Wootton Wawen

The toponym "Wootton Wawen" means "farm near a wood, belonging to Wagen". Wagen or Waga is an Old Norse name.[4]

The oldest surviving record of Wootton is from when Æthelbald, King of the Mercians, gave to the Earl Aethilric 20 hides of land for a minster between the years 723 and 737. The first wooden church was built at Wootton as a direct result of this charter of land, (about 2,000 acres (810 hectares)) on which to build a monastery or minster of Saint Mary. The first church may have been burnt and pillaged by Viking invaders, but between about 970 and 1040, Wagen, an Anglo-Danish landowner, established the present church. This land was in the district of the Stoppingas near the river Aeluuinnae, now called the Alne.[3]

The Domesday Book records, "in Pathlow Hundred in Wotton (Wawen) 7 hides. Land for 9 ploughs. 23 villagers with a priest and 22 smallholders who have 6 ploughs. 2 mills at 11s and 8 sticks of eels; woodland 2 leagues long and one league wide. Value £4. Waga held it freely."[5] Waga was one of the witnesses to Earl Leofric's foundation of the monastery at Coventry in the first year of the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042–43). His lands extended beyond those at Wootton Wawen, but, after the Norman conquest of England, Wootton was bestowed by the Conqueror on Robert de Stafford, descended from the de Tonei family and who had fought stoutly with Duke William against King Harold. He made Stafford Castle his principal seat and took his surname thence.[6]

Charles II passed through Wootton on his travels while escaping from England after the Battle of Worcester. Here, the king, disguised as the man-servant of the daughter of one of his supporters, Jane Lane, met with a party of Parliamentarian troopers:

before we came to Stradford upon Avon we espied upon the way a Troop of Horse whose riders were alighted, and the Horses eateing some grass by the wayside, staying there (as I thought) while their Muster-Maister was provideing their Quarters; Mrs Lanes Sisters Husband (who went along as far as Stradford) seeing this Troop of Horse just in our way, sayd that for his part he would not goe by them, for he had once or twice been beaten by some of the Parliament Soldiers, and he would not run the venture again. I heareing him say soe begged Mrs Lane softly in her Eare that we might not turne back but goe on, for that Enemy would certainly send after us to enquire who we were if they should see us turne. But all she could say in the world would not doe, but her Brother in law turned quite round and went to Stradford another way the troop of Horse being there just getting on Horse-back about twice 12 score off, and I told her we did meete the Troop just but in the Towne of Stradford.[7]

Wootton Wawen has always been primarily a farming settlement, but over the centuries industrial activity has included milling; two mills are mentioned in the Domesday Book. Early in the 19th century there was a mill used for papermaking, as it probably was a century earlier – a reference to William Martin, "paperman" of Wootton, occurring in 1717[2] – but there has also been a fulling-mill for the production of hemp and flax on Wootton Green, and a dyehouse at nearby Blue Hole. There was also a hurdle-making industry in the village for a time. Today the area is largely agricultural with many residents commuting to nearby cities for employment.

Wootton Wawen is part of the Henley ward of Stratford on Avon District Council and represented by Councillors Jem Jones and Stephen Thirlwell, Conservative Party . Nationally it is part of Stratford-on-Avon constituency, whose Member of Parliament since the 2010 election is Nadhim Zahawi of the Conservative Party. It was included in the West Midlands electoral region of the European Parliament.

St Peter's church from the south-east

The Church of England parish church of Saint Peter is notable for having the most pronounced Anglo-Saxon work in the county. It is the oldest church in Warwickshire, although much of the present fabric is later. It comprises a chancel with a south chapel, nave, South aisle and on the North the tower embattled and pinnacled. There are also North and South porches the east jamb of the south porch has several votive crosses scored into it.[8] The base of the tower and the first two stages are Saxon with four doorways, the top of the tower is 15th century as are the clerestory, the nave battlements, the north doorway and porch, the middle arch of the arcade, the west window with busts of a king and queen and the east window with a leaf frieze. The tower is the earliest part of the church, preserved in the middle despite restricting views of the chancel from the nave[9] here, is the current site of the altar. The font is an octagonal bowl resting on eight sculptured heads similar to others in the county at Snitterfield and Lapworth.[8] The old oak pulpit and choir screen is 15th century.[8]

The church has a small chained library of 17th-century theological works and some notable monumental brasses particularly the altar tomb of John Harewell and his wife Anna (1505).[8]

Not long after the Norman Conquest, Robert de Stafford gave the church of Wootton with a hide of land nearby and another hide at "Doversele" to the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter de Castellion of Conches in Normandy which had been established in 1035[3] by his father, Roger de Tonei.[14] They established a small alien priory here: a prior and one monk constituted its community and the church was re-dedicated to St Peter ad Vincula. In 1398 Richard II gave the priory to the Carthusians at Coventry, but the grant was reversed soon after by Henry IV and the monks re-established. It was bestowed with all its possessions on 12 December 1443 upon the Provost and Scholars of King's College, Cambridge, and on 30 November 1447 the Abbey of Conches released all title to the Priory to the college, in whose hands the manor still remains. No trace of the priory buildings remains but they stood between the churchyard and the ancient fishpond that is near the Henley Road.[3]

