Local History Group

Local History Group April Meeting

Written by Andy Bolam

The theme for this month was the gravestones in Marton’s churchyard and the group was fortunate to choose the only dry evening in April to pay a visit to this source of local history. For further information on this topic click here.

Other items covered at the meeting:

1. Next meeting 28th May: walk around Southam’s historic sites. Further details nearer the time. Please let David Fry know if you plan to attend and have not already notified him.

2. Birdingbury Local History Group open day Saturday 5th May, 10am-4pm in “The Club”

3. The Willoughby Society have a heritage day on 16th June

4. Gravestone project: Ways to present the gravestone plans and information will be discussed at the AGM in June. (What should we do with the recorded information about gravestones that has been digitised and organised by Angie? How can we make it easier for individual graves to be identified?)

Marton’s Gravestones

Written by Andy Bolam

The Local History Group has a project to document the gravestones in the churchyard and the history of some of the people buried there. Angie Woodhouse has been capturing digitally the gravestone information and Ann Gregory has been researching the history of some of the former villagers. (The format and content of the detailed output from the project is still work in progress). In April 2012 the Local History Group visited the graveyard, led in two sub-groups by Ann Gregory and David Fry. The following article summaries some highlights of that visit and subsequent discussions in the village hall. Photo, right, shows the front view of the church and churchyard around 1870.

The oldest gravestone is dated 1780. This does not reflect the period over which this has been a burial site; there is evidence that a church has been here at least since the 12th century.  What this does reflect is the relative poverty of the general population up to the 1600s.

The earliest headstones are made from local stone which, unfortunately, has tended to weather badly making many inscriptions illegible. Later ones are made of stone from elsewhere, reflecting the improvement in both transportation and relative wealth of the local population. Two of the current stones are made from slate and have weathered well – including the mason’s business name on one of them of “Thompson, Nuneaton”.

“Headers and footers” are a feature of several of the graves. The inclusion of both a headstone and a footstone was common in the 19th century and the latter were frequently annotated with just the deceased initials and year of death (of which there are some examples in the graveyard). These graves also highlight the general practise of burying the deceased facing East (i.e. with the footer to the East and header to the West). Many of the gravestones directly to the east of the church have the inscription on the western side of the stone, facing the main path through the graveyard and away from the grave plot itself.

The location of a grave was deemed to be significant. The southern side of the church and close to it was considered to be the prime spot for the wealthy members of the community to be buried. The northern side of the church would have been where the very poor, suicides and unchristened babies were interred. The two graves immediately to the right of the church porch and close to the wall belong to members of the Roadknight family who were major landowners in the area. Closer to the road on the southern side of the church are some graves belonging to another of the local landowning families, the Stean(e)s. See 1804 Enclosure map, left, showing landownership (the Biddulphs were from Birdingbury – see other article).

The oldest inhabitant of the churchyard appears to be John Wolfe who died in 1869 aged 100 years and is buried to the north of the church. Other graves reflect some of the variety of occupations held within the village:

• Richard Berry: collar maker, d. 1861 aged 86 years
• Henry Matthews: Inn Keeper at the Hare & Hounds, d. 1887 aged 71
• Willaim Webb: shoemaker, d 1892
• Joshua Hands: miller, d 1871 aged 73
• Noah Hedges: Marton’s 2nd railway station master, d. 1863 aged 38
• Ebenezer Sinclair: farmer and Shire horse breeder, d. 1941 (killed by one of his horses) aged 66
• Frank Whitehead: builder (built village school), d. 1916 aged 79
• Edward Steane: baker, d. 1979, aged 81
• Farringdon Fawkes: a travelling comedian from the county of Berkshire d. 1800

Photo, right, is from about 1904 which was before the second extension was made to the churchyard.

Some of the graves have some poignancy attached to their history. Against the eastern wall of the church is a small horizontal plaque with the name “Nicola” and some angels depicted on it. This is the memorial to Nicola Styles who died aged 5 in about 1967 and was made by a local artist Barbara Newsome (who was also responsible for many of the “Sunfaces” to be seen around the village today).

To the east of the church and the main path is the gravestone of John Bowles Robinson (d. 1883, aged 70) a local doctor and of his wife Mabel Farmer (d. 1868 aged 49). A little further to the east of this is a headstone which has been extended on both sides by smaller stone pieces, behind which are three footstones (with a gap which suggests there may have once been four such stones). These are the graves of four of John and Mabel’s children: Mabel aged 6 months, Mabel Elisabeth aged 5 months, Mary aged 4 years and Belinda aged 2 years. Another example of infant mortality is the Walker triplets Thomas, Robert and Richard who in 1822 all died within hours of birth.

