Maxstoke
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Maxstoke is a hamlet in the North Warwickshire district of the county of Warwickshire, England.
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[edit] Maxstoke
Maxstoke is a small residential area.
In the fields around the priory can be seen traces of medieval earthworks for fish farming and water control.
[edit] Maxstoke Church
The Parish Church of St Michael is of the same age as that of the Priory. The remains of a 14th century preaching cross can be seen in the churchyard.
[edit] Maxstoke Priory
The Priory was established by Sir William de Clinton, 1st Earl of Huntingdon in 1331 when he endowed a College of Priests consisting of five chaplains and a warden. It was built adjacent to an earlier moated farmstead, south of his castle towards Packington village. In 1336 it was expanded to a full Priory for Augustinian Canons and was completed in 1343. It was dissolved in 1536, when the buildings and lands were granted to Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk.
Today only ruins remain with the exception of the Inner Gatehouse. This was a farmhouse in the Elizabethan period and is now a bed and breakfast establishment. Inside is a room with painted armorial shields.
The entrance to the farm is by the Outer Gatehouse. The two niches are now empty of statues. On the ends of the drip mouldings over the central window are two busts, one of a knight with his visor down and another of a monk.
[edit] Maxstoke Castle
To the north of Maxstoke, about half way towards Shustoke, is Maxstoke Castle. It was built by Sir William de Clinton, 1st Earl of Huntingdon, in 1345. It is of a square plan with a broad moat. Additions were made by Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham who acquired it in 1437 by exchanging it for other manors in Northamptonshire.
Amongst the antiquities there is a 15th century chair upon which Henry VII was crowned after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, a table owned by Sir Everard Digby (cousin to the Digbys of Coleshill) around which the Gunpowder Plot was planned in 1605, and a 'Whispering Door' (two doors with a common jamb) brought from Kenilworth Castle.
The present owners, the Fetherston-Dilkes, came into possession in the 17th century. During the Civil War Maxstoke was garrisoned for Parliament. The garrison musters reveal that between March 1644 to October 1645, the Captain of the garrison was Mr Henry Kendall Sen. lord of the manor of Austrey. His son Henry Kendall Jun. was his lieutenant. The garrison included several of their Austrey tenants: William Smart (a joiner's son), Henry Orton, Henry Spencer and John Crispe. Source: [P.R.O. Exchequer SP28/121A-122]
In the 18th century William Dilke of Maxstoke married Mary Fetherstone-Leigh of Packwood House near Knowle. Since then the two families and houses have been closely linked.
Maxstoke Castle is opened to the public on rare occasions, in aid of local charities.
The parkland of Maxstoke has been a golf course since 1948. At one time the land was listed as a deer park; deer can still be seen there.
