained possession of the entire manor; and it remained in their hands (fn. 77) until the death of George Augustus without male issue in 1802. His brother Francis, who succeeded to the earldom, held the manor in 1812, (fn. 78) apparently as trustee for the three daughters of George Augustus, Maria, Susan, and Georgina, who held it in 1827. (fn. 79) Col. John Sidney Doyle, who married the Hon. Susan North, in 1838 assumed her surname, (fn. 80) and became lord of the manor of Shotteswell; (fn. 81) in 1841, on the death of her sister, his wife became Baroness North. (fn. 82) He died in 1894, and was succeeded by his son William Henry John, Lord North. (fn. 83) In September 1923 the latter sold the manor to John Rutherford. (fn. 84) The last-named sold it in September 1937 to its present owner, B. J. Daunt of County Cork. (fn. 85)

In 1576 Edward Greville bought lands here, termed a manor (perhaps representing the moiety sold by John Croft to Simon Rice in 1514), (fn. 86) from John Edes and Margaret his wife. (fn. 87) He sold them in 1601 to Crescent Buttery, whose daughter Mary married Greville's son Francis: (fn. 88) on this occasion the property is termed the manor of SHOTTESWELL BURY. (fn. 89) In 1689 it was sold by John Wyatt and Katherine his wife to Robert North and William James. (fn. 90) In 1728 it was held with Shotteswell manor by the Earl of Guilford, (fn. 91) and it has not since been separated. In the title-deeds, however, it is still mentioned along with Shotteswell. (fn. 92)

The Gilbertine Priory of Clattercote, Oxon., held 7 yardlands in this parish in 1279. (fn. 93) After the Dissolution, on 14 December 1538, they were granted to William Peter, LL.D., and Gertrude his wife; after Gertrude's death the grant was renewed, on 29 May 1544, to William alone. (fn. 94) No more is known of this property. The canons of Studley in 1279 held a carucate and 6 cottages, (fn. 95) granted c. 1187 by William de Cantelupe, who had received them from Eustace de Morteyne and John Wandard. (fn. 96) Their property was worth £2 16s. annually in 1291, and included a mill assessed at 10s. (fn. 97) In 1535 the value had increased to £4. (fn. 98) On 9 March 1540 all the property of Studley Priory in this parish was granted to Sir Thomas Pope, with the reservation of certain rents, which also were granted to him on 16 March 1545. (fn. 99) Thus the property was annexed to the manor of Shotteswell.

Church

The parish church of ST. LAWRENCE consists of a chancel, nave, north aisle with a small sacristy east of it, and a north porch, south aisle, and west tower with a spire.

Presumably an early small church existed before the addition of a north aisle with the existing arcade of mid-12th-century date. The chancel arch is an early13th-century feature and its narrow span—about 6 ft.—suggests that the original small chancel may have been retained. A south aisle with the existing arcade was added late in the 13th century and the west tower at about the same time.

The chancel was enlarged early in the 14th century and the aisles were rebuilt. The fitting up of a chapel in the east half of the north aisle seems to have been a late-14th-century conception, as was the little chamber, entered by a doorway from the east end of the aisle, for a priest's chamber or sacristy; the altar in the aisle probably stood free (against a reredos-screen) so as to allow of access behind it to the small chamber. The same idea was carried out at a later period at Bickenhill Church. Both the clearstory of the nave and the north porch are also late-14th-century additions. The spire is probably a 15th-century addition. No literally structural alterations have been made since then but there have been minor alterations and repairs. There was a restoration of the fabric in 1875 and the spire was repaired in 1935.

The chancel (about 27 ft. by 15 ft.) has a modern east window of three lights with plain pointed heads and intersecting tracery. The window in the east half of the north wall is of two trefoiled pointed lights and tracery in a square head with a label: only the middle part of the tracery is pierced: the jambs are of two chamfered orders and their courses do not align with those of the walling, showing it was a late-14th-century insertion. The obtuse splays are of squared rubble and the chamfered rear-arch is segmental-pointed. Another, earlier, window in the west half is indicated by a straight joint in the south wall of the sacristy, marking its west jamb. It starts from about 3ft. above the floor (about the same height as the low-side in the south wall) and is 6 ft. high.

