| Monks Kirby | |
|---|---|
 St Edith's Church | |
  Monks Kirby Location withinWarwickshire | |
| Population | 445 (2011) |
| OS grid reference | SP4683 |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | RUGBY |
| Postcode district | CV23 |
| Dialling code | 01788 |
| Police | Warwickshire |
| Fire | Warwickshire |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
| |
Monks Kirby is a village andcivil parish in north-easternWarwickshire,England. The population of the parish is 445.[1] Monks Kirby is located around one mile east of theFosse Way, around 8 miles north-west ofRugby, seven miles north-east ofCoventry and six miles west ofLutterworth. Administratively it forms part of theborough of Rugby. One of the largest and most important villages in this part of Warwickshire in theAnglo-Saxon and latermedieval period, the village continued to be a local administrative centre into the early 20th century.
The parish boundaries include two important landed estates: Newnham Paddox, seat of the family of theEarls of Denbigh since the 15th century andNewbold Revel, home of the medieval writerSir Thomas Malory. Monks Kirby is today a small, attractive, wealthycommuter village with many residents working inCoventry,Birmingham,Leicester andLondon. Monks Kirby is dominated by the church ofSt Edith, a site ofChristian worship since at least the 10th century and which functioned as aPriory in the Middle Ages. Reflecting its medieval aristocratic and ecclesiastical importance, Monks Kirby is the largest historic parish in Warwickshire and St Edith's one of the largestparish churches in the county.[nb 1]
Monks Kirby has been inhabited since at leastRoman times, with evidence (Roman urns and bricks) found around the Church suggesting either a Roman cemetery orvilla on the current Church site.[3]
The size of the parish, good soils and strategic location (the village boundaries reached toHigh Cross - the meeting point of theFosse Way andWatling Street) all point to the importance of the village before theNorman Conquest.[4] Shortly after the Conquest, in 1086Domesday Book records Monks Kirby as the largest settlement in this part of the country (North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire) - significantly larger than the settlements that would become today's towns and cities - Lutterworth, Rugby, Coventry and Birmingham.[5]
The pre-Conquest church of Monks Kirby was the mother church (minster) for the surrounding area, connected to the important aristocratic estate of Newnham probably at least as far back as the eighth or ninth century.[6][nb 2] In the 900s the village was on the frontier between theViking controlledDanelaw andAnglo-SaxonMercia.[10] Monks Kirby is just on the west (Anglo-Saxon) side of Watling Street, which was the border. The village's name reflects the long-term influence of Danish settlement at the frontier: it is first recorded, inLatin, asKirkberia in 1077 (see below); this is a mix of Danish EnglishKirk (church) and Anglo-Saxonbury meaning a fortified settlement.[11] In time, the name became Kirkeby and then Kirby.[12][nb 3]
At the time of theNorman Conquest, the neighbouring estate of Newnham Paddox was owned by Leofwin, nephew ofLeofric, Earl of Mercia (husband ofLady Godiva).[13] After the Conquest, the land around Monks Kirby came into the ownership of Geoffrey de la Guerche, aBreton knight who married Aelgifu, Leofwin's daughter.[14][15] Geoffrey rebuilt theAnglo Saxon church which had "burst asunder", possibly in fighting between Saxons andNormans in the immediate post-Conquest period.[4] Geoffrey endowed the rebuilt church with lands (notably the village ofCopston Magna), and gave it as a priory to theBenedictine Abbey of St Nicolas inAnjou inFrance.
