The Town
Today
Today Whitnash is a small, largely residential town with approximately 3500
homes and a population of 7000 people. The town has 4 junior schools, Whitnash
Primary, St Joseph's, St Margaret's Middle School and Briar Hill first school.
It has 3 pubs, The Plough & Harrow, the Heathcote Inn and The
Hodcarrier.
The town has 3 shopping areas: on Coppice Road, Heathcote Road and Home Farm
Crescent.
History
The Civil Parish of Whitnash is approximately rectangular, 3 miles long and 1
mile wide running north-west to south-east. This is about 1200 acres or 500
hectares with an estimated population of 12,000. Whitnash is mentioned in
the Domesday Book but there is evidence of a settlement in the Iron Age. The
name Whitnash is generally thought to derive from the Anglo-Saxon ‘AT THE WHITE
ASH’. However other derivations include "PLACE BY THE WOOD", ‘SACRED ASH’ or
the "Meeting Place of the Wise.
There are a number of leylines (prehistoric tracks) traversing Whitnash. The
"Regia Via" was the main Roman road from Radford Semele to Whitnash that passes
through the Whitnash Brook Valley. The Valley is of great interest as it was
the original site of the early collection of huts that constituted Whitnash as
an ancient village. A nearby field is called Castle Hill Field close to the
site of an ancient Holy Well; it has been suggested that at one time it was the
site of an important fortification in Celtic times.
The village of Witenas features in the Domesday Book in 1066 as part of the
Stoneleigh Hundreds area (later merged into the Knightlow Hundreds). It then
comprised around 250 acres owned by Humphrey and there were 11 villagers and 8
smallholders with 6 ploughs and a meadow. The value of the land was estimated
at 100 shillings!
Until about 1850, the only access to Whitnash was through paths and lanes across
surrounded cultivated fields. It is likely that this relative isolation has
bequeathed to the residents a strong sense of belonging to a distinct locality.
There is no marked town centre but a handful of half-timbered thatched cottages
centred on St Margaret’s Church mark the nucleus of the old village. The Church
dates back to Saxon times but was extended in the 14th century with
an embattled tower and porch. Sir George Gilbert Scott, the celebrated
Victorian architect, later added a south aisle. The Church also contains a fine
collection of stained glass and ancient brasses recognised to be amongst the
finest in the country. The church was the main focal point in Whitnash and most
of the major civic events today, for example Remembrance Service, are
commemorated here.