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The Parish of Mavesyn Ridware
Mavesyn Ridware Parish has historically been
arranged into four areas for the purposes of
church and census returns. These are Mavesyn
proper, Hill Ridware, Rake End and Blithbury.
Mavesyn Ridware
Mavesyn Ridware itself has startling
evidence of early settlement in the form of
a Neolithic causewayed enclosure, located in
the large flat fields beside the Trent,
south-east of the church. A large central
area is surrounded by three concentric
ditches, excavated to form banks or ramparts
which must have been impressive in their
day. The monument is now invisible on the
ground, but aerial photographs reveal its
extent. The enclosing banks are interrupted
at intervals by entrances, or causeways.
These enclosures were first built between
3000 and 2500 BC, about 500 years after
farming began. Probably serving as tribal
centres, they would have fulfilled a number
of functions. It is believed that the
corpses of the tribe were exposed within the
enclosures to the weather and scavenging
birds, until the cleaned bones were interred
communally in long barrows. There is also
evidence that the enclosures were used
defensively as forts, as some show signs of
burning or attacks by archers. They may also
have served as marketplaces and as
enclosures for livestock. A possible
parallel is with the nomadic Indians of the
Western United States who did not have
permanent settlements, but who gathered at
the same place at certain times of the year
for trading, matchmaking and rituals like
the Sundance.
Further evidence that this was an important
tribal ritual centre is a cursus, extending
north east from the enclosure in the
direction of Hill Ridware. This type of
monument, consisting of two parallel
ditches, is even more mysterious than the
causewayed enclosure, but it may have been a
ceremonial or processional way. Two Bronze
Age round barrows are located near the
causewayed enclosure and show that this area
of the Trent continued to be an important
ritual site for a long time.
The Mavesyn Ridware causewayed enclosure is
significant because it is one of the most
northern examples of this type of monument.
There is another located near Alrewas, but
the majority are found in the chalk
downlands of Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Dorset
and Hampshire. The reasons for this are
unknown. It may be that population densities
were much greater in the south at this time
as the light chalk soil was easier to plough
than the dense Midland clay.
The first documentary evidence of settlement
is in the Domesday Book. It tells us that
‘Rhydware’ belonged to the Saxon Earl,
Algar. William I presented the estate to one
of his followers named Roger de Montgomery,
and Ascelin a Saxon was permitted to hold it
under him.
The name ‘Mavesyn’ is derived from the name
and family of Malvoisin, a French knight who
came by the manor following the Conquest.
The name reputedly means dangerous neighbour,
being French for a siege tower that was
constructed to attack castles in the Dark
Ages. There is no clear evidence as to how
Malvoisin acquired the manor, but it seems
likely that it was granted for services at
the Conquest. The first reliable reference
is to Hugo Mauvoisin who lived in this
lordship and was frequently styled Hugo de
Rideware. He founded the priory of
Blitheburgh (now Blithbury), between 1130
and 1160. The family continued as lords of
the manor through the generations until Sir
Robert Mavesyn was killed at the Battle of
Shrewsbury in 1403. He had two daughters,
Elizabeth and Margaret. Elizabeth married
Sir John Cawarden in 1418 and their son John
succeeded them at Mavesyn Ridware. (Margaret
married into the Handsacre family, thus
ending the feud that had resulted in the
death of her future father-in-law.) The
manor remained in the hands of the Cawardens
until 1611 when John Chadwick became lord of
Mavesyn Ridware through his marriage to
Joyce Cawarden. The Chadwicks retained the
manor until John de Heley Mavesyn Chadwick
became bankrupt in 1883 due to gaming debts.
According to Mark Eades, ‘It took 800 years
to accumulate a fine estate in
Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire and
Lancashire and one profligate generation to
lose the lot!’
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