Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for MONKS-KIRBY

MONKS-KIRBY, a township in Lutterworth district, and a parish partly also in Rugby district, all in Warwickshire. The township lies adjacent to the Fosse way, 2 miles NE by E of Stretton r. station, 2¾ SW of Watling-street at the boundary with Leicestershire, and 6 NNW of Rugby; and has a post office under Lutterworth. Pop., 596. Houses, 13-4. The parish contains also the hamlets of Pailton, Stretton-under-Foss, Newbold-Revel, and Copston-Magna in Lutterworth district, and the township of Easenhall in Rugby district. Acres, 9,640. Real property, £14,388. Pop. in 1851,1,899; in 1861,1,931. Houses, 429. The manor was known at Domesday, as Chirchberye; was given, by William the Conqueror, to Geoffrey de Wirce; was given by him to the monks of Angiers in Normandy, who then founded here a cell of their abbey; took thence the name of Monks-Kirby; was given by Richard II. to Thomas Mowbray, in exchange for Epworth priory; passed, in the time of Henry VIII., to the Duke of Suffolk; went, by sale, to Lord Fielding; and has descended to the Earl of Denbigh. Newnham-Paddox, a handsome mansion, is the Earl of Denbigh's seat; and contains a choice collection of family portraits and works of art. Townthorn is the seat of W. Jackson, Esq., brother of the late American general, Stonewall Jackson; and stands on an eminence, with an extensive view. Street-Aston House and Newbold-Revel also are chief residences. A place called Cloudesley-Bush, on the W side of the Fosse way, taken its name from having a mound reputed to have been the burial-place of a Roman soldier called Clandins; and numerous Roman relics, including bricks and substructions, have been found. The living is a vicarage, united with the vicarage of Withybrook and the p. curacy of Copston-Magna, in the diocese of Worcester. Value, £3x00. * Patron, Trinity College, Cambridge. The church was built, on the site of an older one, by Geoffrey de Wirce; was rebuilt by the Duke of Suffolk, of the time of Henry VIII.; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with pinnacled tower; contains several ancient monuments of the Fielding; and, in 1867, was likely to be restored. Another church is in Copston-Magna; and is a modern edifie, in the Norman style. There are also, within the parish, a school-church, an Independent chapel, two Baptist chapels, a national school, a grammar school, another school with £30 a year from endowment, and charities £32.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a township"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: Rugby RegD/PLU       Warwickshire AncC
Place names: CHIRCHBERYE     |     MONKS KIRBY
Place: Monks Kirby

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