Wixford

The name derives from a compound of the Old English personal name Whitlac with the noun for a river crossing "ford". The village is first mentioned when Ufa, a Saxon Earl of Warwick, gave the land at Wixford and his body to be buried to the monastery of Evesham Abbey in 974. However, Godwine, a powerful man who had purchased the inheritance of that abbey from King Ethelred, granted it to Wulfgeat, son and heir to Ufa, for life, upon condition it was returned. Notwithstanding this agreement, Wulfgeat's heirs retained the land until the time of King Edward the Confessor, when Abbot Agelwyne purchased it from Wygod, a potent baron and heir to Wulfgeat. Wulfgeat's heirs paid a valuable price…