Welcome to the Old Rectory at Mavesyn Ridware
Mavesyn Ridware Parish is situated
on the old Lichfield to Uttoxeter coaching road about 6 miles from Lichfield and 4 miles from Rugeley. The
original milestone can still be found in the courtyard of The Old Rectory.
The name Mavesyn derives from the
French ‘Mal-voisin’ meaning “dangerous neighbour”.
In ancient times, when a besieging
army contemplated an attack upon any particular town or place, they were in the habit of erecting a castle or a tower in proximity
to the same, with the object of lessening the chances of relief of the besieged. These castles or towers
were called mal-voisins, signifying the danger they posed to the enemy, because they threatened to cut him off from all possibilities
of relief.
The Mavesyn family originated from
Nantes and had an archbishop of Reims. Amongst its members, another Mavesyn was one of 260 Knights who
fought for William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings and he was granted the Lordship of the Ridwares as a reward.
The Old Rectory
It is thought that a Rectory was
built at about the same time as the church in 1170. Hugo Mavesyn Senior granted land in Mavesyn Ridware
to his son Hugo, a clerk, who became the first incumbent. Of the first building, nothing remains,
apart from two walls in the dining room, which are made from large sandstone blocks, similar to those used in the oldest part
of the church. A probate inventory of 1672 mentions parlours, a stone chamber and a hall. The
Reverend John Shaw’s probate inventory of 1710 mentions a much larger building including, at least, eight rooms, a kitchen,
a garret and two cellars (one for beer and one for wine). In 1857 the Bishop commissioned a report on the
property, from which the following is extracted:
“I have made a survey of the Rectory House at Mavesyn Ridware and find it a two storey brick and
tile building occupied by a labourer and built in a low damp situation. The rooms are exceedingly low and
inconvenient and, although in a tolerably good state of repair for so old a house, it is wholly unfit for the residence of
the Rector; the outbuildings are very poor with the exception of the Glebe barn which has been retiled a few years back with
good tiles and is in a tolerably good state of repair”
Samuel Guiders, Surveyor.
14th February 1857
The Old Rectory was leased in 1904
to Miss Harvey of Abbots Bromley who ran a private school in the building with her sister until 1914, when the school closed
owing to the death of one of the sisters.
The school was attended by mostly
farmers’ daughters who walked across fields into Mavesyn Ridware.
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