The leaning tower of Barcheston - geograph

Barcheston is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Stratford-on-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-west of ...

district of

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The village is on the east bank of the River Stour, opposite

Shipston-on-Stour Shipston-on-Stour is a town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District in southern Warwickshire, England. It is located on the banks of the River Stour, Warwickshire, River Stour, points of the compass, south-southeast of Stratford-up ...

. It shares a parish council with Willington. The

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

, administered at its lowest level by the Barcheston and Willington

Parish Meeting A parish meeting is a meeting all the electors in a civil parish in England are entitled to attend. In some cases, where a parish or group of parishes has fewer than 200 electors, the parish meeting can take on the role of a parish council, with ...

, is in the Ettington ward of the district council. According to the 2001 Census the parishes population was 134, increasing to 141 at the 2011 Census. Ralph Ardern inherited the manor of Barcheston between 1382 (the death of his father,

Henry de Ardern Henry de Ardern, or Henry Ardern, was a Member of Parliament for Warwickshire in 1377 and again in 1380, and for Worcestershire from November 1381. In 1373 Henry bought Park Hall, near Castle Bromwich, from Sir John Botetourt.Driver, J. T. ''W ...

) and 1408 (the death of his mother). Whether or not he was ever resident is unknown. The first English

tapestry Tapestry is a form of Textile arts, textile art which was traditionally Weaving, woven by hand on a loom. Normally it is used to create images rather than patterns. Tapestry is relatively fragile, and difficult to make, so most historical piece ...

factory was the Sheldon

loom A loom is a device used to weaving, weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the Warp (weaving), warp threads under tension (mechanics), tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of ...

s, established here in

by William Sheldon about the middle of the 16th century. The

Sheldon tapestries Sheldon tapestries were produced at Britain's first large tapestry works in Barcheston, Warwickshire, England, established by the Sheldon family. A group of 121 tapestries dateable to the late 16th century were produced. Much the most famous ar ...

produced here compare well with the finest contemporary

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

weavings. Some of these consisted of large tapestry maps of English counties. An outline of Barcheston's history can be found in the

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History (VCH), is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of Englan ...

, Warwickshire.Victoria County History, Warwickshire vol 5 (1949) on-line, pp. 5-9 Accessed 2 March 2013
/ref>

References

External links

* * Villages in Warwickshire Civil parishes in Warwickshire Stratford-on-Avon District {{Warwickshire-geo-stub

See also

References

External links