Worcestershire

“ The legends of Worcestershire, as of most other counties, are mainly traceable to middle-age ecclesiastical influences or to the popular ideas of the author of all evil. Some few are derived from an exaggerated recollection of historical facts, and a still smaller number have descended to us from pagan times. ”

“ In no county has the monastic movement played a more important part than in Worcestershire. Foundations existed at Worcester, Evesham, Pershore and Fladbury in the 8th century, at Great Malvern in the 11th century, and in the 12th and 13th centuries at Little Malvern, Westwood, Bordesley, Whistones, Cookhill, Dudley, Halesowen and Astley. ”

“ The Pakington family have been for three hundred years residing near here, and in the very centre of the county. They have been Worcestershire people to the backbone. I am now residing near Worcester, where I am endeavouring to do my duty in that station of life to which I am called. I am trying in various ways to exert around me that kind of homely influence which kind and homely thoughts and actions will always produce by whomsoever exercised. I, for my own part, have no ambition for Parliamentary life. If I wanted a seat in Parliament for its own sake I know where to get one. ”

“ A table of the Whitsun farthings payable in every parish in the diocese of Worcester is given by Dr. Nash in his "History of Worcestershire," vol. i. The clerk's wages in 1690 amounted to £2. 4s. 8d.; the sexton's, 18s.; and the ringers seemed to have had a perpetual license to make as much noise as they liked, and on all occasions, however contradictory: for instance ”

“ During the general rebellion of the Norman lords against William Rufus in 1088 he joined with Roger of Lacy, and Ralph of Mortemer, with the men of Earl Roger of Shrewsbury, and the confederate lords at the head of the forces of Herefordshire and Shropshire, and with a large number of Welsh allies harried Worcestershire and threatened to burn the city of Worcester, to plunder the minster and take the king's castle. ”

“ Mr. Collins gives us another proof that "art is long" by his skilful rendering of the beautiful portion of Worcester Cathedral here shown.
At the period of the Roman invasion of England, two British tribes, the Cornavii and Dobuni, were in part ownership of Worcestershire. This British settlement was promptly annexed by the Romans as a military station, and was included in the division called Flavia Cæsariensis. ”

“ Edward Sebright, who was high sheriff of Worcestershire in 1622, was created first baronet in 1626, and proved himself a zealous royalist; he inherited from his uncle, William Sebright (d. 1620) , who was M.P. for Droitwich in 1572, the manor of Besford, Worcestershire, which the uncle purchased.
The seventh baronet served for a short time in the army and was attached to the staff of Lord Amherst. He always took some interest in military matters. He was elected M.P. for Hertfordshire on 11 May 1807, and continued to represent the county till the end of the first reformed parliament. ”

“ He appears in ‘Domesday’ as a tenant-in-chief in the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and Warwick, being also styled in it ‘Urso de Wirecestre’ (f. 169 b) from his office as sheriff of Worcestershire. William of Malmesbury, describing him as ‘Vicecomes Wigorniæ a rege constitutus,’ tells the story of his encroaching on the cemetery of Worcester Abbey to make his castle ditch, and of his stern rebuke for it by Archbishop Ealdred: ‘Hightest thou Urse, have thou God's curse’ (Gesta Pontificum) . ”

“ I am a Worcestershire man myself,—born near Pershore. I dare say you would find a heap of Smalls living there now if you were to look. I have often thought of taking a look round there, but the truth is that I was never much of a credit to the family, and I doubt if they would be so very glad to see me. They were all steady, chapel-going folk, small farmers, well-known and respected over the country-side, while I was always a bit of a rover. ”

“ It is true that Worcestershire cannot boast of being the first place in England where "the wicked weed" was grown. That was an honour claimed by our near neighbours of Winchcombe, in Gloucestershire, who are said to have profited greatly (in a pecuniary sense, I suppose) by its cultivation. Tobacco was, however, grown at Worcester, Feckenham, Eckington, Pershore, Upton Snodsbury, Pensham, Kempsey, and other places in this county. The first mention of its use at [Pg 243] Worcester is in the chamberlain's accounts for the year 1643, about fifty-seven years after its introduction to this country. ”

