Local pictures of the pilgrimage that took place around the Coventry Diocese in 1962 to mark the dedication of the new Coventry Cathedral.  The 1962 pictures were taken by Beebie Winters who owned the sweet shop that was in Southam Street in the sixties.

A repeat of the pilgrimage took place in April 2012.

There is no memorial to William Talbot, vicar of Kineton from 1746 to 1768, yet he was not only a man who achieved fame for his evangelical preaching all over England, but also the man who was responsible for the greatest changes to the church building in its long history. In a way, the church building as a whole should be thought of as his legacy, and though he has no tangible monument, that to John Welchman, Kineton’s doctor, and his family, reflect the society in which William Talbot moved.

William Talbot entered Exeter College, Oxford in 1737, at the age of 20. His grandfather was Bishop of Durham, and another ancestor had been Lord Chancellor of England. His family owned Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire. After graduating, little is known of him until he was presented with the living in Kineton. It seems likely that he had spent the intervening years studying in Oxford, where he would have met members of the strong evangelical movement established there. Talbot was known to be a friend of John Wesley, but like Wesley until the very end of his life, Talbot remained strictly within the Anglican fold. He proved very popular in Kineton, where most people enjoyed his relaxed services and fiery sermons. But for some his style was thought to be eccentric, and he is referred to as ‘The Hot-brained Methodistical Vicar of Kineton’. One Mr Trotman of Shellswell Manor found ‘the Evangelist’, as Mr Talbot was called by his friends, rather long-winded – for he remarks in his diary: “Stayed at Kineton, and went to church, when Talbot preached both long and tediously.”

One of Talbot’s close friends was Sanderson Miller of Radway, and although he was at times critical of Talbot’s evangelical style, he still appreciated the power of his rhetoric

That day Talbot preached a sermon on the success of the war, and a noble thanksgiving it was. Nobody ever preached a better. It was quite free of that Methodistical doctrine that has so sadly sunk the character of our friend. I was so pleased with the discourse that I gave Mr Talbot 2 guineas to be given to the poor of Kineton, and 5 guineas towards building a bridge over the brook where carriages had been in great danger of being lost.

It was Sanderson Miller who Talbot asked to bring the church bang up-to-date, at his own expense. Sanderson Miller was a ‘gentleman architect’ who, though an amateur, had become a leader of the development of the new ‘Gothick’ style, characterised by ogee arches and delicate tracery. His work can be seen in extensively in Warwickshire, for example at Radway Manor, Arbury Hall, Farnborough, and Walton, and across a large part of central England, from Buckinghamshire to Somerset. So Kineton church was, in 1756, the height of fashion, with an enlarged nave, new transepts, and a great deal of Gothic tracery around the windows. Unfortunately before too long fashions changed, and much of Miller’s work was swept away 130 years later at the next restoration of the building.

In about 1763 Talbot was moved to St Giles, Reading. To the parishioners dismay, his successor clamped down hard on the relaxed ways that Talbot had introduced, with the result that many of the congregation moved to the new independent chapel.

By Gillian Ashley-Smith

Like her grandmother’s memorial window, the memorial window to Katherine Verney was made by Powell of Whitefriars, and is in their order book for 1897 – 1902. According to the order book it was painted by one J D Egan, an artist about whom absolutely nothing is known. He was clearly influenced by the work of the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, most obviously in the style of the angels at the top of the window, and the glorious, glowing colours of the robes and draperies. The subject is the raising of Jairus’ daughter. The memorial window was put there by Katharine’s father, and how poignant is the scroll between the angels that says “The damsel is not dead but only sleepeth”.

Katharine was born in 1875, the second daughter of Henry, 18^th Lord Willoughby de Broke, and thus a niece of Mabel Verney. She was well known in Kineton, especially at St Peter’s, where she became a Sunday School teacher, and (successfully) took a bible class with a lively group of boys!