The Priory was named in honour of theVirgin Mary andSt Denis. Unusually, the text of the founding Charter for the Priory survives:[nb 4] The dedication took place on 1 July 1077 and the Charter tells us the names of the first monks – Geoffrey, Ranulf, Stephen, Maurice, Roger and Herman.[4] After Geoffrey's death, his estates, including the lands around Monks Kirby reverted to the King, who subsequently granted them toNigel d'Aubigny, the father ofRoger de Mowbray whose descendants were to becomeEarls of Nottingham andDukes of Norfolk. The Newnham family (who took their name from the estate) are recorded as holding the Newnham Paddox Estate under the Mowbrays from the 1100s.[12]
The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were Monks Kirby's highpoint. The monks produced at least one beautiful illuminated book and many miracles were apparently wrought at the Priory (seeMonks Kirby Priory). In 1266Henry III granted the monks a fair at Midsummer and a weekly market, a result of Monks Kirby's growing importance. The name of one of the village streets, Bond End, reflects the boundary between thefeudal tenant farmers ("bondsmen") and the properties of the traders and craftsmen who operated around the Priory Church.[17]
Through the fourteenth and early fifteenth century theHundred Years War withFrance caused major problems for French-led priories like Monks Kirby. Money was short - the priory's estates were intermittently confiscated by the King - and discipline was poor: in 1330 Monks Kirby's Benedictines had needed to be reminded of basic rules such as the non-admission of women to the monastery, and their duty to the poor.[18]
Having nearly fallen into ruin, the church was substantially rebuilt in around 1380. The basic structure and shape of the church today dates from this reconstruction,[12] as well as one of the church's current eight bells.[19] In 1415Henry V agreed that theDuke of Norfolk could transfer the priory and its lands out of nominally French hands, to become a house of theCarthusian Abbey established on the Duke's estates at theIsle of Axholme,Lincolnshire. The Carthusians practised a strict monastic lifestyle and the revenues of Monks Kirby Priory provided most of their income[20] but only two priests, and no monks, were maintained at Monks Kirby. The church was again altered in the late fifteenth century, and an octagonalspire was added which must have been an imposing local landmark.
The Newnham Paddox Estate was held by a number of different families in the fourteenth and early fifteenth century until, on 11 November 1433, John Fildyng, or Feilding bought the estate; he was a descendent of the earlier owners, the Newnham family.[12][21] The Feildings expanded their estate by buying parts of the Monks Kirbymanor (i.e. the lands that belonged to Monks Kirby priory) from the monks atAxholme in the late 1400s and early 1500s.[22][12] In theReformation, KingHenry VIII confiscated the assets of Axholme Priory. He granted the rectory and thepatronage of Monks Kirby vicarage and the income from the collection of localtithes to his foundation ofTrinity College, Cambridge. The large and valuable manor of Monks Kirby[nb 5] was rapidly claimed by the powerfulCharles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk.[12][nb 6]
In the 1600s the Feildings' status rose whenWilliam Feilding's handsome brother-in-law,George Villiers, became KingJames I's favourite: Villiers ended up as the immensely powerfulDuke of Buckingham. Villiers' friends and family rose with him and William Feilding was made the firstEarl of Denbigh. Even William's eight year old second son George (named after his important uncle) was given the right to his ownearldom.[nb 7] Meanwhile, the Manor of Monks Kirby had passed to descendants of Charles Brandon until it was bought by George Villiers' motherMary, Countess of Buckingham who bequeathed it to her grandsonBasil Feilding, the second Earl of Denbigh on her death in 1632. The Feilding family thus came to own much of Monks Kirby, both the historic Newnham Paddox estate and the lands that in the medieval period had belonged to the Priory Church of Monks Kirby.
The Church's spire blew down in a storm on Christmas Night 1701. Theenclosure of farming land in the eighteenth and nineteenth century saw the wealthy land owners of Monks Kirby deprive local people of their traditional access tocommon land. The Skipwith family, lords ofNewbold Revel in the 1700s, extensively used their position asMembers of Parliament to promote enclosure acts on behalf of their own family and friends, including the land atStretton-under-Fosse.[24]
The most notorious incident in the Monks Kirby enclosure process happened in 1837 when the7th Earl of Denbigh wanted to rent a large parcel of land,Pailton Pastures, from the other major landowner,Trinity College, Cambridge.[nb 8] This involved clearing the land of its sitting tenants. There were riots by Pailton residents. One particular very elderly tenant, Thomas Gubbins, stood in the way of the Earl and the College's plan. The Earl pursued the case until Gubbins - said to have been over 100 years old - was sent to prison where he soon died. This was scandalous even at the time: the county newspaper wrote, "We may well wonder what could have been the feelings of a plaintiff [ie the Earl of Denbigh] in a case such as this. Is he now satisfied?" Gubbins became known as the Pailton Martyr.[25]
TheRector of Monks Kirby - appointed byTrinity College, Cambridge - played an eager part in the prosecution of Gubbins.[nb 9] The 7th Earl Denbigh and his wife Lady Mary are both buried in St Edith's Church.
