Lea Marston
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lea Marston is a village in the North Warwickshire district of the county of Warwickshire, England.
The village can be traced back to the Saxon period. In the Domesday book, separately owned manors were recorded. During the 17th and 18th Centuries, Lea Marston belonged to the Adderley family. They acquired it through marriage when Charles Adderley married Anne Arden of Park Hall in Castle Bromwich. The Adderley Manor House was restyled in the traditional 18th Century style and was called Hams Hall. The building was dismantled in the 1920's, when the City of Birmingham bought the land and built an electricity generating station there (Hams Hall A). One part of Hams Hall was exported to the USA. The other was reassembled as Bledisloe Lodge, a Residence Hall for students at the Royal College of Agriculture, at Coates near Cirencester in Gloucestershire. Descendants of the Adderley's now live in Fillongley.
Two more stations (Hams Hall B and C) were later built on the site. The Central Electricity Generating Board took over responsibility for the site from the City of Birmingham and it founded an environmental studies centre. Lea Ford Cottage (a local medieval timber framed building) was re-erected there to preserve it. All three stations were closed and themselves demolished in the 1990's. The land was cleared and an industrial park was built. Only the sub stations now remain, on the other side of the road.
The Parish Church of St John the Baptist was established about 1300. Only the south wall of the nave and the north wall survive from this era. It was lengthened in the 15th Century and the chancel was rebuilt in 1876-7. There is 14th Century work elsewhere. The church contains monuments to members of the Adderley family.
Today, Lea Marston is a residential village.