She also took part in the ‘Amateur’ dramatics so beloved of the Verney family. One newspaper report describes her appearance as Mrs Woodcock in “Woodcock’s Little Game” as an ‘absolute triumph’ in a play full of ‘bustle, brisk dialogue and causing convulsions of laughter on the part of the audience’. Those performances, in January, 1896, were to raise money for the organ and vestry of St Peter’s, and took place on three evenings. Two performances, with seats costing 2s 6d or 1s unreserved, were obviously for the people of Kineton; the other (the last night) cost 7s 6d or 5s, and involved the running of a special train back to Stratford and Ettington at 10.30pm. Presumably that evening was designed to raise as much money as possible from the ‘county set’!

The next January she was back on stage, but few would have guessed that the young Katharine was making her last stage appearance. In July of that year, 1897, a few days after her 22^nd birthday, she was taken ill and died. Her father was truly devastated. He and Katharine had become very close after the death of her mother in 1894, and she had been his companion on many engagements. You may visit her unmarked grave, which is beside that of her mother under the small obelisk at Compton Verney, but we are lucky to have her colourful and artistic memorial as a window to look at and enjoy in St Peter’s.

© Gillian Ashley-Smith 2007

Near the wall of the churchyard adjacent to the HSBC bank, roughly equidistant from the gate and the church door, is a stone which commemorates Charles Parsons. He died in 1803 aged 68, “for many years Preacher of the Gospel at Little Kineton Chapel”. If you catch it in the right light, it is easy to read (though on a dull day almost illegible).

Amazingly, Charles Parsons provides a tenuous link between William Wilberforce and Kineton vicar (William Talbot vicar from 1717 until 1774), and the Independent Chapel in Little Kineton. The chapel was pulled down in the 1980s, and nothing remains of it except, possibly, the iron gate in the railings at the entrance to Norton Grange. Once, it is reputed, this led to their old burial ground.

Charles is said to have had a dramatic conversion to Christianity.

“He would make mention of to his friends, that when a farmer’s servant, and but a boy, he was melted down, while at his work in the fields, under a sense of the love of God in sending his son into the world to save sinners. These reflections led him to retire under the branches of a spreading tree, and pour out his soul to God in prayer…”

He spent the first half of his life as a servant, first with William Talbot, the evangelical vicar of Kineton who was here from 1717 to 1774, and then with William Wilberforce, uncle of the campaigner for the abolition of the slave trade. While with the Wilberforce family he helped conduct their daily worship and Mrs Wilberforce is quoted as prophesying “Charles, when I am dead, you will go into your own country and preach the gospel to the poor.”

That prophesy came true in 1780 when Charles was 55. The vicar who followed William Talbot was “inimical to evangelical doctrine”, and led the parish away from the informal style of services that Talbot had introduced. Some of the congregation were unhappy with the way things were going, so they invited Charles Parsons back to Kineton to preach to them. His services were so popular that he was persuaded to return to live in the village.

During the 1790s a chapel was built at Little Kineton in which he preached twice every Sunday but “seldom at an hour when divine service was at the church, lest it might be construed into opposition” and because both he and his congregation “were all partial to the prayers of the Established church, where they continued to hold communion.” The independent church continued until 1895, and the building was not demolished until the cottages in Little Kineton were built.

Charles Parsons, though, as his tombstone says, died suddenly in 1803. He left his house one morning to attend the sale of a deceased clergyman’s library, where he hoped to buy some useful books to give away in the village. The sale had still not ended when he needed to return to Kineton, so he gave the catalogue into the hand of a friend; asking him to bid for further lots. Suddenly, “in the act of folding down the leaf, he fell, and, without sigh or struggle, instantly expired”.

His death touched many. Some inhabitants of the village came into the room where his coffin lay, “to drop a tear upon his body before it was finally enclosed; some exclaiming “Alas, my friend!” and others, “Alas, my father!”” The sermon preached on the solemn occasion attracted many more than the chapel could hold “all of whom, even to the children, appeared during the service bathed in tears.”

He died a wealthy man, leaving well over £600. Maybe he was not a typical ‘servant’, but perhaps an educated man managing employees’ affairs. I don’t know.