With theChurch of England so clearly on the side of the powerful, it is unsurprising that many ordinary Monks Kirby residents turned tononconformist churches from the 17th to the early 20th century. Nonconformity in the Parish dated back to the time ofOliver Cromwell and aBaptist congregation was established in 1817, its members initially suffering much persecution.[26] The Baptist chapel]] was built at the end of Bell Lane, on the edge of the village, just outside the Earl of Denbigh's lands. It had 150 seats and was demolished around 1960.[25]
The 18th and 19th century enclosure process led to the establishment of larger, tenanted farms on the Denbigh,Newbold Revel andTrinity College, Cambridge lands: the distinctiveVictorian farm buildings are a major feature of the rural landscape around Monks Kirby. The tenant farmers formed the dominant rural middle class in Monks Kirby society from the Victorian era to the mid twentieth century. The Monks Kirby Farmers Club Show was the major event of their year with hundreds of cows and horses exhibited and, at its peak in 1914, 7,000 people attending.[nb 10][25] Trinity College retains thebenefice today (and therefore is still involved in appointing thevicar)[27] but divested itself of substantial landholdings around Monks Kirby following theSecond World War. Similarly, The Feilding family have - since the mid-twentieth century - steadily sold off much of their estate (for example selling 2,500 acres of the historic Newnham Paddox estate in 2014–15).[28]
The historic parish boundaries ofMonks Kirby, existing from the medieval era through to the nineteenth century included several neighbouring villages andhamlets:Copston Magna,Pailton,Stretton-under-Fosse,Newbold Revel, Brockhurst, Little Walton,Street Ashton andEasenhall.[nb 11] The Parish had anexclave inLeicestershire, the land known as Goresland inUllesthorpe, separated from Monks Kirby by the neighbouring parish ofWibtoft and just over the county border. Monks Kirby was the largest parish in Warwickshire;[nb 12] the historic size of Monks Kirby was around 10,000 acres, 15 square miles.[12] Around 1866, Pailton, Easenhall, Stretton-under-Fosse and Copston became separate parishes. Even within its much reduced modern boundaries, Monks Kirbycivil parish still has an area of 4550 acres, around 7 square miles, placing it in top 11% of English parishes by area.[30] The ecclesiastical parish no longer includes Copston or Easenhall but still includes Pailton and Stretton-under-Fosse.[29] The (civil and ecclesiastical) boundaries of Monks Kirby still include the lands of the village ofCestersover, abandoned in the Middle Ages.
Early in the 17th century the hundred ofKnightlow (one of the county's four administrative divisions) was reorganised on a basis of four HighConstables' divisions –Kenilworth, Monks Kirby,Rugby, andSoutham. Monks Kirby retained its high constable until 1828.[31] From 1834 thecivil parish of Monks Kirby was part of LutterworthPoor Law Union[32] meaning people living in poverty in Monks Kirby were sent to theworkhouse inLutterworth. The LutterworthRural Sanitary District was introduced in 1875 covering the same area as the Poor Law Union. Rural Sanitary Districts (RSDs) were replaced withrural districts and aligned with county borders in 1894:Monks Kirby Rural District existed from 1894 to 1932 covering the Warwickshire parishes that had been in the Lutterworth RSD. In 1932 Monks Kirby Rural District was merged intoRugby Rural District, which in turn merged with Rugby Municipal Borough in 1974, to form today'sRugby Borough Council.
Monks Kirby's population today is only slightly higher than that recorded in theDomesday Book, far lower than the village's population in the nineteenth century and probably the twelfth and thirteenth century too. Since the 1950s the primarily agricultural population of the village has been replaced by a wealthy, well-educated older demographic through a process of extendedsuburbanisation from the many nearby towns and cities. Residents are attracted by the quiet, well-kept village, with good road connections. The village is in theCoventryGreen Belt. Apart from one village pub, The Denbigh Arms,[nb 13] the village now has no shops or other commercial enterprises. There are two churches: St Edith's Anglican Church and St Joseph'sRoman Catholic Church. There is also a well-used village hall and the Revel school. The village has moved significantly since the medieval era and particularly in the last seventy years. While the historic village was centred around the parish church, the centre of the village today is further to the north-east: the village has merged with Brockhurst which was a separatehamlet on the other side of the Smite brook.
