Fenny Drayton


Fenny Drayton is an English village in the Leicestershire district of Hinckley and Bosworth. The population is counted in with the civil parish of Witherley. It lies near the county border with Warwickshire, three miles north-east of Atherstone in the Coventry postcode area, just off the A444, the Roman road called Watling Street. It is crossed by another Roman road at the end of the scenic Fenn Lanes. The village is four miles from Stoke Golding, where Henry VII of England was crowned after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The reinterment of Richard III of England's mortal remains on 21 March 2015 started along Fenn Lanes, near the village.

Education

Schoolchildren mostly attend St Margaret's Church of England Primary School in Stoke Golding or the internationally awarded Dixie Grammar School in Market Bosworth.

Church

The Anglican Church of St Michael and All Angels in the Diocese of Leicester is in Gothic style with 12th-century Norman features and a 13th-century bell tower. It is surrounded by one of the oldest circles of giant yew trees in the United Kingdom. There are two important monuments of the Purefoy family dating back to 1543 in the church grounds. One has an incised slab which is rare. The church is open to the public free of charge by appointment.

George Fox

, founder of the Religious Society of Friends, was born in Drayton-on-the-Clay in July 1624. His father, Christopher, was a weaver and churchwarden. Fox is reputed to have been baptised in the older of the two fonts in the church. There is a large monument to him where two roads, George Fox Lane and Old Forge Road, meet. Quakers from all over the world sign the church visitors' book.

Centre of England

In 2002, the Ordnance Survey defined Lindley Hall Farm on the outskirts of the village as the geographical centre of England. Coordinates are 52°33′42.942″N 1°27′53.474″W Grid Reference SP36373.66 96143.05