Warkworth 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 ...

West Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, and was created in 2021. It contains the county town of Northampton, as wel ...

, about east of

Banbury Banbury is an historic market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. The parish had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

and southeast of junction 11 of the

M40 motorway The M40 motorway links London, Oxford, and Birmingham in England, a distance of approximately . The motorway is dual three lanes except for junction 1A to junction 3 (which is dual four lanes) a short section in-between the exit and entry hig ...

. The land on which the village lies was granted to the

Lyons family The Lyons family (originally styled de Lyons, or de Leonne, Lyonne, and also spelled Lyon) is an eminent Anglo-Norman family descended from Ingelram de Lyons, Lord of Lyons, who arrived in England with the Norman Conquest, and from his relation ...

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

, shortly after the Norman Conquest, and belonged to the family until the 15th century. Their seat was Warkworth Castle. The 2001 census recorded the parish's population as 31.

History

The village's name means 'We(o)rca's enclosure' or 'We(o)rce's enclosure', a female individual name.

Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

makes reference to an

abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa'') is the female superior of a community of nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, Lutheran and Anglican abbeys, the mod ...

called Verce in

Tynemouth Tynemouth () is a coastal town in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the north side of the mouth of the River Tyne, England, River Tyne, hence its name. It is east-northeast of Newcastle up ...

in the seventh century. On the other hand, the individual name may be 'Waeferce'. The Norman

were granted the lands of Warkworth by

, in 1080, and built Warkworth Castle for their seat. The Lyons family owned the castle and the estates until the 15th century. Several members of the Lyons family are buried at the Church of St Mary at Warkworth, including two in spectacular effigies (see below). The castle had semicircular towers and a large gatehouse. In 1629 it passed to the Holman family, who had it converted into a Jacobean

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

. It was demolished in 1805. Warkworth was historically a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

which formed a detached part of the

ancient 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 ...

of Marston St Lawrence. For the purposes of administering parish responsibilities under the

poor laws The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief in England and Wales that developed out of the codification of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws in 1587–1598. The system continued until the modern welfare state emerged in the late 1940s. E ...

, the chapelry of Warkworth was jointly administered with the part of

parish which was in Northamptonshire, comprising the hamlets of

Grimsbury Grimsbury is a largely residential area which forms the eastern part of Banbury, in the Cherwell district, in the county of, Oxfordshire, England. It is situated east of the River Cherwell, the Oxford Canal and the Cherwell Valley Line railw ...

and Nethercote. In 1866 the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws, and so Warkworth became a

which included Grimsbury and Nethercote. Grimsbury and Nethercote formed part of

municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

of Banbury from 1889, and were removed from the civil parish of Warkworth in 1894, after which the civil parish corresponded to the old chapelry of Warkworth. An

open field system The open-field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe during the Middle Ages and lasted into the 20th century in Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Each manor or village had two or three large fields, usually several hundred acr ...

of farming prevailed in Warkworth until the 18th century. A single

inclosure act The inclosure acts created legal property rights to land previously held in common in England and Wales, particularly open fields and common land. Between 1604 and 1914 over 5,200 individual acts enclosing public land were passed, affecting 28,0 ...

, the ( 4 Geo. 3. c. ''67'' ) was used to enclose the formerly separate open field systems of Warkworth, Grimsbury, Nethercote and Overthorpe (the latter being a hamlet in

Middleton Cheney Middleton Cheney is a large village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England. The village is about east of Banbury in Oxfordshire and about west-northwest of Brackley. The A422 road between Banbury and Bra ...

parish).

Church of St Mary

The

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

St Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. ...

is 14th-century

Decorated Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed a ...

. The Church was partly rebuilt in 1840–41 and 1869, and on the latter occasion under the direction of

Charles Driver Charles Henry Driver (23 March 1832 – 27 October 1900) was a significant British architect of the Victorian era, with a reputation for pioneering use of ornamental iron work for which he was seen as a leading authority. Biography Driver beg ...

. The three-bay north

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game ** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware ** Arcad ...

, the arch and east window of the south

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

, and the windows in the south

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

are 14th-century. The south arcade, north aisle windows,

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 ...

and top of the west tower are 19th-century

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

. The south aisle has a

squint Squinting is the action of looking at something with partially closed eyes. Squinting is most often practiced by people who suffer from Refractive error, refractive errors of the eye who either do not have or are not using their glasses. Squint ...

to the chancel. The Church is

Grade II* listed 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, H ...

Monuments to Lyons and Chetwode families

Inside the church are several

monuments A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

. Several members of the

are buried in the Church: in the North Aisle there is a tomb-chest with an effigy of enclosed Sir John de Lyons (1289 – 1348), who was Lord of Warkworth in 1322, and an effigy of Sir John de Lyons (1320 – 1385). The daughter, Elizabeth, of Sir John Lyons, (d.1385) who was Lord of Warkworth, married Sir John Chetwode. Despite the fact that she had cousins, the Lyons estate passed to Sir John Chetwode when Elizabeth Lyons died without male siblings, and Chetwode adopted the older and more distinguished Lyons arms, in preference to his own arms, and the title 'Lord of Warkworth'. Therefore, the Chetwode family are buried and commemorated in the Church. There are five 15th-century

monumental brass A monumental brass is a type of engraved church monument, sepulchral memorial once found through Western Europe, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional church monument, monuments and effigy, effigies carve ...

es: to Sir John Chetwode (died 1412), a second John Chetwode (died 1420), Margaret Brounyng (died 1420), Lady Chetwode (died 1430) and William Ludsthorp (died 1454). There is also an 18th-century monument to William Holman (died 1740). St Mary's parish is a member of the Chenderit

Benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

, which includes the parishes of

Chacombe Chacombe (sometimes Chalcombe in the past) is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, about north-east of Banbury. It is bounded to the west by the River Cherwell, to the north by a tributary and ...

Greatworth Greatworth is a village in the civil parish of Greatworth and Halse about north-west of Brackley, West Northamptonshire, England. The parish also includes the hamlet of Halse. In 2011, the settlement had a population of 708. The 2011 Census ...

, Marston St. Lawrence, Middleton Cheney and Thenford.

Amenities

The

Jurassic Way The Jurassic Way is a designated and signed long-distance footpath that connects the Oxfordshire town of Banbury with the Lincolnshire town of Stamford in England. It largely follows an ancient ridgeway traversing Britain; most of its route i ...

long-distance footpath A long-distance trail (or long-distance footpath, track, way, greenway (landscape), greenway) is a longer recreational trail mainly through rural areas used for hiking, backpacking (wilderness), backpacking, cycling, equestrianism or cross-co ...

passes through Warkworth village.

References

Sources

* *

External links

* {{Authority control Civil parishes in Northamptonshire Villages in Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire District