Fenny Drayton

Fenny Drayton
Fenny Drayton
	Church Lane, Fenny Drayton
	Fenny Drayton Location within Leicestershire
District	Hinckley and Bosworth;
Shire county	Leicestershire;
Region	East Midlands;
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	NUNEATON
Postcode district	CV13
Police	Leicestershire
Fire	Leicestershire
Ambulance	East Midlands
	List of places UK England Leicestershire 52°34′01″N 1°29′06″W / 52.567°N 1.485°W

Fenny Drayton (formerly Drayton-in-the-Clay) is an English village in the Leicestershire district of Hinckley and Bosworth.^[1] The population is counted in with the civil parish of Witherley. The village lies near the county border of Warwickshire, two miles north-east of Atherstone, within the Coventry postcode area. It is just off the A444, an old Roman road north of Nuneaton, close to its crossroads with the A5 – the Roman road called Watling Street. It is also crossed by another Roman road, found at the end of the scenic Fenn Lanes. The village is four miles from Stoke Golding, where King Henry VII was crowned immediately after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The reinterment of King Richard III's mortal remains on 21 March 2015 started along the Fenn Lanes, near to the village of Fenny Drayton.

Education

Primary school children mostly attend either St Margaret's Church of England Primary School in Stoke Golding, or the internationally awarded Dixie Grammar School in nearby Market Bosworth village.

Church

The hamlet church of St Michael and All Angels', Church of England, in the Diocese of Leicester is of a Gothic design, having 12th century Norman features with a 13th-century fully operational bell tower. It is surrounded by one of the oldest circles of giant [yew] trees in the United Kingdom. George Fox, the founder of the worldwide Quaker (Religious Society of Friends) movement, was born in Fenny Drayton and is reputed to have been baptized in the older of the two fonts in the church. There is a large monument to him in the hamlet where two roads, George Fox Lane and Old Forge Road meet. Quakers from all over the world visit the hamlet and church, and sign the church visitors' book. There are two important monuments of the Purefoy family dating back to 1543 in the church grounds. One has an incised slab which is very rare. The church is open to the public free of charge by appointment.

Centre of England

In 2002, the Ordnance Survey defined Lindley Hall Farm on the outskirts of the village as the geographical centre of England.^[2] (SP362964)Co-ordinates are N 52'33'42.942 by W 1'27'53.474 Grid Reference SP36373.66 96143.05

Notable resident

George Fox, a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, was born in Drayton-on-the-Clay in July 1624. His father, Christopher, was a weaver and churchwarden.^[3]

References

^ OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) :ISBN 0 319 46404 0
^ Haran, Brady (22 October 2002). "A tale of two centres". BBC News.
^ Nigel Smith: Introduction. In: (George Fox: The Journal, p. 3) (London: Penguin Books, 1998), p. x. "My father's name was Christopher Fox; he was by profession a weaver, an honest man; and there was a seed of God in him. The neighbours called him Righteous Christer".

External links

Media related to Fenny Drayton at Wikimedia Commons

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[EX240-1] OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) :ISBN 0 319 46404 0

[BBC_2-2] Haran, Brady (22 October 2002). "A tale of two centres". BBC News.

[3] Nigel Smith: Introduction. In: (George Fox: The Journal, p. 3) (London: Penguin Books, 1998), p. x. "My father's name was Christopher Fox; he was by profession a weaver, an honest man; and there was a seed of God in him. The neighbours called him Righteous Christer".

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