The threat of a Napoleonic invasion of England at the end of the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th , was the beginning of what was known as the Volunteer Movement. There was unparalleled enthusiasm for the vigorous prosecution of the war, and throughout the country some 4000,000 men enrolled - 722 in one week in Worcester City. Tuberville's history says .....
The story of the Worcestershire Regiment is deeply intertwined with the history of the county and its city. While the 29th Regiment of Foot was officially linked to Worcestershire in 1782 for recruiting purposes, its frequent overseas deployments meant that the connection remained somewhat nominal until later. A significant step in forging a stronger local identity occurred in 1877 with the establishment of depots for both the 29th and 36th Regiments at Norton Barracks. This ultimately led to their amalgamation in 1881, forming the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Worcestershire Regiment, which proudly adopted the 36th's motto, 'Firm'......
The Second World War's arrival in the United States brought significant changes to at least 131 women in Worcester, who became the wives of American Gi's based in the surrounding areas. Official figures show that 38 Worcester women were married to American servicemen in the city's churches, with another 93 wedding GIs at the Worcester Registry Office. Beyond American soldiers, some Worcester women also developed relationships with German and Italian prisoners of war, though marriage to them was apparently not permitted until a year or two after the war ended.
Nestled within the tranquil landscape of Croome Court in Worcestershire lies a remarkable history, one that played a pivotal role in shaping the outcome of World War II and the subsequent Cold War. What appears today as a serene National Trust property was once the clandestine home of RAF Defford, a top-secret airfield that became Britain's leading center for the development of airborne radar technology.
The story of RAF Defford began in 1940, as the shadow of war loomed large over Britain. A significant portion of the land at Croome Court, then owned by the Earl of Coventry, was requisitioned to establish a vital military installation. This transformation saw swathes of parkland converted into an airfield, with numerous structures rapidly erected to support the war effort. Airfield facilities, accommodation for service personnel, a medical wing, an ambulance garage, and even a mortuary sprang up across the site. Initially operational in September 1941, RAF Defford first served as a training base for Vickers Wellington bombers. However, the airfield's destiny took a significant turn in May 1942 with the relocation of the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) and its flying unit to the area. Responsible for groundbreaking radar research and development, it moved inland to Malvern College for safety reasons, and its flight testing arm, the Telecommunications Flying Unit (TFU), later renamed the Radar Research Flying Unit (RRFU), transferred its aircraft to the nearby Defford airfield. This strategic move positioned RAF Defford at the forefront of airborne radar innovation........
Norton Villa (The Firs) was occupied in the mid-19th century by the Walker family connected by marriage to the Havergals; Frances Ridley Havergal, whose hymns and poems enjoyed immense popularity. Mrs. Walker was a progressive lady, the village having no schoolmaster, held classes in her home till 1832, and thereafter established a day school, and formed a lending library for parishioners in her own home....
During the 1939-1945 War, Hillsborough Workhouse was a secret, but very important part of Britain's defenses. At the end of 1940, the German airforce were making nightly raids on Coventry, Liverpool and Birmingham, using the Severn as a navigation aid. To counter this, No 81 Group Fighter Command moved top Tallow Hill to track the bombers and direct our night-fighters to intercept them....
Sir Charles Hastings (11 January 1794 – 30 July 1866) was a medical surgeon and a founder of the British Medical Association, the BMA, (then known as the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association) on 19 July 1832.....
In Martley, two families held the living for over three centuries, benefiting from its substantial income. Martley was worth as much as £1,000 a year, and even more from tithes in prosperous years. From the mid-17th century, a junior branch of the Vernon's of Hanbury Park served as Rectors of Martley.....
Evesham Abbey, located in Evesham, Worcestershire, England, was established between 700 and 710 AD by Saint Egwin. Its founding is linked to a vision of the Virgin Mary reportedly seen by a swineherd named Eof.
Despite the Norman Conquest, Evesham Abbey prospered, largely.....
The following were of Saxon foundation, and all probably and all probably Benedictine Priories, Blockley, Daylesford, Fladbury, Hanbury, Kempsey, Ripple, Whitting (most likely Whittington), Sture-in Usmere (Kidderminster. Later were: Cookhill, (Cistercian founded 13th century), Elencester (Possible Alcester?, Augustine Canons), Westwood, Whitstones (Worcester), Westbury On Trim, f,992 Benedictine, Hadbury (Charlton?)......
Christian teaching was tacitly accepted as the basis of law. The control of the Church over its people and their morals, was complete. The Church not only taught, but punished when it was thought necessary. Below are the details of a penance ordered in 1303, on a Sub-Deacon and his woman. It comes from the Register of Bishop Geynesburg (Gainsborough), Bishop of Worcester, 1302-1307.....
The Enthronement of a Bishop in his cathedral church serves as a formal introduction to the clergy and laity of his diocese. The Enthronement of Bishop William Gainsborough in 1302 seems to have been a strange affair, and not without discord....
The provision of education for the poor in the City of Worcester up to the end of the 19th century was one of spasms of great individual effort, followed by periods of stagnation and neglect, leading eventually to the acceptance of municipal responsibility for education within the city.....
Frederick Lygon 6th Earl Beauchamp was born on 10 November 1830, in Madresfield, Worcestershire, he was the son of General Henry Beauchamp Lygon 4th Earl Beauchamp, who was 46 and his mother, Susan Caroline Eliot, aged 29. He married Mary Catherine Stanhope on 18 February 1868, in St George Hanover Square, London, England, United Kingdom. In 1885, his occupation is listed as he held the office .....
It was the practise in some parts of requiring widows, on re-marrying, to pay a fine to the Crown, but by the mid-19th century, it had become a thing of the past. Berrow's Worcester Journal reported a re-marriage at St. Swithun's (Swithin's) Chuirch, Worcester, in 1775, which points to the acceptance of another 'legal'practice:
Captain Michael Clements was a naval officer who greatly distinguished himself in the wars with France & Spain. Near Cadiz, in 1778 Captain Clements in the Vengeance, in sight of all the people assembled on the walls of the city, defeated two frigates sent out against him, and took on a whole Spanish fleet, receiving the fire of 24 ships of the ...
Until the 1880s Barbourne Bridge was a mere footbridge, almost at water level, with a ford for vehicles beside it.
Gheluvelt Park in Worcester commemorates the 1914 Battle of Gheluvelt, where the Worcestershire Regiment halted a German advance. Opened in 1922...
Barbourne Lodge The house stood on the south side of Barbourne Brook. Fanny Burney called it 'Barebones'. In the latter half of the 19th century it became a 'pest house' or fever hospital. When Newtown Road Hospital opened a fierce ...
Bill recalls when he was about 12 years old, he had a school friend called George, who lived in a house built on the foundations of the old City Bridewell prison, at the bottom of Copenhagen Street, and through this connection, he saw much of the life in that part of the City. George's father, Mr. Blissett, was secretary of the Plough Inn Fishing Club, and Bill and his friend had privileged positions, they took part in the activities of the club, though strangely, when Bill reflected back he came to the conclusion that there was not a thing to do with fishing....
A article written by the late Mike Grundy in Worcester Evening News -3-97
'Glorious glimpses are recaptured this week of a once famous local funfair which gave untold enjoyment to may thousand of Worcester and Malvern families for more than half-a-century. Strickland's Amusements toured constantly around central England, from village fetes to the grounds of stately homes, and from town squares to main leisure grounds - all from the family's home base, a large lodging house at 20 Newport Street, Worcester winter quarters for Strickland's Funfair were under the railway arches at Croft Road, Worcester.....
Mike wrote 'I've been learning all about the colorful Strickland family of showmen from Ray Hull of Bromyard....
Harry Strickland's grandson, Ray Strickland, came from Bromyard to see Bill Gwilliam following a article Bill wrote in Worcester Evening News......
In the 1930s a short stretch of the river bank at Grimley, known as the Grimley Lido, gave untold pleasure to the people of Worcester. It was hardly a 'Costa Brava' or a beach on the Cornish Riviera, just the length of a longish field, but it became the mecca of thousands of people who wanted a dip in the river, or a picnic , on a summer week-end, or a Thursday 'half-day closing'.....
The hunt ball at the Shirehall was the high point of social life in Worcestershire at the turn of the 19th century. All the county nobility were there, and the company included 'all who was anyone', and numbered 4378. It was the fashionable function of the year and no money was spared to create a setting to show off the brilliant jewels and dresses, and the scarlet uniforms of the hunt. The Worcester Herald of January 18, 1896 reported the scene at some length.....
In olden times, the High Bailiff and the Low Bailiff alike, were expected to give an annual feast, and when the Mayors came into existence nearly four centuries ago they improved upon the ancient traditions. On every occasion they made merry, no matter whether it was a Coronation, or the death of the King, whether it was a funeral or the discussion of bye-laws about the size of quart pots (946 ml). The feast was officially recognized as part of the long tradition.....
It is known that a building on the Shelsley Side of Woodbury Hill existed in the late 19th and early 20th Centurys, which was owned by Dr Barnardo's. On old maps it is shown as the reformatory, but the locals always spoke of it as 'The Home'.....
About 1840, a silk factory was established by a Mr. Grovernor in Fish Street, making shawls, mostly black 2 yards square. The principal production of the factory was however, furniture covering, and it won a prize ,edal at the ...
Power looms saw an increase of female labour in the textile industry. Dixons brought in women to the looms in 1884, and this was believed to have been an attempt to cheapen labour. However, a standard of 35s. 0d a week was maintained, even though similar work was being done in Yorkshire by women for 15s a week. By 1901....
In 1854, George Price Simcox, (formerly Lea & Simcox) obtained a patent for printing twill fabric, which was woven plain, then printed with blocks, and called Beaver Carpets. Works were set up in Worcester Road, but the ....
The destruction of Messrs Watson's Pike Carpet Mills in Green Street, Kidderminster, on July 1, 1886, was one of the most disastrous fires ever seen in the town. The damage was estimated at the time as £80,000 and 500 workpeople were effected. One of the largest mills in Kidderminster was burnt to ruins, and the machinery reduced to a mass of twisted iron...
Following a dispute in the carpet industry concerning 'the number of apprentices the masters shall allowed to be employ and the age at which apprentices shall be placed on the loom', the workers, led by Ben Adams, established an emigration society to aid 'those who are desirous of leaving the country'. He planned ....
In 1863, and association of power loom carpet weavers was to be formed in Kidderminster, but it was the manufacturers, in fact, who were the first to form a permanent association. The Power Loom Carpet Manufacturers Association was founded in 1864....
Typical of the development of a carpet manufactory is this account from 1919 of the firm of Tompkins & Adams:
Adams was an employee for 15 years, and for 35 years a partner. Tompkins was with Lea & Simcox as a boy of 13 on a handloom in a warehouse now occupied by Messrs. Hyles in Mill Street. Tompkins & Adams started with less than ...
An attempt in the 1880s to combine all factories under a 'syndicate' fell through, though it led to combinations and limited companies and limited companies. In 1890 the industry had expanded greatly, and the value of the Kidderminster carpet factories was established at ....
William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley, was a prominent figure in Victorian England. This wealthy landowner and art enthusiast transformed Dudley House, the oldest surviving aristocratic mansion on London's Park Lane, into a masterpiece.....
The power looms were much larger than the old hand looms, being 17ft tall, and the old premises in Mill Street and Church Street were insufficient. In 1852, Messrs Humphries adopted power looms at their premises in New Road, but gradually, there was no capital for new factories...
In the early 19th century the domestic system began to break down and the industry moved to the premises of manufacturers. By 1838, there were 24 employers and 4,016 weavers. The manufacturers were not very enterprising. They refused Whylock's patent for a new fabric called Tapestry, or printed Brussels.....
In France, in 1801, Joseph Jacquard perfected a device which when adapted to the carpet loom revolutionized the weaving industry. It was a pattern-selecting series of punched cards, which when laced together and fed into the loom, produced the ....
