Great Wolford is a village and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. With the neighbouring parish of Little Wolford it is part of 'The Wolfords'.
History According to A Dictionary of British Place Names, Wolford derives from the Old English 'wulf' with 'weard', meaning a "place protected against wolves". The Concise Oxfordshire Dictionary of English Place-names adds that 'weard' might mean "guard", and as such might here be unique usage, as an "arrangement for protection, [or] fence", the whole name perhaps "enclosure to protect flocks from wolves".Mills, Anthony David (2003); A Dictionary of British Place Names, Oxford University Press, revised edition (2011), p. 506 .Ekwall, Eilert (1936); The Concise Oxfordshire Dictionary of English Place-names, Oxford University Press, 4th ed. (1960), p. 529 .
In the Domesday Book, the settlement is variously listed as 'Ulware', 'Ulwarda' and 'Wolwarde', and in 1242 as 'Magna Wulleward'. In 1086, after the Norman Conquest, Little Wolford was in the Hundred of Barcheston and county of Warwickshire. There were three Tenants-in-chief to king William I: Bishop Odo of Bayeux, Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester (Count of Meulan), and Robert de Stafford. Bishop Odo retained Gerald as his lord, who had acquired the title from the 1066 lord Aelfric (uncle of Thorkil) – the manor contained three villagers, one ploughland with 0.5 men's plough team, and of meadow. The land of the Count of Meluan had Ralf as lord, again acquiring the title from the 1066 lord Aelfric - the manor contained three villagers, five smallholders, two slaves, and four ploughlands with one lord's plough team and one men's plough team. De Stafford had three manorial lands. Firstly, one where he was also Lord, this acquired from the 1066 lord Vagn (of Wootton), which contained eight villagers, eight smallholders, four slaves and a priest, with ten ploughlands, six men's plough teams and a mill. Secondly, one with Ordwy as lord, acquired from the 1066 lord Alwy, which contained four villagers, four smallholders, six ploughlands, and two lord's and one men's plough teams. Thirdly, where Alwin was the lord in 1066 and 1086, which contained four villagers, three smallholders, a slave, and two ploughlands with one lord's and one men's plough teams. In 1177 the church at Wolford was a gift from Henry II to the Augustinian Kenilworth Priory."Wolford and Little Wolford", Open Domesday, University of Hull. Retrieved 16 October 2019."Wolford", A History of the County of Warwick Volume 5, Kington Hundred, ed. L. F. Salzman (London, 1949), pp. 213–218. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
After Robert de Stafford died (c.1100), his manor at Wolford passed through his sister Milicent de Stafford (who married Hervey Bagot), to her son Hervey de Stafford, who had adopted his mother's name. The manor was divided in 1242 at the time of the later Robert de Stafford, becoming Great and Little Wolford. Ownership of the two manors stayed with the Stafford family, including the 15th-century Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham. In 1521 Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham was executed by Henry VIII for treason. The year before he had, through trustees, sold the manors to Henry's courtier, Sir William Compton. The manors of Great and Little Wolford stayed in the Compton family until 1819, however, at about 1600 they were bought by Robert Catesby, the leader of the group of English Catholics who planned the failed 1605 Gunpowder Plot. They were then, in 1605, transferred to a Thomas Spencer and an Edward Sheldon, by Catesby, Sir Thomas Leigh, and Lord Ellesmere whose wife was sister to the second wife of Henry, Lord Compton. Because of transaction inconsistency, the manors reverted to the Compton family. In 1819 they were sold, by Charles Compton, Marquess of Northampton, to Lord Redesdale, they subsequently passing to his son John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Earl of Redesdale. The unmarried earl then left the manors to Bertram Mitford, created Baron Redesdale in 1902. After his death in 1916, the manors passed to David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, the father of the Mitford sisters.
During the 19th century Great Wolford, and its directory-listed parish hamlet of Little Wolford, was part of the Brailes division of the Kington Hundred. In 1801 parish population was 278, and in 1821, 529. By 1841 the township of Great Wolford, contained 311 inhabitants in 58 houses, and 583 in the whole parish, in an area of with soil, "on the whole good", of clay, sand, gravel, and bog. Within the parish were "many" mineral springs, but not used medicinally. A school, erected in 1821 by Lord Redesdale, with attached schoolmaster's house, was mainly supported by subscription. The Church of St Michael accommodated seating for 460, of which 338 were free — not designated for particular persons. The incumbent's income was by a 'discharged vicarage' — all vicarages under ten pounds a year, and all rectories under ten marks, were discharged from the payment of first-fruits, also called annates, being the first year's revenues, together with one tenth of the income in all succeeding years. The previous Wolford tithes had been commuted — tithes were typically one-tenth of the produce or profits of parish land given to the rector for his services and were commuted under the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act, and usually substituted with a yearly rent-charge payment. The Wolford vicar's income was augmented by private benefactions of £400, Queen Anne's Bounty of £200, and a parliamentary grant of £300. Support for the incumbent also came from in total of glebe—an area of land used to support a parish priest—and provision of a residence. Patronage (advowson) of the parish living was held by the Warden and Fellows of Merton College, Oxford. Lord Redesdale was lord of the manor and chief landowner. Directory listed trades and occupations in 1850 included the parish rector, a schoolmaster, the licensee of the Fox and Hounds public house, a corn miller, a carpenter, and eight farmers."Little Wolford", A topographical dictionary of England, Samuel Lewis (London, 1848), vol. IV, p. 643."Wolford (Little)" in A History, Gazetteer & Directory of Warwickshire, Francis White (1850), pp. 714, 715.
