Abbots Morton | |
---|---|
Abbots Morton village | |
Location within Worcestershire | |
Population | 153 [1] |
OS grid reference | SP027551 |
• London | 93 miles (150 km) |
Civil parish |
|
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | WORCESTER |
Postcode district | WR7 |
Dialling code | 01386 |
Police | West Mercia |
Fire | Hereford and Worcester |
Ambulance | West Midlands |
UK Parliament | |
Abbots Morton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Worcestershire. It consists of approximately 70 dwellings and 250 people. It retains 4 mixed working farms within the village boundaries. The village was the country retreat for the Abbots of Evesham Abbey and the moat that surrounded their house is still visible. The village church is dedicated to St Peter and is over 1000 years old.
The hamlet of Morton Spirt lies east of the village.
Abbots Morton was listed as Mortune in the Domesday Book of 1086. [2]
The most northerly of the four parishes in the benefice, the parish of Abbots Morton incorporates the hamlets of Morton Spirt, The Low and Gooms Hill as well as the village of Abbots Morton itself.
The parish contains approximately 70 homes. Many of the houses in the village are half-timbered black and white buildings dating from the 17th and 18th centuries; three have 15th century origins. [3]
The Domesday Book of 1086 lists Abbots Morton as "Mortune", assessed at 5 hides and belonging to Evesham Abbey, but the settlement is believed to have been established several hundred years earlier.
Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century, Abbots Morton used to be a country retreat for the abbots of Evesham; the remains of their moated manor house can still be seen near the church. The site of the manor house was acquired by Evesham Abbey in the 8th century, and a building existed on the site before the Norman conquest.
Abbots Morton (Morton Abbatis) was one of the parishes entangled in the dispute between Evesham Abbey and the Bishops of Worcester: both parties claimed control over the churches in the Vale of Evesham and the surrounding area. After 200 years, the dispute was settled in the middle of the 13th century when the abbey was given jurisdiction over all the churches within the Vale apart from one: Abbots Morton. [3]
After the Dissolution, Abbots Morton passed into the hands of the Hoby [Hobby] family, who acquired many of the properties originally belonging to Evesham Abbey. In 1600 ownership of the manor appears to have been disputed: documents held at the Worcestershire Records Office include "Letters Patent of Elizabeth I being a licence for alienation from Richard Hobby [Hoby], esquire, to Richard Mottershed, gent., and Ralph Hodges of the manors of Badsey and Abbots Morton" while the Records of the Kings Remembrancer in the National Archives show "Philip Kighley of Broadway, gentleman to Thomas Edgeok of Broadway, gentleman: Demise, indented, for 3 years, of the manors of Badsey and Abbots Morton,".
Philip Kighley had married Elizabeth Hoby, Richard's daughter, in 1597. It is presumed that the manor of Abbots Morton then passed into the hands of the Kighley family. After Philip's death at the beginning of the 17th century, Elizabeth married Charles Ketilby who sold the manor a few years later. [3]
By the beginning of the 18th century, much of the land around Abbots Morton appears to have been acquired by the Throckmorton family of Coughton Court. Papers deposited in the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive record 500-year leases of "rights of common" granted on lands of Sir Robert Throckmorton; and a century later John Throckmorton was disputing the tithes of Abbots Morton. [3]
In 1870–72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Abbots Morton like this: ABBOTS-MORTON, a parish in the district of Alcester and county of Worcester; 6 miles N by E of Fladbury r. station, and 7 WSW of Alcester. It has a post office under Bromsgrove. Acres, 1,420. Real property, £2,091. Pop. 245. Houses, 57. The property is all in one estate. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Worcester. Value, £146. Patron, G. J. A. Walker, Esq. The church is good. [3]
The church houses the WW1 war memorial to the village's only casualty of the conflict, Private Philip Collins, who served with the local Worcestershire Regiment in Mesopotamia. However it is known that Private 19934 Cecil Roy Pulham of the Machine Gun Corps was born in Abbots Morton in Oct 1895 but moved away and by 1901 was living in Arrow. He was kiiled in action on 21 Mar 1918 in France. There were no local losses during the second world war.
For the early part of the century Abbots Morton became known as Muddy Morton due to the poor roads and properties falling into disrepair. By the 1970s things started to change, properties began to transfer into individual ownership and were renovated rather than pulled down, this led the local council to call the village its "Golden Gem" and making most of the village a conservation area.
The village hall was rebuilt in 1998.
The parish church, dedicated to St Peter, stands on the site of a Saxon church. The current Grade I-listed building is the result of rebuilding and alterations performed since the 12th century. The list of Rectors of Abbots Morton stretches back to Petrus le Meare in 1288.
The oldest part of the church is the north wall which dates from the 12th century, and is now supported by a modern buttress. The chancel was rebuilt in the 14th century, with the east window being added later in the same century. The Lady Chapel on the north side of the church, now used for the organ and choir, was added at about the same time.
The south doorway, now the only entrance to the church, was constructed during the 15th century, and two pews from this period are incorporated into the porch. A second doorway, now blocked-up, can be seen in the north wall; this may have been used by the monks from the abbots' retreat to the north of the church. The exposed roof beams, many of them roughly-shaped branches rather than carefully cut timber, have also been dated to the 15th century. In 1955 the residents of the parish raised over £1,300 (worth more than £25,000 today) to preserve the beams.
The tower was built in the late 14th century. The oldest bell, the tenor, dates from the 15th century and may have been hung soon after the tower was completed. It is one of the few remaining "Royal Head" bells, where the stops between the words of the inscription "Virgenis Egregie Vocor Campana Maria" represent the heads of Edward III and Queen Philippa. The 2nd bell is dated 1633, while the 3rd and treble bells were cast by Thomas Mears of London in 1842. [4]
Deerhurst is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, about 2 miles (3 km) southwest of Tewkesbury. The village is on the east bank of the River Severn. The parish includes the village of Apperley and the hamlet of Deerhurst Walton. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 906, the majority of whom live in Apperley.