© Gillian Ashley-Smith 2007

By Gillian Ashley-Smith

The old village of Kineton comes to life when we look at the second oldest monument, the small brass on the wall over the font which commemorates the life of John Venour, ‘surgeon’. The brass tells us (in Latin), he was a man of ‘noble’ birth, who died in 1722 at the age of 52. If you look carefully on the floor nearby, you can see the indentation where the brass has been lifted from his tombstone. Church records also tell us that he was made Churchwarden in 1705.

A search at the Warwick Record Office will reveal that he left a Will and an Inventory of his property – and, what’s more, you can touch and handle that very Will, and read the signature that he put on the parchment in Kineton nearly 300 years ago. He was a wealthy man, whose estate was valued at £2276 8s 6d. He had several sisters, but no direct heir, and he left his money to them, and to Kineton Church. £20 was to be for a silver flagon and chalice, and £30 was to be for ‘gowns for the poor of the parish’. Although Kineton received several charitable gifts over the years which are still paid out, John Venour’s gift lapsed in the 1780s, when the last recorded payment was made by another John Venour of Wellesbourne.

At the time John Venour lived, much of Kineton was owned by the Earl of Warwick. In 1776, some 50 years after John Venour’s death, the Earl’s agents made a detailed survey of his Kineton properties. From descriptions in that survey, and from the details in John Venour’s inventory, which describes a house with 3 bedrooms and 3 garrets, it is possible to make an educated guess that John Venour lived at Dene House in Bridge Street. The Inventory describes exactly the tools of his trade – drugs, medicines, gallipots, boxes ‘and other things’, the second chamber is described as being ‘over the shop’ and had a bed, a bedstead, bolsters, blankets and (inevitably) ‘other things’, while the parlour contained two tables, 12 chairs, a looking-glass, pictures, a fire shovel and tongs, and a fender plate.

© Gillian Ashley-Smith

By Gillian Ashley-Smith

In 1806 the Verneys, the family name of the Lords Willoughby de Broke, became Lords of the Manor of ‘Great’ Kineton, and a few years later of ‘Little’ Kineton as well. Although they continued to live at Compton Verney, they owned much of the property in Kineton, which was rented out by a process of copyhold, allowing the tenancy of properties, small-holdings and farms to pass safely from generation to generation without fear of eviction. It was a popular system with the tenants, and the Verneys were well liked. An even closer link was established when the 17^th baron died in 1862. Following his death, his widow, still only in her thirties, moved to Kineton House – the mansion house on the Norton Grange development in Little Kineton, allowing her eldest son to occupy the family seat at Compton Verney. So began an even closer association between Kineton and the Verneys.

No memorial in St Peter’s is more obvious or spectacular than the great East window over the altar, which commemorates Georgiana, 17th Lady Willoughby de Broke, the widowed lady who was the first Verney to live in Little Kineton. In 1892, three years after she died, her family (one of whom was Mabel Verney of whom I wrote recently) installed the stained glass. Her eldest son, Henry, the 18^th Lord, went to what was probably the best glass making firm in the country, Powells of Whitefriars. The fame of this firm had spread when they had been used by William Morris, and they were associated with the production of fine glass in wonderful colours. The window was designed by J W Brown, and its delicacy still dominates the church, in the same way that the woman it commemorates dominated the well-being of Kineton in her life time.

Born into a Devon family that could trace its ancestry to the Governors of Calais and the battle of Agincourt, Georgiana Jane Taylor came to Kineton after her marriage in 1842. She was only eighteen when she married the 33 year-old Robert Barnard, vicar of Lighthorne. Ten years later she may have been surprised to find herself wife of the 17^th Lord Willoughby de Broke, who succeeded unexpectedly to the title, and they were obliged to change their name to Verney as a condition of his inheritance! She had seven children, born between 1844 and 1855.