The Clothier's Company of Worcester was in existence in the 13th century, and was subsequently incorporated by Henry V111 and Queen Elizabeth. The later charter was dated 23rd September, 1590. The...
Trade and commerce greatly developed in the 12th century. Town communities saw the need to control quality and prices, and craftsmen needed an organization to assist and protect their interests....
Two English settlers, Daniel Gookin and John Eliot, settled among the native Indians on Packachoag Hill (which is now more or less in the middle of Worcester), and in 1674, Gookin ought bfrom the Indians a tact of land eight miles square, and paid for it 12 pounds of the lawful money of New England. In token of good faith, two Indians who...
Worcester City and County contributed 14 persons to the founding of Pennsylvania, plus an unspecified number of children and servants. There were five Finchers, three Beardsleys, R.Toomer, George Mares, John Price, Seemerry Adams, Hannah Smith, and William Bronton of Dudley. This note deals mainly with Francis Fincher.
There were four branches of the Fincher family in the county, at Shell, Himbleton (where the name is still known of the historic family), Worcester City, and Upton Snodsbury. Francis Fincher, who was a glover and skinner, is the one who dominates. He is described in the American documents as being at 'Kinton', but he is thought to have been born at Himbleton, and to have spent the latter part of his life in Kington....
The tanning of hides is a very ancient trade, certainly pre-Roman. Leather was made by drying and salting hides. After the Norman Conquest oak bark was used on cattle skins, alum and oil on the skins of horses, deer and sheep. The Severn had many tanneries on its banks; Bewdley for instance had everything needed for tanning, droves of cattle from the Welsh borderline, oak...
At an early date Curriers were ordered to work indoors and not to carry on their trade in the street, and there were penalties for creating nuisances when preparing skins. A local law clearly states that skins were previously dressed on the banks of the river was carried on .....
Leather dressing for centuries was carried on in the Blockhouse Meadows at the Three Springs where there was ample water supply from the streams which there unite to form the Frogging Mill brook. It was run by the Bevington family, prominent in local affairs....
John Dent was born in 1751, and served his apprenticeship with James Perkins, glover, and was given his Freedom to trade in Worcester in 1772. Shortly after this he married and had four children, John, Thomas, William and Benjamin. In 1792 he was living at 26 Sidbury, with his son Thomas until his death in 1811, and the business was continued by Thomas until his death in 1824. John Dent junior was born in 1777, and after serving his apprenticeship with his father, was granted his freedom to trade in 1798. He did not remain with John Dent senior, but started as a glove manufacturer on his own account.......
In 1835 there were 82 glove manufacturers; 6 of whom were leather dressers, also 6 curriers, 9 leather dressers, 2 tanners, 4 dyers, and 11 stainers, a total of 39 preparing leather sellers.....
Barbourne Leather Works originated in the late 1780s in St John's, and was a family concern of the Badgery's which went into the 6th, 7th, 8th, generations, but went into voluntary liquidation in 1956. The managing director and a nucleus of workers ...
Joseph Firkins succeeded to a glove business that had been started at the end of the 18th century, and while trading under the name of Joseph Firkins & Co did exclusive trade all over the country. An interesting reference in Berrows Worcester Journal of June 17, 1952, describes that in that ...,
St Martin's was the Glover's district. The present New Street and Friar Street, were originally one street, and until 1557 was Glovers Street, but in that year was renamed New Street. Considerable trade (gloving) was carried in the area including in Nash's House by John Redgrave, the Hawkes family in Lich Street, which later passed to the Sanders family by marriage, in Lowesmmor, Fownes occupied a warehouse before the erection of their factory in the Blockhouse.....
In 1825, two leather dressers were imprisoned for supporting apprentices when a strike was on (Guildhall, Feb 9 1825) Charles Smith and Thomas Badgery, in the employ of Mr. Whitehouse of this City, were this day committed to solitary confinement for 3 months for disobedience to their masters orders. Berrows Worcester Journal corrected the impression that imprisonment formed part of....
In 1810, Worcester tailors struck for a rise in wages, and 'An Impartial Observer' issued a handbill protesting against 'this daring combination' saying that men could earn £1 per week besides the enjoyment of 'Saint Monday', but they were ....
The Glovers Trade Union (for skilled workers) was founded in 1884, but was dissolved in 1904. Another Union Society continued to 1925, but the trade situation had become worse ..
The ancient Guilds in the City were very strong. Their restrictions had driven the Cloth Trade out of the City; the carpe trade to Kidderminster, the needlers to Redditch, and was resisting combination moves in the gloving trade. In June 1807, the Master Glovers met to resist a combination of Grounders, Stoners, and White Leather Parers to obtain an advance in wages. 56 firms, including John Dent, signed a declaration of resistance. An earlier ....
The Glover's Guild in existence in 1497 ...
No commentary on old Worcester can ignore the glove trade which here was very ancient. The first mention of a Glover's Guild dates back to 1497, but the trade existed in Worcester before that. Two Worcester glovers, Francis Fincher and Alexander Beardsley, were prominent Quakers who after much persecution sold all their possessions and emigrated in 1683 with several other local Quakers, and their...
Worcester City employed a Crier who carries a silver topped staff, and walks a pace or two ahead of the mace-bearers when the Mayor and Corporation process. However, it is many a day since his traditional cries were last heard in the streets of Worcester...
Charles Priday was born in Quedgeley in Gloucester in 1839, the only son of Richard Priday & Pamela Priday (nee Heaven) . Richard Priday was the son of William & Elizabeth Priday and through one of Richard's brothers Charles the boat builder was related to Charles Priday - the Priday Metford Mill owner in Gloucester Docks. Charles moved to Westgate area of Gloucester as a young adult where he married Harriet Steel around 1859 and had a son Samuel Richard Priday born 1863............
The greatest of the county matches, and one of the greatest prize fights of all times, took place on Pitchcroft on January 7, 1823; when Tom Springs and Paddy Langan fought for the Championship of England. .....
On the Worcester New Road ground you cannot get away from the Cathedral, The great clock-bell booms. There were occasions when the match is in progress, when the great peal of twelve bells rang out, the very ground seems to vibrate. Every three hours the chimes rang out in tumult of joy and daily blessing. There were seven barrels to the great music box, with a variety of 48 tunes to delight everyone, some with sacred setting, others secular. But 7 x7 made 49, The girl l left behind me was played twice, once as its own sad self, and again as Old English March. There is a legend that when Bradman was amassing his famous double centuries (1939, 11934, 1938) at Worcester, a dignitary of the Cathedral, a great cricket enthusiast, changed the ordered chime appointed for the day to Poor Tom Bowling.........
Mr. Herbert Jenner who played in the first Oxford v Cambridge match in 1827, tole the following story of a 'demon bowler' when he kept wicket: 'The bowler sent down a ball which broke the .....
W.G. Grace made his first appearance in the Midlands at the age of 20, and though only 20, he was easily the greatest cricketer in the country. The occasion was at the Boughton Cricket Ground, Worcester, in 1870, with a Worcestershire 22, and the United South of England eleven. The home team won by 57 runs, which fields.....
On the high ground overlooking the Severn in Henwick Road, just north of the Dog and Duck Ferry, were the Porto Bello Gardens, pleasure gardens open to the public. There was a fine view from the 18th- century house to the cathedral and it was a very popular place with the young bloods of the city. In Regency days the gardens were famous and an enthusiastic writer of the time described them as superior to the London tea gardens. Sadly, they were closed in the 1850s because of maliciously spread 'rumours of evil reports'............
The River Severn which separates St.John's from the rest of Worcester has played a crucial part in the beginning's and developments of the city. Its tidal bore enabled Worcester to flourish as an inland port and up until about 180 years ago this great waterway - once known as 'The King's high stream of Severn'- was alive with commercial traffic. Only the coming of the railway ended the city's dependency for prosperity on the river. But the Severn always has been, and always will be, a force to be reckoned with for Worcester people - to admire and enjoy, and from time to time to fear ....
The Holy Well at Henwick was an exceptionally fine spring which in medieval times had been piped to the cathedral and which the prior had used in the baths he had erected for the monks on Holywell Hill (in return for the transference of St. John's tolls to the Worcester bailiff in 1461) The water was credited with possessing curative properties for the eyes, and was extensively used for that purpose. The lead pipes which conveyed the water to the cathedral were pulled up by the Parliamentary troops during the siege of Worcester and used for bullets.......
I.D.Margary in 'Roman Roads in Britain' describes this road as follows;
'It seems clear that a direct road to Gloucester through Droitwich and Worcester branched from Ryknild Street to the south of Birmingham, near the alignment angle by Selly Park. Its course is at first represented by the main road through Bournville and Longbridge, now a .....
This was the great artery of the Roman military system in the west, and touched the County only at the outlying 'island' part of the Hundred of Oswaldslow, near Shipston on Stour. Because of the changes in the County boundaries, this has now sadly been lost to us. The road ran from Lincoln to Exeter, and served as a .....
Roman roads were once thought to be of two kinds, Streets which were paved with granite sets, and Ways which were unpaved, but archaeological evidence does not bear this out. They were however, all constructed of several layers which raised the road surface well above the level of the surrounding land, forming a causeway known as an agger.
The usual road for the passage of two vehicles without collision had a width of about 14 feet, but the agger would be considerably wider, making what we would call now a 'hard shoulder' on each side............
The Britannia Brewery stood almost opposite Paradise Row. It later became Spreckley's Brewery. It was started by a Mr. Joseph in early Victorian times, but at first, Worcester did not take to large scale brewing, being content with home-brewed ale.But times were changing . Breweries began buying up public houses, which became.....
St George's Chapel or Claine's St. George's was built in Barbourne where, say's Noake in 1848, 'within recent memory, children gathered buttercups and daisies, and rioted in the tall grass'. The need for such a chapel was expressed by the minister of Claines, for the ..........
In the 1850's, Barbourne Terrace was a medley of Georgian villas and gravel pits. In the late 1850's one especially good house was built in Barbourne Terrace for Thomas Chalk by Henry Day. Henry Day loved towers, and this particular building is of ...........
The area west of Bilford Road belonged to the Blanket family until the close of the War of the Roses, when for five generations it was in possession of the Freres. After the late Elizabethan period it was passed through .........
Worcester Regatta 1845 - Worcester Evening News 20-05-95
One of the more remarkable 'matchings' at the first ever Worcester Regatta over 150 years ago was when the crew from the then tiny village of Kempsey was drawn against Oxford University !
The David and Goliath clash did not, for some unaccountable reason, actually take place though Oxford rowed later at the regatta against a Bewdley crew, bumping their boat from behind under an arch of Worcester Bridge and claiming the race...............
The year 1896 was Emancipation Day, and the London to Brighton run was organized. For some time expectations had risen, though doubts continued in the local press. The Worcestershire Advertiser of April 4, 1896, commented, 'In anticipation of removal of restrictions upon horseless carriages, manufacturers are busy ...........
A.E.Cleggs started this family-run business in 1929, which was sited on the village green in Hallow. The business moved in 1937 to a more suitable location in Hallow and became Vauxhall dealers in the late 1950s......
A new ease of travel was brought about by the internal combustion engine. The date of the above Country Life adverts, 1901, was still the age of the bicycle, and Humbers could use the slogan, 'The Kings of Europe Ride the Kings of Cycles' Cars had started to appear in 1898, and advertisements were often novel ...
The notorious Red Flag Act of 1865 had imposed speed limits of 4 m.p.h in the country, and 2 m.p.h in the towns, and required all 'road locomotives' to be attended by at least three persons, one of whom was to ....
John Tangye, of Stourbridge and Birmingham, was the first man to drive across Dartmoor in a car...
In Britain the pioneers of mechanical road vehicles had made an excellent start in the 1830s, but after the Locomotive Act of 1865, British engineers lost ground. There were two main reasons for this, Parliament was filled with landowners who were horse-orientated, and viewed the presence of mechanical vehicles on the roads as a nuisance and..
The first motor vehicle to reach the top of the Worcestershire Beacon, Malvern. The Hon ....
