English Village Churches: Charwelton Church in Northamptonshire
by Charles Moorhen on 18/11/09 at 2:19 pm
This article concentrates on the intriguing English church of the Holy Trinity in the Northamptonshire village of Charwelton.
It seems strangely mysterious when first seen that the impressive and substantial village church of Charwelton, between Banbury and Daventry in the Northamptonshire countryside, stands virtually on its own in a sea of grass almost a mile away from the village that it serves, reached by a narrow lane.
However, the answer to the apparent mystery of the lonely village church is unfortunately an unromantic one. Nevertheless, its story in terms of social history is an interesting one.
Up until the end of the 15th century – around 1490 – two villages once stood in the area; a busy, thriving community known as Little Charwelton (later to be known as Church Charwelton), and the other known as Great Charwelton (later to be called Town Charwelton, and nowadays simply as Charwelton), the village that presently stands on the busy A361 Banbury to Daventry road. From 1490 onwards the population of Little Charwelton suddenly began to reduce at a dramatic rate. So much so that within a few short years it was completely and utterly deserted.
The village up to this point was prosperous. It contained a number of well-known and popular inns used frequently by coach travellers from Warwick and surrounding areas on their way to London. In its time the main thoroughfare through the village was a busy one.
So why did prosperous Little Charwelton become just another deserted medieval village?
As is often the case in history, a number of suggestions have been put forward as to the reason for the demise of the village. One school of thought maintains that it was destroyed by the Black Death, (1348-49), or the Great Plague as it was known. Others state that the building of the medieval packhorse bridge, (which still stands at the roadside to this day), built in the 14th century on the Banbury – Daventry road, made Great Charwelton village made better business sense as traffic on this road increased, prompting the innkeepers and trades people of Little Charwelton to move villages.
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