Once widowed, Georgiana spent the rest of her life (and a great deal of money) on the needs of the villagers of Kineton. She was generous with gifts for the poor, but the most prominent and permanent memorial to her efforts is the building on the Warwick Road, now known as Roxburgh House, which was erected in 1862, the year of her husband’s death, as the Kineton Middle Class School at a time when it was thought middle class education was deficient in the country. As well as serving as a school with accommodation for 30 boarders, the new building offered a permanent home for the reading room and library of the Kineton Literary Society and a venue for lectures and concerts. Having established the school, Georgiana moved her attention to the needs of the adult population. In 1866 she arranged for the building in the centre of the Market Square to be converted to a club room and assembly rooms for the entertainment (and education) of the Kineton people. Not much more than 10 years later, when the renewal of the licence of the New Inn was refused, Georgiana rose to the occasion by establishing a coffee tavern also in the Market Square. It was intended as a meeting place for workmen and labourers who were supposed to go there instead of frequenting public houses!

Until the illness that led to her death, Georgiana Jane was an ardent churchwoman, who was known for strict observance of Sunday, and who rarely missed church services. It is fitting that present-day churchgoers should be reminded so forcibly of her life when they contemplate the lovely window that recalls her memory.

© Gillian Ashley-Smith 2006

By Gillian Ashley-Smith

One of the early churchwardens of St Peter’s, John Venour, donor to the church in the eighteenth century, almost certainly lived at Dene House, in Bridge Street. Amazingly, just over 150 years later, another churchwarden was living in Dene House. He, too, is recorded by church brass, and he, too, gave a notable memorial to the church.

The churchwarden of whom I write is John Griffin, who ran a grocer’s shop in Bridge Street for much of his long life. He was born at Tub’s End, Butlers Marston in 1828, and certainly by the early 1850s was living in Bridge Street with his young wife, Martha, as a grocer and wine merchant. There are photographs of him standing outside his imposing shop. Although Dene House has not for many years been used as a shop, its decorated wooden shop-front still stands in Kineton today, round the entrance to Country Pursuits. It was moved there between the wars, after his death. He was well known in Kineton, and at the age of 34 was elected churchwarden, a post he was to hold for 54 years – a record for Kineton. It was said he seldom missed morning or evening services in all those years.

As one of the most respected businessmen of Kineton, while still busy with the Bridge Street shop, John Griffin became a founding director of the Gas Company (one of the earliest registered companies in the country), and would have overseen the building of the gas works on the Warwick Road. He became Managing Director in 1888, in time to lead his company away from involvement with an expensive scheme to develop clean water for the village. It was another matter when they were asked to lend their support to the provision of street lighting (by gaslight!). As chairman of the school attendance board, he was also much involved with the school.

John Griffin, of course, was churchwarden throughout the amazing transformation of the church between the mid 1870s and 1882, when the vicar, Francis Miller, decided to do away with the ‘old-fashioned’ Gothick church that his grandfather had designed for Kineton little more than 100 years before. Francis Miller virtually rebuilt the church, replacing the windows, adding pinnacles outside, and galleries and new pews within. Somehow the churchwardens managed to accommodate all the building work without cancelling any services. When the work was nearly complete, to add ‘the finishing touch’, John Griffin led a small group to London to choose a new clock, and to raise money for it. When it was installed in 1885, he was heard to joke that he hoped a good clock that told the time loudly would make trade a little less quiet! It may have been the concern with church fabric that gave him the idea of erecting the large stained glass window in the south transept when his wife died in 1894 on their 42^nd wedding anniversary.

John himself lived on to the age of eighty-seven. The parishioners subscribed for a memorial for him, and in his memory bought the large brass candlesticks and the bronze and silver altar cross, which is inscribed:-“A.M.D.G., and in memory of John Griffin, churchwarden of St Peter’s, Kineton, 53 years.” The mysterious letters AMDG ( Ad Maiorum Dei Gloriam, for the greater glory of God) often appear on items donated to the church.

© Gillian Ashley-Smith 2008

By Gillian Ashley-Smith

There is a monument, with an inscription entirely in Latin, on the south wall of the chancel, just in front of the altar rail. The first line mentions ‘Edvardi Nicolas’, Edward Nicolas, curate of St Peter’s in the early 1740s. Edward Nicolas was also chaplain to the Lord of the Manor, which at that time was held jointly by the three Bentley sisters, who lived in Little Kineton. (The Manor House in those days stood somewhere near the Yew trees on the bend of the present road from Kineton, not where the ‘Mansion House’ stands today.)