The two windows in the south wall occupy the same relative positions. The eastern is like that opposite, with small piercings cut through the middle of the tracery, and breaks joint with the walling. The western is probably of earlier 14th-century date and is of two trefoiled pointed lights under a square head without a label. The jambs are of a single chamfered order and course with the walling. The original ledge was only 2½ ft. above the floor and the lowest 3 ft. was rebated to serve as a low-side window, which has since been walled up to a height of 1 ft. 5 in. above the ledge. It has a chamfered segmental rear-arch. East of the first window is a 14th-century piscina with a trefoiled ogee head and an irregular-shaped basin only 14 in. above the floor, which shows that the floor has been raised.

The walls are of coursed yellow ashlar. The east wall has a plinth of two splayed courses, the upper projecting, and a low-pitched gable with a restored coping, &c., and a modern shield in the face of the wall at the apex. At the angles the diagonal buttresses course with the walling. Only the lower chamfered course of the plinth is continued along the side walls and it steps up westwards from about 5 ft. west of the buttresses. The moulded eaves-courses and two courses of masonry below them are modern, as is the roof, of three bays with 'Gothic' trusses and covered with lead.

The early-13th-century narrow chancel arch has responds and a two-centred head of two chamfered orders with medium-small voussoirs and a plain chamfered hood-mould. At the springing level are moulded abaci to both orders.

The chancel floor is level with the nave floor under the archway; it may have been originally a step lower, judging from the low sill of the piscina.

The nave (about 40 ft. by 15 ft.) has a mid-12th-century north arcade of three 12 ft. bays. The pillars are cylindrical but the responds are only a segment of a circle, like those at Tysoe and Butlers Marston. They have square capitals, heavily browed like those at Warmington, scalloped on the underside, and with grooved and hollow-chamfered abaci and chamfered or moulded bases on square sub-bases. They are low—only 6½ ft. from floor to top of abacus. The arches are semicircular, of square section with small voussoirs. The hoodmoulds are grooved and hollow-chamfered. At the south edge of the east respond is the stone stump of a former screen wall, the masonry not coursing with that of the 12th-century work: this probably is the relic of a former stone screen that turned at right angles to cross the east part of the aisle to cut off the space behind the altar of a chantry-chapel in order to provide access to the doorway into the sacristy. The 12th-century hood-mould at this respond has been provided with a later stop carved as a king's head with a crown, long hair and short beard, evidently part of the 14thcentury work in connexion with the former screen. The carved stop at the west respond is also of the same period: this is a man's head wearing a close coif. A plastered splay in the upper part of the north-east angle was probably connected with the upper doorway of a rood-stair.

The south arcade of three 13½ ft. bays also has cylindrical pillars and half-round responds with moulded capitals of late-13th-century forms: that of the east respond has nail-head ornament. The abacus of the western of the two pillars is chamfered, the others being moulded, and this pillar also has a chamfered base, the others being moulded in two or three rounds. The pointed arches are of two chamfered orders with medium-sized voussoirs and chamfered hood-moulds on both faces. The arches are struck from centres well below the springers: all of a light yellow stone.

The clearstory has three windows on each side, each of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights with tracery under a square head with moulded labels. The internal splays are of rubble with angle dressings and have chamfered lintels. The windows are of the late 14th century in yellow stone but largely restored in grey stone. The clearstory walls are of fine-jointed yellow ashlar and have hollow-chamfered eaves-courses. The low-pitched roof is modern, divided by trusses into four bays, and covered with lead.

The priest's chamber or sacristy (9 ft. 6 in. east to west by 7 ft. 9 in.) north of the chancel is entered by a late-14th-century doorway in the east wall of the north aisle: it has sunk-chamfered jambs and an ogee head and hood-mould with a foliage finial at the apex. The chamfered segmental rear-arch is towards the chamber. In the east wall of the chamber is a small trefoiled round-headed single light. In the north wall is a small loop-light only 2 in. wide. Beside the straight joint of a former chancel window in the south wall there is a recess, 5½ ft. high, now used as a cupboard, but perhaps originally a doorway or watching-hole into the chancel. The walls of the chamber are of fine-jointed yellow ashlar, in larger courses than those of the chancel, with large angle dressings, and have a plinth like the east wall of the chancel. The north masonry is bonded into that of the north aisle wall, and it has a chamfered eaves-course. The top of the east wall is of later work and has a rough parapet sloping up with the roof. In front of the east window and partly within its recess is a stone altar slab, 6½ in. thick, with five incised crosses: it is supported on modern stone corbels and may have been the 14th-century altar from the north aisle reset here.

The north aisle (7½ ft. wide) has three north windows. The easternmost is of two trefoiled ellipticalheaded lights and leaf tracery in a segmental-pointed head, with an external hood-mould with defaced headstops of the 14th century. The second is of two trefoiled round-headed lights and tracery in a square head with an external label with head-stops. The jambs of both are of two orders, the outer sunk-chamfered like that of the east doorway, and are in very large stones that do not course with the walling. Both are probably late-14th-century insertions but crudely restored in the 17th or 18th century with grey stone. The mullion of the second window has a crocket-finial carved at the top inside, and its flat inner lintel is of shaped voussoirs.

The third window is a narrower one of two trefoiled lights under a square head with a label: it is of the early 14th century and its courses align with those of the walling, but its head was completely restored with the grey stone. The jambs are of one chamfered order. The north doorway has jambs and two-centred head of two ovolo-moulded orders and a plain hood-mould that has good typical 14th-century head-stops, a man's with long hair bound by a fillet and a woman's with veil and wimple. The walls are of yellow ashlar and have no plinths. The chamfered eaves-course is like that of the sacristy. In the south wall east of the arcade is a plastered recess with a three-centred head, probably the doorway to a former rood-stair.

There is a stone bench against the west wall, also on the north wall between the north-east window and the doorway: a little east of the latter it is met by another bench that crosses the aisle, a little askew, to meet the first pillar of the arcade and has a gap in the middle for entrance to the chantry-chapel which it served. On it is an oak screen, described below. The roof, a low lean-to, is probably of the 17th century: it is divided into four bays by principal chamfered cross beams and has chamfered wall-plates and middle purlin and ancient wide common rafters. It is covered with lead.

The north porch, probably of the late 14th century, has a pointed entrance of two chamfered orders dying on single-splayed jambs: the north wall has a lowpitched gable. At the angles are very low square buttresses. The masonry is like that of the aisle, but the courses do not align and there is a chamfered plinth. Inside are stone benches.

The south aisle (7½ ft. wide) has a 14th-century east window of two trefoiled pointed lights and leaf tracery in a two-centred head with a hood-mould and chamfered segmental-pointed rear-arch. The jambs are of one chamfered order and the internal splays, of rough ashlar, are very wide. The window ledge has a projecting moulding. The window in the east half of the south wall is a large one of three trefoiled pointed lights under a square head that has blank panels instead of tracery, and a moulded label; the jambs are of two chamfered orders and the mullions are exceptionally broad, 7½ in. It is probably a late-15th-century enlargement of an earlier window. The window ledge projects like that of the east window and the flat internal lintel is in three voussoirs. The window in the west half is of two plain pointed lights and a plain piercing in a two-centred head with a hood-mould; the jambs are of two chamfered orders. The small mullion is poor work of the 18th century. The south doorway has plain splayed jambs on which dies the moulded two-centred head, which has a hood-mould cut from the solid with square block-stops. It is probably of c. 1400 and has a segmental-pointed rear-arch. In the east reveal is a socket and a 2 ft. 6 in. wood bar that extends partly across to secure the door.

Near the east end is a 14th-century piscina with a trefoiled ogee head and a round bowl. The walls are of ashlar like those of the north aisle. There is also a stone bench against the west wall. The roof is like the north aisle roof but apparently all restored.

