Over the years various local directories have summarised the history of the two villages. The King’s Newnham entry was often far more detailed than might have been expected for a village of its size. This is an example of such an entry, from Kellys Directory of 1921, which gives a potted view of village history as seen at that time.
NEWNHAM REGIS (or King’s Newnham) is a parish, 4 miles north-west from Rugby, and for ecclesiastical purposes united to Church Lawford, in the Rugby division of the county, Rugby division of Knightlow hundred and Rugby petty sessional division, union and county court district, rural deanery of Rugby and archdeaconry and diocese of Coventry. The Oxford canal passes through the north-east angle of the parish, which is bounded on the south by the Avon.
The church of St. Lawrence has been in ruins for a. considerable time, and nothing remains but the ivy-clad tower: in the summer of 1852 the late Lord John Douglas Scott directed that a trench should be made in order to trace the boundaries of the building, so as to restore it in some measure to its former state: during the consequent excavations many bones and skeletons were found, from which the coffins had crumbled away; but on descending deeper a leaden coffin was discovered, quite perfect, inside which was a wooden one, containing the body of a man, carefully embalmed, which, on examination, was found to have, been beheaded, the-only mark on anything being the letters T.B. worked in black silk upon the breast of the shirt.
On trenching towards the chancel, four leaden coffins were found, with inscriptions on each, one containing the body of Francis, Earl of Chichester and Baron Dunsmore, .who died 21st December 1653; the next the body of Audrey (nee Butler), Countess of Chichester, his wife, d.1652; another the body of Lady Audrey Leigh, their daughter, d.1640, and the fourth – the body of. Sir John Anderson, son of Lady Chichester, by her first husband, Sir Francis Anderson kt.: the coffin of Lady Audrey was opened, and the body found to be perfectly embalmed, and in the most-entire state of preservation, her flesh quite plump, as if she were alive, her face very beautiful, her hands exceedingly small and not wasted; she appeared as if asleep, being dressed in fine linen, profusely trimmed with old point lace, and seemed not more than sixteen or seventeen years old: the coffin of Lady Chichester was also opened, but with her the embalming had apparently failed: near where the altar had stood another coffin was found, containing the body of Dame Maria Brown, daughter of one of the Leighs; and of the Lady Marie, daughter of Sir Thomas Egerton, afterwards Viscount Brackley, and Lord Chancellor in the reign of James I.; this body was also perfectly embalmed: subsequently a memorial slab was laid over the remains of Lady Audrey by the late Lord John Douglas Scott.
Dr Thomas, continuing Dugdale’s account of the old church, describes the walls of the chancel as adorned with paintings, in distemper, of the offerings of the Magi and the Descent from the Cross, and the nave walls, with figures of the Evangelists: these works, were, however, destroyed at the end of the 18th century. Near the church and in front of a farmhouse stands a pillar sundial.
The register, included in that of Church Lawford, dates from the year 1575; The living is a vicarage, annexed, to the rectory of Church Lawford, joint net yearly, value £280, with residence in the gift of the Duke of Buccleuch and held since 1915 by the Rev. Horace Smith, who-resides at Church Lawford.
There is a bath here of some celebrity, the water of which is impregnated with lime, and is said to be efficacious in the cure of rheumatism, and dyspepsia, and, at the beginning of the 17th century, was much frequented. Camden, in his “Britannia” vol.2, p.336, quotes a remark made in 1582 by Dr Bailey, physician to Queen Elizabeth, attributing its discovery to a labouring man, who, having wounded his hand while felling trees near, was cured by its waters; it was restored in 1857 by the late Lord John Scott, but is now disused. Two magnificent heads and other bones of the Siberian rhinoceros were found here in 1815, with many tusks and teeth of elephants and other animal remains, at a depth of 15 feet, in a bed of diluvium; one of these heads, 2 feet 6 inches in length, has been placed in the museum at Oxford, and another presented to the Geological Society.
The area is 1,456 acres of land and 15 of water; rateable value, £1,882; and the population in 1911 was 128. Letters received through Rugby. Church Lawford is the nearest money order office & Brinklow is the nearest telegraph office, about 2 miles distant. The children of this place attend the school at Church Lawford