BRINKLOW HISTORY GROUP

BRYNCA'S LOW

Brinklow's most notable topographical feature is the imposing grassy mound behind the church, known locally as the Tump, or the Big Hill.  Built on a natural rise, and offering a striking view of the surrounding countryside, the hill and its nearby earthworks represent one of the best preserved motte-and-bailey castle sites in the country.  However, the name of Brinklow itself suggests a much older settled community, or at least a site that was important to people long before the Norman Conquest.

The name is thought to originate from two Old English elements: the personal name Brynca, and the word hlaw, meaning "hill" in the sense of tumulus or burial mound.  This ancient derivation implies that there was almost certainly a man-made "tump" here long before the Normans exploited the site to build their castle.

Brinklow Tump may well have had some significance to the ancient Coritani people, whose capital was Leicester, but who, it is thought, may well have strayed in small isolated settlements southwards.  It is one of a line of such tumuli and earthworks that run diagonally across Warwickshire from north-east to south-east, and which are roughly parallel to the Fosse Way; this last may be by accident or design, but many have suggested that such "ley lines" are either the remnants of ancient and lost trackways, or that they echo pagan belief in the harnessing of natural earth-energy forces along such man made connections. One such trackway is "Tutbury Lane", an old green path which runs from the River Avon to Brinklow Heath.

To date, the mound at Brinklow remains unexcavated, so it is not known for certain whether it is the final resting place of some minor British chieftain, circumvented by the Romans, or later owned by an Anglo-Saxon called Brynca, even perhaps the grave of Brynca himself.  What does seem certain is that there was some form of settlement or human activity long before the Normans built their castle or later their fine church dedicated to St. John the Baptist.

Brinklow History Group is not a Family History Society, and has limited resources, but all enquiries will be answered given time and patience.