variety of uses after the dissolution of the abbey during the Protestant Reformation. The grange finally tumbled down in 1722. Its remains lie hidden in a thicket at 52.227734, -1.177539 which unfortunately developed after the excavations ended. In 1316, there was no Abbot in post, so King Edward II appointed Thomas de Evesham, one of his Chancery clerks, as rector of the benefice. The licence, which moved more control of, and finance from, Badby and Newnham to the Abbot of Evesham, was effected through Pope John XXII with Henry Berghersh, Bishop of Lincoln. It was in 1343 that the endowment for a vicar was laid down in a Lincoln diocesan document Ordinacio Vicarie in Ecclesia de Baddeby; 1343, and Reginald Musard became the first vicar. Ecclesiastical Since its foundation in 709, Evesham Abbey had successfully developed an independent existence. It could not avoid being dissolved in November 1539, during the Protestant Reformation and founding of the Church of England. In the 9th century, the parish was in the Diocese of Dorchester (Oxon), a safer location adopted by an earlier Bishop of Leicester to avoid the invading Danes. The seat was moved to Lincoln in 1073 by Remigius. Lincoln Diocese was itself split on 4 September 1541 and Badby church, in Daventry deanery, came within the new but poorly endowed Diocese of Peterborough, in which it remains. It is now closer to six other cathedrals of the Church of England, which are, in order of distance: Coventry, Leicester, Oxford, Birmingham, Lichfield and Worcester. Later times King Henry VIII granted the manors of Badby and Newnham in 1542 to Sir Edmund Knightley and his wife Ursula and their heirs. The dower house in Fawsley Park, last inhabited in 1704, is now in ruins. It was built for Lady Ursula after Sir Edmund died. There was considerable unrest in the parish in the last 20 years of the 16th century, when Valentine Knightley attempted to transfer much area of arable to pasture and to restrict tenants’ rights to woodland. Several tenant families, despite being Puritans like Knightley, used aggressive action as well as national legal arbitration to protect their rights. The manor lands and courts were dissolved in the early 20th century. In 1546 the rectorship and patronage of Badby and Newnham were passed to Christ Church, Oxford. It remained with Christ Church, Oxford, except for disruption by the Commonwealth, until 1919, when