In 1926, the Corporation of Worcester obtained an Act of Parliament authorising it to purchase the tramways as a going concern, and leased the undertaking to the Birmingham and .....
In 1914, the combined tram, bus and motor-coach routes were 65 miles. The weekly milage covered was 8,250 and the number of passengers carried was put at 60,000 per week, or three million per annum, and the ....
Another innovation was the Tramway Parcel Express in 1907. Instead of one or two deliveries each day, parcels were dispatched by each car and bus. Parcels left at various agencies en-route were delivered to a Half-mile radius from the agency. Parcels weighing 14lbs were delivered for 2d, 28lbs for 3d, 42lbs for 4d and 56lb for 5d, with an ...
In 1898, the British Electric Traction Company acquired a controlling interest in the Horse-Tramway Service, Service, which became 'The Worcester Electric Traction Co. Ltd, and sought powers to electrify the tramways. For three or four years the matter was discussed at stormy meetings......
The first system of public transport for the City of Worcester was the establishment of a Horse-Tramway Service in 1881. It covered a distance of three-and-half miles on two routes. (1). From the Portobello Inn, Bransford Road, to ......
The public had to be persuaded that coaches were safe, and innkeepers advertised their new road carriages as 'flying machines', or if it had windows, as 'glass machines'. The first Worcester Flying Coach set off from Crown Inn, Broad Street, on June 11, 1733, for London. Passengers paid 25 shillings each, and .......
The roads in the 17th century were unbelievably bad, and for most of the 18th century they were in a worse state than had ever existed before. No new roads had been made since Roman times, and the existing roads were full of holes, sometimes.........
The first mention of a stage coach in Worcester was in 1674, when the City officers escorted Quaker Fox, who was under arrest, to London. By 1758, stage coached from Worcester to London had become well established, and in the ......
The First Public Transport
The first means of public transport in England came in the 17th century. Baggage wagons were used by the King and military forces in medieval times, where the roads permitted, but it was not until Elizabeth 1's reign that ...........
Between 1860 and the early years of the present century large numbers of new vessels were built for the salt trade. They were known among the Severn trowmen as 'Wich Barges', the name being an abbreviation of Droitwich. They did .........
The Church Courts exercised great power over rural life until 1860. They dealt not only with church affairs, but with matters affecting the whole life - marriage, -slander, drunkenness, schools, witchcraft, trading on Sundays and failing to observe Holy Days. Offenders were brought to the notice of the Church Court by a presentment made by the churchwarden, and the Court possessed the power of enforcement.......
Sir Thomas Phillips of Broadway.
'The worlds greatest book collector' In 1843, Sir Thomas, himself a magistrate, was fined at the local sessions for assaulting a tax collector. Shortly afterwards he was invited to appear in an engraved portrait group of Worcestershire Magistrates, by Richard Dighton. He wrote....
The chief agents of local government were the Justices of the Peace. They were unpaid, local gentlemen with considerable power and position. They dealt with all aspects of daily life, from crime and its punishment, through the endless disputes over poor relief, bastardy, unlawful gaming and drunkenness, to the licensing of alehouses and the state roads and bridges. From Tudor times they played the central.....
The top hat and swallowed-tail jacket were disregarded in favour of a helmet and tunic like those worn today. Re-equipment started in 1864, but not completed until the following year. The original uniform was chosen to be as ....
In 1838, the old Militia Depot on the corner of Queen Street and St Nicholas Street was converted into a proper police headquarters. It had police hoses for an inspector and a constable, but parts were let out to tradesmen as a warehouse. There was little sanitary arrangements, and not until the second Cholera scare in 1849 were water closets erected in the depot. It appears that County prisoners were brought....
Under the Worcester Improvement Act of 1823, which dealt with the lighting, paving and watching of the City, eight watchmen were appointed to work in parishes, all operating from the Watch House which was adjoined to City Gaol in Union Street, under the direction of the Gaol Governor, William Griffiths, who regarded his post......
That some attempt was made to clear the City of undesirables is shown in a report of 1822: 'Police made a raid at an early hour and visited certain obscure lodging houses in the City, and apprehended ....
In most towns, night-man, known as 'Charlies', with warning rattles, kept an effective watch. They were often old, and always poorly paid, and there were complaints that when trouble started they were quick to avoid it and go to the other way. In rural districts the public .....
Crime in the first half of the 19th century was a very grave problem. The Watch, though called the Police, consisted of parish constables under the occasional direction of a magistrate. There was no police force in the modern sense of the word until the 1830s, and crime most went unpunished. The authorities....
It is recorded in the registers of Rushock Church of 1660, that Joan Bibb, at the instigation of the person, The Rev. William Shaw, was ordered to be tried and thrown into a pond as a witch, to prove...
Perhaps the most remarkable local survival of 'legal custom' was at Red Marley D'Abitot, a Worcestershire village before its transfer to Gloucestershire. William Lygon, the first Earl Beauchamp, was riding through his constituency in the 1820s, when he ......
The legal power of the Judge was great, and some let this be known clearly, Judge Hawkins, for instance was a tyrant in his court, and always refused to have any window open. The Mayor of Worcester was visibly...
With the passing of the Courts Act of 1971, a form of justice which had existed for some 800 years, came to an end with the abolition of the Assizes. Usually twice a year, the Queen's Judge's set out from London and took the ......
With the passing of the Courts Act of 1971, a form of justice which had existed for some 800 years, came to an end with the abolition of the Assizes. Usually twice a year, the Queen's Judge's set out from London and took the ......
Version of the escape published in Berrows Worcester Journal 31.3.1951 which reads as follows:
'On one occasion a prisoner escaped from the prison. He climbed down from his cell by means of a rope of knotted blankets, and broke into the Governor's house and stole some of his silver. Years after, my grandfather met the man again, and got the whole story out of him...
At the Hundred House at Great Witley there is still a Justices Room, for the inn occupied the site of the Hundred Courts of Doddingtree. It was built by Lord Foley, and was first used as a magistrates court in 1790. It was last used as such in 1872. The old cells under the building were later used a s a weigh-bridge. At Cutnall Green......
Before 1835 the parish of St. Michael's was out of the City's boundaries and jurisdiction. Both the Talbot and the Hare & Hounds were widely used for County business, having all the amenities of the town, but officially out of it. The holding of the unreformed Court at the ......
Customs varied from Manor to Manor, and in some cases, the heir may not have been the eldest son. When this was so, the custom was known as 'Borough English', which was based on the ancient law of Mercheta, which gave to the Lord of the Manor, what was known as.....
The Worcester Court of Common Pleas had its origin as long ago as 1554. The original charter of Philip and Mary gave the Court cognizance of all pleas whatsoever, and constituted a Court of Record to be held weekly. Also, a charter of James 1 provided for 'all manner of pleas', actions, suits and demands, as well ......
The practice of the gaoler selling drinks ceased with the building of the new Guildhall, and led to the Justices of the Peace adjoining to a nearby inn. The King's Head and the Golden Lion in High Street was widely used, but for the County Justices there was convenience in dealing with the minor cases at the Talbot Inn in the Cathedral precincts. Until 1835, the Cathedral area was outside the.....
For centuries, the Courts of Justice were held at the Town Hall, At Worcester, it was long been called the Guildhall. The original Hall was a timber-framed building with the body of the Hall open to the roof, with the Courts of Justice at opposite ends of the Hall, facing each other. Adjoining one of the Courts was the Gaoler's house, who was allowed to sell liquors to such of the prisoners as could afford to pay. The prison block was under the Hall, and was reserved for 'citizen' criminals, while .......
Plan of the New Worcester Bridge looking from South side..
Sketch's of Bridges on the Severn - From below Upton-On-Severn to Gloucester
At the place where the first iron bridge was built, what better memorial than to erect an iron foot bridge as a war memorial. It spans the Severn between the villagers of Jackfield and Coalport. It has an iron plate at each end reminding walkers....
There was considerable building, or rebuilding of county bridges, some of stone, during this period. In the Quarter Sessions records from 1599 to 1642 (before the Civil War). In the Quarter Sessions records from......
The Old Welsh Bridge at Shrewsbury, by Paul Sandby, c.1778
The destruction of many of Worcestershire's ancient bridges in the first half of last century on the grounds that they were not suited to modern traffic, has been disastrous. Many were of great historical interest, and of great beauty, but the County authority, whose duty it was to maintain them, have in the past been induced either to destroy them and build a new bridge, or to transform the old one so that it bears little resemblance to the original. Only in recent times can it be said that much attention has been given to the ........
There was considerable iron-smelting at Worcester in Roman times, and it is most probable that a bridge existed across the River Severn to enable fuel and iron-cre from the western bank to reach the bloomery hearths on the east side. When the rail bridge at Worcester was being built in 1860, great stumps of ancient timbers were taken from the bed of the river. They could have been the remains of a medieval bridge, but in the ........
Originally there were no bridges, and the streams and rivers were crossed by fords and ferries. The danger of crossing in floods, or at night, and the inconvenience of waiting for the ferry led to the building of bridges. At first a crossing was by ....
The manor house of Timberdine, a half-timbered building erected by the Mitton's over 300 years ago, lies almost opposite the Ketch Inn. The building today is partially late 19th century, and has been converted into a restaurant. The ancient priory manor had been a key position at the battle of Worcester, extending from Duck Brook as far as the Ketch Ford....
The Severn Tunnel between New Passage and Portskewett carries the railway under the estuary and forms the most direct railway route between the south of England and South Wales. The tunnel was completed in 1886 at a cost of £2 million after many difficulties from flooding. It is the longest..........
Generally clean in quality, the Severn is a salmon river and also supports almost every kind of freshwater fish found in British rivers, including trout and barbel. The tidal waters of the river......
For centuries the Severn was the most important river for traffic to and from the West Midlands. It was almost certainly used by the Romans for trading purposes. An Act of Parliament in 1430 ......
The Severn Basin is irregular in shape, its topography and geology show great variety. Several geological systems are represented in the cathment area of the river..
The Severn is subject to large and rapid rises in water level. On the lower reaches of the non-tidal part of the river, the rise occasioned by flood is often of the order of 20 feet, while the maximum tidal variation at Avonmouth can be 48 feet. This is greater than that of any other river in the British Isles and is exceeded only in one other place in the world the Bay of Fundy in Canada....
The River Severn is a clean, fast-flowing river set in a pastoral background of picturesque countryside and rolling hills.
The name Severn is said to have been derived from Sabrina, a tragic water nymph reputed to have been drowned in its waters. In its upper reaches of Powy's, it is sometimes known as the Hafren.....
Following a simple enquiry from Canada in 1999, regarding a family by the name of Sanders living in Lich (Leech) Street in the early 1800's resulted in a twenty year intense research by Pam Hinks & CASP (Canadian Adaptions of Shakespeare Project)......
Most of the railway companies had their origins in the desire of country people to get access to London. By 1845, no fewer than 36 railway schemes were projected in Worcestershire, and 13 of them affected the City. Six only received legislative sanction.
In the farmyard of Lower Wick Manor Hose, (also known as Bennetts Dairy), is an ancient building of red sandstone, and some architectural merit, but which has long used as a farm building...
The only reference to a ferry at this point, known to the present day, is one by Mrs. Berkeley, who in 1924, wrote of a waterside inn called the Hanley Quay, as follows:..
In 1791, a Cameron (of Worcester) became tenant of the ferry with the public house adjoining. The license for the pub was granted in 1564. There was no bridge between Glos. and Upton and this was the..
Twyning Fleet Inn Ferry
'There is a ferry attached to this hotel which lands on the Bredon side, on which a rate is levied. The ferry right was granted by charter in 17c, and up until 1923 it was a distinct advantage to the house, but due to changes in transport'
This was the last of the Severn ferries in Worcestershire. In the hamlet of Uckinghall, the battered stump of a medieval wayside cross still stands to direct travellers to the river crossing here...
