Masters and Powell Family History

Local History - Charlecote

Charlecote Park

The ancestral home of the Lucy and Fairfax-Lucy families.

Charlecote Park overlooks the River Avon and Dene and is said to be where William Shakespeare was caught poaching deer as a youth. It was here that Thomas Lucy I entertained Queen Elizabeth I in 1572 on her way from Warwick Castle to Compton Wynyates. 'Capability' Brown's cedars still grace the lawn near the orangery and red and fallow deer graze alongside Jacob sheep in the park.

The main entrance to Charlecote Park

Charlecote Park has been the home of the Lucy family since the time of Richard Coeur de Lion (d.1199), and the present house was built in 1558, the Lucy family playing host soon afterwards to Queen Elizabeth. There is a good deal of Lucy family property in the house, given to the National Trust.

The Elizabethan house was not considered Elizabethan enough in the 1820s and 1830s, so it was vigorously 'improved' and items from the Beckford sale at Fonthill incorporated in the main house. But the gatehouse was structurally untouched, and now contains a museum. There is a Victorian kitchen with kitchen utensils and everything else Victorian except the cooks. Outside the main buildings, the Park had already been improved by Capability Brown in the 1700s.

The Dene, a tributary of the Statford Avon, flows through the Park, which now carries Red and Fallow deer, and carried sheep and deer since the Middle Ages.

Shakespeare connection - Shakespeare was said to have been arraigned for poaching by Sir Thomas Lucy, JP, in about 1584 and Lucy, prosecutor, judge and jury as well as victim, was burlesqued as Justice Shallow in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Shakespeare's grandfather was a tenant at Baddesley Clinton, about ten miles away; and all the flowers mentioned in Shakespeare's plays are planted at Charlecote Park.

The lodge at Charlecote Park where the Masters lived in 1841.

(photograph 1997)

Charlecote Park - General Information - Telephone: 01789 470277

Open 1st April to 31st October (Friday-Tuesday) from 11.00am to 1.00pm and then from 2.00pm to 6.00pm. (last admission 5.00pm) - Open Bank Holiday Mondays, but closed on Good Friday.

Accessible by wheelchairs.
Admission Charges not available for 1997
Evening guided tours (for pre-booked groups) every Tuesday from 7.30pm to 9.30pm from May to September.

St Leonards Church, Charlecote

	St Leonards Church, Charlecote, Warwickshire. Many Masters were christened, married, and buried at St Leonards Church. (photograph 1997)
The gravestone of Elizabeth Masters buried at St Leonards Church, Charlecote. (photograph 1997)

Charlecote Mill

To be found near Hampton Lucy village, Charlecote Mill is a watermill dating from at least 1806 and possibly 1753. It ceased operation by water power in the 1930s but has been repaired and has been producing wholemeal flour since 1983. Parties are welcome by appointment and there are open days on certain weekends.

Link Charlcote Mill

Levi Masters, the brother of Enos Masters, worked as a miller at Charlecote in 1881.

See Map of Charlecote and Hampton Lucy

BMSGH - monumental inscriptions for St Leonards, Charlecote