Lady Godiva and Kinlet

Mostly, the pupils at the school were Cov kids who would know the story of  Lady Godvia, Earl Leofric and Peeping Tom. Who would have guessed that Lady Godiva and Earl Leofric had associations close to the school (some 50 miles away from Coventry)! It was long before the school existed however so we never got to see her riding her white horse as some of us stole out of school on a midnight hike!

Lady Godiva lived not far from the Wyre Farm school at Highley nr Kinlet when Wyre forest was more extensive!!  And from this site - http://www.highley.org.uk/page​24.html

"The Domesday Book gives information about who owned the parish (or, strictly speaking, the manor). Here, it is sometimes possible to see interesting patterns emerge. Highley belonged to the Countess Godiva in 1066, Lady Godiva of popular legend. Godiva would have been a widow at this time and it is likely that the village had originally belonged to her husband, the Earl of Mercia, but had been given to her to provide her with an income after his death. The only other parish in this part of Shropshire that also belonged to Godiva was Chetton. The fact that the two parishes were linked in this way suggests there must have originally been a close connection between them. Chetton seems to have once been a much larger estate than it is at present. One possibility is that it originally held Highley to give it access to woodland. This pattern can be seen elsewhere, where parishes on the fringe of the Wyre Forest are associated with much larger estates which would otherwise lack woodland. Thus Glazeley was once incorporated into Chelmarsh, Billingsley was a detached  part of Morville and parts of Kinlet in the Wyre Forest were originally attached to Stottesdon. It may be that this is a reflection of the way the very first Saxon officials in the late 600’s set out their estates, to ensure they all had access to the woodland that they needed."

And from here - http://www.shropshirehistory.org.uk/html/search/verb/GetRecord/theme:20070118082921 we see a later connection with the Mortimers with one of the school 'houses' named after them.

" After the Conquest, Highley eventually became part of the estate of Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury. Roger in turn let it to a tenant, Ralph de Mortimer. When Roger’s son, Roger de Belleme, unsuccessfully rebelled against King Henry I in 1104, the Mortimer’s obtained Highley directly from the King. In turn, they let it to tenants of their own; around 1150 the manor belonged to William de Highley and it was probably this individual who granted the church to Wigmore Abbey. By 1200 the de Highley family had no male heirs and the manor had become fragmented with several different owners. Subsequently the Mortimers re-established direct control over most of the village. In 1267, Highley was one of the Mortimer holdings in south-east Shropshire included in the Liberty of Cleobury. Following his support for King Henry III at the battle of Evesham, Roger de Mortimer was allowed to consolidate some of his Shropshire manors into this new district. Mortimer had virtually free reign to do as he wished within the liberty; it was outside the normal government of the county and the Sheriff of Shropshire, responsible for enforcing the king’s writ in the rest of the county, had no powers within it. At this period, Highley was often grouped with Earnwood and indeed the Park of Earnwood (effectively the deer farm responsible for stocking the Mortimers’ private hunting grounds in the Chace ot Wyre) extended into Highley. In compensation, a small part of Earnwood was within the manor of Highley. It was probably Highley’s position at the northern flank of the Wyre Forest that was the reason why the Mortimers wished to control it directly."