Barford (St. Peter)
The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £11. 11. 0½.; net income, £869; patron, John Mills, Esq.: the tithes were commuted for land and a money payment in 1760. Thomas Warde, Esq., an eminent antiquary, sold the advowson for £500, in 1740, to the Rev. John Mills. The old church was built in the reign of Henry VI.; the late church in that of Henry VII.; and the present edifice, which incorporates the ancient tower, in 1844: it contains 604 sittings, and cost about £2500. The windows are of painted glass: the eastern one is in five compartments, embellished with figures of the Four Evangelists and the patron saint; the colours are peculiarly rich, and the effect of the whole window striking and beautiful; it was executed at the cost of the neighbouring families, to the memory of Jane, widow of the late Charles Mills, Esq., and daughter of the Hon. Wriothesley Digby. Under the chancel is a vault for the family of Mills, to members of whom are five urns on pedestals in the chancel wall. Formerly there was a tomb to the memory of a rector of Wellesbourn, who died about the year 1200; the tomb was long since destroyed, but the inscription, on stone, has been built into the wall of the church. Among other relics is a curious tablet of freestone, part of a monument, which the rector, the Rev. William Somerville, has had placed in the wall of the vestry, with this inscription: "Here lyeth the body of Thomas Warde, Gentleman, parson of Barford, 2d son of Thomas and Martha Warde; he died in 1532." A school here is endowed with about £48 per annum, arising from benefactions of John Beale in 1672, and the Rev. Thomas Dugard in 1677.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.