Wolvey

Wolvey is a village and parish in Warwickshire, England. According to the 2011 census it had a population of 1,942, which increased to 2,121 at the 2021 census. The village is situated close to the Warwickshire-Leicestershire border in an outlying part of the borough of Rugby. The village is, however, more than 11 miles (18 km) northwest of the town of Rugby and closer to Hinckley (5 miles to the north), Nuneaton (6 miles to the northwest) and Coventry (9 miles southwest). The source of the River Anker is near the highest point in the parish at 130 metres (427 ft) above sea-level. Originally on the main route between Leicester and Coventry, is now served by the B4065 and B4109 roads. The hamlet of Bramcote forms a western part of the parish, This was the site of a Second World War airfield, RAF Bramcote, subsequently used by the Royal Naval Air Service and renamed HMS Gamecock. Since 1959 it has been used by the army and is known as the Gamecock Barracks. Discoveries of Neolithic flint tools and Bronze Age burial mounds suggest early occupation of the parish while a major Roman road, Watling Street, forms part of the parish boundary. The village certainly existed in Saxon times and the Domesday Survey, compiled in 1086, records 22 households with three further households at Bramcote. By the 12th century there was an additional township, which included a chapel, at the now deserted site of Little Copston (Copston Parva). At this time Wolvey was an important population centre for the area with a weekly market and an annual fair. The village still retains some older buildings including the church of St John the Baptist with its Norman doorway and monumental tombs of Thomas de Wolvey (died 1311) and his wife Alice; also that of Thomas Astley and his wife, Catherine (died 1603). The South Aisle of the church was rebuilt by Thomas de Wolvey's daughter as a memorial Chantry to her husband Sir Giles de Astley who died following the battle of Bannockburn in 1314. The church…