arcades with characteristically late-Perpendicular four-centred arches. The chancel was later rebuilt in brick, probably early in the 19th century. St Nicholas' is a Grade II* listed building. The tower has a clock that may date from early in the 17th century. It has also a ring of six bells. Joseph Smith of Edgbaston cast five of them in 1713; William Chapman of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the tenor bell in 1781. St Nicholas' parish is now part of a single benefice with the parishes of Flecknoe, Grandborough, Leamington Hastings and Birdingbury. Economic and social history In 1248 the Hospital of St John the Baptist was granted the right to hold a weekly market at Willoughby every Tuesday and a two-day annual fair at Whitsun. The Tuesday market was still held in the 1830s. Pye Court was originally Pie Court and was the seat of the Court of Pie Powder. This was a court associated with the market whose business included licensing hawkers and punishing acts of misdemeanour or nuisance. In October 1642 Parliamentarian troops on the way to the battle of Edge Hill tried to pull down an ancient cross in Willoughby but were dissuaded by the Vicar. It may have been a market cross or a preaching cross. Construction of the Oxford Canal began north of Coventry in 1769 and was dug through Willoughby parish, reaching Napton-on-the-Hill by 1774. The canal passes east of Willoughby village and Willoughby Wharf was established northeast of the village where the road to Barby, Northamptonshire crosses the canal. Between 1794 and 1805 the rival Grand Junction Canal was built from Braunston to Brentford, with a wharf at Braunston competing with the Oxford's wharf at Willoughby. However, in the Act of Parliament authorising the Grand Junction the Oxford succeeded in obtaining a clause to levy "bar tolls" from the Grand Junction to compensate for any loss of trade from Willoughby Wharf. Willoughby had a post office by 1865. It closed down in May 2002. Willoughby Cricket Club was founded in 1901 and Willoughby Women's Institute was founded in 1920. Railway In the late 1890s the Great Central Main Line was built from the north of England to . It passed north–south through the parish, passing under the road to Barby on the west side of the canal wharf and over the Daventry – Coventry main road just east of the village. The new