The west tower (9½ ft. square) is of two stages divided by a plain chamfered string-course and has a plinth with a projecting splayed top course. The walls are of yellow ashlar: at the west angles are square buttresses projecting north and south up to the dividing string-course. The parapet is plain and has the stumps of former pinnacles. At the south-east is a projecting square stair-turret rising to 4 or 5 ft. below the parapet, where it has a leaded roof. The interior of the tower is faced with rubble-work: the vice is entered by a pointed doorway in the south wall and is lighted by south loops.

The archway from the nave is two-centred and of two chamfered orders, the outer dying on the singlechamfered responds and the inner carried on tapering corbels. The northern is plain and at the point has a corbel with the head of a priest with roll-curled sidehair. The southern, less pointed, has a moulded top edge and a head—possibly feminine—in a cowl or hood, probably of the late 13th century. In the west wall is a modern pointed doorway and above it a lancet window with a hood-mould with mask-stops: the splayed reveals and segmental rear-arch are of rough ashlar. The east, north, and west faces of the bellchamber have windows of two lancet lights set below an arched hood-mould. The tympanum of the west window has a blank circular panel in place of tracery; the others have plain tympana.

Above the tower is an octagonal stone spire of c. 1400, open to the bell-chamber and lighted in the four cardinal faces by trefoiled lancets beneath gables, and there is an ogee-headed doorway, beneath a gable, behind the parapet in the east face. The apex has been restored.

In the tracery of the east window of the south aisle and the two eastern in the north aisle are some tiny fragments of 14th-century coloured glass, quarries with line foliage, &c.

The reredos in the chancel is made up from a collection of Flemish wood carvings of various periods of the 17th century: some of it is secular work, including six nude figures of musicians with pipes, tabour, lute, &c., two terminal figures of half-nude women, the lower parts having lions' or grotesque masks, a terminal figure of a man, and two twisted half-balusters surmounted by lions' masks. There are six carved panels of biblical subjects, chiefly connected with the Incarnation. They are: (1) Adam and Eve at the Fall; (2) Annunciation; (3) Nativity; (4) Worship of the Magi; (5) Circumcision; (6) Resurrection. Other panels have allegorical figures, two named Justice and Fortitude; a third, unnamed, of Hope with a palm and anchor, and another of a seated woman writing on a tablet with a greyhound by her side. In the middle is a triple-crowned head of the Almighty.

The communion rail has twisted balusters, &c., of the 18th century.

At the east end of the south aisle is an early-17thcentury communion table with turned legs and fluted top rails. Other carvings from the same collection have been applied to the table, including a panel with a figure of Justice. The wall at this end has two image brackets of the 14th century, one with a ball-flower carved in the moulding.

The font has a deep round bowl (now cracked) supported on a small short stem and four shafts, two of them of a round reel shape and perhaps of the 11th or 12th century; the other two are later, they are square with stopped chamfers to their outer edges.

The pulpit in the north-east angle of the nave has sides in six panels of 15th-century tracery forming an irregular five-sided polygon in plan. Of these the narrowest three are indigenous, and the wider outside bays are adapted from a screen. The narrow panels have elaborate tracery with rosette cusp-points: they are divided at the angles by buttresses with moulded offsets and have an enriched top rail, partly restored. The other bays have simpler tracery and modern top rail.

The screen across the north aisle just east of the doorway is placed a little askew in order to avoid the second north window splay, and to meet the first pillar of the arcade; it stands on the stone bench. It is of six bays, three on each side of a middle doorway, and has 14th-century trefoiled tracery. The turned balusters between the open bays and the closed lower panels are modern, also the top-rail, &c. A modern screen of similar design closes the first bay of the arcade.

In the north aisle is an oak chest of hutch type with extended styles to raise the floor. It is 3 ft. 6 in. long, 1 ft. 9½ in. high (below the lid) and 1 ft. 6 in. wide, and is of late-13th-century origin. On the front are the remains of contemporary ironwork, three straps rising from the bottom and having damaged foliated ends with rosette discs and tendrils, also two other fragments reset casually. The lid, although ancient and hung with strap-hinges, is probably later. On the front are two iron plate-locks, one modern.

