Castles, Charters, Manors and Parishes

The Domesday book of 1086 was compiled for tax purposes by order of King William I and it is the taxman that often gives us a glimpse of Whitwick through the ages. In the 14th Century the King of England needed to raise approximately £100,000 in taxes. At the beginning of the century taxes were imposed on movable property and properties were valued by tax officials. Property owners were then expected to pay 10% of the property value in taxes unless the property was valued at less than £10. The landowners thought this unfair and in 1334 the Parliament persuaded King Edward III to change the tax system. Taxes were to be imposed on communities rather than individuals and the Lord of the Manor decided how much each individual villager should contribute. This was known as the Lay Subsidy and in the 1334 survey Whitwick manor was valued at just over £13. The amount collected in 1334 became the basis of all taxes for the next three centuries.

There are suggestions that a simple mott and bailey castle existed at Whitwick even at the time of the Domesday Book although records suggest the castle was further fortified during the reign of King Stephen (1135 - 1154AD) as a defence between the the feuding Earls of Chester and Leicester. One of the castle's occupants was Lord Goisfrid Aslin, a tyrannical man who took a fancy to his neighbour's daughter. She was unwilling to marry him, but her father was so afraid of his landlord that he forced her to marry. Lady Aslin was so humiliated by her husband's behaviour that she fled to Gun Hill hunting lodge (pictured left is the Game Keepers cottage built on Gunn Hill in the early Nineteenth Century). There she hid for days before drowning herself in Blackbrook pool to avoid her captors and her ghost is still reputed to haunt the ruins of the lodge today.

In 1204 the castle had a keeper and this reflects the increased fortification that took place during the turbulent reign of King John (1199 - 1216AD). Whitwick has strong Norman legacies and Charter Festivals came into being after the Norman Conquest. The festivals were normally granted to distinguished nobleman. In 1293 a young Anglo-Scotsman, John Comyn, Earl of Buchan and Lord of the Manorial rights of Whitwick was granted a Royal Charter allowing the village to hold a Tuesday market and annual fair.

Whitwick Manor passed through marriage from the Earls of Leicester to the Earls of Winchester and Lady Elizabeth whose family belonged to the house of Comyn's, Earldom of Buchan, acclaimed to the Crown of Scotland. The manor passed to the eldest son John and his wife Eleanor. A few years after the charter was granted Comyn fell out with the King over politics and was ordered to live in England "South of the Trent". John Comyn's estate was forfeited, but restored by the King's command on 6 May 1304. Comyn died four years later with no heirs and as a result Whitwick manor passed into the hands of the Beaumont family To crenellate a residence in the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries required a royal licence. For this a lord paid for the royal recognition of his right to turn his home into a castle, permission for which was sought for reasons of status as well as defence. The licence to crenellate Whitwick Castle was granted in 1320 to "Henricus de Bello Monte, Consanguineus Regis" (Henry Beaumont). Henry Beaumont was evicted from the castle by Sir John Talbot who razed the castle to the ground. Sir John Talbot died in 1365 and his tomb can be found next to the wall in the north aisle of St John the Baptist. Finally the manor was sold to the influential Hastings family in 1612 - 1613.

Remains of the castle keep were reportedly still visible in 1870 as the following extract from the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72) suggests:

WHITWICK, a small town, a township, a parish, and a sub-district, in Ashby-de-la-Zouch district, Derby. The town stands 1 ½ mile NNE of Coalville r. station, and 5 E by S of Ashby; underwent improvement of its market place in 1859; and has a post office; under Leicester, a fine old church restored on 1849, four dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, national schools, charities £40, and a weekly market. The township comprises 3,260 acres. Real property £21,467; pf which £6,800 are in mines. Pop; in 1851 2,836; in 1861, 3,759. Houses 708. An ancient castle of the Earls of Lancaster stood on Castle Hill; figured, for a time, as an important fortress; and is now represented only by a few traces of its keep. Bardon Hill, about 2 miles from the town, is much frequented by picnic parties, and commands an extensive view. A Roman Catholic monastery, the earliest erected in England since the Reformation, and a Reformatory for Roman Catholic criminals established in 1856, stand amid hills within a part of Charnwood Forest. The parish contains also Swannington and Thringstone townships; includes parts of Coalville and Oaks chapelries; and comprises 6,220 acres. Pop; in 1851, 4,956; in 1861, 6,439. Houses 1,303. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough. Value £400. Patron, the Duchy of Lancaster. The p. curacy of St George or Swannington is a seperate benefice. The sub-district contains four parishes and a part, and comprises 14,298 acres. Pop; 9,874. Houses 2,055.

The Ecclesiastical parish of Whitwick originated in the Medieval Period, when the tithe was paid to support the church. It was not until 1597 that the Civil parish of Whitwick came into being although it retained the boundaries of the Ancient Parish. Prior to this split it was the manor which dealt with secular matters. It was the decline in the administrative status of England's feudal system after the Hundred Years War which left the Ancient Parish with the duty of relieving its own poor. The first Poor Relief Act in 1597 meant the ancient parish began performing both secular and ecclesiastical roles.

The Whitwick Civil Parish maintained these roles and its borders remained unchanged until the formation of the Coalville Urban District and Civil Parish on the 29 September 1894. The Coalville Civil Parish was formed from parts of the Hugglescote and Donington, Ravenstone with Snibstone, Swannington and Whitwick Civil Parishes. The Whitwick Civil Parish was finally abolished on 1 April 1936 by a further enlargement of the Coalville Civil Parish.