| Static Image Name: | The Royal Oak, Whatcote - geograph.org.uk - 168482.jpg |
| Static Image Caption: | The Royal Oak, Whatcote |
| Official Name: | Whatcote |
| Coordinates: | 52.098°N -1.565°W |
| Os Grid Reference: | SP2944 |
| Label Position: | top |
| Population: | 143 |
| Population Ref: | (2011 census)[1] |
| Civil Parish: | Whatcote |
| Shire District: | Stratford-on-Avon |
| Shire County: | Warwickshire |
| Region: | West Midlands |
| Country: | England |
| Constituency Westminster: | Stratford-on-Avon |
| Post Town: | Shipston-on-Stour |
| Postcode District: | CV36 |
| Postcode Area: | CV |
| Dial Code: | 01295 |
Whatcote is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England, about 4miles northeast of Shipston on Stour in the Vale of the Red Horse.[2] The population at the 2011 census was 143.[3]
The Domesday Book records that in 1086 Hugh de Grandmesnil, one of William the Conqueror's military commanders, owned the manor of Whatcote.[4] In the latter half of the 14th century Thomas Stafford, 3rd Earl of Stafford acquired the manor.[4] It remained with the Stafford family until 1520 when Edward Stafford conveyed the manor to Sir William Compton.[4] It remained with the Compton family, the Marquess of Northampton until early in the 19th century, but by 1826 it had been acquired by Sir Adolphus Dalrymple.[4] By 1865 Sir Adolphus had sold it to the Peach family, who in turn sold it to Thomas Parker.[4]
The Church of England parish church of St. Peter was built in the first half of the 12th century.[4] The nave survives from this period, with a Norman doorway and two Norman windows in the north wall.[5] The tower and several windows in the south wall were added late in the 13th century and the chancel was rebuilt in about 1300.[5] One of the windows in the south wall of the chancel is a 14th-century addition.[4] The south porch, and the parapet and two of the bell-chamber windows of the tower, are 15th century additions.[4] In the 16th or 17th century a buttress was added to shore up part of the north wall.[4] A German bomb badly damaged the nave and porch in 1941 and the building was restored in 1947.[4]
The church tower has three bells. The tenor had been cast in 1652[6] but was recast by Henry Bond of Burford,[7] Oxfordshire in 1897.[8] John Clark of Evesham[7] cast the second bell in 1711.[8] The treble bell was cast in 1766[6] but was recast by William Blews & Sons of Birmingham[7] in 1878.[8] In the churchyard are the base and shaft of a medieval cross, from which the top has been lost and replaced with a 17th or early 18th century sundial.[5] St. Peter's is now part of a single benefice with the neighbouring parishes of Oxhill and Tysoe.[9]
Whatcote has a public house, the Royal Oak, owned by Henry Jervis of Tysoe.[10]