Croxton Kerrial Church in 2010. Click on the image to enlarge, and also see same view drawn in 1791
This guide to Croxton Kerrial Church was compiled and updated by Jean-Ann Owens BA(Hons), June 2001. We’ve divided it into five parts. Read them in sequence by following the link at the bottom of each page. Or click on any of these links to go direct to that page.
Part 2: Croxton Abbey
Part 3: The Church
Part 4: The medieval pews
Part 5: The altar, organ, millennium, monuments & graffiti
(Click on any link to view photos.)
The village
According to the Domesday Book of 1086 Croxton, Knipton and Harston were all part of one manor belonging to the king. The survey mentions 24 canicates of land, 30 socman with 8 ploughs; 22 villeins and 2 borders had 21/2 ploughs. In the demesne there were 2 ploughs and 5 serfs. The survey also lists 2 mills and 30 acres of meadow. Altogether, there were 59 souls in the manor which was quite populous for the area at the time.
There is no mention of an extant church, but some lists appear mentioning a priest, so it is possible that a church of some sort was there at the time It is certainly true that the remains of an Anglo-Saxon cross (right) was found in Croxton churchyard near the present porch, and can be seen located in the south aisle, east end.
Somewhere between 1110 and 1115 Roger the priest of Croxton is listed as a witness in a Belvoir Priory Charter and later King Stephen granted a Thomas Clericus the parish church with ten bovates of land (a bovate measures 12 acres) and the toft of Ethic with a border and everything belonging to the Church in tithes and other rights.
In 1106 the manor was feoffed by Henry I to his nephew Stephen who, in turn, passed it to his natural son William, Earl of Boulogne, Montaigne and Wareime. At some time during the four years William held the manor he granted the Premontrenensian order of white canons a piece of waste land in Croxton Park for the building of an abbey.
Read part 2: Croxton Abbey