Mancetter is a village and civil parish in North Warwickshire, England, where Watling Street crosses the River Anker. The population was 2,528 at the 2021 census. It is contiguous with the town of Atherstone, on the B4111 road towards Hartshill and Nuneaton.

History

In Roman Britain, a posting station was built along Watling Street close to the river crossing, and a rectangular earthwork of this is still extant. The much larger legionary fortress of the Legio XIV Gemina was built here by about 50 AD, before the legion moved to Wroxeter in about 55. Around the fortress grew the settlement of Manduessedum.

The tower has a peal of five bells, of which the oldest was cast about 1350, another early in the 16th century and the treble, tenor and third bell in the middle of the 17th century. It is composed of a British element *mandu – ‘horse’ or ‘pony’ and a Gaulish *essedo - ‘horse chariot’. Although the first element is common in Gaulish names, the application of the second element to a place-name is obscure. The second element of the modern name is ultimately from the OE -ceaster – ‘a city, an old (Roman) fortification, Roman site’. By the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066 ceaster was probably pronounced roughly like modern "Chester". The form -cetter reflects the difficulty that some French-speaking Norman clerks had with the English sounds ch and st (compare also Exeter, Old English Escanceaster).

Notable people

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  • John Sinclair (1860–1938), physician

References

Sources

  • Atherstone-forum Mancetter and Athersone online forums
  • List of volumes Survey of English Place-names
  • Key to English Place-names