Extract from: Willoughby a Warwickshire Village (1988)

W. Carlisle. S. Ivens. F. Mitchell M. Reynolds S.Troman. R. Whitfield.

 

 

Willoughby is an ancient village of Warwickshire, in the Hundred of Knightlow, once forming part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia. It is situated adjacent to the A45 Birmingham-Ipswich Road (formerly the Great Chester Road) and is midway between Daventry (Northants) and Dunchurch (Warwicks) and close to the county boundary of Northamptonshire.

 

A very small part of the village is visible from this main road, the principal part extending for half a mile westward. Geographically, the parish forms a square of one mile. The village consists of some one hundred and twenty dwellings and approximately one thousand eight hundred acres. Some 90 of the houses are privately owned, the remainder being owned by the Rugby Borough Council. There are nine farms in the Parish, seven of which are substantial in acreage and the land is well tended and productive. There has been a great improvement in agriculture since the Second World War (1939-1945) especially since 1952 when the majority of farms became privately owned and in consequence of these two events there

was a combined need to survive.

 

Willoughby is within reasonable distance of Rugby, Coventry, Northampton and Warwick, and is quite close (6 miles) to the country's motorway systems  which gives it a convenient position for commerce and transport.

 

The main feature of the central part of the village is the stream that flows through it, and it is thought that the name Willoughby is derived from the willow trees which border the stream for some distance. There have been various spellings of the village name. In the Domesday Book (1068) it appears as Wilebere, Wilebei and Wilcbec. The latter seems very relevant with its connection with

"bec" or small stream.

 

Pie Court

Pie (or Pye) Court is a small hamlet within the precincts of the parish containing some half-a-dozen houses erected on the site of a large house which used to stand there.The house used to stage the Court of Justice which was incident to all fairs and markets and held for the purpose of administering summary justice to buyers and sellers who were in attendance. This was called "The Pie Powder Court" (Old English) from the ancient French term "Pied Poldreaux" or "pedlar", therefore signifying the court of such petty chapmen as resort to fairs and markets! The Court of Pie Powder was the lowest and most expeditious court of justice known to the law of England. The disuse of this court is attributed to the falling off of fairs and markets which used to be held in the area we know today as "Pye Court".

 

The Rose Inn

The existence of a building on this site goes back at least six hundred years.

One of the earlier names by which it was known was "the Red Rose", the colour being dropped officially on the advice of the then authorities in 1460 at the time  of the Wars of the Roses, when to show favour one way or the other was deemed unwise.