Wootton Wawen, Warwickshire

Historical Description

Wootton Wawen, a township and a parish in Warwickshire. The township lies on the Stratford-on-Avon Canal, 2 miles NW by N of Bearley station on the G.W.R., and 2 S of Henley-in-Arden. It has a post and money order office under Birmingham; telegraph office, Henley-in-Arden. The parish includes Henley-in-Arden and Ullenhall townships, and comprises 8568 acres; population of the civil parish, 2215; of the ecclesiastical, 664. The manor belonged to Wagen or Waven the Saxon, went in the Norman times to the Staffords, and passed in the time of Henry VIII. to the Smythes. Wootton Hall belongs to the baronet family of Smythe, and has attached to it a Roman Catholic chapel. Edstone Hall is a modern mansion in the Classic style. A Benedictine priory, a cell to Conches Abbey in Normandy, was founded in the parish by the Staffords, and was given by Henry VI. to King's College, Cambridge. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester; net value, £192 with residence. Patron, King's College, Cambridge. The church is a priory church, and one of the most interesting in the diocese. It stands on rising-ground, and shows remains of Anglo-Saxon work in the tower and in the N and S doors. It contains numerous ancient monuments. There are some chained books in the church, notably a prayer-book of the time of Charles I.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

The Warwickshire County Record Office hold the following registers for Wootton Wawen:

Most of the records prior to 1911 have been digitised and are available on Ancestry.co.uk

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Wootton Wawen from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Wootton-Wawen (St. Peter))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Warwickshire is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Wootton Wawen are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Warwickshire papers online:

• Leamington Spa Courier

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Warwickshire 1619 is available on the Heraldry page.