Sutton Cheney ( ) is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

in the borough of Hinckley and Bosworth in the county of Leicestershire, England, near the county border with

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : In addition to the village of Sutton Cheney itself, the civil parish also contains the villages of Dadlington and Shenton, a number of farms, and the location of the

Battle of Bosworth The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 A ...

. Its closest large towns are Nuneaton and Hinckley. Its closest market town is

Market Bosworth Market Bosworth is a market town and civil parish in western Leicestershire, England. At the 2001 Census, it had a population of 1,906, increasing to 2,097 at the 2011 census. It is most famously near to the site of the decisive final battle of ...

. The village of Sutton Cheney is clustered around the intersection of four roads: Ambion Lane leading westwards to the village of Shenton; Bosworth Road leading northwest to the neighbouring town of

; Main Street leading northeast to the villages of Cadeby or Stapleton; and Wharf Lane leading southwest to Sutton Cheney Wharf on the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal. The civil parish of Sutton Cheney is bordered by the civil parishes of

to the north; Cadeby to the northeast; Peckleton to the east;

Barwell Barwell is a civil parish and large village in Leicestershire, England, with a population of 8,750 residents, Increasing to 9,022 at the 2011 census, the name literally translates as "Stream of the Boar" and is said to originate from a boar tha ...

, Stoke Golding, and Higham on the Hill to the south; and Sheepy to the west. Its population at the 2011 census was 538.

History

The earliest written mention of the village of Sutton Cheney is 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 ...

of 1086 when it was named Sutone. It was mostly owned by Crowland Abbey with a minor holding in the hands of Hugh de Grandmesnil, a companion of

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, ...

. At that time it was recorded as having four households. The manor took the name 'Sutton Chainell' during the thirteenth century on account of a rich farmer named Chainell who held the village as a tenant of Crowland Abbey but the name appears variously as Sutton, Sutton juxta Bosworth, Sutton Chenyie, and Sutton Cheynell in deeds and other official registers between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. The army of

Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Bat ...

made camp in the village on 21 August 1485, the night before the

Battle of Bosworth Field The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 ...

, and the battle itself took place within the civil parish, near to Dadlington. Richard died in the battle, which was the last battle of the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought be ...

. It ended the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

in England and ushered in the Tudor period. In 1564 there were 25 families living in Sutton Cheynell and in 1630 the freeholders were Sir William Roberts, Richard May, William Drakeley and John Swinfen. Sir William Roberts endowed six Almshouses for the village in 1612 and his tomb is still extant in the village church, with the inscriptions: 'Sir William Roberts was son of Thomas Roberts and married to his first wife Katherine, daughter of Richard Elkington, and to his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of Valentine Hartopp; but by neither had issue. He lived 79 years and died Feb 24 1633' and 'Here lyeth interred the body of Sir William Roberts, who in his life-time, being devoted both to hospitality and charity, among other memorable works erected, out of a pious mind, a hospital for six poor men adjoining the churchyard and endowed it with 30 pounds worth of land yearly for their maintenance for ever.' Between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries, the village of Sutton Cheney was an estate village, developed to suit the needs of a single farming family, with the Hall as their home. In addition to workers' cottages, a further range of buildings such as a blacksmith's, bakery, and post office provided the essentials of rural life, together with Almshouses for poor single men. These have now all been converted to dwellings but the village retains its traditional character and is designated as a conservation area. Today, the majority of the land and approximately half the dwellings are still in the ownership of the estate, with half the dwellings in private ownership.

Battlefield Heritage Centre

Within the civil parish, on Ambion Hill, is th
Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre and Country Park
maintained by Leicestershire County Council as a country park and learning centre to advance public knowledge about the

. The battlefield entrance is opposit
Ambion Firewood & Contractors
The centre also contains the Tithe Barn restaurant and cafe, based in a reconstructed fourteenth century oak timbered barn, donated by the Derbyshire County Council. Other monuments within the centre include King Richard's Well, where

is reputed to have drunk before the battle and a cairn now stands as his monument, and a memorial sundial.

Other attractions and amenities

Sutton Cheney Wharf
is situated within the civil parish on the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal and maintained by the Canal & River Trust. It gives access through Ambion Wood to the Battlefield Centre and there is also a cafe calle
Sutton Wharf
on the site. A heritage steam railway, the Battlefield Line Railway, runs from Shenton station, within the civil parish, to Shackerstone. It is operated by th
Shackerstone Railway Society
Battlefield_Line_(9638804544)

In the village of Shenton the old village hall is now an art gallery and cafe, th
White Dove Gallery
and a group of restored and listed farm buildings now operate a
Whitemoors Antique Centre and Tearooms
The Leicestershire Round, a 200 mile walk around the county of Leicestershire runs through the civil parish and the village itself, linking it by footpath to the adjacent town and civil parish of

in a walk through farmland and

Market Bosworth Country Park Market Bosworth Country Park is to the east of Market Bosworth town. The {{convert, 35, ha landscaped Country Park was formerly part of Bosworth Hall deer parkland. The park features a lake, a planted arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) ...

Notable buildings in the village

The village of Sutton Cheney has two Georgian

coaching inn The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of tra ...

s. Th
Hercules Revived
(formerly The Hercules Inn), is named after the prizewinning horse Hercules owned by the Dixie family of

in the eighteenth century. It was renovated and restored in 2012. Th
Royal Arms
(formerly The Greyhound Inn) was re-opened in 2003 as a hotel, restaurant, and wedding venue. Church of St James, Sutton Cheney

St James' Church dates originally from the early 13th century with repairs and restorations in the centuries since, including the west tower built in brick in the nineteenth century.

reputedly heard his last

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different element ...

in the church the night before the

. The church is consequently known as "the Battlefield Church" and contains a plaque in remembrance of him. Many of the kneelers in the church were embroidered by members of th
Richard III Society
and on 22 March 2015, the funeral cortège of the King paused in Sutton Cheney en route to his burial in Leicester Cathedral. The six Almshouses founded by Sir William Roberts in 1612 and altered in 1811, as a plaque records, due to "the liberality of Rosamund Kinnersley" are now a private home, having been converted in the late twentieth century. The Hall dates from 1601 with later additions and a Victorian wing. Townshend Farmhouse dates from the early 19th century with an earlier core. The village has been designated as a conservation area.

Notable residents and visitors

As well as

, the parish also contained the campsite of Henry VII, the victor of the

, who was crowned King of England in the adjacent civil parish of Stoke Golding. The famous mathematician Thomas Simpson FRS (1710-1761) of

, Nuneaton, and Woolwich is buried in the graveyard of St James' Church.'Simpson, Thomas (1710–61)' in The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy There is a Latin memorial plaque to him inside the Church to the left of the door. The village's clergyman from 1960 to 1986, the Rev. E. R. Boston, was notable as a traction engine and light railway enthusiast and engineer who constructed the now-dismantled Cadeby Light Railway. He was immortalised in his friend Rev. Wilbert Awdry's

The Railway Series ''The Railway Series'' is a series of British books about a railway known as the North Western Railway, located on the fictional Island of Sodor. There are 42 books in the series, the first published in May 1945 by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry. T ...

books (more commonly known as the Thomas the Tank Engine books) as "the Fat Clergyman". There is a plaque to him in the chancel of St James' Church.

References

{{authority control Villages in Leicestershire Civil parishes in Leicestershire Hinckley and Bosworth