Princethorpe is a small village and civil parish in the Rugby district of Warwickshire, England. In 2001 the parish had a population of 382, reducing to 376 at the 2011 Census. Princethorpe is located roughly halfway between the towns of Rugby, Warwickshire and Leamington Spa and is at a crossroads between the A423, B4453 and B4455 roads. The village contains a pub called the Three Horse Shoes. Situated on Leamington Road in the village is Our Lady's Primary School. It is a primary school with around 100 children between the ages of 4 and 11. Just outside the village is Princethorpe College, a Roman Catholic school. The school incorporates the buildings of the former St. Mary's Priory, which was founded by FrenchBenedictine nuns from Montargis who sought asylum from the French Revolution. The college chapel was designed and built by Peter Paul Pugin. There is also an independent retreat centre close to the college. The area surrounding the college is heavily wooded. There is a small, well-stocked pond among the trees called Little Switzerland In the 1950s, a number of Roman coins were found in Princethorpe. This is related to the fact that the Fosse Way, an old Roman road, runs through the village. There is also what seems to be an ancient burial or signal tower mound on the outskirts of the village, but not much else is known about it. Its name came from Anglo-SaxonPrǽnesþorp = Prǽn's outlying farmstead or hamlet. In the time of Edward I it was called Prenesthorpe.In the reign of Henry VI it came into the possession of the Hugford family of Emscote and stayed in that family until the reign of Henry VII when John Hugford sold it to Sir William Compton. Princethorpe was originally in the parish of Wolston but was made, for convenience, a separate parish with Stretton by an Act of Parliament in the reign of William III. The Parish was to be known as the Parish of All Saints with the Vicar, Francis Hunt, residing in Stretton. There is also a small hamlet north west of the college called Burnthurst and there are roughly 12 dwellings.
Notable people
Land drainage reformer Joseph Elkington developed his drainage techniques while farming at Princethorpe. Vancouver Whitecaps academy head coach Ross Holtom coaches the football teams at Princethorpe. Beth Sharpe is the pastoral head and has split opinions based on banning hard footballs for sponges. The head of Mathematics is Tomi Owens who comes from a respectable school in Jersey.
