Atherstone House History: Acknowledgements

These brief histories of buildings within the medieval town envelope of Atherstone were made possible by the scholarship and hard work of Dr Nat Alcock, who worked with the History of Atherstone Research Team. He first pointed us in the direction of the court rolls at Warwickshire County Record Office. Our volunteers read through 19 volumes covering the period 1589 to 1851. For some of the earlier volumes we also had help with translation from the Latin from Janet Spavold and Sue White.

Nat searched the National Archives for new material, and in Lambeth Palace Library found a hitherto unrecognised complete copy of the 1547 survey of Atherstone made for the Marquess of Dorset. This has been invaluable in establishing early ownership of the town’s burgages.

Thanks

We would like to thank the many professionals and volunteers who worked on the HART project. Principally, Dr Nat Alcock, Bob Meeson, Dr Terry Slater, Caroline Sampson, Jonathan Parkhouse and Dr Andrew Watkins, for their expert help.  Also the Heritage Lottery Fund, the major funders, and Nationwide, North Warwickshire Borough Council and Atherstone Town Council’s Market Town Initiative for funding and support. The late Toby Cave was also a help and support.

Volunteers who worked on the HART project were: Marion Alexander, the late Don Alexander, David Atkin, John Austin, Eileen Barrs, Mary Bates, Jim Beechey, Andy Benson, the late Roger Brayford, Sue Cambridge, John and Cathy Charles-Jones, Colin Brookes, the late Brenda Collins, John and Jo Connell, Gary Crump, Lorna Dirveiks, Judith Drever, Carl Drewery, Betty Dutton, Isabel Edgar, Chris and Dave File, Dave Fletcher, Chris Green, Grace Green, Carl and Pauline Gurney, Loraine and David Harding, Joan Hogg, John Hoyle, Margaret Hughes, Joyce Jackson, Phyllis Johnson, Maureen Mercer, the late Mary Morrison, Mary Mortimer, Sue Naylor, Celia Parton, Valerie Pickard, Rita Poulson, Neil Sanders, John and Rosemary Steed, the late Fred Sutton, the late Mike Trye, Howard and Judy Vero

We would also like to thank Atherstone property owners and David Lewis and Sue Garner of solicitors, Garner Canning, Sale Hill, all of whom who kindly allowed us access to deeds.

Importantly we would like to thank the Warwickshire County Record Office for their work on putting this information online, in particular, Benjamin Earl, Becky Hemsley, Christine Woodland and Nat Alcock.

Best published online

The amount of information which this research yielded is too much for a single volume and was considered best published online. It is not definitive and some of the entries are still open to debate. However, where doubts exist the reader is invited to try and solve the puzzle. This may also happen in the course of time as more new documents come to light.

For this first edition, the project editors accept all responsibility and apologises for the inevitable errors.