History

It is known that whilst the Saxons occupied areas of central England (AD410-1065) they built monasteries. Keen to promote learning it is circumstantial that Egwin Of Evesham, Bishop Of Worcester (693-714) founded the monastery just outside of central Stratford. Whilst the detail is convoluted, typical for the times, this article gives a great insight to who actually owned Stratford when..

The best description is found at British History Online..

1. “From the end of the 7th until the middle of the 16th century STRATFORD belonged to the Bishops of Worcester.
   

2. It is first mentioned as 20 hides of land belonging to Ethelhard, sub-king of the Hwiccas, who granted it to Egwin, 3rd Bishop (693–714), in exchange for a monastery at Fladbury, which Egwin's predecessor Ostfor had obtained from Ethelred, King of Mercia, to whom it belonged in the right of his Queen Ostritha. After the exchange a monastery seems to have been founded here.
   

3. Egwin founded Evesham Abbey and relinquished his see to become its first Abbot; and thence arose a claim to Stratford which the monks of Evesham asserted in the reign of William the Conqueror. According to them, when Ethelred resigned his crown to his nephew Coenred and ended his days as a monk, Ethelhard as kinsman of Queen Ostritha, maintaining that Ethelred had no right to grant away his wife's inheritance, seized Stratford and held it until the abbot gave Fladbury to him in exchange.
   

4. After Ethelhard's death his brother Osward opposed this settlement and forced Abbot Egwin to surrender Stratford to him. Afterwards, says the chronicler, the Bishops of Worcester fortiores nobis acquired Fladbury and Stratford, nor was Abbot Ethelwig, who after the Norman Conquest gained so much land for his house, able to get them back.
   

5. At the Synod of Brentford in 781 Offa confirmed to the Church of Worcester 30 hides in Stratford, amongst other lands, in return for the surrender of the Monastery of Bath by Bishop Heathored: and in 845 Beorhtwulf, King of Mercia, granted to Bishop Heaberht that the monks here should henceforth be free of all secular taxes and tribute and of all obligation to entertain the king or any of his household. The last reference to this monastery occurs in 872, when Bishop Werfyrth granted to it the reversion of 2 hides in Nuthurst which he gave by the same charter, for 4 lives, to Eanwulf, the king's thegn.
   

6. ¶The manor of Stratford was assessed in 1086 at 14½ hides and at 15 hides and a virgate in a survey of 1182. It was stated in 1252 that it was not known by what service the bishop held it of the king. In 1254 Bishop Walter de Cantilupe obtained a grant of free warren in his demesne lands here and at Hampton, which was invoked by Bishop Giffard in 1276 and 1285. In 1339 Bishop Wolstan de Braunsford farmed the manor to John de Peyto, junior, for his life at £60 a year, afterwards reduced to £30 in lieu of a pension of that amount which the bishop had previously granted to him. Although it was found by inquisition that such a lease would be no damage to the king, no royal licence was actually obtained. In 1370, therefore, John de Peyto was summoned into Chancery and ordered to account for £30, the equivalent of the pension, for every year since 1339, except for those years when, the see of Worcester being vacant, the king received the full profits of the manor himself. The manor was taken into the king's hands until the money should be paid and was temporarily granted in custody to the bishop, William Lynn. In 1372 the bishop was ordered to account for the £30 rent received from John de Peyto since the beginning of the lease; and with this proviso the manor was restored to him in the following year.
   

7. In 1549 the manor of Old Stratford and the borough were granted, as part of an exchange of lands, by Nicholas Heath, Bishop of Worcester, to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick and afterwards Duke of Northumberland. They reverted to the Crown on Dudley's attainder in 1554, and in 1556 the manor was granted to the lately restored Hospital of the Savoy. On Elizabeth's accession the hospital was suppressed. Stratford was next granted to Northumberland's 3rd son, Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who had been restored in blood by Mary and was created Earl of Warwick in 1561. It again escheated to the Crown on his death without issue in 1590, and in the following year 'was granted to Henry Best and John Welles who graunted the same to Sir Edward Grevill',  son and heir of Ludovic Greville of Milcote. In 1601 there is a reference to a grant or patent of the manor 'lately made' to Peter Greville, Sir Edward's brother, and Peter Cresswell: and in the same year John Woodward died holding the borough of 'New Stratford' of the Queen. These tenancies suggest the financial straits which ultimately compelled Greville to sell most of his property. He was apparently still lord of the manor in July 1609 when the corporation resolved to seek his help in obtaining a new charter, but in the following March the manor was sold at the suit of John Eldred and other contractors to William Whitmore, one of the most active among the land speculators of the time, and John Randoll, of Preston Bagot. A document written by the town clerk in 1623 states that, at some time after 1610, Sir Edward Greville 'graunted this manor to Sr. Arth. Ingram who for valuable consideracon hath should the same to my Lo. tresorer'  (Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex). Ingram, like Cranfield a speculator and financier, was also Greville's son-in-law.
   

8. From the Lord Treasurer Middlesex, who died in 1645, the manor passed successively to his sons James, the 2nd, and Lionel, the 3rd Earl. Lionel died without issue in 1674 and left his estates to his nephew Charles Sackville, son of his sister Frances and Richard Sackville, 5th Earl of Dorset. He was created Baron Cranfield and Earl of Middlesex in 1675 and succeeded his father as 6th Earl of Dorset in 1677. His son, Lionel Cranfield Sackville, was created Duke of Dorset in 1720. From 1708 until his death in 1765 he was High Steward of Stratford, an office which in the 18th and early 19th centuries came to be considered as in the nomination of the family as lords of the manor. The manor appears to have been included in the settlement on the widow of the 3rd Duke, with remainder to her two daughters, who became, respectively, Countesses of Plymouth and De la Warr. The Dowager Duchess subsequently married Earl Whitworth, who was elected High Steward on the death of the 4th Duke in 1815; she and her husband both died in 1825, and the Earl of Plymouth was elected in his place. On his death in 1833 he was succeeded by Earl De la Warr. When the elder Sackville coheiress Mary, Countess of Plymouth and by her second marriage Countess Amherst, died in 1864 her estates passed to her sister Elizabeth, Countess De la Warr, who died in 1870. Her younger son was created Baron Sackville, and the Sackvilles are named as lords of the manor until 1924, but the manor appears to have been extinguished under the Property Act of 1926.
   

There is more detail and the founding of Shottery at the link above.

There is a poor précis of this on Our Warwickshire..

1. “The remoteness of the church from the centre of the town is probably to be explained by the conjecture, mentioned by Leland, that it occupies the site of the monastery which existed in Stratford in Saxon times. Twenty hides of land belonging to Ethelhard, sub-king of the Hwiccas, were granted to Egwin, third Bishop of Worcester (693-714). After the exchange a monastery seems to have been founded here. References to the monastery occur in the 9th century and the last reference is in 872. Note that the boundary is only suggested, it may have been much larger.”

Further Information..

1. St Egwin of Evesham (approx AD660 - 717) was a Benedictine monk who rose to become the third Bishop of Worcester. See Wiki St Egwin Of Evesham

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