“ The Worcestershire clubmen first mustered to the number of about two thousand, and put forth a declaration of their intentions against the Popish party and to preserve the King's rights and the privileges of Parliament. They rapidly increased in force; Prince Rupert strove to pacify them, but in vain; the constables refused to bring in a list of the names of those who thus assembled. By the middle of March their number had increased to fourteen thousand well armed men, and they applied to Colonel Massey, then in command at Gloucester, for assistance to enable them to besiege Hereford. ”

“ The Worcestershire portion of the district extends from Oldbury and Yardley in the north, to Abbot’s Morton on the south. It is watered by the Cole and Rea, tributaries to the Tame, by the Stour and Salwarp, tributaries to the Severn, by the Severn itself, and by the Arrow and minor streams tributaries to the Avon. A range of hills about eight miles long runs across the country from north-west to south-east, and articulates with the central water parting at Bromsgrove Lickey. ”

“ The ancient name Ombersley in Worcestershire, whose early settlers are called the Ombersetena, is as old as the Saxon period. [50] These people, whose name has come down to us in the genitive plural, are probably the same as the Ymbras or Ambrones—i.e., the tribe of Old Saxons south of the Humber. This colony of them in Worcestershire was probably a migration from their district on the Amber River in Derbyshire, from Nottinghamshire or Lincolnshire, along the Roman roads that passed from Chesterfield through Lichfield into Worcestershire. ”

“ BEWDLEY, a market town and municipal borough in the Bewdley parliamentary division of Worcestershire, England; 137 m. N.W. by W. from London and 171/4 N. by W. from Worcester by rail. Pop. (1901) 2866. The Worcester-Shrewsbury line of the Great Western is here joined by lines east from Birmingham and west from Tenbury. Bewdley is pleasantly situated on the sloping right bank of the Severn, on the eastern border of the forest of Wyre. ”

“ St. Swithin's was probably the then parish church of the mayor. I suppose the mayor did not attend the Cathedral officially on public occasions before 1 Edward IV, as on the 20th of January in that year the Prior of Worcester granted the corporation a permission to attend divine service at the Cathedral, attended by their officers.—See "Nash's Worcestershire," vol. ii, p. 309.
Entries frequently occur of "chimney money" paid for poor widows and others during the reign of James II. Was this a national or local tax? ”

“ Every good goose should lay."
It is proverbial in Worcestershire that "you never hear the cuckoo before Tenbury fair or after Pershore fair." Tenbury fair is on April 20, and Pershore fair is on June 26, which two dates pretty correctly mark the duration of the cuckoo's visit.
A HAPPY VILLAGE.
The happy village of Norton, near Evesham, contains no inn, public-house, meeting-house, lawyer, doctor, or curate! ”

“ The Little Shelsley people will have it that the Court-house in that parish is haunted, and that a Lady Lightfoot, who was said to have been imprisoned and murdered in the house, comes at night and drives a carriage and four fiery horses round some old rooms that are unoccupied, and that her ladyship's screams are sometimes heard over the whole [Pg 188] Court. She has likewise been seen to drive her team into the moat, when the whole disappeared, the water smoking like a furnace.
Many of the ancient manor-houses of Worcestershire have similar superstitions. ”

“ It is the custom at the present day in some parishes in Worcestershire (Longdon for instance) for boys and girls to [Pg 221] go early on New Year's morning to all the farmhouses and say as follows, all in one breath ”

“ SEBRIGHT, Sir JOHN SAUNDERS (1767–1846) , seventh baronet, of Besford, Worcestershire, and Beechwood, Hertfordshire, politician and agriculturist, born on 23 May 1767, was the eldest son of Sir John Saunders Sebright, sixth baronet, by Sarah, daughter of Edward Knight, esq., of Wolverley, Worcestershire. The father, a colonel of the 18th foot and lieutenant-general in the army, represented Bath in three parliaments (1761–1780) , and died in March 1794. The family settled in Worcestershire early in the fourteenth century ”

“ Within his immense manor of Taunton the Bishop of Winchester has pleas of the highest class, and three times a year without any summons his men must meet to hold them [337] . In Worcestershire seven of the twelve hundreds into which the county is divided are in the heads of four great churches; Worcester has three, Westminster two, Evesham one, Pershore one. Westminster holds its lands as freely as the king held them in his demesne; Pershore enjoys all the pleas of the free men; no sheriff can claim anything within the territory of St. ”