Some of the benches in the nave are of early-16th-century panelled woodwork. Other seats in the nave and chancel are made up with the same 15th-century tracery as was adapted in the pulpit. The chancel seats have backs of 18th-century fielded panels.

In the ground floor of the tower (temporarily disused) are the works of a clock with a late-17th-century iron skeleton frame retaining three out of four original spurs above the standards with their disc or rosette ends. It operates for striking purposes only, having no dials, and has two wooden drums for the weight-ropes.

There are five bells: (fn. 100) the treble of 1808; second 1674; the third 1774 by Matthew Bagley, as was the 4th, recast in 1888; and the tenor, dated 1625, by Hugh Watts.

The plate includes a cup of 1657.

The registers date from 1564.

Advowson

When Henry de Newburgh, Earl of Warwick, gave the vill of Warmington to the Abbey of Préaux, his gift included the advowson of that church. (fn. 102) The question of whether this included the church of Shotteswell led Sir Robert Wandard in 1221 to bring an action against the abbot, claiming the right of presentation. (fn. 103) Abbot Thomas acknowledged his right to the advowson, and in return Sir Robert agreed that all rectors of Shotteswell in future should pay 10s. yearly to the church of Warmington. (fn. 104) The advowson then descended with the manor until 1348 when Edmund de Bereford granted the church to the Abbey of Lavendon (Bucks.), (fn. 105) to which it was appropriated in 1381 by Archbishop Simon Sudbury, a vicarage being then ordained. (fn. 106)

The benefice was valued at £5 6s. 8d. in 1291; (fn. 107) by 1535 the rectory was worth £6 and the vicarage £5 13s. 4d. (fn. 108)

After the Dissolution the advowson was granted with the manor to Sir Thomas Pope (fn. 109) and descended with it until some time after 1904. (fn. 110) By 1912 it had passed to the Earl of Harrowby, (fn. 111) from whom it was purchased by John Rutherford, esq., in 1923, and sold to B. J. Daunt, esq., in 1937. (fn. 112) The living was held with Warmington in 1926, (fn. 113) and in the following year reunited, after the passage of some centuries, to that parish. (fn. 114) It is in the gift of Hulme's Trustees two turns, and the lord of Shotteswell manor one turn. (fn. 115)

The rectory was retained by the Crown until 1579, when Queen Elizabeth leased it for 21 years to Francis Staverton. (fn. 116) On the expiry of the lease, it was sold to Henry Best and Robert Holland. (fn. 117) These sold it in 1604 to Thomas Cox of Hunningham and Susan his wife; (fn. 118) who in turn sold it, with all tithes of corn, grain, and hay, to Thomas Wagstaff, gentleman. (fn. 119) Thomas was succeeded by Timothy, and the latter in 1641 by his son, another Thomas. (fn. 120) It passed to William Combe and Anne Mary his wife, who sold it in 1667 to James Prescott and John Yardley. (fn. 121) It appears since to have been united with the manor and advowson, for in 1793 the Earl of Guilford held most of the tithes. (fn. 122)

Charities

The Rev. William Harrison by will dated 9 Aug. 1786 gave £20 to the vicar, the interest to be distributed amongst the poor of the parish.

Maidens' Dole. Upon the inclosure of the common lands in the parish in 1794 an allotment of 1 a. 1 r. 7 p. was awarded for the use and benefit of the persons entitled to a certain plot of land called the Maidens' Dole and in compensation for the same.

Poor's Lot. A further allotment of 3 r. 13 p. was at the same time awarded to the lord of the manor, vicar, churchwardens, and overseers for the use of the poor inhabitants of the parish.

The above-mentioned charities are regulated by a Scheme of the Charity Commissioners dated 5 June 1936. The scheme appoints trustees and directs the income of Harrison's Charity and the Maidens' Dole to be applied in making payments under various heads for the benefit of poor persons resident in the parish, and the income of the Poor's Lot to be applied in the provision of fuel for poor inhabitants. The land is let at an annual rent.