Site of Manor House at Little Kineton
Description of this historic site
The site of a manor house which was built during the Post Medieval period. It was pulled down in 1790 with the intention of building a new house, but this was never completed. It was situated in Little Kineton.
Can you help?
Notes about this historic site
1 The manor house at Little Kineton, a fine building of Elizabethan origin with additions made in 1720, was pulled down in 1790 by Richard Hill, who began a new house which was never completed.
- For the sources of these notes, see the
- Timetrail record
- produced by the Historic Environment Record.
Comments
This was the scene of a rather brutal murder in 1744. It was inhabited by two sisters, the Bentleys, one of whom was engaged to the local curate. The coach man concocted a plan, whereby he would rob them of a valuable, silver tea service whilst the family were at church one Sunday morning. There would only be the curate’s younger sister and cook in the house. The younger sister heard screaming and saw the coach man murdering the cook with a kitchen knife. She hid in the ash-hole of a furnace and escaped detection by the murderer. He was later arrested, found guilty and hung in Warwick.
Source: “Rural Romance. Quaint Tales of Old Warwickshire (Shakespeare’s Country) by T B D Horniblow
This is very interesting, because when I was a boy living here in Little Kineton in the 1950s I heard this murder story but have always thought it happened at Diana Lodge, which is still standing. However, when I searched the Internet, years later, I could find nothing. Now I know why – I had got the wrong house! I know those fields like the back of my hand, but never knew there was a Manor there. Thank you, from Tim.
Add a comment about this page