Visit Monks Kirby Places

Welcome to Visit Monks Kirby Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Monks Kirby

  

Monks Kirby Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Monks Kirby

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Monks Kirby history

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Monks Kirby has been inhabited since at least Roman times, with evidence (Roman urns and bricks) found around the Church suggesting either a Roman cemetery or villa on the current Church site. The good soils, strategic location (near the meeting point of the Fosse Way and Watling Street) and size of the parish suggest it was the dominant village in this part of Warwickshire before the Norman Conquest. The pre-Conquest church of Monks Kirby was the mother church for the surrounding area, connected to the important aristocratic estate of Newnham (the relation between the estate at Newnham and the Church shaped the history of the village from Saxon times until the Reformation) probably at least as far back as the eighth or ninth century. In the tenth century the village was on the frontier between the Viking controlled Danelaw and Anglo-Saxon Mercia. “Kirby” is a Norse place name roughly meaning “church town” but the village is just on the west (Anglo-Saxon) side of Watling Street, which was the formal frontier. At the time of the Norman Conquest, the neighbouring estate of Newnham Paddox was owned by Leofwin, nephew of Leofric, Earl of Mercia (husband of Lady Godiva). After the Conquest, the land around Monks Kirby came into the ownership of Geoffrey de la Guerche, a Breton knight who married Aelgifu, Leofwin’s daughter. Geoffrey rebuilt the Anglo Saxon church, endowed it with lands (notably the village of Copston Magna), and gave it as a priory to the Benedictine Abbey of St Nicolas in Anjou in France. The Priory was named in honour of the Virgin Mary and St Denis. Unusually, the text of the founding Charter for the Priory survives: 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. After Geoffrey’s death, his estates, including the lands around Monks Kirby reverted to the King, who subsequently granted them to Nigel d’Aubigny, the father of Roger de Mowbray. The Mowbray family (who in time were to become Dukes of Norfolk) continued to support the Monks Kirby priory. The Newnham family (who took their name from the estate) held the land of the Newnham Paddox Estate under the Mowbrays in the twelfth and thirteenth century. The property 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 (see Earls of Denbigh below). In 1266 Henry III granted the monks a fair at Midsummer and a weekly market at Kirby; a result of Monks Kirby’s growing importance. The name of one of the village streets, Bond End, reflects the boundary between the feudal tenants (“bondsmen”) on the Newnham estate and the properties of the traders and craftsmen who operated around the Priory Church. Many miracles were apparently wrought at the Priory. By the fourteenth century the war with France meant that relations between the French-led Benedictine monks at Monks Kirby and the surrounding population were at a low ebb. Having nearly fallen into ruin, the church was substantially rebuilt in around 1380: one of the bells that still ring out over the village today dates from this reconstruction. In 1415 Henry V agreed that the Duke of Norfolk could transfer the priory and its lands out of nominally French hands, to become a house of the Carthusian Abbey established on the Duke’s estates at the Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire. This was more than a change of management: the new Carthusian monks practised a strict monastic lifestyle very different from the Benedictine monks (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). The 100 years war with France also caused the dedication of the church to be changed to St Edith of Polesworth, a Warwickshire Saint (the connection with St Denis was revived in the 19th century for the chapel of St Denys, built in the neighbouring village of Pailton). The church was again altered in the late fifteenth century, and an octagonal spire added. In the reformation, King Henry VIII confiscated the assets of the priory, granting the manor of Monks Kirby (ie the lands that had belonged to Monks Kirby priory) to the Bishop of Ipswich, and the rectory and the advowson of the vicarage to his (the King’s) foundation of Trinity College, Cambridge in December 1546. The manor then changed hands several times over the following eighty years until the powerful Buckingham family passed to it to the Feildings who had been lords of neighbouring Newnham Paddox since the fifteenth century (see below). The Feilding family, elevated to the aristocracy as Earls of Denbigh, thus came to own both the historic Newnham Paddox estate and the lands that in the medieval period had belonged to the Priory Church. The Earl of Denbigh owned most of the village and the land around it until the mid-twentieth century (see below). Trinity College retains the benefice and continues to be involved in the church’s affairs today but divested itself of substantial landholdings around Monks Kirby following the Second World War.

Parish boundaries and administration

Monks Kirby was the largest parish in Warwickshire. The historic size of the parish was around 10,000 acres, 15 square miles. The parish had an exclave in Leicestershire, the land known as Goresland in Ullesthorpe, separated from the neighbouring parish of Wibtoft.

You can visit Monks Kirby places with Walkfo Monks Kirby to hear history at Monks Kirby’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Monks Kirby has 10 places to visit in our interactive Monks Kirby map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Monks Kirby, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Monks Kirby places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Monks Kirby & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 10 audio facts unique to Monks Kirby places in an interactive Monks Kirby map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Monks Kirby Places Map
10 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Monks Kirby historic spots	Monks Kirby tourist destinations	Monks Kirby plaques	Monks Kirby geographic features
Walkfo Monks Kirby tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Monks Kirby

  

Best Monks Kirby places to visit

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Monks Kirby has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Monks Kirby’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Monks Kirby’s information audio spots:

Visit Monks Kirby plaques