Details of those killed in the 1st World War and with graves or memorials in the graveyard are given in another article. One man missing from this latter article (and the village memorial plaque) who was killed in this war is Arthur Bosworth. He died in 1918, aged 37, and is interred “North East of BAPAUME” as his memorial in the churchyard tells us (Bapaume is close to the Somme battlefields).

After the graveyard visit the Group returned to hear David Fry present some related matters.

With many people erecting gravestones from the late eighteenth century the original graveyard began to fill up. By 1895 century the first extension was negotiated and the footpath (“Jetty”) was realigned to take the course it has today (see diagram to left). The second extension was added in 1909 (see diagram to right).

Some interesting insights into life in earlier centuries can be gleaned from the dates and ages of those buried in the churchyard. For example, the longevity of people who survive their early years is perhaps more than we have been led to believe, perhaps because “average” figures are skewed by the high rate of infant mortality. The graph, right, which shows number of burials by year for age ranges (41 to 60, 61 to 80 and 81 to 100) suggests that if you survived to age 40 then it was very likely to that you would survive for another 30 years or so.

When the bungalows on the north side of North Street were being built in 1959, somewhere opposite the end of Shepherd Street, some stone coffins were uncovered with female remains inside. The origin of these is uncertain but one of the speculative theories is that they belonged to nuns from Nuneaton Priory (who were given responsibility for Marton church in 1155-60 and soon afterwards were noted as possessing land in the village).

Local History Group March Meeting

Written by Andy Bolam

In the March meeting an enthusiastic group of Martonians (and neighbouring villagers) visited Princethorpe College to hear about its history and to view the inside its church and school library. An account of the College history is given here.

Other items:

1. Next meeting (30th April) will start at 7pm, as, weather permitting, part of the time will be spent in the churchyard. The topic for the evening is “Marton’s Gravestones”. All are welcome. £3 entry includes a glass of wine.

2. David Fry thanked Biddy Allen for organising the trip and our hosts at the college Sean Philpott (pictured left) and Ann Grant.

History of Princethorpe College

Written by Andy Bolam

The following article gives some of the highlights of the history of the site of what is now Princethorpe College. It draws from information provided during a visit by the Local History Group to the College in 2012 and other sources.

In 1792 Benedictine nuns from Montargis near Orleans fled from France after being persecuted during the French Revolution and landed at Shoreham, near Brighton, on October 17th of that year. Mrs Fitzherbert, mistress to the Prince Regent (later King George IV), was a godmother to one of the nuns. She brought the Prince to visit the community and he asked them to stay in the safety of his country. The nuns sang the psalm verse "Domine salvum fac regem" for the Prince and the Prioress promised that they would continue to sing it daily in thanksgiving for the help they had received from him. This custom continued unbroken until the Order disbanded in the early 2000s.

Princethorpe (St Mary’s) Priory was established by these nuns in 1835. The delay in having a permanent site in England was mainly the result of laws, which, until the late 1820s, meant that land belonging to Catholics could be confiscated. When they moved to Princethorpe the only building present was, what is now, the gate house. At Princethorpe the nuns built a monastery (as nunneries were often called in those days) and school in a style reminiscent of their former home at Montargis. The land was used as a farm which was run by a bailiff. Originally the whole site was enclosed within a 6 foot high wall as the nuns were a closed order. At one time it was the biggest convent in England with over 200 nuns.

The community remained at Princethorpe for well over a century but dwindling vocations combined with educational developments ultimately made it impracticable for them to continue with the school and with a property of that size and they moved in 1966 to St Mary’s Priory, Fernham in Oxfordshire. Subsequently the decision was taken in December 2001 to close St Mary’s and the remaining nuns dispersed to other locations. (For further details see the St Mary’s website and the report to the Charity Commission on the events surrounding the closure.)

The original Priory building works (1833-35) were by Craven, with additions to the west and a former mortuary chapel of 1842-43 by Joseph Hansom. The old church, now, on the upper level, the College library, of 1835-7 by Craven, with alterations by Hansom completed in 1843. The Nun's Cemetery dates to c.1837-38. The front range, originally a Guest House of 1836-40, is probably by Hansom. More details are given on the Listed Buildings website.

