Ilmington Manor

The Andrew family seem to be of great antiquity in Northamptonshire. Thomas Andrew (d. 1541) of Charwelton was succeeded by his son, Sir Thomas Andrew (d. 1564), who like his grandfather married twice, and confusingly christened the eldest son of both his marriages Thomas. The elder Thomas Andrew (c.1541-94) inherited the Charwelton estate and also Winwick Manor, which his father bought, and where he built a new manor house in the 1560s which became his principal seat.

The two estates passed to his son, Sir Eusebius Andrew (c.1579-1619), who sold Winwick in the 1610s, and Charwelton descended to his son, Edward Andrew (fl. 1646), who however sold it before the Civil War. The other Thomas Andrew (d. 1609) inherited property at Longdon (Worcs.) and also the 1200 acre manor of Ilmington (Warks.) which his father had bought in 1550. Having demolished the remains of the old de Montfort manor house, he proceeded to erect the current Manor house on a site 100 yards further away from the Church of St Mary the Virgin.

Ilmington, probably with Longdon which is very close by, passed to his son, Sir John Andrew alias Andrewes (fl. 1603-49), who, moving to London, sold it in 1615 to Sir Baptist Hicks who was made a peer on May 5th, 1628, by Charles I.

Ilmington Manor house went through several families over the next two hundred years. The Lordship of the manor currently residing with the Howard of Corby, Cumbria, family (hence the Howard Arms pub in the village).

The Manor house itself, having been let out for many years, fell into neglect in the 19th century until it was bought by a Judge Evans in the 1890s who, having started restoring the property, suddenly died in his courtroom. His widow sold the house to the current owner’s grandfather, Spenser Flower, a member of the Stratford on Avon brewing family, in 1919. Since then the thirty-room house and its gardens have been beautifully restored.