Edward’s family seems to have been quite well connected, and the family seat was in Southampton, somewhere under the present airport! Why he came to Kineton is not clear, but his brother also appears to have come to Warwickshire, and was resident in Butlers Marston. Harriet Nicolas, age 5, who was either Edward’s young niece, or possibly his baby sister, also lived with the Bentley sisters. Edward became engaged to Grace, one of the three heiresses.

One day in 1744, the little girl, Harriet Sophia Nicholas, was left at the house with the cook while the rest of the family went to church. The coachman decided this was the moment for him to steal some of the fine silver plate owned by the Bentleys. He entered the house, murdered the cook, and took what he wanted of the plate. The little child, when she saw the cook attacked, fled in terror and hid herself.
On their return from church the family were greatly shocked at discovering the theft and the accompanying murder; they were still more alarmed, for they could not find the child. They searched in every direction, but in vain. At last they found her. She had taken refuge in the back kitchen, in the large furnace under the big copper. There she was sitting quite contently, amusing herself with a pack of cards, one of them being in her hand.

Whether the shock of all this led to Edward Nicolas’ death I don’t know, but the church memorial records his sudden death in 1745, and rumour had it that Grace died of a broken heart soon after. In about 1830, Thomas Ward, a local antiquarian, wrote an account of the monuments of Kineton church. In it he describes how Edward Nicolas and Grace Bentley were buried in the same grave in the chancel, and that their memorial stones faced each other. Edward’s is there to this day, but at some time Grace’s stone was removed and presumably destroyed. Were it not for Thomas Ward, we should have no way of knowing the truth of this romantic tale. In elegant Latin it said

Here lies
Edward Nicholas.
Do not wonder, reader,
That under the same stone
Lie buried the remains of
Grace Anne Bentley.
For the afore-mentioned Edward,
When the marriage torch was almost lit,
was snatched away by unjust fate.
Grieving most wretchedly for seven years
She herself at last yielded to fate.
And being all but his wife
She wanted to rest here.
The fifth daughter of
Charles and Elizabeth Bentley,
Lamented by many she died 9th April AD1752
Age 35 years

It is also said that the little girl died soon after, and is buried with the two lovers.

© Gillian Ashley-Smith 2008

by Gillian Ashley-Smith

In the corner of St Peter’s churchyard tucked between the South transept and the Chancel you will find a modest stone marking the grave of one Mabel Verney.

The Honourable Mabel Verney died in May 1937, and at her funeral over 100 wreaths adorned that corner of the churchyard. She was born at Compton Verney, in 1855, the youngest daughter of the 17th Lord Willoughby de Broke and his wife Georgiana. Her father died when she was only seven years old, but her mother enjoyed a long life and did much for Kineton (her memorial is the great east window of Kineton church, and I will write about her later in this series). It may have been her mother’s influence that inspired the young Mabel to set about a life of public service.

By the time Miss Verney was 35 she had set up her own house at Diana Lodge, Little Kineton, (conveniently close to the cricket ground where she was renowned for serving cricketers’ teas right up to the time of her death). Before long she had joined the Stratford Board of Guardians (who ran the Stratford Workhouse). Her concern was always for the poor and deprived, and she took her place in a relatively enlightened team trying to make the Workhouse a more humane place. At around the same time she became a member of the first Parish Council in Kineton, who supported her idea of setting up a ‘Nursing Association’ for the village. Diana Lodge was used as the meeting place when the first plans for this project took shape. By 1895 subscriptions to the Nursing Association (2s for labourers, up to 10s for the wealthy) entitled those who fell ill to the services of a live-in nurse, who would run the house and look after the children, as well as care for the patient. I have been told that Miss Verney herself would take on such duties. Certainly I have heard one vivid memory of her rolling up her sleeves at the old police house in Banbury Street to scrub floors and look after the children when ‘Mum was ill and Dad away at the War’. The Association continued up to and beyond the coming of the National Health Service.