The following historical comment is from the memoirs of Francis Kerril Amherst, D.D. Lord Bishop of Northampton: “Having been temporarily established in more than one house, they determined to purchase a property and build a convent as far as possible on the plan of that at Mont Argis, of which a cardboard model had been ingeniously made by one of their number. The first prioress of Princethorpe was Madame des Chastulet, a grand specimen of the ancient noblesse of France, commanding in her figure and presence, yet with all the courteous manners of a time gone by. The manners and customs of the house were for a long time French, and, to judge from the architecture, Mont Argis must have been erected in the tasteless style which prevailed in the time of Louis XVI”.

A.W Pugin had not been commissioned to do any of the original work at Princethorpe and does not seem to have thought much of the results. From a book about Pugin (The Pugins and the Catholic Midlands) he is quoted as saying: “It is a miserable specimen of the tawdry trashy taste of Modern religious. It is not even a ghost of an ancient nunnery”.

Part of the funding for the nuns at Princethorpe came from the dowry of nuns who joined the order. These latter nuns were usually titled ladies and were know as “Choir Sisters” who spent much of their time in the chapel, attending about 6 services a day. Nuns who had not brought funding with them were known as “Lay Sisters” and they had the role of a domestic servant. (This two-class system was typical of Benedictine nuns at that time).

Funding for the present Church came from (Mary) Hilda de Trafford (1875 -1965) daughter of Lady Annette Mary de Trafford; the family title having been taken from Trafford Park in Manchester. (Sources differ on which of these two actually funded the work, but it seems likely that it was paid for by Hilda’s dowry, which would have been funded by her mother Annette). Work on the church began in 1897 and completed in 1901. The designer was Peter Paul Pugin (son of Augustus Welby Pugin) who had developed his own recognisable style of church, curvilinear Gothic. Many of the internal furnishings were designed by Joseph Pippet, and most of the stained glass was by John Hardman and co. The organ was built by James Bins of Leeds. Extensive details of the Church architecture are given on the Listed Buildings website.

When the nuns moved to Fernham they took everything they could with them from Princethorpe. All that was left of the chapel were its basic structure which included the stalls attached to the walls. When St Mary’s Fernham closed some of the original items from the chapel were returned to Princethorpe including the statue of Our Lady Abbess, which is now back in its original location at the back of the church (pictured right). [In the days at Montargis it was the custom of the King of France to establish his favourites as Abbesses. To prevent this happening at Montargis, the community elected Our Lady as Abbess in perpetuity. When the community fled into exile in 1792 they were unable to take the original statue of Our Lady with them. The statue at Princethorpe was acquired in 1892. See Catholic Herald article for more details]

The current church is dedicated to “Our Lady of Angels” and 177 angels are depicted in it. In the covering over the alter are statues of four Archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. There are also two kneeling angels made from Italian marble (see picture top left). The Princethorpe Foundation have produced a booklet about “The Chapel of Our Lady of the Angels” which gives further details about all the angels depicted in the church. Under the alter is a reliquary containing the thigh bone of a saint from the catacombs in Rome.

Originally the church was for use solely by the nuns and there was a second row of stalls along each side of the choir (and no pews at all). The prioress and her deputy had their own special stalls at the rear (western) end of the church. The nuns spent most of the time standing in the stalls, but they did have a small drop-down seat to perch against while remaining on their feet.

The present-day Princethorpe College first opened its doors in September 1966. The College, run by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, had originated in Leamington in the late 1950s as St Bede's College. Now (2012) it has a Senior School (11 to 16) with 630 pupils and a Sixth Form College (16 – 18) with 180 pupils. The latter are housed in the new Sixth Form Centre, which opened in late 2007. The old chapel is now the school library (see ceiling Pictured left). Many alumni still attend midnight mass at the church so this service also acts as a “reunion” for ex-pupils. Since August 2011 the College has been part of The Princethorpe Foundation.

Local History Group February Meeting

Written by Andy Bolam

The well-attended meeting were treated this month to the World War II memories of local people. For a summary of these reminiscences and to find out who's mother the pictured land army woman is click here.

Other items covered at the meeting:

1. The next meeting is at 7pm on 26th March at Princethorpe College. Places need to be booked for this event - please contact David Fry if interested. Final details will be emailed to members so please ensure you have registered a current email address with the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

2. The Warwickshire Local History Society publish a journal twice a year. We have the three latest journals and these are available for members to borrow. Contact the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if interested, or pick one up at a Group meeting.

