TYSOE - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"TYSOE, a parish in the Kington division of Kington hundred, county Warwick, 4½ miles S.E. from Kineton, or Kington, its post town, and 10 from Banbury. The parish is divided into Upper and Lower Tysoe, and includes the hamlet of Westcote. The village is situated opposite the hill on which is cut the figure of a horse, 50 feet in length, in the red sandstone rock, and which gives to the adjacent low lands the name of the Vale of Red Horse.

It is supposed to commemorate the act of the Earl of Warwick, the king-maker, in killing his horse on Palm Sunday, the day of the battle of Towton, in 1461, on the anniversary of which it has been customary for the country people to assemble for the purpose of cleaning the figure from whatever has grown upon it in the course of the year, which is locally termed "scouring the horse". The living is a vicarage*, with the rectory of Compton-Wynyates, in the diocese of Worcester, value £266. The church is dedicated to St. John or to St. Mary. The parochial charities produce about £150 per annum. There is a National school, and the Wesleyans have a chapel. The Marquis of Northampton is lord of the manor."

"EDGEHILL, a small place in the parish of Tysoe, county Warwick, 3 miles S.E. of Kineton, where the first engagement between the royalist and parliamentary troops took place in the reign of Charles I."

"WESTCOTE, a township in the parish of Tysoe, hundred of Kington, county Warwick, 4 miles S.E. of Kington."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]