Wootton Wawen includes Austy Manor

Recorded in the Domesday survey as Wotone, Wootton Wawen suffers a little from the traffic passing through from Henley-in-Arden to Stratford but it remains a very picturesque village. Things used to be much worse when this was the main Birmingham to Stratford road prior to the construction of the M40 motorway. However, it was the old turnpike road that brought some trade and prosperity, along with the Birmingham and Stratford-on-Avon Canal which passes through the parish. The waterway crosses the main road via an aqueduct that was constructed by William Whitmore in 1813. The canal and turnpike roads brought trade to and through the village and, of course, provided key transport links for finished goods and agriculture produce. There was a mill in operation at Wootton Wawen; the building was used for the production of paper in the 18th and 19th centuries. With parts of the tower dating back to Saxon times, the parish church is the oldest in the county.  Indeed, the village's name is of Saxon origin. Under a charter granted by King Aethalbad of Mercia to Earl Aethelric, a wooden church was erected here in the early 8th century. The present building has elements of almost every period of architecture from an Anglo-Danish crossing tower and Norman herringbone masonry to Victorian restoration work by George Gilbert Scott Junior. The church has the only chained library in Warwickshire.  Located between the mill and the church is Wootton Hall, a building described by the art historian Nikolaus Pevsner as "a large, dignified mansion of 1687."  It was built by Francis Smith, 2nd Viscount Carrington. His Catholic father lost his estate for his support of King Charles and left the country for a number of years.  His brother, Sir John Smith, stuck around and was knighted for his actions at Edge Hill in 1642.  Francis Smith succeeded to his father's title. There is a figure of him inside the church and this has been described as "looking rather like an old gentleman reclining on a park bench."  Prior to the Norman conquest, the manor was held by Waga [or Wahen] but were awarded to Robert de Toeni, who took the name of de Stadford [or Stafford]. The manor passed to the Marquis of Dorset and Sir John Grey who sold it to the Smythe family. Although the hall remained in their ownership, the house was generally occupied by a tenant.  For example, in the late 19th century the residence was owned by Sir Charles Smythe of Acton Burnell Hall in Shropshire, but occupied by Henry Wickham.
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The Bull's Head can be seen here to the rear of the village green in a photograph taken in the inter-war years. It is a picture postcard timber-framed building that was probably built in the 16th century, some claim 1597. There is a stone which assigns the construction date of the L-shaped building as 1317 but this is highly improbable, spurious even. A lintel on a fireplace is recorded as having  the inscription M 1697 TH, these being the initials of the couple who once occupied part of the property. I say part because the building comprises of two separate cottages that have been combined at some point. John Holmes was the publican of the Bull's Head in the 1860's. Born in Uttoxeter in 1839, he kept the pub with his wife Mary who hailed from Wellesbourne. She succeeded him as licensee. William Holmes was mine host in 1881 but I am not sure if he is part of the same clan. He hailed from Aston Cantlow where his parents kept a farm. William was a coal dealer in his early working life. However, at the Bull's Head he was documented as both victualler and baker. He and his wife Elizabeth had two young children running around the place and the couple employed Elizabeth Edgenton as a domestic servant. The couple soon returned to Aston Cantlow where William continued as a baker but this time on a farm that he managed with Elizabeth. Charles Hudson was the licensee of the Bull's Head in the 1890's.  Born in Alderminster around 1831, he kept the pub with his wife Sarah. The couple had previously lived next to the Traveller's Rest [see below] when Charles Hudson had worked as a carter.  He had earlier worked as an agricultural labourer when they lived close to Edstone Hall. Looking at the pub's website in April 2009, I noted that the proprietors of the Bull's Head were recorded as Mr Andrew and Lady Wendy Parry. The website suggested that they were also operating the Duck on the Pond at Long Itchington. They had appointed Bruce Fisher as manager of the Bull's Head. The pub had operated as a Bass Toby Inn during the 1980's and early 1990's.
