Tysoe

What to see in Tysoe

The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the reason to stop, and Historic England lists it Grade I. The Victoria County History reads its growth from a late eleventh or early twelfth-century church, with a twelfth-century south doorway and a tablet carved with the Paschal Lamb above it, a north aisle and clerestory of about 1330 to 1340, and a chancel rebuilt in the late fifteenth century. George Gilbert Scott restored it in 1854.

Inside, look for the fourteenth-century octagonal font, carved with Christ between St Peter and St Paul, the Virgin and Child, Mary Magdalene and St Catherine. There are brasses to Thomas Mastrupe, a chaplain who died in 1463, and to Jane Browne, who died in 1598, and the effigy of William Clarke, who died in 1618, lies in a recess in the chancel. Among the old corbels is a satirical one: a fox-like beast in a chair, with a monk's head and a nun's behind it. Outside, south of the nave, stands a fifteenth-century preaching cross, a scheduled monument. We could not find published opening hours for the church.

The windmill on Windmill Hill, south of the village, is an eighteenth-century tower of squared ironstone, tapering and many-sided, with wooden sails. It has been listed Grade II since 1952. Our guide to Tysoe windmill has more. We found no published opening for the mill itself, so treat it as a sight from the public footpath that passes close by.

South-west of Tysoe, in a hollow below the hill, lies Compton Wynyates, the Tudor house of the Compton family, listed Grade I. It is a private home, and we found no public opening. Sir William Compton was granted the manor of Tysoe in 1520, and the Comptons, later Marquesses of Northampton, were still its lords when the county history was written.

The plain below Edge Hill is called the Vale of the Red Horse, after a horse cut in the red sandstone of the hill near Sunrising, as the county history describes it. The county history records the duty of scouring it, and a tradition that tied it to the Earl of Warwick and the Battle of Towton in 1461, which it thought too late a date. The story of the Red Horse sorts the record from the tale.

A morning in Tysoe

Start at the church in Middle Tysoe and give it half an hour. Then walk south along the main street into Upper Tysoe and pick up the public footpath that climbs Windmill Hill, which OpenStreetMap shows passing within a few metres of the mill. Come back the same way. In the afternoon, drive up on to the ridge: Upton House is about 2 miles east as the crow flies, and the Castle at Edgehill is about 3.

Walks from Tysoe

Two waymarked trails pass through the village in OpenStreetMap: the Centenary Way, the Warwickshire long-distance path, and the Cotswold Link. We have not yet published a circular walk from Tysoe with a route we can stand behind, so this page offers none. The path up Windmill Hill is the short walk most people take.

Food and drink near Tysoe

Tysoe has a pub, but we could not find 2026 evidence from the pub itself, so we name none here until we have checked it. The nearest checked picks are on the ridge: the Castle at Edgehill, a pub in a sham castle tower, and the Pavilion Café at Upton House, which the National Trust says serves light lunches and snacks.

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When to come to Tysoe

Any clear day suits, because the view from the hill is the point. The village holds the Tysoe Windmill Run in early June: in 2026 it ran on Saturday 6 June from the sports field, with a 10K largely off road, a 5K up to the summit of Windmill Hill, and a 5K walk. The 2027 date had not been announced when we checked, so look for it on the parish website. Expect the hill paths to be busy that morning.