Ownership of much of the property and land Church Lawford and King’s Newnham had been with the Montagu family since 1688 and joined with the Buccleuch family since the third Duke in 1767 – with the remainder owned by the Church of England. At the start of the 20th Century a series of changes began which resulted in a significant part of the two villages being sold during the Great War period.
The first step was in 1910 when the long-standing Lord of the Manor, the 6th Duke of Buccleuch (William Henry Walter Montagu Douglas Scott), transferred his Rugby district properties to his son, the then Earl of Dalkeith (John Montagu Douglas Scott), who later became the 8th Duke. This included almost all of Church Lawford and King’s Newnham, as well as portions of Dunchurch with Toft, Thurlaston and Cawston, plus minor holdings in Long Lawford, Bilton, Stretton-on-Dunsmore and Ryton-on-Dunsmore, These totalled 7,607 acres
In 1917 the Earl of Dalkeith sold on some of these properties to Samuel Waring, including Church Lawford, King’s Newham and those in the Dunchurch area. These totalled 7, 497 acres. Samuel Waring (later Lord Waring and Baron Waring), was part of the family that founded the Waring and Gillow furniture company.
Samuel Waring then put 4473 acres up for auction in Jun 1918, including the Church Lawford and King’s Newnham holdings plus a smaller portion from the Dunchurch area.
A report from the auction shows which properties were sold, and which went to their existing tenants. Some properties did not sell, and other were bought by investors or developers.
Details of each of these stages are available as shown in the table below.
There is also a separate page summarising all of the auction lots with links to related pages providing more detail and history where available – that can be found here.