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History
of the village and early church
The first written record of the village is by an
Anglo-Saxon chronicler who recorded that a Witan was held in
"Wallesburnam" by King Burgred of Marcia in 862 AD.
Domesday Book called the village "Walesborne",
which was given to Henri de Newburgh.
The first stone church was built in the late 11th or early
12th Century, as is attributed to Henri de Newburgh.
Henri also provided endowments of Glebe land for the
maintenance of a Vicar, as did his son and grandson.
These were appropriated by the Priory of Kenilworth, confirmed
by Deed in 13 48. The Priory with its Canons presented the
vicars until the reign of Elizabeth I.
Other than the tower, much of the church was pulled down
and rebuilt in 1847-48 to the designs of the Architect J P
Harrison Esq., of London. A report of the reopening was
written in the Warwick Advertiser for 13th April 1848, which
gives some details of the previous building:-
| "The old church was built by
Henri de Newburgh, and dedicated to St Peter, and
therefore is of great age, from which cause it had
fallen into decay, and required very extensive
repairs. At some remote period the old Norman
roof had been replaced by a flat slatted one, lighted
by skylights, and had a flat ceiling; large galleries
an round three sides of the church, in a most
unsightly manner; the pews were also of the old close
description.
The entrance to the church was in the tower,
under the west window, which had been barbarously
mutilated to allow the insertion of a doorway; the old
south entrance had been blocked up, and the ancient
porch removed.
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