Crewenhale, the place of crows, is a
deserted Medieval settlement. Robert Morden's map of Warwickshire for 1695, places it one
mile south of Bettlesworth, the present day Bedsworth.
He incorrectly placed Monkspath one mile south of Crewenhale, rather than up on the
Stratford Road. If one reverses the three locations, with Bettlesworth in the south where
it belongs, and Monkspath in the north, then midway between them lies Crewenhale, at the
confluence of the three streams that join together to form the river Blythe.
Crewenhale was situated at the
junction of the southern end of Cheswick Way and Creynolds Lane. The builders of the
"ViIIage of the Seventies," as Cheswlck Green was known, referred to it as
"the site of the Local duck pond." ( 1 ) The Ordnance Survey's one inch to one
mile map, published in 1831, clearly show it as a moated site though. The Tithe
Apportionment of Tanworth-in-Arden for 1840 indicates that the field site was known as
"Home Close", a name usually associated with the site of the main farm or rnanor
house.
The earliest reference,
"Craueshala", dates from 1190. William Dugdale in his "Antiquities of
Warwickshire" writes, "There was also a Family that assumed their sinla.me from
hence, as antiently as H[enry] 3. time, and bore for their Armes Nebule Arg. and sable,
upon a fesse gules three broad Arrow heads Or." The coat of arms of that family at
one time was displayed in a window of the parish church of St. Mary Magdalene at
Tanworth-in-Arden.
Though the family were established
here by the reign of Henry III ( 1216-72), it is not until c.1320 that detailed
documentary evidence appears concerning them. Robert de Crowinhal appears as a witness to
the sale of' land by a neighbour. (2 ) This same Robert appears as "Robto de
Crowenhal" in the Lay Subsidy roll of 1327, where he is charged 18d, and apparently
he is listed in the damaged 1332 roll as "Crowenhale." Robert's son Henry
de Crouinhale witnessed a deed of 1349 relating to the purchase of land in
Tanworth-in-Arden by John Ellis. This same John Ellis bought further land from Henry's
son, Robert, in 1358. ( 3 )
There is a curious reference to a
member of the family for the year 1383, in the Warwickshire Assize Roll 975. One William
Colyns, chaplain of Solihull, broke into the house ot Katherine de Crowenhal and took away
£100 in gold, a chalice, silver vases, linen, furs and beds valued at £200, these being
the goods of the late parson of Solihull, William Chirchehull, which were then in
Gatherine' s safe keeping.
The last known member of the
Crewenhale family was John de Crewenhale, who dying without a male heir, the estate passed
to his daughter who married William Parker of Chartley in Stafordshire. Crewenhale
remained in this family's ownership until the death of John Parker, on 31 December 1516.
His surviving daughter and. heiress Alice, married Thomas Greswold of
Solihull, and bore him two sons. The estate descended through this family for several
generations. wer the years it was leased to a number of farming families, until in the
late1960s,
it was purchased by the Greaves Organisation who developed the site as part of Cheswick
Green village. The overgrown moat, then sadly reduced to the local duck pond, was filled
in and, the site used as the Greaves sales centre, before eventually being built on itself
as No.1, Cheswick Way.
- Cheswick Green News, Summer 1997, The
development of the "Village of the Seventies."
- Warwickshire Record Office, R333.34
Warw.(Iocal Collection) 109S/7
- Ibid. 1095/ 14
Thanks to Joseph McKenna a Local Historian
living in Cheswick Green
for permission to use this article.
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