3. Aileen Withington of Birdingbury History Group invited everyone to their Open Day on Saturday 5th May in “The Club”

World War II memories of local Marton people

Written by Andy Bolam

The following notes are some of the highlights from the talks given to the Marton Local History Group in February 2012 by Biddy Allen, Sheila Needle, Pauline Hitchman, Jane Soni and Joan Cashmore, with additional input from the audience. The talks were introduced by Joan Sherratt who noted the presentations were originally given to the village Monday Group about 3 years ago to mark Armistice Day.

Biddy spoke about her mother who came to the area as part of the Women’s Land Army (WLA). The WLA was originally formed during the 1st World War but after this war ended it was disbanded, to be reformed again in June 1939. Biddy’s mother was born in 1922 and brought up in Birmingham. She wanted to join the WAAF but her parents were not happy about this so in 1941, aged 19, she joined the WLA instead. After two weeks farm training at Morton Morrell she went to work in Princethorpe at Priory Farm (later named College Farm, now no longer a farm). Here she was fed on boiled sausage and swede, and her work consisted of making butter and cheese and collecting eggs. The two photos show her in the official WLA uniform (left) and the clothes she normally wore for working in (below right).

There was no WLA workers in Marton, the main local centre being at Eathorpe. Biddy’s mother was the only one from the WLA working in Princethorpe and was quite lonely as a result. She only managed trips home twice a year and this involved walking to Leamington to catch a train.

After the war ended Biddy’s mother left the WLA, met her future husband and remained involved in farming in Princethorpe. Her war efforts were recognised by a personal message from the Queen (see photo below, left). Unfortunately she did not live long enough to receive the medal that was issued to the Land Girls in 2007.

Sheila Needle was 14 when the war started and she related her memories of war-time food. Rationing started in 1939 and some items remained rationed until long after the war ended. A weekly ration would include: 2 oz butter, 4 oz margarine, 2 oz cheese, 2 pints of milk (with dried milk in addition to this), 8 oz sugar. In addition there was a monthly ration of 1 lb of preserves. Sausages were rare but not rationed, with big queues for them when in stock.

The population were encouraged to grow their own vegetables and advised to render all fat to use in making pastry. Potatoes were added to pastry and carrots used in cakes. Unusual types of fish were sold, such as whale steaks and snoep fish, but, despite not being rationed, these were not generally popular. Dried milk, dried eggs and stale breadcrumbs were ingredients in many recipes.

The audience contributed to the theme of rationing. In the countryside food rationing did not hit so hard. There were better supplies of fresh milk and butter and a pig could be slaughtered for meat. Part of Jefferson Gardens in Leamington was turned into vegetable plots. Village shop-keepers bartered with local farmers so supplies did not always come and go through official channels. Some swapped their tobacco rations for other types of item.

Pauline spoke about life as a child evacuee. At the start of the war she had just started school and lived with her parents and two sisters in Kent, close to the Thames and Woolwich arsenal. She remembers the fighter planes going up the Thames and the flying bombs (“doodlebugs”) which dropped when their engines cut-out. The children used to compete with each other to see who could find the largest bits of shrapnel after a nights bombing. At night the family stayed in their Anderson shelter; this was made of corrugated iron and everything inside used to get soaked from condensation.

The family’s house was in a terrace of 4 houses and the next-door-but-one house took a direct hit from a bomb. Pauline was on the way to the shelter at the time and was covered in glass. After that there was very little glass left in the windows and the doors would not open or close properly.

Pauline was then evacuated to Wales with her eldest sister, together with a name tag and a gas mask with a horrid rubber smell. Her younger sister stayed with her parents – something which led to considerable jealousy on Pauline’s part. They went by train to Cardiff station which was very crowded when they arrived. She and her sister were allocated to an elderly couple who lived very close to the mountains. Pauline cried herself to sleep each night, but remembers never going without food and even being brought some bananas by the son of the couple they stayed with. Contact with her parents was very sparse, perhaps the odd postcard and she remembers her mother visiting on her 6th birthday. At school she was taught Welsh and recalls having music lessons.

Pauline can’t remember how long she was in Wales but afterwards her parents kept in touch with the elderly couple until the latter passed away. And Pauline later named her son after the son of the couple as he had been so kind to her.