The ferry here dates back many centuries, though the name 'Saxon' is said to have been the name of a distant ferryman. There is still a well-defined road leading to the crossing on the east bank from Stratford..
The crossing at Upton-on-Severn is on the ancient and very important route from the Welsh border to the Avon Valley, by way of the Hollybush Pass, at the south end of the Malvern Hills. It was a route long used, back in medieval times, by the drovers of Welsh cattle and sheep to English markets. The medieval ferry was ..
The name Rydd comes from the Welsh word rhyd, meaning a ford or ferry, and the ford here is thought to have been one of the principal crossings of the Severn on prehistoric times, on the route to the hill camps at Malvern Hills. From Malvern there are two very good roads converging at Rydd Green, Both wre used by Drovers from Wales. The Guarlford road, especially, is a 'classic drovers' road, crossing..
Long before there were bridges there were ferries, and in days long gone, landowners, ecclesiastical and municipal authorities maintained the crossings of the river. In days when labour was cheap, the ferries were a valuable source of income not only for the ferryman, who paid for his right to ply the crossing, but for the owners as well. For centuries ferries had an important place in the...
Charlton House, three miles from Evesham, was formerly the property of the Dineley family, and saw the commencement of the bitter family fued between Sir John Dineley Goodere and his...
These sometimes have strange names in the Vale of Evesham. Spot Loggins is a local name...
Mrs. l. M. Hopkins, who lived at Prior's Court, Callow End, 9March 1956), asked a Valuation Court that her rates be reduced because a ghost known as the Grey Lady is causing staff trouble...
A contemporary account (January 1899) goes as follows:
'At Cropthorne, a beautiful place stands vacant because successive owners have found it impossible to keep servants there. A booted something enters at the front door, crosses the hall, ascends...
Longfellow, who was saturated in thought and sentiment of New England, wrote: ...
Folk lore gives insight into generations of our ancestors, including forgotten religious rites long abandoned, and before the nature of diseases was understood, most believed in herbs and charms...
The mandrake plant has from the earliest times been associated with magical powers. It was believed that this 'semi-human' plant shrieked when pulled from the ground, a belief recorded by William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet;
'And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth, that living mortals, hearing them, run mad'.
About 1647, Mr. Rowland Barlett's house at Castlemorton was plundered during his absence at Ledbury Fair, and among the money, plate and jewels they carried away was a 'cock-eagle stone', a variety of ergillaceous oxide of iron, then much valued by phsicians on...
At Pebworth, about 1850, there was a White Witch, who had the power of curing by incantation. She is remembered for two cures, one for ....
In the mid-19th century, half the inhabitants of Britain believed in witches, especailly in remote rural areas, but even in the Industrial Black Country many still...
The ability of a witch to turn herself into another creature is told in the story of the hunting of Dame Cofield of Leigh. John Spooner of Hopton Court, Leigh, kept a pack of hounds, which....
The difference in the practice of charms and of curses is shown in two notable Honeybourne characters. The beneficient activities of the White Witch were mainly in the...
'Witchfinders' were long on the public payroll. Undoubtedly, torture of one sort or another was used sort or another..
'Walk out across the marsh when the water is out and the twilight falling and the wind leaping through the red boughs of the willow, and the rooks flying homeward through the drifting rain, see the watery shaft of sunlight gleam on the flooded meadows, and the broad foundation of the rainbow spring from the veiled and distant hills - faeryland does not..
Edward C. Corbett was a solicitor who gave up his practice to travel rough around the world. He had a flair for languages and in the period after the 1914-18 War travelled as a overseas representative for Lea & Perrins promoting Worcestershire Sauce. At a time when ..
Folklore is the study of beliefs and practices once firmly held. Few now believe in charms, in giants and fairies, but less than a century ago people in lonely places believed in them In Worcestershire and
The City has had a number of gaols including near the Trinity Gate/Queen Street, first known record is dated 1540, which was one of the smaller gateways within the City wall and had a Gaol Tower, is was a postern gate leading from the City towards....
The Pack Horse was one of the staging houses on the Shrewsbury to London run, but dates earlier than the coaching ere, for it is said to have held a license since 1485. It had great accommodation, and on one September Hop Fair, the landlord..
The old name for St. Nicholas Street was 'Gaol Lane'. The deeds of an old house, which stood next to the Imperial Hotel, dated 1585, were in existence in 1910, though the house had gone with the widening of the road. The house was known as 'Ye Gaol Tower, close to ye Postern Gate leading to Losemoor (today known as Lowesmoor) near ye Garden Market' and 'within hail of the High Cross in Gaol Lane'. The old house used to have a doorway with some pretention to ornament, led up to by a flight of steps. The deeds and other old evidence show that it had been occupied by personages of distinction in local affairs. In the mid 19th century, there was a court in Lowesmoor called 'Percy's Alley'.... Read on below
It is not known whether the City walls were built on the site of the Anglo-Saxon defences, but the first mention of them is in 1231, when Henry lll allowed the Bailiffs to..
St. Nicholas Church on The Cross was rebuilt in the 1730's, but a few courses of the medieval church can still be seen, the crypt being ancient. In olden days a delightful..
None were destroyed or removed after the 1651 battle. Foregate was the first to go in 1702-3. Sidbury Gate in 1768, and St. Martin's in 1787. At or near St. Martin's Gate was a small ..
Dr. Gott, famed at Worcester for his forgetfulness, was aggressively approached by a religious fanatic when on the London Underground going to Victoria Station..
The Cathedral Library is older than the present Cathedral. There is a record of a gift of a book to the Church of Worcester as long ago as 780 A.D by King Offa - ..
The first Cathedral at Worcester was built by St. Oswald in 983 A.D. but was almost completely destroyed when Wulstan built the great Norman Church in 1084. All that remains..
William of Malmesbury left us a fine description of the great Bishop of Worcester, St. Wulstan. Here it is translated by J.H.F. Peile, Archdeacon of Worcester;
Article By Canon G.H.Browning - Berrows 2.6.77
We are familiar with reading about the Saturday skirmishes between supporters of the 'Rovers' and the equally ardent supporters of the 'United'. Our Monday morning papers tell us only too often, of casualties sustained by the fans of the 'Blues' or the shop windows and railway fittings smashed by the invading troops of the 'County'.
It comes as no surprise however, to read of hooliganism which was rampant in the City of Worcester about the year 1300 and which took an unusual form...
Until 18c, the carpenter was most important in the building of Worcester, but then gave way to the mason and bricklayer, just putting in parts of roof timbers. The City Corporation helped with grants to rebuild the churches damaged in the Civil War. Worcester became..
The Watergate was built in 1378 in the reign of Henry V, 'Frater William Power, cellerer made ye gate'. The boatman was paid a salary of 16s. 8d a year....
The Receiving of the Bread Dole in the Chapter House of the Cathedral..
The Parishioners of St. Helen's Parish about to set off to beat the Parish bounds in 1908. The ladies in the front have maps of the route and ..
In the 13th century the Benedictine Order taxed their foundations in England to establish a college at Oxford. In 1283, John Gifford of Brimsfield made a presentation to the Gloucester community of a site of what is..
Walcott's Memorials of Worcester, 1866 records the following:
The High Cross (defiled 1529); The Grass Cross (demolished 1578), The Sanctury Cross in Cathedral Yard, Whitesone Cross and wayside crosses on..
Godwald was an abbot-bishop in Brittany of great virtue and high birth. He had a monastery of clergy on an island called Locoal, and a retreat on a small ...
Prince Arthur was laid to rest on the night of April 26, 1502 in Worcester Cathedral. The legend inscribed on the four sides of his marble-topped tomb in the new Gothic style typeface used by..
The original top of the spire was first taken to Mr. Rowley Hill's residence at St. Catherine's, London Road, but in 1918, Canon Phillips, got ..
It seems that St. Swithun's parish was the first to have an organ or chimes. A record records 'July 17, 1661, agreement between Richard Beddoes and....
Every year, on the eve of Trinity Sunday, garlands were suspended from the balcony of Queen Elizabeth's House, each person in the ...
The Worcester Herald of January 26, 1901, featuring items of news from it's archives of one hundred years before, reported the following:
High on the north wall in Anderson & Virgo's chemist shop, which was in the Foregate Street, over the shelves, was displayed the horns of a cow. It had this place of ..
The City authorities were bound by an Act of Henry VIII (33.19) to maintain a place for archery practice, and to train the City levies in the use of the bow. This required a place where the butts could be ...
Thomas Shewringe was the celebrated Mayor of Worcester, who with the members of the Corporation, accompanied King James ll to the door of the Roman Catholic Chapel, but declined the invitation to attend Mass in their...
In 1864. John Wheeley Lea endowed an almshouse in Infirmary Walk for six poor women, and adjoining, defrayed the cost of erecting a school for St. Nicholas parish. The cost was around £2,000, The six houses were in a charming gothic ...
Another hospital or almshouse near the Tything were the Hebb's Charity for 'decayed members of the Council and their widows'. The houses were at the back of Albany Terrace. Dr. Christopher Hebb, an eminent.....
Pirie or Perry Wood is the last fragment of the forests that once closely surrounded Worcester. In Elizabethan times, the wardens of Feckenham Forest met at the...
Edwin Lee's found that in Cary's Map of Worcester, the hamlet of Trotshill, near Elbury Mount was then shown as Toothill.
Toothills are rounded hills rising beside ancient trackways, and were pre-Roman places of ..
St. Clements Church was formerly on the east bank of the Severn, at the bottom of Dolday. It suffered badly from ..
In the Foregate is the Berkeley Hospital, founded by Robert Berkeley of Spetchley. In his Will of 1692, he left £2000 to....
The care of the aged who were without friends or resources was fully provided for in the Middle Ages by numerous 'hospitals', which were not then , as later they became, places where the ....
The curfew bell at St. Helen's was rung nightly without a break until 1939, when the ringing of bells was the official warning that enemy parachutists had landed. The parish had a ...
A common Hall is a public meeting of citizens. When half of the 3,000 ratepayers showed no interest in the saving of the Arboretum, a Common Hall was called. There had been Common Halls called for before, but probably none as so rough...
A newscutting in the Foley Scrap book (W.o.r)) describes the fountain which formed the centrepiece of the Arboretum Gardens: 'The fountain was designed by Barron, and is similar to the one at Witley Court. The diameter of the kerb is 48ft. There are...
In April 1931, MR.J Mayglothling, a well-known Non-conformist local preacher, then 82, making a speech which was reported in Berrow's Worcester Journal, said.....
Noake, the Victorian historian, wrote: 'Ancient names are the key-stones of history and should be scrupulously preserved'... The original name of Warmstrey Slip was Cowell's Lode. (This was the pre-1570 , Lode is the old name for a river crossing, but even Warmstrey Slip is none gone). Sansome was the name of the ...
In 1947, St. Andrew's Church was in a bad state, having been made redundant for some years. The parish was unable to repair it or keep up the churchyard, which was 'neglected and overgrown'. The council acquired the church for...
John Fletcher, in 1908, recalled the changes at Worcester from when he last visited in the City in the 1880s. Three in particular are mentioned; The ford at Barbourne Brook, the loss of the Inglethorpe Almshouses in Taylors Lane, and the removal....
Bull Baiting was from medieval times to the 19th century, an English pastime. John Noake quotes authority for statements that at Worcester, it was a recognized duty of the Mayor to secure.....
Old Powick Bridge is thought to have been built in the early 15th century. It was certainly standing in 1550. It is divided into two parts; the eastern with two arches over the mill stream, and the west with three arches over the River Teme.....
Comer Gardens was once an isolated 'garden village', built in the 1850's, of detached houses on both sides of a lane, well set back with long gardens in front...
A phenomenal storm took place at Henwick in 1881. Mrs. Millward of Bromyard Road recalled the incident when she was a girl: 'I was 8 or 9 at the time. There was an awful storm. When we left school in the afternoon, as soon as we heard what had happened, we ran there and picked up shell fish, putting them in our pinafores wet and dirty. Mother said they were snails. There was much talk about it at the time........
