Cesterover

Description

"Wara" in 1086 - later Waver or Cesters Over; the history of the family of Waver begins in 1225. In 1221, the manse stood by the chapel of Monks Kirby, which is now part of the barn of Manor Farm (SP 50408195). The Poll Tax list of 1379 had 22 names. Beresford quoting the Warwick Feet of Fines says there were messuages in 1385. In 1460 and 1467, Henry Waver, a draper and sheriff of London, obtained permission to enclose land, and licence to erect and crenellate walls at Cesters Over. He returned home to build his manor house and to destroy the village. Beresford quotes Dugdale who saw the manor house in a mean condition and the grounds for the most part converted to sheep pasture; and Stukeley who, in 1776, saw the chapel converted to a barn, and, straddling the valley, the mediaeval fishponds. Beresford goes on to say the railway has helped to destroy the symmetry of the pond-dams. The moat was deep enough to drown an unlucky tractor driver in 1950. Moat is published at SP 50418198 on OS 6" of 1925. Beresford located the site, from the "Old Town Field" and "Town Meadow" on the Tithe Award Map at the Shire Hall, to the south of the farm, on the slope and brow of the valley. The site, he says, is most clear in an air photograph. Scheduled as an Ancient Monument, deserted village of Cestersover. (PastScape)

House and moat - SP 50418198; DMV site - Area centred SP 50408170; Pond-bay - SP 50098190. The farmhouse, now known as Cestersover House, is a large three-stored building of C18/19 brick. The lower part of the eastern wall is built of regularly coursed stone supposed to be part of the Medieval Manor-house but it contains no dateable features. The farm-buildings are modern brick and no trace of the chapel remains. The north arm and the northern halves of the east and west arms of the moat survive wet. There are traces of the remainder of the moat visible as a vague depression on the south of the house. The former village is known locally to have occupied the summit of the hill, to the south of the house, and foundations have been found in ploughing. The area is now under wheat and patches of stunted crop may indicate the site. The remains could be identified but complete perambulation was impossible. In the stream valley on the west of the house, a small pond bay is visible as an earthern bank protruding from an apparent railway construction spoil-mound. Its eastern end is mutilated by an occupation-road and stream. No indication of other earthworks was seen. (PastScape ref. Field Investigators Comments–F1 WCW 12-AUG-1960)