Members of the audience noted that it was quite typical at the time for pupils of a school and their teachers to be evacuated together. The school at the location the evacuees went to was then operated in shifts with the local children and their teachers in one “shift” and the evacuated children and their teachers on another “shift”. This arrangement did nothing for the integration of evacuees and local children and in some instances there was a level of antipathy between them.

Jane related the story of her father who was killed during the war. He was born in 1908 and his father died when he was three. As a result of this one of his sisters was placed in an orphanage, another sister went to an aunt, but he stayed with his mother. Later he was sent to the London Orphanage School and went on to become an office boy in London. In 1933 he joined the Royal Navy and married in 1936 with Jane being born in 1938.

In 1939 Jane’s father volunteered for the submarine service as this was a better paid role. He was based in Scotland and on a mission to Norway he was killed in action. Knowing of the great risks of a submariner he wrote a letter to his wife on 6th May 1940 and lodged it with his sister, only to be given to his wife in the event that he did not return. Jane has this letter and she read much of its contents out. Amongst the things he wrote were a wish that Jane went to his old school and provided details of those that could help his wife with this, including an Admiral who knew him. He also suggested that the family move in with his sister and that his wife should not buy mourning clothes as they were a waste of money.

Jane was evacuated during the war and in 1945, aged 7, she did indeed go to her father’s old school. The girls’ section of this school moved to Hampshire but was then closed down soon after Jane left. (Jane went on to become Mayor of Southam in 2010/11).

Joan, who has lived in Marton all her life, was 18 when the war started. Initially life just carried on as normal but after a while events were organised to help the war effort. These events included auctions of donated items and most Saturday nights there were dances organised (“6 penny hops”), with a higher charge if a band was playing. Men from local military establishments came to the dances, such as from the RAF base at Church Lawford and American army soldiers came in jeeps from their camp at Stretton. The Women’s Institute organised fund-raising tea parties in the village hall, with flour supplies from the baker at Stockton.

The village had a Home Guard and fire fighters (see photo, above right) based in the hall. Evacuees from London were billeted with villagers and some people from Coventry stayed overnight here (to avoid the random bombing suffered as a result of having around 300 industrial areas spread round the city). Some evacuees stayed with Joan’s family for 3 years from September 1940; also her grandmother, who lived elsewhere in the village, stayed with them each night.

The village church and railway station were open as shelters each night. Troup and Red Cross trains were to be seen travelling also the line. After the war it was also discovered that ammunition trains regularly had been in the local sidings. One night Joan’s aunt in Sheppard Street found she had some army troops parked outside having stopped en-route to somewhere.

A large family of Italians lived in the village and they were in the ice-cream trade. They changed their name (from “Mancini” to “Victor”) in order to reduce their association with their Italian roots and possible internment. One of this family had the connections to get equipment to hold a fair in the field behind the, now defunct, Fox & Hounds pub.

Anti-aircraft guns at Ryton could be heard in the village from about November 1940, and in April 1941 planes were heard overhead on their way to blitz Coventry (see photo, above left). Joan’s father cycled to work at an aircraft factory in Whitley. He was known to pop into the odd pub on the way to “take shelter”. Marton had its own small war effort factory called “Marton Air”.

There was a Prisoner of War (POW) camp near Birdingbury Station (see map). The prisoners wore brown uniforms and the camp guards were generally those who were not fit enough to fight on the front line. The camp had social evening and Joan can remember catching a train to Birdingbury and then having to walk home afterwards along the most direct route which was the railway line.

The camp first held Italians, then Germans. After the war, in 1948, it was used as a hostel for displaced persons, mostly from Eastern Europe: Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. In 1953 it was modified to provide rental accommodation for young people for a while before being dismantled. Some of the POWs stayed in the area after the war; one of note was Heinz Kittendorf who became a local milkman, well-respected member of the Stretton community and district councillor (more details of his life in this Coventry Telegraph article). “Gerd” also stayed and became a local painter and decorator.

Joan’s fiancé, Charles, was away for four years from 1942, ending up in 1945 involved in railway-related work in Italy. On his return they married in 1946 and had 63 years together before he passed away. Marton has no Second World War memorial because all 24 of the men and two women from the village who served in the forces returned safely when the war ended.

At the meeting there was also a display organised by Ann Gregory which included identity bracelets, baby’s gas mask, photos of the volunteer fire brigade and a log book of the local wardens. Many of the items were from of the village museum collection.