Priors Hardwick

Stoneton is a hamlet and manor in Warwickshire, England. It lies just to the northeast of Wormleighton. It was documented in the Domesday Book. From the late 15th century onwards the wealthy Spencer family owned land here, and owned the manor in conjunction with nearby Wormleighton Manor. Little remains of the original village, which lies in a field next to the manor. The moat has been restored to Stoneton Manor, using water supplied from a nearby spring. A windfarm with 8-13 turbines has been proposed in the vicinity since June 2012, with a capacity of up to 16 MW of low carbon energy.

Upper Boddington is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Boddington, in the West Northamptonshire district, in the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England. In 1931 the parish had a population of 198. On 1 April 1935 the parish was abolished and merged with Lower Boddington to form "Boddington".The village is located approximately 10 miles from Daventry, 12 miles from Banbury and 16 miles from Leamington Spa. Its far enough away from urban areas to maintain a rural village character, but close enough so that commuters have easy access to the M1 and M40 motorways [1]. The village's name means 'hill of Bota'.The village has a number of community facilities and businesses that serve the local area: the Church of England Primary School, post office, the Plough Inn pub, a newly constructed village hall situated next to the playing fields, and Upper Boddington church. Upper Boddington is also home to successful motor racing team, Team GCR which in 2009 fielded a car in the FIA European GT4 Championship. Local activities range from darts and skittles leagues at the Plough Inn, badminton matches and yoga classes at the village hall, a six-a-side football team playing in Napton and a classic car get-together every first Sunday of the month at the Village Garage. There is also a brand new cycle park in the village park.

Priors Marston is a village and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District of Warwickshire, England, 6 miles (9.7 km) southwest of Daventry. The Oxford Canal and Jurassic Way both run nearby. According to the 2001 Census the population of the parish is 506, increasing to 579 at the 2011 Census, most of whom live in the village. In the village's toponym, "Priors" records the fact the village belonged to St Mary's Priory in Coventry. "Marston" combines the Old English words Merse referring to a lake which formed a fishery in the early history of the village and tun meaning a settlement. The village has a primary school called The Priors School. The school was originally a state school, opened in 1847. However, in August 1996 the school was forced to close. After a month of intensive fundraising and planning the school re-opened, offering free education to village residents, and also accepting fee paying pupils from further afield. The school raised over £1.2m during 15 years of self-regulation until 1 September 2011, when it became one of the first of 22 new free schools to open in the United Kingdom. This returned the school to state funding but was independently managed. The Church of England parish church is dedicated to Saint Leonard and is part of The Bridges Group of local churches. The earliest known church on this site was built in the 13th century. The tower dates from the 17th and 18th centuries, but the building was largely rebuilt in 1863 as it stands today. The church has recently undergone a significant renovation and improvement programme - including the addition of a kitchen and toilet, removing Victorian block work and modern organ pipe facade to reinstate and glaze an older arch to the tower, and removal of pews at the rear (west end) of the church. The village hall, called Priors Hall is modern and is a joint venture with Priors Hardwick. It caters for up to 250 people, and the offices of several local businesses are based there. It also acts as an occasional cinema. The village also has a part-time post office, a sports and social club, a Book Club and a children's playground. There is also a country pub called The Hollybush Inn. The village, being remote, only got a mains supply of electricity in 1934 and of water in 1948. The village has a disused Moravian Church.

Boddington is a civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) north-east of Banbury off the A361 road. The parish includes the villages of Upper Boddington and Lower Boddington. Upper Boddington is the larger of the two, on a hill close to the boundary between Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, with Lower Boddington on the southern slope of the hill. Nearby Boddington Reservoir is used for sailing and recreational fishing.

Lower Boddington is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Boddington, in the West Northamptonshire district, in the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England. Lower Boddington is the smaller of the two villages in Boddington parish, most of whose facilities are located in Upper Boddington. It is about 8.5 miles (13.7 km) southwest of Daventry. In 1931 the parish had a population of 127. On 1 April 1935 the parish was abolished and merged with Upper Boddington to form "Boddington".The villages name means 'Bota's hill'.Children from Lower Boddington are most likely to attend a primary school in Aston le Walls, Chipping Warden, Leamington Spa or Upper Boddington. Teenagers are likely to attend Chenderit School, Southam College, Princethorpe College or Blesséd George Napier RC School in nearby Banbury. Lower Boddington has a public house, the Carpenters Arms, owned by the Hook Norton Brewery.