What was described by the local papers as a 'Severe Shock of Earthquake', took place at 5.30 am, on the 17th December 1896. They reported: 'People were awakened by a loud rumbling noise, accompanied by disturbance of the .....
In the mid-19th century popular names had a habit of sticking. 'Cold Comfort' was the name given to a group of cottages in Church Walk (later School Walk) off Tybridge Street. The name was not official but popular, and like Hungerpit Wlk, off Ombersley Road, was thought to have been due to poor soil or absence of amenities. Cold Comfort and Hungry Harbour or Hungerpit are almost as common as Love's Grove. The names were....
For centuries the street called Tybridge Street was the principal entrance into Mid-Wales, and consequently it was the scene of many bloody affrays with the Welsh and other medieval armies needing to use the ......
The Holy Well at Henwick was an exceptional fine spring, which in medieval times had been piped to the Cathedral, and which the Prior had used in the baths which he erected for the use of the monks on Holywell Hill, in return....
A relic of Victorian philanthropy stood in Henwick Road. In more more modern times was used as the Y.M.C.A hostel until 2021, then sadly demolished to make way for new homes. The original building was very large and costly, and though institutional inside, the exterior proclaimed proudly the good work which was done.
Edward Webb took a prominent part in the life of the City, He was Mayor in 1847-8, and was a strong supporter of Dr. Charles Hastings during the local battle for the Health of Towns Act, when even ..........
The only Factory School in Worcester was at the Horse-hair Carpet Mill. Children were used to supply hair to the weaver's hand, and they like others working in mills elsewhere, worked long hours for little reward. Yet, Edward Webb had a particular concern for the children, and he provided an evening school and library for some 40 poor female children. After 10 or more......
There was in Copenhagen Street until 1935 the last of the City Carpet Mills, all that remained of a trade which, in George lll's reign had a royal inspection and was considered likely to be the most important in the City's future.
In 1835, Edward Webb, then aged 27, bought a horse-hair weaving factory at 8 Copenhagen Street. The plant had 14 seating looms and 2 looms for cider cloth...............
When the plague died down no more burial were permitted at the Angel Street site. The cemetery was permanently closed lest any disturbance of the tainted soil might liberate germs of the deadly pestilence. Hence the land was kept as an open space, and in the days of street ........
In 1746, a parish workhouse was set up in a old half-timbered building in St.Peter's Street, which existed well into the 20th century. Here for £10 per annum, 'a proper person was employed to instruct young persons and others in working trades such as leather, gloving, etc'. At that time, Robert Tasker (a good name) was governor, and received £185 p.a. 'to keep, lodge and manage the poor'.....
In early times St. Peter's Church was known as 'the Great' to distinguish it from 'St. Peter the Little' , which was a chapel at the castle of Worcester. In the 1830's nit was picturesque, but in a ruinous condition.....
The strange custom of 'heaving' took place in Dolday on Easter Monday. A chair decorated with ribbons and coloured streamers was placed in the street and the women would wait for the unwary male to pass along the street...
Today, it is hard to believe that before 1899 the citizens of Worcester had not the privilege of roaming at will over Pitchcroft.
Pitchcroft was owned by several people and there were no boundaries to the various properties, so they were not distinguishable but could only be delineated on the Tythe Map. There had always been footpaths giving access to ferries, which had been used for so long that the public had acquired the right to pass along them during what was termed the 'closed season'. The acquiring of the croft for public recreation was achieved by many steps against dogged and fierce opposition.
At the bottom of Angel Street was the Old Sheepmarket. It was an open space until 1920 when the present roofed structure was built, although built in since. Traditionally, it was the site of the plague pit, Bill Gwilliam recalled how the piers for the roof was constructed and a mass of bones removed when the foundations were dug out...
The first public lavatories for women in Worcester were erected in land off Little Angel Street. After some years of compaigning, with appeals from the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Worcester in 1913, they were eventually erected 1915, but were mot open on Sundays.
The Black Friars, or Dominican Friary, occupied the site between Broad Street and the City Walls at the Butts, and from the Sheep Market west to Dolday. Their habit was a black cloak and hood over a white cassock. They came to England in 1221, but when they settled in Worcester is not known,
Money lenders in the past were often Jews, and one of the most notorious was Isaac Gordon, who kept a money lending office in Bridge Street in the 1880's. He was sentenced at Worcester Assizes to a term of imprisonment for defrauding a Herefordshire farmer and the exposure of his extortions contributed to secure legislative regulations of money lending.
There was undoubtedly a considerable number of Jews living in Worcester in the Middle Ages and, as at other places, they did not have an easy time here. In 1218, Henry lll issued a writ to the Sheriff ordering him to require all Jews wherever they walked or rode abroad within or without the city, to fix on the head of their outer garments two white patches of cloth.....
High Street was for many centuries the street of printers. The first of that craft to practice in Worcester began in 1548. He was John Oswen of Ipswich, which at that time, he had three printers, Worcester being the 9th place in the British Isles to take up the 'art'. Other places ranking in time before Worcester were Tavistock 1525, Cambridge 1521, York 1509, Edinburgh 1507, London and St Albans 1480 and Oxford between 1478 and 1486.
Some curious incidents are connected with the repairing of St. Andrew's spire. In 1801, while some repairs were being made, a barber named Baylis, shaved several of his customers on the top of it, and about the same time, a china painter named Cotterill, took up a small cup, which he painted on the top. One of the men shaved on the top was Joshua Bridges, a Seven carrier, an eccentric, weighing when he died 21 stone. For two years he kept a massive stone coffin ready for his burial.
During the 18th century few places had a theatre that was not a barn or improved building. At Worcester, the theatre was a wooden building in the yard of the King's Head Inn, opposite the Guildhall in High Street. The first report we have of it is in the Worcester Postman of January 4th 1717, when 'Oedipus, King of the Thebes' was preformed...
When Elgar was leader of the Worcester Festival Choral Society's Band, J.W. Austin was his second, and Elgar on starting the Orchestral Society, entrusted the leadership to Austin, which led to a long and close association. When printer's proofs of Elgar's new works arrived they went ....
In the High Street, Mr W.H. Elgar (the father of Edward) had a shop which he founded in the early 1860's. He had come to Worcester in 1841 from Dover as a pianist and tuner for a London firm of pianoforte makers. He was joined by his brother, and the business was known as Elgar Brothers. It was later transferred to his son, Frank Elgar.
The Three Choirs Musical Festival is the oldest and most distinguished of its kind in the world. It started in 1715 as an itinerant music club, giving performances of church music. Later, concerts were given at the shirehalls, and it was not until 1759 that oratorios were performed in the Cathedral.
The earliest documents of Assize in the London Records Offices are those of Worcestershire. They date back to 1221. Assizes a word meaning sitting or session, is but a variant of a term which has been applied to judicial systems in Scotland and a number of European countries. There were Assizes of civil jurisdiction....
The difference between a Court Leet and a Court Baron was that the Court Leet was a criminal court and a View of Frankpledge, the Court Baron was a court for trying civil actions. The Court Leet was a Court of Record, held once a year in every manor before the Steward of the Leet, who was judge....
Legal customs were retained for centuries. There were still people living in the 1870s who could remeber the Court Leet being held on Bredon Hill, on the flat space before the King and Queen stones.....
This is an ancient term used at Court Leets. that neighbours were bound for each others good conduct. Hallam says, 'every ten men in a village were answerable for each other, and if one of the committed an offence the other nine were bound to make reparation. It was security given be free-men'.
Ancient manorial customs continued in some places well into the present century. The Evesham Journal of December 1, 1928, reported on Feckenham Court Leet; 'According to the old custom, the jury assembled under the oak tree on the village green...
Way back in the very distant past, long before there was centralized legal administration, justice was administered upon hill tops, and in some places, ancient stones still stand to mark those special places, and surprisingly, legal customs continued there until comparatively recent times. Two such places are at the King and Queen Stones on Bredon Hill, and the Kifts Gate Stone near Chipping Campden.
Today, the state controls all aspects of the legal system, but in the past there were three distinct legal authorities which controlled rural life...
There is an area between Collage Street and Edgar Street where curious and tragic events have taken place, all of which were well reported in the press of the day. In November 1718 the whole of Worcester was talking about a girl named Mary Bentall who was troubled with a poltergeist.........
The old church of St. Michael in Bedwardine stood very close to the Cathedral on the north east side. It had been founded in 826, the name Bedwardine meaning 'ground reserved for the supply of the Refectory, a close or a field to supply bread'. Around the church were a number of houses which blocked up the northern facade of the Cathedral. It had a tower, and at the west end of St. Michael's stood the ancient clochium or bell tower with it's lofty spire...
In 1863, the Worcestershire Chronicle published the startling announcement that one of the great bells of Worcester Cathedral, weighing five cwts, had recently been stolen, 'it was not known how or when but it must have been within the last few months'. A ring of eight bells had existed at the Cathedral, and an America, who had visited the Tower, guided by a young ringer, informed the Custos that there were only seven......
The present house incorporates fragments of the Cistercian Nunnery called White Ladies, founded by Bishop Cantelupe, the friend of Simon de Mountfort, in 1250. Bishop Gifford, Cantelupe's successor, added to the endowment's and gave land bought from the de Flagge family. Some accounts say that Alice Flagge entered the Convent and brought to the Nunnery lands leading up to Perdiswell, part of which, after 700 years, is still called Flagge Meadow. The Nunnery was further endowed by 53 acres of land ................
H.H.Lines was a landscape painter and a draughtsman of singular merit, ranking among the 'Worcester School' as second only to B W Leader. Among his works in the possession of the city are the line-and-wash drawings of the cathedral and monastic buildings which were being destroyed in the mid-19th century. With modern day research Worcester had others artists who became Royal Academy painters including the Thomas Hales Sanders who followed a line of family artists including John Sanders who in 1603, painted the portrait of Shakespeare who was an aquaintance of the Bard and also was related by marriage to John Heminges who was born at Droitwich on the 25 Nov 1566, actor and Shakespeare's fellow-player. (This is an long ongoing research project which will be added to this site on completion).......
For several centuries the public gallows for Worcestershire stood at Red Hill on a piece of wasteland, but long since enclosed by the Sebrights. It is still possible to place the site of execution, for two ancient roads crossed here and these roads are now very narrow footpaths. The one, the old London Road, runs up the hill at the back of the houses; the other goes from north to south, crossing the traffic roundabout, and has a sign marked 'Footpath to Upper Battenhall'. Like many other ancient roads, it has been used as a marker, or boundary of property, and so has remained.
The story of Mrs. Henry Wood is one of the great success stories of the 19th century. She was born during the great frost of 1814 and a century later 6,000,000 copies of her books had been sold (not counting pirate copies and her huge contribution to magazines).
She was born Ellen Price at 18 Sidbury (called Danesbury House but rebuilt in 1889). Her father was Thomas Price, one of the largest glove manufacturies, who lived near other glovers in Sidbury (Burlingham was at 23 and Dent at 26). Up to the age of seven, she was brought up in her home of her grandmother, but when the latter died she went to live with her father at St. Mary's Terrace, London Road. She was married in Whittington Church to the head of a large banking firm in India and left Worcester, only returning some years later to consult Henry Douglas Carden, the great Worcester surgeon. She suffered from spinal trouble and used a reclining chair to write. Just before her death, she was writing 'Oswald Cray ' and broke down in health as soon as it was finished........
Before 1835 the parish of St.Michael's was out of the city boundaries and jurisdiction. Both the Talbot and the Hare and Hounds in College Street were widely used for country business, all the amenities of the town but officially beyond its limits.....
Facing the Tewkesbury Road is the Loch Ryan Hotel, a fine late18th-century house that was once the residence of Bishop Gore, Bishop of Worcester from 1902 - 1905. He was the first Bishop of the 20th century and a socialist who refused to live in Hartlebury Castle, preferring to live in closer contact with his people.