The Samuel Lewis directory of 1850 mentions a mound of earth opened up in 1844, on the outskirts of an extensive wood near the "Oxford and Worcester road". Twenty skeletons were found, supposed to be those of persons slain near the spot of a skirmish during the war of the 17th century.
By 1896 Great Wolford is recorded again as in the Brailes division of Kineton Hundred, and in the Brailes petty sessional division. It was in the Shipston-on-Stour Union—poor relief provision set up under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834—and county court district. The ecclesiastical parish was part of the Rural Deanery of South Kineton, and the Archdeaconry and Diocese of Worcester. St Michael's Church was restored in 1885, including reseated with open benches for 300 people, for a cost of £750. Its parish registers date to 1654 for births, 1656 for marriages, and 1665 for burials. The living was still a discharged vicarage, now with of glebe, with residence, still in the gift of the Warden and Fellows of Merton College who were the appropriators. Lord of the manor was Bertram Freeman-Mitford (Lord Redesdale) of Batsford Park, Moreton-in-Marsh. Land area was , growing wheat, oats, barley, beans and roots, and in which lived, in 1891, 202 people in the village, and 380 in the whole parish. There was a post box but no post office. The nearest money order office was at Long Compton, the nearest telegraph offices at Moreton-in-Marsh and Shipston-on-Stour. A National School for 70 children was erected in 1874 by Lord Redesdale; its average 1896 attendance was 61. Trades and occupations listed in 1896 included eight farmers, one of whom was also a haulier and two of whom were unmarried women of the same family, two carpenters, a blacksmith, and the licensee of the Fox and Hounds public house.Kelly's Directory of Warwickshire, 1896, p. 274.
Civil parish population in 1901 was 181, ecclesiastical, 362. On 7 June 1910 St Michael's Church was struck by lightning; repairs cost £130. The National School was now a Public Elementary School (Education Act 1902), with an average attendance of 57. Trades and occupations listed were eight farmers, again two of whom were unmarried women of the same family, one carpenter, a blacksmith, and the licensee of the Fox and Hounds public house.Kelly's Directory of Warwickshire, 1912, p. 323.
Although Little Wolford was described as a hamlet of Great Wolford (under 'Wolford') in 19th and 20th-century trade directories, both had attained separate parish status under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1866, which established new civil parishes for the purposes of the New Poor Law of 1834, and collection of poor rate.Youngs, Frederic A., Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, citing 29 & 30 Vict c. 113.
In 2019 a Village design statement (VDS) was drawn up for Great Wolford parish with aid from community involvement and supported by Stratford-on-Avon District Council and the National Lottery. The Statement describes the physical aspects of Wolford, and provides guidance on maintenance of parish character and any future development."Great Wolford Village Design Statement - 2019", Retrieved 25 October 2019.
Governance The lowest tier of local government is through five elected councillors of Great Wolford Parish Council.Great Wolford Parish Council. Retrieved 17 October 2019 The next higher tier of government is Stratford-on-Avon District Council, to which Little Wolford sends one councillor under the Brailes and Compton ward,"Councillor Sarah Whalley-Hoggins", Stratford-on-Avon District Council. Retrieved 17 October 2019 above this, Warwickshire County Council, where Great Wolford is represented by the seat for the Shipston division of the Stratford-on-Avon area."Warwickshire Map divisions", Warwickshire County Council. Retrieved 18 October 2019
Great Wolford is represented in the UK Parliament House of Commons as part of the Stratford-on-Avon constituency, its 2019 sitting MP being Nadhim Zahawi of the Conservative Party.
Prior to Brexit in 2020 it was part of the West Midlands constituency for the European Parliament.
Geography and community Great Wolford, a civil parish at the south of Warwickshire, is entirely rural, of farms, fields, woods, dispersed businesses and residential properties, the only nucleated settlements being the village of Great Wolford with no amenities except a church and a bed & breakfast establishment, and the hamlet and farm of Nethercote. The parish is elongated in shape, north-east to south-west, and north-west to south-east at its widest. It borders the county of Gloucestershire with its parish of Todenham completely along the north-west side and defined by a tributary stream of Nethercote Brook, and Moreton-in-Marsh at the south-west corner. The Warwickshire parishes of Little Wolford, the boundary defined by the course of Nethercote Brook, a tributary of the River Stour, is at the east and Barton-on-the-Heath at the south-east. The south-east corner of the parish is part of the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). To the west of the AONB, at the south-west of the parish is the commercial Wolford Woods, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), with facilities for glamping.Extracted from "Great Wolford", Grid Reference Finder. Retrieved 17 October 2019Extracted from "Great Wolford", GetOutside, Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 17 October 2019Extracted from "Great Wolford", civil parish boundary, Google Maps. Retrieved 17 October 2019