A Short History

Though a small village today, Monks Kirby was for many centuries the most important settlement in this part of Warwickshire. Monks Kirby’s population today is only slightly higher than that recorded in the Domesday book, far lower than the village’s population in the nineteenth century and probably the twelfth and thirteenth century too. It is the largest historic parish in Warwickshire and St Edith’s one of the largest parish churches in the county.

Early Church History - Monks Kirby Church was a minister (mother church) in the Anglo-Saxon period and is said to have been fortified against the Vikings in 917 by Æthelflæd, Queen of Mercia and daughter of Alfred the Great. The dedication of the church to St Edith of Polesworth - a saint connected to the Mercian royal family - may be evidence of this.

The current Priory Church of St Edith’s dates from 1077 when Geoffrey de la Guerche, a Breton knight rebuilt the church and gave it as a priory to the Benedictine Abbey of St Nicolas in Anjou in France, naming it in honour of the Virgin Mary and St Denis. The community of the parish church, dedicated to St Edith, still existed separately from the Priory, but probably shared the same building. 

1200s to 1300s - In 1266, Henry III granted the monks a fair at Midsummer and a weekly market. The oldest part of the Church building, the Chancel, dates from the 13th century.

Through the fourteenth and early fifteenth century the Black Death and the Hundred Years War with France caused major problems for French-led priories like Monks Kirby. Money was short - the priory’s estates were intermittently confiscated by the King - and discipline was poor: in 1330 Monks Kirby’s Benedictines had needed to be reminded of basic rules such as the non-admission of women to the monastery, and their duty to the poor. Having nearly fallen into ruin, the church was substantially rebuilt in around 1380. The basic structure and shape of the church today dates from this reconstruction, including the Porch and Priest’s room, and one of the church’s current eight bells.

1400s - In 1415, Henry V transferred the Priory to the Carthusians of the Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire. Only two priests, and no monks, were maintained at Monks Kirby. The church was again altered in the late 1400s, and an octagonal spire added. 

1500s - In the reformation, when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church, King Henry VIII confiscated the assets of the priory, granting the manor of Monks Kirby to the Bishop of Ipswich. The manor then changed hands several times over the following eighty years until the powerful Buckingham family passed to it to their relatives, the Feildings (Earls of Denbigh) who had been lords of neighbouring Newnham Paddox since the 15th century. 

1700s - The 15th century spire blew down on Christmas night in 1701. The distinctive parapets were added in the late 1600s.

1800s & 1900s In 1869, there was a major restoration and the church owes much of its current interior appearance to this work. The church’s dedication to Saint Edith which had fallen away after the Reformation, was almost certainly revived in the eighteenth or nineteenth century. In 1977, the village celebrated the 900th Anniversary of the founding of the Priory.

Recent History - 2011 saw the restoration of the Baptistry windows and external stonework was repaired in 2012. In 2017, a kitchen, meeting room and toilet block were built within the church. In 2022, extensive work was carried out on repairing the four pinnacles and weathervanes.