The Commandery has been home to many notable families including the Camerons. Dr. Cameron, the celebrated Worcester physician and his wife (Anne Ingram) lived in part of it in the latter half of the 18th century. Their eldest son, Rev C.R.Cameron, married Lucy Littleton Butt who, like her sister Mrs. Sherwood, wrote books for children, and numbered among admirers the great Dr. Arnold of Rugby School who quoted from them in his sermons......
It was founded by Bishop Wulstan at the end of the 11th century for a master, four brethren and a chaplain. The establishment was at once religious and charitable, one of the houses outside the walls (like Oswald's) which catered for the reception of wayfarers who arrived after the city gates had closed at night and who otherwise would have had to sleep in the open. It was never connected with the Templars as some have thought, and the name, Commandery, probably derived from the title of a former lay superior.
In 1746 a parish workhouse was set up in an old half-timbered building in St. Peter's Street. It existed well into the 20th century. Parish records show the kind of treatment the less fortunate met. In 1739, for instance; Leonard Darke was to have 'the badche put on his sleeve before the churchwarden relieves him or his wife', a reference to the enforced practise of wearing a large 'P' badge on the arm to show a person was in receipt of parish assistance.....
In early times St Peter's church was known as the 'Great' to distinguish it from St Peter the Little which was a chapel at the royal castle of Worcester. By the 1830s it was picturesque but in a ruinous condition; and it was demolished in 1838. A new church was built with the aid of a government grant....
After the dissolution of the priory, the ferry and the boathouse passed with the Severn meadows to the new dean and chapter of the cathedral; and in Elizabethan times were the scene of an affray which became a Star Chamber matter, for strong passions disturbed the peace of the cathedral close in the days of transition from the old order to the new.
The old church of St Michael in Bedwardine, founded in 826, stood very close to the cathedral on the north-east side. Around the church were a number of houses that blocked up the northern facade of the cathedral. St Michael's had a tower and at the west end stood the ancient clochium, or bell tower, of the cathedral with its lofty spire.
In 1863, the Worcestershire Chronicle published the startling announcement that one of the great bells of the cathedral, weighing five hundredweight had recently been stolen. It was not known how or when but it must have been within the last few months.........
Over the south aisle of the nave is the cathedral library. It contains rare and valuable books and documents of great age, including King John's will and a book printed by Caxton who set up England's first printing press in 1477. It was not until 1461, in the time of Bishop Carpenter, that a library was erected, and then it was placed in the charnel house; but there were collections of books and manuscripts before that, some certainly kept in the cloisters.......
The site of the present city was tidal and swampy, ut the ford by the high ground, where the cathedral now stands, was of great importance, for here was the first sure crossing of the tidal river for many a mile. Sometime before AD655, a small mission church was built within the former Roman enclosure and houses and merchants clustered around. Later, alongside it, was built the first cathedral and in 680 Bosel, a monk from St Hilda's Abbey in Whitby was sent to become the first Bishop of Worcester .......
The beginnings of Worcester date from the Bronze Age when, some two thousand years before the birth of Christ, the first settlers arrived; but these were not on the banks of the Severn ut on the high terrace east of the city between Elbury Mount and Crookbarrow Hill. The high ridge still shows circles and squares where once stood early settlements - from Elbury Mount in the north, which retained its defensive terraces until the 1850s, to Crookbarrow in the south, with its steep sides making a defensive mound or lookout, man-made on a natural hill. Cuggan, or Round Hill, at Spetchley commanded the east, and the entrenchments on the precipitous western side of Red Hill (later used by Cromwell).........
The last of the endowed school's of the City was in 'the township of St. John in Bedwardine', on the west bank of the Severn.It was a combined charity of two ladies who lived in St John's; Milberrow Doelittle in 1719 and Mercy Herbert in 1722.....
Worcester has two ancient endowed schools. They were the Cathedral King's School, which was of pre-Reformation foundation and was re-founded in 1541 by Henry VIII, and is still prospering strongly to this day and the Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School. founded in 1561, known as the Worcester Girls Grammar School but sadly closed in more recent times.....
Noake tells of an early Victorian faith healer, a labouring man of Stoke Prior, practising the art of healing 'by a charm', cases of thrush in children. He would put his finger into his own mouth and then into the child's, rubbing the gums and mumbling something ending with 'Father, Son and Holy Ghost', then set the child down....
Belief in charms survived well into the present century, especially for the cure of mysterious troubles that poultices and physic did not seem to touch, such as warts, skin diseases and fits. The charmer blew three times round the head of the patient, made mystic passes with his hands over the part afflicted and repeated an incantation in a low mumbling voice with the express intention that the words should not be understood....
Until the coming of the motor-car there were many villages in Worcestershire hidden away among wooded hills where life went on seemingly unchanged, as it had done for centuries. They were insignificant, out-of-the-world little places, inhabited by quaint old-fashioned folk, whose manners and customs were traditional and superstitious........
Long before Christianity, the Celts worshipped at curiously shaped rocks, not in temples, but in the open air, and on hill-tops. These stones were believed to have magical properties, and on Bredon Hill two groups of stones, of great antiquity, were used for religious and super superstitious purposes..........
Folklore is the study of beliefs and practices once firmly held. Few now believe in charms, in giants and fairies, but less than a century ago people in lonely places believed in them....
The pictures on this page are among the earliest taken of a fair in the City, and date from around 1870. They are the work of F.C. Earl, who had a studio in Foregate Street........
Harry Strickland's grandson, Ray Strickland of Bromyard visited Bill back in 1993, when he saw a article Bill had written in Worc. Evening News, (27.9.1993), Bill recorded the conversation which gave an insight to
Two Worcester Showman's roundabouts in Angel Place. Alf Peters stands in front of his Gallopers in Angel Place c.1930, and Stricklands Horse Gallopers in Angel Place c.1920.....
It is known that a building on the Shelsley Side of Woodbury Hill existed in the late 19th and early 20th Century's, which was owned by Dr.Barnardo's. originally old maps shown it as the reformatory, ut the locals always spoke of it as 'The Home'.
Bill Gwilliam :
'My father, William Gwilliam lived in what he referred to as 'The Home' for four years. His father had died and his mother was unable to look after him and work. She was employed at Witley Court in the Parish Shrawley, England, as a maid. (although it is in the parish of Great Witley).......
Captain Michael Clements was a naval officer who greatly distinguished himself in the wars with France and Spain. Near Cadiz, in 1778, Captain Clements in the Vengeance, in sight of all the people assembled on the walls of the city, defeated two frigates sent out against him, and took on a whole Spanish fleet, receiving the fire of 24 ships of the enemy, and having 40 holes in the hull, many between wind and water.
It was at the Hop Pole that Lord Nelson stayed on his memorable visit to Worcester. The Coming of Nelson had not been anticipated, but during the afternoon of Sunday, 26th of August, 1802, a rumor of his approach spread amongst the citizens, for which mine host of the Hop Pole was probably responsible, for it was there that Nelson had bespoken rooms.....
Huddington Court home of the Wintours and the Gunpowder Plot....
Nightwatchman on duty outside St.Helen's Church c.1900
In the 1920/30s a short stretch of river bank at Grimley, known as the Grimley Lido, gave untold pleasure to the people of Worcester. It was hardly a 'Costa Brava' or a beach on the Cornish Riviera, just the length of a longish field, but it became the mecca of thousands of people who wanted a dip in the river, or a picnic, on a summer week-end, or on a Thursday 'half-day closing'...
Worcester Evening News August 1997
1940's photograph of a popular Worcester wartime dance and cabaret troupe paying tribute to a gifted local dancer who died recently (1997).
Fair booths on Pitchcroft about 1880, showing the elaborate painted canvas fronts and small mechanical organ. An original print found in the loft of the British School marked School Photographic Club
'Uncle' Ben Embling's Sweet Stall in Angel Street at the Worcester Cheese and Hop Fair 19th September 1909
Stalls in Angel Street for the annual Cheese and Hop Fair, 19th September 1909
Worcester Evening News Remembers Article 13th Feb 1993
Stamping out infection took on drastic proportions at Worcester in 1905 when the city council deliberately devastated an historic house .. by setting it ablaze.....
Robert Whiston, celebrated headmaster at Rochester and reformer of Cathedral schools, was friend and life-long correspondent of James Knight, the Editor of the Worcester Chronicle. Robert Whiston was headmaster of Rochester Cathedral Grammar School from 1849-1853. He examined records and found that funds for scholars, and for four scholars at Oxford, were going into the Dean and Chapter's pockets.
Mrs. Sherwood, the writer of children's books, who died at Britannia Square in 1851, was the daughter of the Rev. George Butt, Rector of Stanford and vicar of Clifton-on-Teme from 1771 onwards. When she was only seven years old, an event occurred which left an abiding memory with her. Many years later she described it :-
Mention was originally made of James Coombs in Old Worcester People and Places, Volume 1 p.29. Edward Corbett wrote of him: 'James Coombs, l remember was a local institutional; a ig framed man of somewhat ungainly carriage, who kept a book-shop chiefly second-hand, on the west side of the High Street.....
Under the pen-name 'Rambler' John Noakes was the senior reporter, and later sub-editor of the Worcester Herald. He came to Worcester when he was 22 years of age and died in Rose Terrace in 1894, in his 78th year, after 56 years devoted to local history researches.
High up on Tunnel Hill stands a house on the highest part of the road with 'observatory' windows on the top floor. In the 1800's it had a huge telescope fixed in the windows and many tales were told of the power of the instrument:
In 1913, a Society called the Worcester Tenants Ltd, bought eleven acres of land from Christ Church, Oxford, just off Tolladine Road, on the south side which then, apart from the Railway works, was in completely rural meadows and hills.....
Brickfields Estate was the property of Richard Spooner, an eccentric. He was M.P for North Worcestershire, and partner in the Banking house of Attwood and Spooner of Birmingham..
The Priory Ferry, or Cathedral Ferry, worked until the mid-20th century. It had originally been established for the convenience both of monks and milk-maids, who would otherwise have had to be taken the circuitous route through the City to the Severn ridge at the bottom of Newport Street, for there was no riverside walk as there is today.
The old church of St. Michael in Bedwardine stood very close to the Cathedral on the north east side. It had been founded in 826, the name Bedwardine meaning 'ground reserved for the supply of the Refectory, a close or field to supply bread'. Around the church were a number of houses which blocked up the northern facade of the Cathedral. It had a tower, and at the west end of St. Michael's stood the ancient clochium or bell tower with its lofty spire.
The religious revival that came with church reform brought great changes in public worship. One of the influences for church reform came from the young men of the Oxford Movement, to whom the doctrine and ceremony of the early church were a precious heritage....
The Tomb of King John laid to rest in the Chancel of Worcester Cathedral following his death in Newark in 1216. originally placed between Wulstan & Oswald which sadly was destroyed.
Worcester City Football Club, St. George's Lane c.1928
In 1863, the Worcester Chronicle published the startling announcement that one of the great bells of Worcester Cathedral, weighing five cwts, had recently been stolen, 'it was not known how or when but it must have been within the last few months'.
In Walpole's Lord Orford's letters, there is a note about a Worcester lady, who believing that her dead daughter yet existed and might communicate with her as a singing bird, had cages of birds put with her in her pew in the Cathedral, hoping they might attract her.
Immediately north of the main entrance to the Cathedral, at a site where now the roadway widens before the North Porch, stood the Chapel of the Charnel House.........
The ruins in the College Green are part of the Guesten Hall, built in 1320, which formed part of a chain of monastic buildings on the south side of the Cathedral......
The Council of War - James ll Rebuffs the Bishop - The Bishop Locked Out
Until the year 1842, the Old Palace was the official residence of the Bishop of Worcester. He also had Hartlebury Castle and a London House, but a Royal Commission looking into the Church Revenues with reforming zeal, concluded that the Bishop had no need for two palaces, and reduced his income.
Edgar Tower was, until the late 19th century, known as St. Mary's Gate, was the main gate to the royal castle and priory.....
