Whatcote

The Domesday Book records that in 1086 Hugh de Grandmesnil, one of William the Conqueror's military commanders, owned the manor of Whatcote.[4] In the latter half of the 14th century Thomas Stafford, 3rd Earl of Stafford acquired the manor.[4] It remained with the Stafford family until 1520 when Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham conveyed the manor to Sir William Compton.[4] It remained with the Compton family, the Earls of Northampton until early in the 19th century, but by 1826 it had been acquired by Sir Adolphus Dalrymple, 2nd Baronet.[4] By 1865 Sir Adolphus had sold it to the Peach family, who in turn sold it to Thomas Parker, 6th Earl of Macclesfield.[4]

The Church of England parish church of St. Peter was built in the first half of the 12th century.[4] The nave survives from this period, with a Norman doorway and two Norman windows in the north wall.[5] The tower and several windows in the south wall were added late in the 13th century and the chancel was rebuilt in about 1300.[5] One of the windows in the south wall of the chancel is a 14th-century addition.[4] The south porch, and the parapet and two of the bell-chamber windows of the tower, are 15th century additions.[4] In the 16th or 17th century a buttress was added to shore up part of the north wall.[4] A German bomb badly damaged the nave and porch in 1941 and the building was restored in 1947.[4]

The church tower has three bells. The tenor had been cast in 1652[6] but was recast by Henry Bond of Burford,[7] Oxfordshire in 1897.[8] John Clark of Evesham[7] cast the second bell in 1711.[8] The treble bell was cast in 1766[6] but was recast by William Blews & Sons of Birmingham[7] in 1878.[8]

In the churchyard are the base and shaft of a mediaeval cross, from which the top has been lost and replaced with a 17th or early 18th century sundial.[5] St. Peter's is now part of a single benefice with the neighbouring parishes of Oxhill and Tysoe.[9]

Whatcote has a public house, the Royal Oak, Owned by Henry Jervis of Tysoe.[10]

• Edwards, Tudor (1950). Warwickshire. London: P. Elek. p. 50.
• Pevsner, Nikolaus; Alexandra, Wedgwood (1966). Warwickshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 470.
• Salzman, Louis F., ed. (1949). A History of the County of Warwick, Volume 5: Kington Hundred. Victoria County History. pp. 202–205.

Media related to Whatcote at Wikimedia Commons