The Origins of Atherstone

There are a number of theories as to from where Atherstone gained its name, some more believable than others. The following extracts attempt to explain both these naming origins and give a general explanation of early Atherstone history.

The Atherstones belong to an old Warwickshire family, and the village named after the family of the Saxon Athelstan. ‘Atherstone and Atherstone Priory’ are mentiond in the Domesday Book…
…The name Atherstone shows good origin. Some great man would own land, and live in state; in time a village would grow up round him, and later become a town taking his name. Families did not get their names from towns, but the towns from families. You will find all over England people with the name of some town; and if you trace back you will find their ancestors of rank had given their name to the town…
…The Atherstones, besides claiming descent from the Saxon Athelstan, have an interesting family tree, which comes through the old Saxon dynasty from Egbert, King of all England A.D. 823, and through some of the Scottish line, then through the Hastings, Castells, and Damants to the descendant of Dr. John Atherstone in South Africa.

‘The Barbers of the Peak’ by Ivan G. Mitford-Barberton (1896 – ?), published in 1934.

It is a place of considerable antiquity, and had a Saxon origin, its original name being Ardeston, the “town in Arden”, or in the great wood. Its name in Domesday Book is written Aderestone. At the Conquest the manor was the property of the Countess Godiva, and was granted to Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester. It afterwards passed through the hands of the Earls of Stafford and Warwick, till, in 1464, it became the property of the Carthusian monks of Mountgrace, in Yorkshire, and subsequently was given to the free chapel of St. George, at Windsor. In the latter part of the reign of Edward III., a friary of the Augustine order was founded here by Ralph Basset, the value of which at the Dissolution was only £2 per annum.

The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868). London: Virtue & Co.

This place, which owes its origin to the Saxons, stands on the great Roman Way, Watling Street. The manor was given by William the Conqueror to his nephew Hugh Lupus, earl of Chester, and is called in Doomsday Book Aderestone. By Hugh Lupus the manor was bestowed on the monks of Bec in Normandy, who obtained by charter from Henry III in 1246 and 1247 a yearly fair, to last three days, beginning on the eve of the nativity of the blessed Virgin, and a market weekly on Tuesday. The market increased very much, from its convenient situation. Upon the seizure of the lands of foreign religious houses in the reign of Henry IV, this manor was taken by the crown ; and after having been successively granted to many individuals or religious houses, it passed to the family of the Repingtons, in which it long remained. King’s College, Cambridge, to which it was granted by Henry VI, still receives £16 yearly from it.

The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge by C. Knight, published in 1843.

Roman Theories

Though no longer considered the most likely explanations, the following Roman based theories for Atherstones naming are interesting never the less.

When time and intercourse had so far united the Romans and the Britons, that they approached nearly to one people, the Romans formed, or rather improved, many of the smaller roads; placed stones of intelligence upon them; hence, London Stone, Stony Stratford (the stone at the Street-ford) Atherstone, stone (hither, near, or first stone from Witherly-bridge, a Roman camp) and fixed their stations in the places to which these roads tended.

An History of Birmingham by William Hutton published 1783.

When the Romans were making their famous street and reached the spot where Atherstone now stands, they came, according to local tradition, to a large stone that was in their way, and in moving it they disturbed a nest of adders, which flew at them. The stone was named Adders’ Stone, which gradually became corrupted to Athers’ Stone, and hence the name of the town. The Corporation of the Governors embodied this incident in their coat of arms and on the Grammar School, which was endowed in 1573: a stone showed the adders as springing upwards, and displaying the words, “Adderstonien Sigil Scholæ.”

John O’Groats to Land’s End by Robert Naylor and John Naylor published 1916.