Monks Kirby has been a local centre for theRoman Catholic faith since the conversion ofRudolph, the 8th Earl of Denbigh to Catholicism in 1850. St Joseph'sconvent and girls school/orphanage were established in the village in the 1870s.[33] The first nuns wereSisters of Charity from a convent on the Earl's other estate atPantasaph inFlintshire, North Wales.[33] The Sisters of Charity were succeeded by theSisters of Mercy in 1923. During theSecond World War, The10th Earl of Denbigh handed over Newnham Paddox House to another community of nuns:Cannonesses of the Holy Sepulchre. These nuns had evacuated their convent,New Hall inChelmsford in 1940, due to the threat of bombing. During the war, the Canonesses ran a school for local children. They returned to New Hall in 1945.[34]
TheSisters of Mercy remained at the Monks Kirby convent until 1977.[35] In 1982 the convent was occupied by the first congregation of Mary, Mother of the Church (now called "Mater Ecclesiae") established by Sister Catherine Mulligan as a new convent for mature women looking to enter religious life.[33][36] In 1998 theMater Ecclesiae congregation moved to Street Ashton House[36] in the neighbouring hamlet ofStreet Ashton, where it was based until 2020. The remaining, elderly sisters have now dispersed and Street Ashton House sold, bringing to an end a 150-year tradition of (renewed) monastic life in Monks Kirby.[37]
The nineteenth century convent buildings in the village of Monks Kirby have now been converted to housing but a new church, St Joseph's Church, was built in the 1990s to a design by the architect John Holmes.[33] This church was consecrated by theArchbishop of Birmingham,Bernard Longley, on 11 July 2012, the feast ofSt Benedict. St Joseph's continues to be a worshipping community today, with a large congregation gathering on Sundays from the parish which spreads beyond the small village of Monks Kirby. There is Mass several times each week. Highlights during the year include the Annual May Procession when the parish process in honour of Our Lady ending with the crowning of the statue andBenediction of theBlessed Sacrament. There is also aCorpus Christi procession in June from theVillage Green to St Joseph's. In July 2018 St Joseph's fitted a new bell system which allows theAngelus to be rung at 12 noon and 6pm as well as calling the faithful to Mass. At special times of the year and at the end of the school day Hymns are played on the automatedcarillon.
The present parish priest is Fr Paul. On the outskirts of Monks Kirby is a Roman Catholic burial site, originally a private graveyard for the Feilding family but which today is used for burials from St Joseph's. The Chapel of the Sacred Heart at the burial ground was designed by the architectThomas Henry Wyatt as part of the remodelling of Newnham Paddox House, undertaken forthe eighth earl in 1888.[38]
Children from Monks Kirby and surrounding villages attend the Revel School, which is possibly unique in that it is aChurch of England school with Roman Catholic provision andCatechesis. Children from the school regularly visit the Catholic Church for worship and are prepared through the school for theirFirst Holy Communion. Both the Church of EnglandRector and Catholic Parish Priest lead worship in the school. School Masses (within St Joseph's) take place regularly.
The Newnham Paddox estate neighbours Monks Kirby and is the seat of theEarl of Denbigh. Much of the estate has been sold in recent decades. The estate was very ancient, probably dating from the post-Roman,Anglo-Saxon invasion period when new settlements were established (henceNew-ham).[6] A very largemanor house existed on the estate until 1952, which had at least three stages of development:
There is very little information on theCapability Brown house. However, in 2020, archaeologists discovered that, "The former manor designed by Capability Brown at Newnham Paddox was still extant just below the turf level." A full excavation of the site was scheduled to begin in the same year.[41] The grand gates, stables and Brown's landscaped gardens remain and the current Earl still lives in a twentieth century, wooden house in the grounds. The grounds of the house are opened at least annually (though not in 2020 or 2021 due toCovid[needs update]) for a popular springtime "Daffodil Sunday" event when thousands of daffodils come in to flower across the grounds.[42].
Research into the Fielding family revealed an indenture dated 1515 when Sir Everard Fielding purchased lands in Monks Kirby from the monks of Axholme Priory in Lincolnshire .(PRO Kew-Indenture E118/1/34)