Eatons Concise History of Worcester, ends the account of the opening of the tomb with this macabre story: 'On the opening of the Tomb of King John in the Cathedral, a gentleman of this city took a hand-full of the skeletons of skins of maggots that were in and about the abdomen of the body and angled with them in the Severn, and absolutely caught a brace of bleak with them'.
The King's tomb was moved in to a new location in the Cathedral which in doing so destroyed the very reason for it being there at all. The last restoration in 1874 was done by the Board of Works, who are responsible for all the royal tombs, and insensitively destroyed the remnants of colour that remained and gilded the whole figure, placing on it's head a tin crown.
Arthur, Prince of Wales, the son of Henry Vlll, was as a boy of eleven, betrothed to Catherine of Aragon, of the same age, in a Machievellian attempt to control foreign affairs of state. Two years later, they were married by proxy, the ceremony on Arthur's side taking place in the chapel of Twickenhill Palace at Bewdley on Whit Sunday, 1449. Catherine came to England two years later, and she and Arthur both 15, were married in St. Paul's Cathedral, and went to spend their honeymoon at Ludlow Castle. At the end of two months, on April 2nd, 1502, Arthur died.
The body was embalmed and a great procession brought the young prince to Worcester Cathedral for burial. It was one of the greatest scenes of pomp and ceremony ever witnessed in our Cathedral, and one of the most moving. The chronicler wrote:
"but to have seene the weepinge when the offringe was done, he had a hard heart that wept not".
Two important royal tombs can be seen in Worcester Cathedral. That of King John, believed to bear the earliest royal effigy taken from life, and that of Prince Arthur, the eldest son of Henry VIII, often said to be the most beautiful tomb of all British Cathedrals.
On January 16th, 1540, the Priory of Worcester came to an end and after 580 years of occupation by the Prior and monks, the monastic buildings and estates were surrendered into the hands of the King.
The shrines of Oswald and Wulstan were the most popular of the Midland religious shrines in the 13th and 14th centuries. The great re-building of the Cathedral in the 13th century, the choir and Lady Chapel, were made possible by the fame of the Saints of Worcester.
The croft nearest the City walls (roughly the land cut off by the railway viaduct) was called Little Pitchcroft. It was taken up by the Cattle Market and other buildings, but not before there was considerable violence to stop the loss of what regarded as the citizen's common land.
The years following the wars with Napoleon were times of great distress among the poor. Charitable people opened soup kitchens in Bull Entry and Bank Street. The Bull Entry kitchen was established in 1817, with specially made equipment that made an average 15,000 quarts daily, and it was said could make three times as much if needed.
From time immemorial the Prior and the monks of Worcester (the forerunners of the Dean and Chapter) were exempt from municipal authority. This was confirmed y Henry VI, who in the year 1400, ordained that :
The privileges of Sanctuary were granted to the Cathedral in 712. The area of the Sanctuary formed a circuit around the Cathedral, coming up from the river at Water Gate, between College Green and the site of the old Castle (now the King's School) including the north side of Edgar Street (which was called Knoll's End), across Sidbury to Lich Street, running up the south side of that street, and so down between the Bishop's Palace and the Cathedral to the river.
Worcester was the first ford, coming up the Severn, at the head of the tideway which was not unduly affected by the tide, but equally important, there was sharpe rising ground which provided a place of comparative safety for those using the ford.
Oswald became Bishop of Worcester in 961, at the time of the Danish raids, and when Christian life was well nign impossible. He saw the solution in the revival of monastic life, the monasteries being refuge where men could flee from the lawless and sensual world, and from which a Christian by religious discipline could influence the world around.
'Buy! Buy! Buy! Saturday night in the Shambles, after 9 o'clock, was like a medieval fair, with butchers vying with each other to auction unsold meat. Until about 1930, a few butchers had any form of refridgeration, and meat was sold off cheaply, rather than let it spoil over the weekend ...
The most famous of Worcester's drapery and millinery establishments in the 19th century was Victoria House. Its premises was part of the old Hop Pole Hotel, one of the most famous posting establishments in the Midlands.
From the Town Gate in the Foregate to the Liberty Post at the top of Salt Lane (now Castle Street), was the northern Liberties of the City. The land was outside the walls, but under the control of the City Corporation. Before the Battle of 1651, it was a place of hovels, but in preparation for the attack, these were cleared away.
In medieval times here the life of the City concentrated. An ancient cross with heraldry stood opposite the Trinity Passage. Here war and peace was declared, the royal proclamation made.
Article Credits; Pam Hinks would like to thank Worcester News formerly Berrow's for permission to reproduce copyright material
Worcester Evening News 29.3.1996
The present official statistics for Astwood Cemetery, @11th February 2019 stands at :
This imposing house, almost opposite the Reindeer Inn, was the Shades Inn, but originally, it was the home of the Russell family, one of the principal families of the City.
Those battling to save Worcester's Golden Lion as a pub have made a remarkable discovery which adds weight to their campaign.
Article credits; Pam Hinks would like to thank Worcester News, formely Berrow's, for permission to reproduce copyright material
The Plough Inn, off Cornmarket, which was demolished to make way for the new Walls Road in c1970, was well over 600 years old. It was originally a religious inn called the Archangel, and stood just outside St Martin's Gate, to accommodate traveler's that arrived too late to enter the City.
A leaflet found in a chimney stack at Ombersley shows that the inn at Hadley was used for other than bowling, and that in the 18th century a 'Mop' was held there. The leaflet reads as follows:
In Berrow's Worcester Journal of May 1754, there was an appeal for a lost person, which mentions a tavern under the 'Sign of the Dog' outside the Turnpike gates, which then stood at the bottom of Wheatsheaf Hill, at the junction of the London and Tewkesbury roads. It reads:
The Crown Inn, Broad Street, Worcester, is a fine example of an old coaching inn of the 18th century, but in fact it is much older than that. There are references to the Crown in the City Chamberlains Account's of 1566, and again of 1578, under the heading 'Rentall of the Cities landes in St Nicholas parish' -
This inn was originally the White Hart, and the first reference to this inn, now renowned throughout the country and to tourists abroad, is in 1532
Almost next door to the King's Arms is the Crown and Sandy's. This fine inn mentioned in the parish register in 1740, has a late Georgian front, but parts are older, and it was said previously to have been thatched.
The Kings Arms is a very old, half-timbered inn, dating from the early 17th century, with parts going further back to the 15th.
The Cross Key's Inn was one of a group of ecclesiastical inns near the Cathedral; the other being the Cardinal's Hat (almost opposite), the Angel de la Trompe, The Mitre and the Seven Stars, all of which have now gone . The Cross Keys did a large trade on market days till the end of the 19th century, but there were 30 licensed houses close around, and the Cross Keys, having had four tenants in 40 years, was the worst of the lot, and was closed about 1905.
Worcester Cathedral in the period of 1100 to 1540 was one of the principal places of pilgrimage. Many ecclesiastical inns sheltered near the Cathedral catering for the traveler and pilgrim....
Worcester Cathedral in the period of 1100 to 1540 was one of the principal places of pilgrimage. Many ecclesiastical inns sheltered near the Cathedral catering for the traveler and pilgrim....
The Worcester White House, Foregate Street, was until recent times known as the Star Hotel and in the mid - 19th century, the Start and Garter. It shares the distinction of being the oldest County inn with the Lygon Arms of Broadway, for it has had a licence since 1588, the year of the Armada.
To contrast to the Magpie above, the Farmers Arms on Kempsey Common was converted to a tavern when originally it was the parish Workhouse.
The Magpie Inn at Tardebigge was also in the churchyard in days past, but in 1830, it was converted to a school. Before that, when the parson went out to the vestry to exchange surplice for a black gown for preaching, he would step across to the pub for a quick glass of ale while the psalm was sung.
The Mug House is a rare example of a public house in a churchyard, some say, the only one today. Tombstones, flaking and grey, are within a few feet of the front door, and the church, is only 30 paces away. Calling for their evening pint, the villager's until recent times's had to approach by the churchyard path.
For centuries church ales were regular features of medieval life, and taverns were not only near at hand, but often in the church yard itself. The Old Talbot, in College Street, Worcester was originally the Church House for St. Michael's Church, which stood in the Cathedral churchyard. It dates from the 13th century at least, and played an important part in baking bread and brewing ales for church occasions.
The following are various information notes which doesn't warrant a particular section, but a point of interest during my research etc.
The Crown Inn was one of the inns sheltering beneath the walls of Evesham Abbey. It existed before the destruction of that great building, and probably found it convenient to change its name in those troubled times.
One of the earliest inns mentioned is the 'Hospice de la Trump' at Worcester in 1473.
The first reference to inns in Worcestershire come from documents referring to inns maintained by Ecclesiastic authorities. They all had religious signs, sheltering near the walls of great abbeys, offering refreshments and lodgings to pilgrims..
The old church of St. Nicholas was erected in the 12th century and part of the crypt and basement walls appear to date from that period.
The Shambles by day attracted the street musicians, if one could generously call them that, for a few could generally play or sing. One played a concertina outside the Butchers Arms (now the site of Marks & Spencers), and his repertoire consists of The Old Rustic Bridge and Abide With Me.
Off New Street are Nash's Almshouses, originally intended, like St.Oswald's and Berkeley's for the aged and to be known as Nash's Hospital. It still occupies the original site, and has given the name Nash's Passage to the narrow way by which it was approached. John Nash, in his will dated 1661, 'gave and devised to 16 trustees, property to be held in trust for pious and charitable uses' and with it was bought not only the land upon which the almshouses stand, but five acres of land, the site of the Royal Infirmary. Further almshouses were built on part of that land, which were demolished several years ago at the site of the Cattle Market. The 25 old folk lived rent free, with a small pension, free coal and light, and had other benefits.
In New Street there is a fine half-timbered building known as Nash's House. It takes its name from Alderman John Nash, Mayor, and twice representative of the City in Parliament during Charles 1 reign.
In 1795, four years after John Wesley's death, the Wesleyan's in the City bought an old chapel in Pump Street belonging to a branch of Independents. It was surrounded by tumbledown houses, and like all the early dissenter's chapels, was tucked away up an alley so not to invite trouble from the mob.
The City's first Wesleyan Chapel was built in New Street in 1772, and a plaque on the wall commemorates the building. The first recorded visit of Wesley to the County was in 1761, when he preached in the 'Abbey Church' at Evesham.
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Twelve large inns catered for the trade in the Cornmarket in olden times, and four of them were in New Street. They were the Greyhound (later called the Old Greyhound) , the New Greyhound, the Swan, and the Pheasant. The Old Greyhound was the principal place of departure for Carrier carts. No less than nine carts left the Greyhound for outlying places on Saturday afternoons, around 4 o'clock.
Originally, Friar Street and New Street was one street known as Glover Street; there was no break where Charles Street goes to the Blockhouse, Pump Street was a very narrow lane, the bottom of which was known as Vine Street.
The Blockhouse was the immediate area outside the City Walls on the east and was part of the Liberties of the City. It was a network of ditches, much like Sedgemoor. Even in the 1850's one remained, with its path along, known as 'Withy Walk', now St Paul's Street.
The site of St, Laurence's Church was outside the City walls, where the burnt-shell of Sigley's Sweet Factory stood in what then prior the Friar's burial ground. William de Beachamp, Earl of Warwick, was buried there in June, 1298, after much ecclesiastic argument and bad feeling..
Almost opposite Tudor House is Wyatt's Hospital, founded for six poor men, by Edward Wyatt, Mayor of Worcester in 1696.
Friar Street has retained more of its timber-framed buildings than any other street in Worcester. Many of these houses were of considerable size and were once occupied by citizens of substance, but in the 18th century most of them were divided into tenements and allowed to fall into a sorry state of dilapidation. Many of the brick-faced buildings are in fact, timber-framed behind the facade.
Previous to Schaffer's ownership, the prinicipal part of the building was in the occupation of Mr. Christopher Bardin, an old gentleman of venerable aspect, who conducted a private school at modest fees, in the days when public elementary education was in it's infancy.