Evesham is a market town and parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. It lies within the Vale of Evesham, an area comprising the flood plain of the River Avon, which has been renowned for market gardening. The town centre, situated within a meander of the river, is subjected regularly to flooding. The 2007 floods were the most severe in recorded history.
Evesham Abbey was founded by Saint Egwin at Evesham in Worcestershire, England between 700 and 710 following an alleged vision of the Virgin Mary by a swineherd by the name of Eof.
Arrow is a village in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. Together with the entirely rural hamlet of Weethley, it forms since 1 April 2004 the civil parish of Arrow with Weethley. The parish lies midway between Redditch and Evesham. From Alcester the River Arrow flows southwards to the river Avon, and to the west of the river the present road to Evesham joins that to Worcester at a busy junction where, near the Old Toll House, stands the hamlet of Arrow, a group of modernized black and white farm workers' cottages which have risen up the social scale to become homes for business people. Arrow with Weethley parish falls under the local government district and parliamentary constituency of Stratford-on-Avon, and the Church of England Diocese of Coventry. In 2001 the parish had a population of 208.
Badsey is a village and civil parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, England. It has two parks and a small first school located in the centre of the village.
Kinwarton is a village in the valley of the River Alne, Warwickshire, to the north-east of the market town of Alcester. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 1,082. The ground is mostly low-lying, with a maximum altitude of 206 ft. and some of the fields near the river are liable to floods. The road from Alcester to Henley-in-Arden runs through the middle of the parish. A branch road leads off to the church and rectory about a quarter of a mile to the south and thence continues as a field-path down to a ford across the River Alne below Hoo Mill. From the north side of the main road a by-road branches off to Coughton.
Sambourne, formerly spelled Sambourn, is a village and civil parish 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north-west of Coughton, 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south of Redditch, 12 miles (19 km) north-west of Stratford-upon-Avon and 20 miles (32 km) west of Warwick in the county of Warwickshire, England. It is situated on sloping ground rising westwards to about 500 feet near the ancient Ridge Way, and forms part of the county boundary with Worcestershire. The village itself is centred round a small triangular green at the junction of four roads and contains several timber-framed buildings of 17th century date. By a designation of 22 July 1991 much of the central area became a conservation area.
Ombersley is a village and civil parish in Wychavon district, in the county of Worcestershire, England. The parish includes the hamlet of Holt Fleet, where Telford's 1828 Holt Fleet Bridge crosses the River Severn. The 2011 census recorded a population of 2,360 for the parish.
Salford Priors is a rural, agricultural village and civil parish about four miles south-west of Alcester, Warwickshire, England. The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2011 census was 1,546. It is on the Warwickshire border with Worcestershire. The village is eight miles from the popular tourist town of Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, and the River Avon runs near to it. Evesham lies seven miles to the south-west and is an important agricultural centre and soft fruit-growing area. The population of the Salford Priors ward – which includes the communities of Abbot's Salford, Dunnington, Iron Cross, Pitchill, Rushford and Mudwalls – was 1,492 at the 2001 census.
Wixford is a hamlet and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District of Warwickshire, England, situated 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of Alcester. The population at the 2011 census was 155. The area is largely agricultural with no large employers in the area, most residents commuting to larger towns nearby.
Offenham is a large rural village and civil parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, England, located about three miles east of Evesham, in the Vale of Evesham. The River Avon flows through Offenham. The civil parish extends beyond the area of the settlement of Offenham and includes Blackminster Middle School and the Blackminster Trading Estate. It was awarded the title of Calor Worcestershire Village of the Year in 2004.
Bretforton is a rural village in Worcestershire, England, 4.4 miles (7.1 km) east of Evesham, in the Vale of Evesham. It is the largest farming village near Evesham. At the 2001 census, Bretforton had a population of 1,023 in 428 households. The area of the parish is 2.83 square miles.
Harvington is a village near Evesham in Worcestershire, England. Bounded by the River Avon to the south and the Lench Hills to the north, three miles northeast of Evesham and now on the Worcestershire/Warwickshire border. The village today is an amalgamation of two smaller villages, Harvington and Harvington Cross, and has a population of around 1,750.
Bengeworth is a locality adjoining Evesham in Worcestershire, England. In 1887 it had a population of 1,311. Today it has a school and an Anglican church.
Stone is a village and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire, England. Of Anglo-Saxon origin, it lies two miles south-east of Kidderminster on the A448 road to Bromsgrove.
Sedgeberrow is a village and civil parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, England, about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Evesham. It stands beside the River Isbourne, a tributary of the River Avon.
Wickhamford is a village and a civil parish in Worcestershire, England. It is situated on the A44 road approximately halfway between the towns of Evesham and Broadway. It is mentioned in 1086 in the Domesday Book under the name of Wiquene when it was owned by Evesham Abbey.
Dormston is a village and civil parish in Worcestershire about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Redditch.
Exhall is a village and civil parish about 1+1⁄4 miles (2 km) south-south-east of Alcester in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. Its parish includes the hamlet of Little Britain and part of Ardens Grafton, the greater part of which is in the neighbouring civil parish of Temple Grafton. The 2011 Census recorded Exhall parish's population as 203. Exhall is on Hay Brook, a tributary of the River Arrow. The civil parish neighbours those of Alcester and Wixford, with which it shares both an ecclesiastical parish and a cricket club.
Walter, Abbot of Evesham or Walter de Cerisy, Gauthier de Cerisy was an 11th-century abbot and church leader in England under the Norman conquest. He is known from the Domesday Book and several legal documents.