“ Dingley and others and the representation made by them to the Parliament. Early in December, 1645, Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice set out from Worcester with 160 horse in the direction [Pg 324] of Oxford. They were obstructed on their march by a party of the "clubmen" under Sir Edward Dingley, the then head of this old Worcestershire family. But these raw levies were no match for the trained cavaliers and their ardent leaders. The Princes and their troop cut their way through Dingley's yeomen, killing and wounding several of them, and so got safely to Oxford. ”

“ Woolwich (40) , a town in Kent, on the S. bank of the Thames, 9 m. below London; is the chief military arsenal in the country; contains a gun factory, ammunition factory, laboratory, &c., which employ 12,000 men, besides barracks for artillery, engineers, &c., covering an area 4 m. in circumference.
Worcester (42) , the county town of Worcestershire, on the left bank of the Severn, 26 m. SE. of Birmingham; a very ancient place, and a handsome city, with a noble old Gothic cathedral; is famous for its blue porcelain ware and other industries, particularly glove-making ”

“ As the county was now seriously disturbed by the contending parties she suddenly took flight again, visiting Hereford for the last time, and carrying off her trunks and chests and servants to Ham Castle, the seat of her cousin Jeffries, on the banks of the Teme, on the edge of the county of Worcester. Soldiers were still quartered in her house at Hereford, and she pays for work done in making bulwarks to defend the city. ”

“ Nevertheless, England has never grown a sufficient quantity for its own consumption, farmers not regarding it with favour, owing to the supposed exhaustive nature of the crop. In Worcestershire, for 1782 and some following years, claims were made (and allowed by Quarter Sessions) for these bounties, by—
Jos. Cooper the elder } All Saints, Evesham Jos. Cooper the younger } (grown by them at Bretforton, Great Hampton, Fladbury, Pershore, Honeybourne, Cropthorne, and the Littletons) . John Taylor of Bromsgrove. Henry Ellins of Stoke Prior, at Rushock, Doverdale, Bromsgrove, Stoke, and Hanbury. ”

“ We humbly desier that wee may not bee constrayned to goe to any other parish or chappell for the causes aforesaid, and in regard it hath cure of sowles and wee are at least fower and ffortie familyes, poore, aged, and weake people, and the soyle very hilley and durtie in the winter tyme and the out side of Worcester Shire and dioces, and remote from Thornebury aforesayd, which is in the county and dioces of Hereford, or any other church in the county or dioces of Worcester. ”

“ The Worcester Board of Guardians have not availed themselves of the power conferred by this Act, for under the Parochial Assessment Act not a single parish of this city has hitherto been mapped and valued, until now that All Saints' is under contract for that purpose. The Guardians have not felt it necessary to do so, as no churchwardens or overseers have yet (1855) called upon them to exercise their powers ”

“ Elias Arch, bailiff of Kidderminster, ditto; Thomas Foley, Esq., "who receives the benefit of the toll of Stourbridge, for not providing a brass measure according to act of Parliament, and for not making the measures of the town according to the same; and that the justices do take into consideration the great abuse that the people of this county which resort to this city of Worcester to market do receive by unjustness of the measures, and by the jogging and shaking of the same;" ”

“ On the 20th of November, 1613, a certificate was sent down from Whitehall to "our very loving friends, the Justices of the Peace and compounders for the county of Worcester," which, after the usual "heartey commendations," &c., set forth that "Thomas Gunner, his Majesty's servant, under-tacker for the countie of Worcester, hath delivered for the service of his Majestie and his most hon. house, for the compost of the 11th yere of his Highnes raigne, 20 fatt oxen, 20 fatt muttons, 20 stirks, and 40 lambs, all good and serviceable, and soe wee bid you heartily farewell." ”

“ The marvellous escape of Charles II, when his pursuers passed under the oak tree in which he was secreted after the battle of Worcester, is now only commemorated in the city which boasts of being "faithful" to its kings whether their [Pg 210] memory be odorous or not, by some half-dozen boughs of oak being affixed over as many doorways in different streets. ”