Hodnell / Ascote / Hodnel / Hodenelle / Hodenhelle

There are four entries for Hodnell [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SP4257/hodnell/] [accessed 28 January 2015], neither of which mention cleric or church in it. We found no entry for Ascote, or Chapel Ascote, in the Domesday survey. A church here is mentioned in Dugdale (1730) [cf. infra]. Lewis (1848) has: "Here was a chapel, dedicated to St. Helen, now in ruins." Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of 1870-1872 notes: "A large town, with a church, formerly was here; and great part of the manor formerly belonged to the monastery of Nuneaton and Combe." The White, Francis & Co 1850 directory of Warwickshire refers to Dugdale's 1730 description of Upper Hodnell as having a great population and a church, and mentions that "here was anciently a chapel, dedicated to St. Helen [...] but now there are no remains." The Victoria County History (Warwick, vol. 6, 1951) notes: "the parish of Hodnell, of which the church, or chapel, was situated in Ascote [...] Whether this district was ravaged by the Black Death is not known, but by the 15th century it was depopulated, so that in 1428 there were only four householders. [...] By the end of the 16th century the church was in ruins and the whole parish had been inclosed and converted into pasture. [...] The church of Hodnell is mentioned as appropriated to the Priory of Nuneaton in 1291, when it was valued at £3 6s. 8d. [...] In 1535 the rectory was farmed for 26s. 8d. [...] and a pension of 16s. 8d. was paid to Kenilworth Abbey for the parish church. [...] This presumably represented the yearly render of 1 mark and a stone of wax to the canons of Kenilworth with which the church was charged in about 1160. [...] The church was still standing in 1531 [...] The rectory and advowson of St. Helen's, Hodnell, remained attached to the main manor, [...] and in 1639 Margaret Gibbs was said to have held onethird of the advowson of the church of St. Helen in Ascote; [...] but already in 1633 Bishop Wright had reported to Archbishop Laud that the churches of Hodnell, Ascote, and Watergall (which seem in fact to be three names for the same building) were decayed, and requiring whether they should be rebuilt or united to other parishes. [...] Neither solution was applied, even the ruins of the church perished, [...] and the three places became extra-parochial. [...] In 1638 the church was said to be altogether demolished, though Nathaniel Halked, clerk, had a presentation to the rectory or vicarage". [NB: we have no information on the font of the original church of St. Helen].