Little Lawford

[1] It is located just to the north of the River Avon, which is crossed by a ford on the lane linking it with Long Lawford.

The original Lawford Hall was built during the reign of Henry VII, possibly on the site of an earlier monastic grange which belonged to the monks of Pipewell Abbey, which was dissolved during the dissolution of the monasteries.

[4] In 1780 the hall was the scene of a notorious murder case, when the heir to the family fortune Theodosius Boughton, died under mysterious circumstances while still a minor.

It was soon determined that the cause of his death was poisoning, and suspicion soon fell on his brother-in-law, Captain John Donellan, husband of his sister, who would stand to gain the family inheritance if Theodosius died before the age of 21.

Despite protesting his innocence, Donellan was tried and convicted of Boughton's murder, and hanged at Warwick the following year.