Wixford is a
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
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 District
Stratford-on-Avon is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Warwickshire, England. The district is named after its largest town of Stratford-upon-Avon, but with a change of preposition; the town uses "upon" and the 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, situated south of
Alcester
Alcester ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England. It is west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 7 miles south of Redditch. The town dates back to the times of Roman ...
. The population at the
2011 census was 155. The area is largely agricultural with no large employers in the area, most residents commuting to larger towns nearby.
History
The name derives from a compound of the
Old English
Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
personal name Whitlac with the noun for a river crossing "
ford". The village is first mentioned when Ufa, a
Saxon
The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
Earl of Warwick
Earl of Warwick is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom which has been created four times in English history. The name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick.
Overview
The first creation came in 1088, and the title was held b ...
, gave the land at Wixford and his body to be buried to the
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...
of
Evesham Abbey
Evesham Abbey was founded by Saint Egwin at Evesham in Worcestershire, England between 700 and 710 following an alleged vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Virgin Mary by a swineherd by the name of Eof.
According to the monastic history, Evesh ...
in 974. However, Godwine, a powerful man who had purchased the inheritance of that
abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...
from
King Ethelred, granted it to Wulfgeat, son and heir to Ufa, for life, upon condition it was returned. Notwithstanding this agreement, Wulfgeat's heirs retained the land until the time of
King Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex.
Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeed ...
, when
Abbot Agelwyne purchased it from Wygod, a potent
baron
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...
and heir to Wulfgeat. Wulfgeat's heirs paid a valuable price and regained the land for the
monk
A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...
s. It is recorded in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
"In Ferncombe Hundred, Evesham Abbey holds 5
hides in Witelavesford. Land for 6 ploughs. In lordship 2; 3 male and 2 female slaves; 4 villagers and 6 smallholders with 2 ploughs. A mill at 10s and 20 sticks of eels; meadow, 24 acres; woodland 1 furlong long and 1/2 wide. Value before 1066, 40s; later 30s; now 50s. Wigot held this land before 1066."
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
is said to have joined a party of
Stratford folk which set itself to outdrink a drinking club at
Bidford-on-Avon
Bidford-on-Avon is a large village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the England, English county of Warwickshire, very close to the border with Worcestershire. In the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 census it had a population of 4 ...
, and as a result of his labours in that regard to have fallen asleep under the crab tree of which a descendant is still called Shakespeare's tree. When morning dawned, his friends wished to renew the encounter but he wisely said "No, I have drunk with "Piping
Pebworth
Pebworth is a village and civil parish in the county of Worcestershire, lying about 5 miles north-north-west of the town of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire. Until 1931, the parish – which includes the hamlet of Broad Marston – was itse ...
, Dancing
Marston, Haunted Hillboro', Hungry
Grafton, Dodging
Exhall
Exhall is a suburban village in the Nuneaton and Bedworth borough in Warwickshire, England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : It forms part of the Coventry and Bedworth urban area and is contiguous with the Coventry subur ...
, Papist Wixford, Beggarly
Broom
A broom (also known as a broomstick) is a cleaning tool, consisting of usually stiff fibers (often made of materials such as plastic, hair, or corn husks) attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. It is thus a ...
and Drunken Bidford" and so, presumably, I will drink no more. The story is said to date from the 17th century, but of its truth or of any connection of the story or the verse to Shakespeare there is no evidence.
[Highways and Byways in Shakspeares Country, Hutton 1914] The reasons for the village being described as papist remain unclear, but may be a reference to the
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
Throckmorton family. In 1541, the village passed to Sir
George Throckmorton
Sir George Throckmorton (c. 1480 – 6 August 1552) of Coughton Court in Warwickshire, England, was a Member of Parliament during the reign of King Henry VIII of England, Henry VIII.
Origins
Born before 1489 in Worcestershire, Throckmorton was ...
, in whose family it remained until 1919, when the estate was sold and the
manorial
Manorialism, also known as seigneurialism, the manor system or manorial system, was the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages. Its defining features included a large, ...
rights extinguished.
['Parishes: Wixford', A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 3: Barlichway hundred (1945), pp. 188–19]
Date accessed: 12 January 2011
/ref>
Notable buildings
The parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...
is dedicated to St. Milburga of Wenlock and was founded in the 12th century. The Domesday Book
Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
makes no mention of a priest at Wixford. The dedication of the church to the Saxon
The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
St. Milburg seems to be evidence of its antiquity, but not necessarily of a pre-Conquest
Conquest involves the annexation or control of another entity's territory through war or Coercion (international relations), coercion. Historically, conquests occurred frequently in the international system, and there were limited normative or ...
foundation, for the cult of St. Milburg was revived, after long neglect, by the translation of her relics at Wenlock Priory
Wenlock Priory, or St Milburga's Priory, is a ruined 12th-century monastery, located in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, at . Roger de Montgomery re-founded the Priory as a Cluniac house between 1079 and 1082, on the site of an earlier 7th-century m ...
in 1101. The church comprises a nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
under one roof, south chantry chapel
A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings:
# a chantry service, a set of Church service, Christian liturgical celebrations for the dead (made up of the Requiem Mass and the Office of the Dead), or
# a chantr ...
, south porch, and bell
A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...
turret. There is one ancient, uninscribed bell, and another by John Martin of Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engl ...