The Greyfriars in Friar Street is the finest half-timbered building in the City. The building was only part of the Friary which took in all the ground occupied by the present building a and that of Laslett's Hospital.
Friar Street is the most interesting of the medieval streets left in Worcester, and this is due to one man, Mr Matley Moore, who by saving the Greyfriars building, when the City authorities of the 1930-50 period had 1st the building deteriorate so badly that part of it fell into the street.
The effect of the railways on road coaches in the Birmingham area fluctuated from boom to disaster. Until 1835, six coaches set out daily in each direction to and from Birmingham and Worcester
As we congregated at the grave side of Baby Ryan, it was very peaceful and tranquil with the sun shining through the trees just as Father McGinley started his service, a sound took our attention to look to our left.....
Whilst we all started to arrive at the grave side, a elderly couple stood in the distance, on looking over l could see the lady was very distressed and upset .....
Astwood Cemetery 1858 -2008
Graveside Memorial Service for Baby John Ryan
9th October 2008 3pm
I am the resurrection and the life, Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live -
Ceefax 167 Thursday 9 October 2008 BBC West Midlands
Not much is recorded about Bridget (nee Butler) or John Ryan, apart from we know John was a Stonemason's labourer and that they came over from Mayo in Ireland during the Potato famine, sadly Bridget became a Prisoner in Worcester's County Gaol, Whitstones.
Unfortunately, through lack of repair by Worcester Council over the years, it was reported in the 1970's that the once so beautiful Chapel required a large amount of work and a considerable amount of money spent to restore them. At this time the Council could not justify spending so a decision was taken to demolish the Chapels which followed in the late 1970's
The LORD BISHOP gave the health of the Mayor and Corporation, eulogizing their exertions and again expressing the gratification which he in common with others present bad experience at the day's ceremonial. (Cheers)
(Article Credits: Pam Hinks would like to thank Worcester News formerly Berrow' for permission to reproduce copyright material)
A collation was served at the Guildhall at three o'clock to which the Lord Bishop and Mr. Laslett, MP, were invited by the Mayor and Corporation. There were also present most of the members of the Corporation and of the clergy who had taken part in the proceedings of the morning, and a goodly number of ladies. The edibles were provided by Mr. Mountford, with his customary tact.
(Article Credits: Pam Hinks would like to thank Worcester News formerly Berrows for permission to reproduce copyright material)
The portion of ground which, through the liberality of Mr. Laslett, MP, and the meritorious exertions of the local Board of Health, has been appropriated for use as a Public Cemetery for the inhabitants of this city, was solemnly set apart for its intended purposes on Tuesday last. The Episcopalian Chapel with its burying ground was consecrated by the Lord Bishop of the Diocese, and that of the Congregational Dissenters of various denominations was solemnly inaugurated.
(Article credits: Pam Hinks would like to thank Worcester News, formerly Berrow's for permission to reproduce copyright material)
"The works at the new cemetery are now nearly completed: the consecration of the Episcopalian portion will shortly take place. We have previously briefly noticed them as they progressed, but are now enabled to give more detailed description...
(Article credits: Pam Hinks would like to thank Worcester News formerly Berrow's for permission to reproduce copyright material, It also deserves a mention as to the attention to such splendid detail highlighted in the article by the reporter/editor of the day )
For the establishment of an Orphan Asylum he gave £500 and towards building Holy Trinity Church he gave another £500. He built the grandstand at the Worcester County Cricket Ground and in 1876 funded the Worcester Music Hall upon terms very advantageous to the citizens.. But the gift for which William is most remembered, and which has now been linked together with the rest of his running bequests into Laslett Charities, is the purchase of the old Worcester City prison and it's conversion into Almshouses.
In 1843 Thomas Southall, later Town Clerk of Worcester, was articled to William Years after Thomas could remember how as a young man he was asked to dine with William at Thorngrove, house and furnishings were magnificent, William having brought the contents of the house from the previous owner. (Interestingly this same circumstances appears in East Lynne). The dinner silver and wines were of the very best but two dishes made an indelible impression on the young guest - two suckling pigs, one at each end of the table, one boiled and one roasted.
We have a description of Bishop Carr's funeral as it was reported in The Times. As said before he died at 9 pm on Saturday 24 April 1841 but was not buried until 10 am on Monday 3 May 1841. The face that nine days elapsed between death and burial is unusual, that it was a private funeral is most unusual for a Bishop of the Church of England. The Times of Thursday 6 May 1841 says:
William Laslett was baptised on 14 October 1799 at All Saints Church, Worcester the first born child of Thomas ans Sophia Laslett. Thomas was a banker whose father had settled in Worcester around 1850. The family were of Kentish yeoman stock originally.
In recognition of the 150th Anniversary to commemorate the first burial following the gift of land from William Laslett to the inhabitants of Worcester. Tuesday 9th October 2008 3pm Unveiling of Memorial Headstone for Baby Ryan followed by Grave Side Service
Worcester was the first ford, coming up the Seven, at the head of the tideway which was not unduly affected by the tide, but equally important, there was sharp rising ground which provided a place of comparative safety for those using the ford. This rising ground which Willis Bund called 'the Tump', is that on which the Kings School, Cathedral and the Old Palace now stand.
The first public toilet for women in Worcester were erected in land off Little Angel Street
The making of College Street through the Cathedral churchyard from High Street to Sidbury in 1792, followed the clearances of houses which had grown up in the shadow of the Cathedral and around St Michael's church. The fine terrace houses in College Yard were also built at that time. In a house on the south side of St. Michael's was born Lord Somers, one of Worcester's greatest sons
The County Gaol was built in 1813 in the style of a medieval castle, and because of this, the name of Salt Lane was changed to Castle Street. Mr. Sandy's was the architect, following the principals of John Howard. It contained 90 cells, and was enlarged in 1839 to give 80 extra cells. This was the time of great political agitation, when during the summer, the gaol was excessively crowded with Chartists from Dudley, with cells intended for one containing three.
As one would expect in the centre of the town, the City had a 'watch' here who had a sentry-type box for shelter in the churchyard of St Nicholas Churchyard. This was before there was any regular police force. They were known as 'Charlie's, and they were usually old men, and a very inefficient body.
The Worcester Foundary was in the Blockhouse, on the canal-side. It closed in 1967 after 153 years of business
Over the centuries, the City had many prisons. There was the gaol at the east end of St Nicholas Street, a Bridewell at the bottom of Cucken Street (Copenhagan Street) and below the gatehouse of the Foregate were cells which, for a long period, were used as a prison for strangers
On the corner of Pump Street stands the Eagle Vaults, a good example of 1890 city tavern
Friar Street has retained more of it's timber-framed buildings than any other street in Worcester. Many of these houses were of considerable size and were once occupied by citizens of substance, but in the 18th century most of them were divided into tenements and allowed to fall into a sorry state of dilapidation
The site of St Laurence's Church was outside the City Walls, where the burnt-out shell of Sigley's Sweet Factory stands in what was Friar's burial ground
David Cameron has announced that mother's names should be added to 'outdated' marriage certificates, following the campaign by Alisa Burkimsher Sadler who started earlier this year 'the change.org...
Robert Whiston, celebrated headmaster at Rochester and reformer of Cathedral schools, was friend and life-time correspondent of James Knight, the Editor of the Worcester Chronicle. Robert Whiston...
It was the practice in some parts of requiring widows, on re-marrying, to pay a fine to the Crown, but by the mid-19th century, it had become a thing of the past. Berrow's Worcester Journal...
In the church records of All Saints Church, Worcester, is what looks like the usual details of a marriage which took place in the church in 1784. It reads: James Grubb of this parish batchelor...
Arley Ferry was the most northerly of the Worcestershire ferries, and the last to operate. The earliest reference to it is in the Close Rolls of 1323 when it was referred to as 'the Ferry'. In 1602...
When highway bridges became the repsonsibility of the County Council in 1920, it was decided that a new bridge had to be built at Pershore. Unlike as at Bransford, the old bridge was left standing,...
Introduction The destruction of many of Worcestershire's ancient bridges in the first half of the 19th century on the grounds that they were not suited to the modern day traffic at that time,...
The effect of the railways on road coaches in the Birmingham area fluctuated from boom to disaster. Until 1835, six coaches set out daily in each direction to and from Birmingham and Worcester, but when the London & Birmingham Railway opened, the traffic trebled because it was cheaper, quicker, and much more comfortable to get to London by coach to Birmingham
The directors of the West Midland Railway took a deep interest in the wefare of the workmen. A remarkable organisation, in the nature of a friendly society provided for sickness, fetes and excursions for families and friends. A Railway Institute was housed in the large rooms beneath the driveway to Shrub Hill Station, which later degenerated into storerooms.
There used to be an orchard where Shrub Hill Station stands today and the Engine Cleaning Sheds occupied the site of an old farm house close by. The Railway opened for traffic in 1852. The Company Directors travelled from Oxford to Wolverhampton and dined at an hotel there.
The engineers of the Worcester and Hereford Railway originally planned a branch line that was to connect Diglis Docks to the main line at Foregate Street, called the 'Butts Spur Line'. The hope was that big ships would come up the Severn to Diglis and there the goods would be transhipped to rail.
The City Council and Chamber of Commerce called for a line from Abbots Wood to the vicinity of Castle Hill (near Edgar Tower)
The logical route from Birmingham to Bristol would have been through Worcester
The Grand Connection Railway was originally to run from Gloucester west of the Severn
Original hand-coloured aquatint, A View of Worcester c.1779, engraver unknown
Built in 1480, this timber-framed house is looked after by the National Trust.Open Easter to OctoberWednesday, Thursday & Bank Holidays 2.pm - 5pm
Great Witley, Worcester.A most spectacular country house ruins, step back in time with your own personal audio tour and listen to household memories of "!Upstairs Downstairs life and extravagant...
Harvington Hall Nr Kidderminster WorcsMedival and Elizabethan Manor House, contains secret hiding places and rare wall paintings.Adimission charges apply
3 miles West off A44 Leominster Road Tel 01905 333224Open daily 11.00am -1700pm Last admission 4.15. Closed 23rd December to 31st JanuaryA fascinating insight into the life and music, family and...
Queen Ann style of architecture, the Guildhall is regarded as one of the finest civic buildings in the county.Monday - Saturday 8.30am - 4.30pm
The Power of a witch to bring wagons to a halt was told by Edward Corbett in one of his local fairy tales. Two old women, who lived in Salt Lane (Castle St),
One of the most historic of meetings was that between Saint Augustine and the Bishop of the Britons in the summer of AD. 603. When the Romans left these shores, Britain was by no means abandoned to paganism.
The Worcester County Infirmary opened its doors to the poor and sick on January 11th, 1746. It was founded by Isaac Maddox, a man of great humanity. He had started life as a pastry-cook's boy, and by his own abilities, had become Bishop of Worcester. Before
'Buy! Buy! Buy! Saturday night in the Shambles, after 9 o'clock, was like a medival fair, with butchers vying with each other to auction unsold meat. Until about 1930, few butchers had any form of refridgeration, and meat was sold off cheaply, rather than
Edgar Tower was, until the late 19th century, known as St.Mary's Gate, and was the main gate to the royal castle and priory. After the disastrous fire of 1202, when the City and Cathedral were burnt, John ordered the Sheriff of Worcester to obtain wood and
Two important royal tombs can be seen in Worcester Cathedral. That of King John, believed to bear the earliest royal effigy taken from life, and that of Prince Arthur, the eldest son of Henry Vlll, often said to be the most beautiful tomb of all in British
Dating back to the 1500s, the headquarters of Charles ll prior to the Battle of Worcester, now showing various exhibitions including "Civil War", "The Commandery Chronicle" and "Lives and...
On the corner of Foregate Street and Shaw Street stood the Hop Pole Inn, the principal inn of Worcester during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The first mention of it is in St. Nicholas parish records of 1742. It was obviously built when the City.
