Grandborough is a small village and civil parish in the Rugby district, in the county of Warwickshire, England. The parish includes the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

of Calcutt, Grandborough Fields and

Woolscott Woolscott is a hamlet in Warwickshire, England. It forms part of the 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 go ...

. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 424. Grandborough is in a rural area of eastern Warwickshire, around six miles (10 km) south of Rugby and six miles northwest of

Daventry Daventry ( , historically ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority in Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 Census Daventry had a population of 28,123, makin ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

. Grandborough is about two miles from the nearest main roads and can be reached by country lanes from the A45 to the east, and the A426 to the west. The

River Leam The River Leam (), anciently Leame, etc, is a river in England which rises at Hellidon Hill in Northamptonshire then flows through Warwickshire, including the town of Leamington Spa, named after it. It then flows into the River Avon near Warw ...

flows north of the village. There was a watermill (now a private residence) where the river passed under the road from Woolscott. In times of flood, the river flows over the road creating a

ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

. A road sign suggests that pedestrians and motorists should "Use causeway if flooded". Grandborough's church is dedicated to St Peter. The church spire, and the two tall Wellingtonia trees which flank it, are notable local landmarks. There is also a

Primitive Methodist The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination with the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834). In the United States, the Primit ...

chapel (erected in 1856, extended in 1991, but closed in November 2021), a village hall (the Benn Memorial Hall, erected in 1897) and a number of old (mostly Victorian) cottages. The village has a

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

called the ''Shoulder of Mutton''. In Main Street there is a private house which was formerly a pub called the ''Royal George''. ''Harrow House'', in Woolscott, was formerly a pub called the ''Old Harrow Inn''."Away from it all: Grandborough", ''Warwickshire and Worcestershire Life'', January 1980, pp 56-57.

History

Grandborough was mentioned 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 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as ''Graensburgh''. Until the early 20th century the name was spelt as ''Granborough''. Its name was supposed by

Eilert Ekwall Bror Oscar Eilert Ekwall (born 8 January 1877 in Vallsjö (now in Sävsjö, Jönköpings län), Sweden, died 23 November 1964 in Lund, Skåne län, Sweden), known as Eilert Ekwall, was Professor of English at Sweden's Lund University from 1909 t ...

to come from

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

''Grēnbeorg'' = "green rounded hill", but the Domesday Book form points otherwise. It appears as ''Granborowe'' on the

Christopher Saxton Christopher Saxton (c. 1540 – c. 1610) was an English cartographer who produced the first county maps of England and Wales. Life and family Saxton was probably born in Sowood, Ossett in the parish of Dewsbury, in the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

map of 1637. The former village school still stands. It closed in April 1974 and is now a private house. A stone plaque hidden on an east-facing wall has the inscription ''"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it"'' and the date 1840. The quotation is taken from the

Book of Proverbs The Book of Proverbs ( he, מִשְלֵי, , "Proverbs (of Solomon)") is a book in the third section (called Ketuvim) of the Hebrew Bible and a book of the Christian Old Testament. When translated into Greek and Latin, the title took on differen ...

, chapter 22, verse 6. The first mention of a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional servi ...

in the village is the issue in April 1847 of a type of

postmark A postmark is a postal marking made on an envelope, parcel, postcard or the like, indicating the place, date and time that the item was delivered into the care of a postal service, or sometimes indicating where and when received or in transit. ...

known as an undated circle (with the spelling Granborough). The post office and village shop closed on 4 April 1997. "Rugby Advertiser", 10 April 1997.

Notable residents

Mark Pawsey Mark Julian Francis Pawsey (born 16 January 1957) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rugby since the 2010 general election. He is a member of the Conservative Party. His father, Jim Pawsey, was the MP ...

, MP for Rugby since 2010.

References

* Allen, Geoff (2000). ''Warwickshire Towns & Villages''. Sigma Leisure. .
Village website

External links

{{authority control Villages in Warwickshire Civil parishes in Warwickshire Borough of Rugby