Monks Kirby - History

History

Monks Kirby is dominated by the priory church of St Edith, a site of Christian worship since at least the 10th century AD.

The priory is long since ruined but the church remains, seeming out of proportion to the size of the village. The first church at the site was founded in 917 by Ethelfleda, daughter of Alfred the Great. After the Norman Conquest, King William gave vast areas of land to one of his knights, Geoffrey de la Guerche, a Breton, who had supported him in the invasion of England. A carved stone head still visible at the back of the church is said to be of Geoffrey de la Guerche. Geoffrey rebuilt the ruined Saxon church and dedicated it to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Denis the Patron Saint of France in 1077 (the church's 900th anniversary was celebrated in 1977). He also endowed it with a Benedictine prior and seven monks from the abbey of St Nicholas at Angers, France. The church was substantially rebuilt in around 1380 and in 1415 Henry V transferred the priory to the Carthusians of the Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire.

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 Denis, built in the neighbouring village of Pailton).

The Carthusian Order having been dissolved in 1538 in the Reformation, the priory and its property was given by the King to Thomas Mannyng, Bishop of Ipswich. The property changed hands several times over the course of the following 80 years until it arrived with Basil, Lord Feilding who was created Earl of Denbigh in 1622. The Denbigh family owned most of the village and the land around it until the mid-twentieth century, and they continue to live nearby (see below).

Meanwhile, the rectory and the advowson of the vicarage were granted by Henry VIII to his foundation of Trinity College Cambridge in December 1546. Trinity College continues to be involved in the church's affairs today but divested itself of substantial landholdings around Monks Kirby following the Second World War.

Up to the industrial revolution and the coming of the railways, Monks Kirby was one of the most important villages in this part of Warwickshire. Early in the 17th century the hundred of Knightlow (one of the county's main administrative divisions, which included all of modern day Coventry) was reorganized on a basis of four High Constables' divisions — Kenilworth, Monks Kirby, Rugby, and Southam. Monks Kirby retained its high constable until 1828.

The ecclesiastical parish of Monks Kirby still includes several neighbouring villages and hamlets: Pailton, Stretton-under-Fosse, Newbold Revel, Copston, Brockhurst, Street-Ashton and Easenhall. Historically, there was also a further hamlet in the parish of Monks Kirby: the village of Cestersover, abandoned in the Middle Ages.