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The life of the Navigation Inn has been intrinsically linked to the Stratford-on-Avon Canal which was constructed between 1793 and 1816. For a canal that measures a little over twenty-five miles, the timeframe for the construction project may seem rather protracted. However, funding for the inland waterway literally dried up in 1896 and it was another four years before work recommenced. William Clowes was the original engineer when work started in 1793 and he was responsible for the cutting from the junction with the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at King's Norton to Hockley Heath. His most challenging landscape feature was at Brandwood where a tunnel had to be excavated. Samuel Porter was the engineer in charge of the project when work started again in 1800 and, although the canal was cut through to Kingswood Junction near Lapworth, the project fell into financial difficulties again. It was not until 1812 that the real impetus to take the canal to Stratford was achieved. It is the southern stretch of the canal that features most of the fifty five locks for which the lakes at Earlswood were required to feed water into the canal. The story of the canal's construction suggests that the Navigation Inn was built around the same time that Napoleon was attempting to defeat the Russians. It is possible that a pub served the needs of thirsty navvies as work continued through Wootton Wawen. However, the building's principal purpose and reason for being was to capitalise on future transportation passing along the canal's route. Boatmen required refreshment and victuals, horses needed attention and goods such as coal were transferred from the canal to the locality here at the Navigation Inn. The fact that the pub fronts the old turnpike is recognition that it was not only boats that were served by this house. The striking interface between the two transport links is the aqueduct next to the Navigation Inn. One of three aqueducts on the canal, this was constructed by William Whitmore in 1813. Early trade on the canal was good and probably peaked in the mid-19th century when the railways started to compete and eventually took traffic away from the inland waterways. Indeed, the canal was sold to the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway Company in 1856. The canal fell into disrepair between the wars and was almost abandoned in the 1950's. Thankfully, the National Trust helped to fund the canal's restoration, the work for which was largely conducted by volunteers and inmates from Winson Green prison. Let's wind the clock back to the early days of the canal at Wootton Wawen. The couple running the Navigation Inn during the canal's halcyon days were Charles and Mary Ann Dawes. Charles was recorded as a coal merchant so no doubt was supplied by the canal barges enabling him to retail to residents in the local area. In the late 1850's they had three daughters living at the Navigation Inn and the couple employed Henley-born Fanny Ingram as a general servant. Their son Charles had left home to serve his apprenticeship at a draper's shop in Pershore. He later operated his own draper's shop in Stourbridge. His elder brother William also followed this line of work in Birmingham following an early career as a travelling salesman. Following the death of Charles Dawes senior, widow Mary Ann went to live with her daughter at Harborne. William and Sophia Ivens were running the Navigation Inn during the early 1870's. This couple had previously run a substantial farm at Great Alne before entering the licensed trade. William Ivens was born in Snitterfield near Stratford-on-Avon in 1805 but his wife Sophia hailed from the St.Pancras area of London. William died in 1880 and the Navigation Inn was taken over by the Whitehouse family. Born in Hampton-in-Arden in 1841, Joseph Whitehouse was the son of a farmer but worked as a miller when his parents took over Hill Farm in Wootton Wawen. Also trading  as a coal merchant, he kept the Navigation Inn with his wife Caroline. The couple remained as mine hosts for the rest of the 19th century.
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Esther Reading was the licensee of the New Inn during the 1870's. Born in Stratford-on-Avon in 1801, she had married Charles Reading, a coal dealer from Warwick. He was engaged in this trade during the 1840's when the couple, along with six children, were living in a home they had established in Wootton Wawen near the tollgate and Mayswood Road. Indeed, this may have been the property that would  become the beer house as it was in this location on the turnpike road to Henley-in-Arden and Birmingham. Esther Reading was a 70 year-old widow when she was running the New Inn at the time of the 1871 census. She lived on the premises with grandson Charles and granddaughter Jane, both of whom were young teenagers. It was another granddaughter named Esther Howe who was helping her when she was in her eighties. Thomas Mann was the publican in the early 1890's. Also working as a wheelwright, he kept the beer house with his wife Jane who hailed from Kidderminster. The couple had been living in the village for around twenty years where Thomas had been offering his services as a wheelwright just a short distance away from the New Inn. Combing the two trades was probably viewed as a natural progression. The busy turnpike would have brought much passing custom for his primary profession and, whilst awaiting a repair, what better for customers than to enjoy some refreshment in the Mann's wayside inn. Born in Long Itchington, Thomas Mann had developed his skills at a wheelwright's shop close to the Crown Inn at Napton-on-the-Hill.
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The building that housed this former beer house still exists but it is a long time since pints were pulled at the Traveller's Rest Inn. Edward Beck was the licensee of the Traveller's Rest at the time of the 1871 census. The son of the tailor Joseph Beck, Edward was born in Stockton in 1840. He and his brother Henry both worked for his father at the tailor's shop next to the village pub where Henry may have got a taste for the trade. He kept the Traveller's Rest Inn with his wife Elizabeth and the couple had three young children Edward, George and Daisy running around the place. The Beck family later moved to a farm in Berkswell but this was seemingly not a success so they moved to Leamington where Edward worked as a gardener. It would appear that the Traveller's Rest was later run by a bohemian for Nottinghamshire-born Edwin Davies was recorded as an artist and a beerhouse keeper. He lived at the Traveller's Rest with his Smethwick-born wife Sarah and teenage daughter Annie. There was certainly no shortage of scenic views for Edwin to paint - he only had to look out of the front window. Walter Hawkes was from different stock and was engaged in the early mechanisation of farming. He had previously worked as an agricultural engine driver and was recorded at the Traveller's Rest Inn as a traction engine driver.
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