Hawkesbury/ Tackley Deserted Medieval Village

1 Hawkesbury c SP3685.
2 This area is now a disused colliery and Hawkesbury DMV has presumably been destroyed.
3 Dugdale refers to Hawksbury as being on the east side of the Sow and in the parish of Sow. The manor belonged to Coventry Priory until the Dissolution, when it was granted to the City of Coventry, who still held it in Dugdale’s time. Dugdale does not refer to it directly as a deserted settlement. He shows it on his map of Knightlow Hundred as lying more or less due west of Ansty. The map shows Tackley to the NW of Hawkesbury. Dugdale describes Tackley as a place long since depopulated, with only certain grounds called Tackley in the parish of Foleshill to recall it.
4 Beresford refers to the lost hamlets of Hawkesbury and Tackley as being in Foleshill parish and says that collieries and canal junction have obliterated the evidence.
5 Greenwood’s 1822 map shows linear settlement in an area labelled Hawkesbury, SE of Hawkesbury Hall and along what is now Lenton’s Lane. Settlement is also shown to the NW of Hawkesbury Hall. No settlement named Tackley is shown.
6 The 1835 OS 1″ map shows a farm called Hawkesbury SW of Lenton’s Lane, as well as Hawkesbury Hall. Other rail, canal and industrial features with the Hawkesbury name are also shown N and W of Hawkesbury Hall. No settlement named Tackley is shown.
7 cf West Midlands SMR No 3180 and 6666. These entries state that there is no visible evidence of either settlement and that perusal of tithe and enclosure maps revealed no clues as to possible sites.
8 VCH makes it clear that Hawkesbury was originally a wasteland holding in the north part of Sowe parish, centred on a farm at apx SP3683 (later called Main Pit Farm and largely destroyed by C19 infrastructure developments). The equivalent holding in Foleshill was Tackley, originally a woodland settlement, which consisted of scattered tenancies, never a nucleated village. Both Hawkesbury and Tackley contained tenants both of Coventry Priory and of other lay manors. Tackley is marked on a map of 1725 as one house, though it was assumed at that time to be in a depopulated state. The single house may have been either Hawkesbury Hall or Tolldish Hall: the latter is clearly a C17 house, whilst the former is a C18 building, possibly an extension of an earlier structure. The adoption of the Hawkesbury name from the area in Sowe parish took place in the mid C18.
9 Dugdale’s map and the VCH history make it clear that Beresford’s site cannot be that of a DMV called Hawkesford. Nor is it likely to be the site of a village called Tackley. However, it is possible that remains of scattered Medieval occupation may survive.