Radbourne
The Spencers of Wormleighton (SP 448 536) were sheep barons; reputedly the richest family in England at the start of the 17th century. (The area to the north of Wormleighton is, I've been told, the largest in England without a road running through it – possibly because William Cope, the treasurer to Henry Vll who sold the Manor to the Spencers, had demolished 12 farms to make way for sheep.)
When Spencer expanded northwards to Radbourne, he commissioned a map of that estate in 1634, which is kept in the Warwicks Record Office. It is fascinating because the ponds and field-shapes have not changed much in nearly 400 years. Such a lonely part of the country, I suppose. The map is called "Radbourne Pastures" (Part of it #1).
If we compare the field shapes of 1634 to the 2000 OS Explorer map of the same area (#2). The horseshoe-shaped pond (#3) at the RH edge of the largest field is naturally still there too, on what is now Radbourne Manor Farm.
The short stretch on the OS map is part of Welsh Road East, about three miles south east of Southam. Now look at the enlargement of the 1634 map (#4) and you will see a pair of faint parallel dotted lines just above Long Meadow and Little Meadow, wandering along the southern edge of ‘Upper London Field'. And inside the lines is written ‘The Way from Southam to ........Torcester'. (Can you spot the gates?)
Towcester doesn't feature on drove routes at all, but it was a staple town. Edward lll established these as a means of taxation: the export of wool (or leather, lead and tin) to the continent must pass through a staple town to be valued. So perhaps it was an important route for the Spencers.
(The Towcester road is still there: it goes via Priors Marston, Charwelton, Maidford, Blakesley and Greens Norton. A stunning ridge road which I deal with under ‘Northants'.)
The road on the Spencer map was also part of the drovers' route, but only until SP 469 582. There the Welshmen veered off southwards, just after Marston Doles, to Priors Hardwick…
(The OS map shows a vast loop in the Oxford Canal (square 43 55) to provide water for the Spencer sheep in every field. No loop, no canal, was the ultimatum. If the family still had the same power they might stop HS2 going through this lovely area.)
I had a great surprise in February 2025: Shirley Monkhouse emailed me via the website to say she had discovered a road with a Welsh name going southwest from Welsh Road East at Radbourne Cottage to Upper & Lower Radbourne Farm (#5). And what does Waunfawr mean: Large Pasture!
Thank you, Shirley. A terrific find. It really establishes the Welshness of the area.
(My thanks also to the Kenilworth historian John H. Drew, whose article 'The Welsh Road and the Drovers', written in 1965, started me on this stretch.)
