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Willoughby in Warwick County England History and GeographyWILLOUGHBY, a parish in the Rugby division of the hundred of KNIGHTLOW, county of WARWICK, 3 miles (S. by E.) from Dunchurch, containing 421 inhabitants. This place, in the neighbourhood of which many Roman antiquities have been discovered, is in Domesday-book called Wilbere and Wilebei, from which its present name is derived. It was a royal demesne in the reign of Henry I., who gave it to Wigan, one of his servants, by one of whose descendants it was granted, in the reign of Henry III., to the hospital of St. John, founded by that monarch without the east gate at Oxford, in the 17th year of his reign. On the dissolution of which, in the reign of Henry VI., William de Wainfleet, Bishop of Winchester, having obtained a grant of the site for the foundation of Magdalene College, procured from the master and brethren the manor of Willoughby, which at present forms part of the endowment of that institution. The parliamentarian army, in their retreat from the battle of Edge Hill, passed through the village, and fastened a rope round the ancient cross, with the intention of pulling it down, from which they were dissuaded by the vicar. Willoughby was formerly a place of much more importance than it is at present, having enjoyed a market and fairs, to which, from the name of a small hamlet in the parish, called 'Pie Court,' probably a court of pie-powder was attached: part of the foundation of a public gaol was discovered by some labourers, in digging for gravel near the church. The village is situated on the high road from London to Holyhead, from which it extends, in a westerly direction, for nearly three quarters of a mile: the houses, which are chiefly of stone with thatched roofs, occasionally interspersed with a few of more modern construction, have a very rural appearance, and the whole village has a pleasing air of tranquillity and retirement. The lands in the neighbourhood are fertile, and in a high state of cultivation, and the environs abound with pleasing scenery and with various objects of interest. Within the last few years Willoughby has been growing into notice from the discovery of some powerful sulphureous and saline springs, the properties of which have been found similar to those at Harrogate. Two small bathing establishments have been erected, one called Willoughby Lodge Spa, situated in a field at the western extremity of the village, and the New Sulphureous and Saline baths, on the high road opposite to the inn called the Four Crosses. Some neat cottages have been erected as lodging-houses; hot, cold, and shower baths have been constructed, and there is a pump-room for drinking the water, which is efficacious in all cases of scrofula, and in scorbutic and cutaneous diseases; separate baths are provided for the poor. The situation on the high road affords opportunities of direct and expeditious communication with the metropolis and the principal towns in the kingdom. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Coventry, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, rated in the king's books at £9. 4. 4., endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the President and Fellows of Magdalene College, Oxford. The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is a spacious and neat structure, in the later style of English architecture, with a low square embattled tower, strengthened with angular buttresses; the exterior, which is plain, is relieved by a north and south porch of good design, and above the western entrance is a large window enriched with tracery. The interior, which is of appropriate character, consists of a nave, aisles, and chancel, the last of which was rebuilt in 1779, and is separated from the nave by an obtusely pointed arch; the nave is separated from the aisles by three clustered columns and arches of a similar character, and from the tower by a lofty arch of good proportion, plainly moulded; the font, which is placed in the south aisle, is a large cylindrical vase of stone, supported on a square pedestal, and is slightly ornamented: the church contains several ancient monuments and brasses, among which is an altar-tomb of the family of Clerke. There is a place of worship for Primitive Methodists. A school was founded in 1816, and a school-house, with accommodation for a master and mistress, was erected, at an expense of £430, paid by the trustees of property, amounting to nearly £500 per annum, bequeathed by various benefactors for pious and charitable uses; children of both sexes are gratuitously instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and the girls also in needlework, by a master and mistress appointed by the trustees, with a salary of £40 per annum: the remainder of the income, after deducting the expense of repairing the church and the roads, is appropriated to apprenticing children, as gratuities to females entering upon service, weekly payments to the poor, donations of coal, and other charitable distributions. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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