Maxstoke

Maxstoke is a hamlet in the North Warwickshire district of the county of Warwickshire, England.

Maxstoke and the parish of Maxstoke were established in the hundred of Hemlingford.

The Priory was established by Sir William de Clinton, 1st Earl of Huntingdon in 1331 when he endowed a College of Priests consisting of five chaplains and a warden. It was built adjacent to an earlier moated farmstead, south of his castle towards Packington village. In 1336 it was expanded to a full Priory for Augustinian Canons and was completed in 1343. It was dissolved in 1536, when the buildings and lands were granted to Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk.

Today only ruins remain with the exception of the Inner Gatehouse. This was a farmhouse in the Elizabethan period and is now a bed and breakfast establishment. Inside is a room with painted armorial shields.

The entrance to the farm is by the Outer Gatehouse. The two niches are now empty of statues. On the ends of the drip mouldings over the central window are two busts, one of a knight with his visor down and another of a monk.

In the fields around the priory can be seen traces of medieval earthworks for fish farming and water control.

The Parish Church of St Michael is of the same age as that of the Priory. The remains of a 14th-century preaching cross can be seen in the churchyard.

To the north of Maxstoke, about half way towards Shustoke, is Maxstoke Castle. It was built by Sir William de Clinton, 1st Earl of Huntingdon, in 1345. It is of a square plan with a broad moat. Additions were made by Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham who acquired it in 1437 by exchanging it for other manors in Northamptonshire.

...
Wikipedia