, dated. The bell was recast in 1937, retaining the old inscription. The church was restored in 1881 and the south porch and the western bell turret probably date from then.
There are two Norman doorways on the south having columns.[The Old Parish Churches of Warwickshire, Mike Salter, 1992 ] The southern chapel
A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...
, dedicated to St. John the Baptist
John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...
, was built early in the 15th century by Thomas de Cruwe, who was legal advisor to Margaret Beauchamp. In the south chapel is the fine table tomb to Thomas de Cruwe and his wife, Juliana (1400–11), with fine canopied brasses.[Old Warwickshire Churches, W Hobart Bird 1936] The church is approached by a churchyard
In Christian countries, a churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church (building), church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster S ...
shaded by an old yew. In 1660, six parishioners accused the rector of wishing to cut down a yew tree
Yew is a common name given to various species of trees.
It is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Taxus'':
* European yew or common yew (''Taxus baccata'')
* Pacific yew or western yew ('' Taxus b ...
in the churchyard 'the like whereof is not to be found in all the diocese'. In 1730 Dr. Thomas, rector here, gave its height as and its circumference as . However, according to a rhyme in a volume of cuttings relating to Ragley
Ragley Hall in the parish of Arrow, Warwickshire, Arrow in Warwickshire is a stately home, located south of Alcester and west of Stratford-upon-Avon. It is the ancestral seat of the Seymour-Conway family, Marquess of Hertford, Marquesses of H ...
at the Shire Hall. 'In 1763 in Wixford churchyard there was felled a yew tree. In 1765 there was planted another that never will thrive.'
The churchyard
In Christian countries, a churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church (building), church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster S ...
also contains a grade II
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
listed horsehouse of hurdle and gorse with a thatched
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge ('' Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...
roof dating from the 18th century.[/ English Heritage listed building status Accessed 3 February 2011]
/ref> Wixford never having a separate living
Living or The Living may refer to:
Common meanings
*Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms
** Living species, one that is not extinct
*Personal life, the course of an individual human's life
* ...
, being a chapel
A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...
of Exhall
Exhall is a suburban village in the Nuneaton and Bedworth borough in Warwickshire, England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : It forms part of the Coventry and Bedworth urban area and is contiguous with the Coventry subur ...
since the reformation
The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...
so it was provided for the mounts of the visiting clergy from other 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 ...
es. There is also a fine large base of a churchyard cross with a moulded top edge, the stump of a shaft, and three steps to the platform dating from the 15th century. For much of the late 19th and early 20th century people travelled from Alcester
Alcester ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England. It is west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 7 miles south of Redditch. The town dates back to the times of Roman ...
to the Sunday evening services in St Milburga's. The remains of Oversley Castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
are north of the village and the Roman road
Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...
Icknield Street
Icknield Street or Ryknild Street is a Roman road in England, with a route roughly south-west to north-east. It runs from the Fosse Way at Bourton on the Water in Gloucestershire () to Templeborough in South Yorkshire (). It passes through ...
runs very close by.
Governance
Wixford is part of the Alcester
Alcester ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England. It is west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 7 miles south of Redditch. The town dates back to the times of Roman ...
& Rural ward of Stratford-on-Avon District
Stratford-on-Avon is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Warwickshire, England. The district is named after its largest town of Stratford-upon-Avon, but with a change of preposition; the town uses "upon" and the district ...
Council and is represented by Susan Adams (Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
). Nationally, it is part of the Stratford-on-Avon constituency; the current member of parliament is Nadhim Zahawi
Nadhim Zahawi (; ; born 2 June 1967) is an Iraqi-born British former politician who served in various ministerial positions under prime ministers Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak from 2018 to 2023. He most recently served ...
of the Conservative Party. Prior to Brexit
Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU).
Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...
in 2020 it was part of the West Midlands electoral region of the European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
.
Transport links
The village formerly was served by Wixford railway station
Wixford railway station was a railway station serving Wixford, a village in the English county of Warwickshire. Located on the edge of the village it was accessed by steps down from a bridge carrying the B4085 (Icknield Street).
Opened 17 Sep ...
, built by the & Railway Company in September 1866 as part of the Gloucester Loop Line. At the time of its closure in January 1950 it belonged to British Railways
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...
. The line, the station, and the associated railway bridge no longer exist, with the line through the station closing in 1963 as a result of the Beeching Axe
The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...
. However, the Heart of England Way, popular with hikers, runs along part of the old line. The River Arrow also runs through the village.
Sports and leisure
The village has two pubs
A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...
, the Fish Inn
Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway. Before the advent of motorized transportation, they also provided accomm ...
and the Three Horseshoes. Because of its proximity to the border of Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...
, the Exhall
Exhall is a suburban village in the Nuneaton and Bedworth borough in Warwickshire, England.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : It forms part of the Coventry and Bedworth urban area and is contiguous with the Coventry subur ...
& Wixford cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
club, which plays in the Cotswold Hills League, is affiliated to both the 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 ...
and Worcestershire County Cricket Boards. The small village hall
A village hall is a public building in a rural or suburban community which functions as a community centre without a religious affiliation.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, a village hall is a building which is owned by a local gover ...
, with a capacity of 70, is available for hire by members of the public.
Geography
References
{{authority control
Villages in Warwickshire