Kinwarton, Warwickshire Genealogy

Parish History
KINWARTON (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Alcester, Alcester division of the hundred of Barlichway, S. division of the county of Warwick, 1 mile (N. E.) from Alcester. This parish is situated on the road from Alcester to Henley, and bounded on the south-east by the river Arrow. The name is supposed to be that of a Saxon possessor. The manor was granted to Evesham Abbey on its foundation in the year 714; and the monks held a court leet here, and had divers other privileges from the time of Edward I. In the 32nd of Henry VIII. The church is an ancient structure, in the early English style.

Additional information:

Kinwarton St mary is an Ancient parish and the church may have surviving Saxon walling. the church can be said to have been built in the 12th century.

The church here together with the chapels at Alne and Witheley were given to the monks of Evesham during the reign of Henry II 1154-1189 by Ranulph de Kinwarton for the health of his soul and that of his wife Christian. In 1291 the church was valued at 24 marks, half a mark yearly being payable to the Abbot of Winchcombe. The church was rebuilt in 1316, and consecrated by Walter de Maydston the then Bishop of Worcester.

The church consists of a chancel, nave, south porch, and a shingled bell turret at the west end and the whole chamber has clasping east corner butresses.The structure is mostly 13th century including the northern lancet windows. two south windows are 14th century with some fragments of old glass. The west buttresses and windows are 19th century dating from a restoration of 1850. The weather-boarded bell turret stands on two posts with bracing forming an arch with two X's and probably dates from the 16th or 17th century. There is a fifteenth-century sculpted alabaster panel which shows the dedication of the Madonna, Joachim and Anne bringing Mary to the Temple, with five veiled women standing by, their hands clasped in prayer, and a priest with an angel at his feet. This was found by a rector of this church among the rubbish in a carpenter's shop at Binton in 1836.]

Trees surround the church and churchyard, from which can be seen the open countryside. Not far distant, to the north, are Coughton and Sambourne.

The rectory is a Georgian red-brick house of 1788.

Not far from the church is Glebe Farm of mid-17th-century square timber-framing, with tiled roofs. The plan is of T-shape, the ends of the wings being gabled. A barn and other farm-buildings west of the house are also timber-framed.

North of the church, on old glebe land, stands Kinwarton Dovecote, a circular dovecote built in the fourteenth century for the abbots, its lantern being added three centuries later. It contains over 500 nesting boxes, and is one of the few dovecotes still surviving in Warwickshire. It is now the property of the National Trust.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
Kinwarton parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Information about the parish may be found on Warwickshire Online Parish Clerks. Records are also available at the Warwickshire County Record Office.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Warwickshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain