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A brief history of Barford (cont.)
The Norman invasion and beyond
The Norman invasion of 1066 brought about massive changes. Land was taken away from the Anglo-Saxon overlords, given to William’s barons and a feudal organisation imposed. A comprehensive survey of the settlement was recorded in Domesday Book of 1086. Barford thus came under the control of successive "Lords of the Manor". First were the de Bereford family, followed by the Naffords. The Verdon family held another Manor from 1212 till 1385 when it passed to Lord Willoughby de Broke and the Earls of Warwick. Early in the thirteenth century, lands in Barford were given by Henry de Bereford to the canons of Thelsford Priory. By 1332, the friars were the largest landowners in the village. They had a large farm or "Grange" opposite St Peter’s church.
The Lords of the Manor leased land to their tenants and at the bottom of the social pile were the serfs who lived like slaves in hovels, unable to escape as they were forced to wear a metal identity collar. They could be called upon to till the land and to grind their corn at the manorial mill, do construction work or fight for their lord as required and even had to seek their lord’s permission for their daughters to many.
Better placed were the “borders or cottars” who possessed some rights to cultivate the open fields and graze their animals but had to work on certain days for the Lord of the Manor.
By 1538, Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and Thelsford Priory estates were acquired by a lawyer named Thomas Ward(e) who built a magnificent timber-framed house known as Barford Hall (pictured above), on the site of the Priory Grange. In the late 1700s, Charles Warde sold the estate to the 2nd Earl of Warwick and the house was demolished.
The Ward family sold the right to the living at Barford to Revd. John Mills who was installed as Rector in 1745. He had two sons, Francis and Charles and by 1812 about two thirds of the lands in Barford were in their hands. Francis succeeded his father as Rector holding this position for 56 years. Charles became MP for Warwick holding his seat for six parliaments.
In the course of time, the principal inhabitant of the parish came to be known as the “squire”, an example being the Ward family.
The Fairfax family later lived in a manor house (pictured right) on the land which used to be the recreation ground but is now Fairfax Close. Incidentally a descendent, Robert Fairfax, inaugurated the Leamington Courier newspaper and later emigrated to Australia where he bought the Sydney Morning Herald.
The recreation ground mentioned above lasted until 1938 when the King George V Jubilee Trust Fund enabled the present playing field to be acquired as a permanent open space. If the squire was also the parson he would be known as the "Squarson". An example was Revd. Cecil Mills who lived in the Rectory, now the Glebe Hotel and who died in 1902. As Squire he had the special right to own a dovecote to provide much needed fresh meat in winter. Charles Smith-Ryland of Barford Hill was known as "squire" until his death when the term fell into disuse as being inappropriate for the late 20th Century.
Bridges and roads
In 1339, a document refers to "the ford at Barford", the river crossing point important since Anglo-Saxon times. The first record of a medieval bridge is in 1484 and was described by Leland in 1540,as "a greate stone bridge over the Avon consisting of eight fayre arches".
Ireland’s "Warwickshire Avon" published in 1795, tells of the building of the present bridge (pictured right) in sandstone by the architect Henry Couchman, the County Bridgemaster, at a cost of just over £2,400. It replaced a Gothic one with seven arches and a small tower at its northern end which was falling into decay.
The route from Barford into Warwick lay through the Castle Park, past the "Hunting Lodge", across Leyfields Bridge, built in 1772, emerging at the bottom of West Street. Sadly this road was closed to villagers in 1800 by the Earl of Warwick who paid compensation of £5 a year in the form of coal to be distributed to the poor of the parish.
Another route into Warwick used to run from the Asps across the Castle Park and over the now collapsed stone bridge at the bottom of Mill Street. The Ram Inn was to be found in the park strategically positioned to refresh thirsty travellers. In 1761, a dam was constructed to form a lake known to this day as "New Water".
The present-day route of the Banbury Road was opened in 1782 when the "new" bridge over the Avon in Warwick was completed. This gave villagers easier access to Whitnash, which, like Warwick, was an important trading centre with markets twice a week.
In 1686 the main route from Barford to Wasperton ran from near Forge Cottage following the river to the present Memorial Oak tree. At this time the maintenance of the present A429 was the responsibility of the parishes through which it ran but in 1750 a “Turnpike Trust” was formed which took over this responsibility and there were toll gates every five miles The Trusts continued until 1872 when they were dissolved. The Longbridge Toll House (pictured right) was relocated to Church Lane in Barford and became the Lodge to Watchbury.
End of the open fields
The Enclosure Act of 1761 took away from villagers the long-held right to farm under the strip system and from then the parish began to take on its present day appearance. Inevitably as the strips were incorporated into large fields many villagers lost their source of food production, so “allotments” of land of about two or three acres were made available to them. The Church allotments date back to the 1760s when they were given to the church in exchange for meadow land at Westham.