Boddington Meadow is a 2.3-hectare (5.7-acre) nature reserve east of Upper Boddington in Northamptonshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.This meadow has never been ploughed and it is managed in a traditional way to encourage uncommon plants, such as great burnet and pepper-saxifrage. There are amphibians including frogs and toads, and butterflies including meadow browns, orange-tips, peacocks, ringlets and small tortoiseshells.There is access from the west side of the Boddington Reservoir, between Upper Boddington and Byfield.

Wormleighton Manor is a manor house in the civil parish of Wormleighton in the historic county of Warwickshire, England. It belonged to the wealthy Spencer family during the 16th and 17th century. Much of the house was burned down by Royalists during the English Civil War in 1645 and abandoned by the Spencers in favour of Althorp in Northamptonshire, which contains some materials salvaged from Wormleighton to this day. Today, all that is left of the manor, which was once four times the size of Althorp, is the Wormleighton Manor Gatehouse and Tower Cottage which is a Grade II listed building, and the northern range of the manor.

Wormleighton is a village in Warwickshire on top of Wormleighton Hill overlooking the River Cherwell, England. The population taken at the 2011 census was 183. The original village was by the banks of the Cherwell and can still be seen as a series of humps and hollows on the East bank of the Oxford Canal. The present village sits on the crest of the hill. At one end is St Peter's Church, which has a Norman tower and nave, made of local ironstone, with small added Gothic aisles. It has a graveyard around it, accessible to local sheep, and hints of a circular enclosure. A path from the church takes the visitor directly to the remains of the old 16th-century Manor house, of which the first view is a fine old chimney, then the great hall can be seen, part made of stone, part of brick. The gatehouse is Jacobean, and has a date of 1613 upon it. The manor house was slighted by the Parliamentarians as it was a Royalist stronghold. The village was abandoned after the English Civil War when the Spencer family home Wormleighton Manor was burned down in 1645. The village, however, was refounded in the 19th century, and there is a very fine Arts and Crafts group of buildings, as well as a number of thatched cottages. The first mention of a post office in the village is in September 1853, when a type of postmark known as an undated circle was issued. The post office closed in 1971. The historic family of Wormleighton is based in the North West of England. During the Second World War, Captain Ronald fought with distinction and was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1944. The Spencer family fortune derived from Sir John Spencer of Wormleighton, Warwickshire, who bought Althorp in 1508 with the huge profits from his sheep-rearing business. In 1498 an inquest jury recorded that 60 villagers had been evicted from the Wormleighton Estate "weeping, to wander in idleness ... perished of hunger". The Church has remaining box pews, a Norman font, and an interesting tomb to Robert Spencer which gives his death date in 1610 (he died in France) both in the new Gregorian calendar (used in France from 1582) and in the old Julian calendar which was still used in Britain until 1752.

Napton on the Hill, often referred to locally as just Napton, is a village and civil parish 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Southam in Warwickshire, England. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2021 census was 1,416.

George Victor Bishop (11 June 1932 – 8 June 2005), known professionally as Ed Bishop or sometimes Edward Bishop, was an American actor, predominantly based in the UK. He was known for playing Commander Ed Straker in UFO, Captain Blue in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and for voicing Philip Marlowe in a series of BBC Radio adaptations of the Marlowe novels by Raymond Chandler.

Byfield Pool is a 4 hectare nature reserve west of Byfield in Northamptonshire. It was managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire until 2020, when management was handed back to the Canal & River Trust, who own the site. This secluded pool, which is adjacent to the Boddington Reservoir, was constructed in the 1790s to supply water to the Oxford Canal. Water rails and tufted ducks breed on the pond, and there are many frogs and other amphibians. A wide range of other birds nest in the adjacent scrub and woods. Mammals include rabbits and red foxes. There is access by a footpath from Boddington Road east of Boddington Reservoir, and by a footpath from Byfield.

Aston le Walls is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, close by the border with Oxfordshire. The village is about 9 miles (14.5 km) north of Banbury in Oxfordshire, and 10 miles (16.1 km) south of Daventry. Neighbouring villages are Chipping Warden, Lower Boddington Upper Boddington and Byfield. According to the 2001 census the village had a population of 334 falling to 293 at the 2011 census.