At the start of the reign of Edward I, Peter de Altaribus was prior. He became involved in a brawl which brought about the intervention of the bishop. The circumstances are related with considerable detail in the episcopal registers of Godfrey Giffard, Bishop of Worcester. An inquisition was held at Warwick on the Tuesday after Palm Sunday, 1281, to hear the dispute between Peter de Altaribus, and brother Roger his monk. William the vicar of Wootton, had been summoned to the priory to stop the brawl, and on arrival he met the prior coming out of the hall door whilst inside he found brother Roger sitting in a chair with his nose bleeding. The prior accused Roger of wounding himself in his nose with his own finger; whereas Roger claimed the prior had hit him on the nose, which was corroborated by others who added that Roger did not return the blow. The argument was over Peter's withdrawal of distributions to the poor, lack of hospitality, wasting the priory's goods, and drunkenness. Both were found guilty and excommunicated which after appeal they were absolved and recalled to the monastery of Conches, to receive punishment from their abbot. It is exceptional to find an alien priory subject to diocesan visitation, but this small priory was also visited by Bishop Giffard in 1269, 1284, and 1290.[15]

Between the mill and the church is Wootton Hall, a large stone building in the Palladian style, mainly built in 1687 but incorporating parts of an earlier, probably Elizabethan, house. It was originally the home of the Carington family. Outbuildings behind the house are possibly the remains of the earlier manor-house.[3] At the end of the Second World War the Hall was in a dilapidated condition and threatened with demolition but was bought in 1958 by Bill Allen, of Allen's Caravans,[16] who developed the grounds into a mobile home park. This development rescued and restored the Hall and revitalised the community.[17]

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  Wootton War Memorial
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  Wootton Hall and Park
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  Wootton Hall Lodge Gate
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  Wootton Hall

Other notable buildings include the Bull's Head Inn, situated at the south end of the street, being an L-shaped low building of timber-framing, probably of the 16th century. Inside are wide fireplaces, one with a lintel inscribed M 1697 TH, and open-timbered ceilings, however there is a stone giving the date of the building as 1317. Three of the buildings north of it on the same side, and The Cottage, facing the south end of the village street, have remains of 17th-century timber framing. In a short lane south of the church is the old Workhouse, now a dwelling-house; it is a small timber framed building covered with rough-cast cement and has a gabled north end with a jettied upper storey.

The Manor Farm, at the north end of the village, is built of early-18th-century brick, but the chimneystack of diagonal shafts looks earlier. The west front, slightly recessed between gabled cross-wings, has a doorway with a semi-domical hood carved with palm leaves and a basket of fruit and flowers.[3]

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  Cottages at Wootton Wawen
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  Manor Farm
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  Doorway at Manor Farm

Stratford-upon-Avon Canal aqueduct at Wootton Wawen

The A3400 (former A34) provides transport links to the neighbouring settlements, notable Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon and also connects to the M40 motorway northwards at Hockley Heath affording direct motorway access to London. Regular bus services on this road provide transport to Birmingham and Stratford-upon Avon.

The Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon Canal crosses the parish, leaving it near Silesbourne Farm, close to which there was a hermitage, mentioned in 1428 and 1470.[2] The canal is carried over the main Stratford to Birmingham road by a cast-iron aqueduct bearing the date 1813.[3] There are moorings and a canal boat marina in Wootton Wawen Basin. The canal was built by William James of Henley-in-Arden, who was later a pioneer of the railway system. A cast-iron plaque on the aqueduct records details of the building of the canal.

The Monarch's Way, a long distance footpath which approximates to the escape route taken by Charles II in 1651 after his defeat in the Battle of Worcester, passes through Wootton Wawen.[18]

Wootton Wawen railway station was opened in 1908 on a branch of the Great Western Railway. The route is now the Birmingham to Stratford Line. The line south of Stratford upon Avon railway station continued as the Honeybourne Line to Honeybourne railway station (which is on the Cotswold Line) and onwards to Cheltenham.

The village was referenced in the Yes Minister episode The Right to Know. In that episode, Humphrey Appleby revealed that Hayward's Spinney, supposedly the site of a threatened badger colony, was actually just a rubbish dump used by the people of Wootton Wawen,[19] which differs from the published version where Sir Humphrey says it is used by the people of Birmingham.[20]

In the Second World War the Russian composer Nikolai Medtner and his wife lived in a secluded house outside Wootton Wawen, where he completed his Piano Concerto No. 3.[21] Author Bill Watkins spent much of his youth in Wootton Wawen; his book A Celtic Childhood records his childhood adventures in and around the village during the 1950s.[22]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wootton Wawen.

• grid reference SP153630
• History of Wootton Hall and its 'Secret Tunnel'