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Bromsgrove or Broomsgrove, Worcestershire

Historical Description

Bromsgrove or Broomsgrove, a market-town, tha head of a poor law union, and a parish, in Worcestershire. The town stands on the river Salwarp, under the Lickey Hills, 1½ mile W of the Bromsgrove station on the M.R., near the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, 13 miles NE by N of Worcester, and 144 (by rail) from London. It was anciently called Bremesgrave, sent two members to Parliament in the time of Edward I., and held long the estates of a corporate town, with bailiff, recorder, aldermen, and other officers. It consists chiefly of one street about a mile long, and contains many good modern houses, with some very ancient ones, curious and picturesque. The old Hop Pole Inn, a beautiful half-timbered house of 1572, was restored in 1867, and is now used as a bank. Bromsgrove has a head post, money order, and telegraph office, a railway station, two banks, a town-hall of 1832, a grammar school, a college, a literary institute, a large drill hall, a school of art, a cottage hospital, a corn exchange, a police station,. and a workhouse; and it is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and publishes two weekly newspapers. It is governed by a local board. The parish church is a fine building situated on an eminence at the west side of the town; the exterior is mainly Decorated and Perpendicular, the interior contains some Early English arches, eleven stained-glass-windows, a fine organ, and a recently erected chancel screen; it has a tower and spire 200 feet high, was restored in 1858 by Sir G. Gilbert Scott at a cost of £5600, and contains several altar-tombs and brasses to member of the Talbot family and others. All Saints is a separate ecclesiastical parish; the church was erected in 1874 in the Decorated style. The Roman Catholic chapel was built in 1863, is in the Decorated English style of architecture, and forms a conspicuous object to travellers entering the town. There are also Baptist, Congregational, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels. The grammar school dates from the time of Edward VI., and holds a scholarship at Worcester College, Oxford. It was reorganized by the Charity Commissioners in 1868, and considerably enlarged in 1883; new buildings were added in 1893, called the "Lyttleton House." A weekly market is held on Tuesday; cattle fairs are held on the second and last Tuesday of each month except December, when they are held on the first three Tuesdays; there is also a pleasure, cattle, and horse fair on 24 June. A considerable linen manufacture was formerly carried on, but has ceased, and the chief manufacture now is nails; there is also a button manufactory. Lord Windsor is lord of the manor. Area of the civil parish, 11,649 acres; population, 13,006; of the ecclesiastical parishes of St John the Baptist, 4788, and All Saints, 4280. The parish includes also the ecclesiastical parish of Catshill and portion of that of Lickey, and the hamlets of Dodford, Sidemoor, Burcot, and Bockhill. The Lickey Hills, a little north of the town, are on the watershed between the Severn and the Trent, and command delightful views. A Premonstratensian priory was founded in the time of Henry I. at Dodford, and part of it is included in a farmhouse. There are mission churches at Dodford and Sidemoor, and a Baptist chapel at the former, and a Methodist chapel at the latter. Dodford is chiefly occupied by market gardens, the principal product being strawberries. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester; net value, £500 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Worcester The living of All Saints is a vicarage, in the gift of the Vicar of Bromsgrove; gross value, £299 with residence. The vicarage of Lickey is a separate benefice, also in the gift of the Vicar of Bromsgrove.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyWorcestershire 
Ecclesiastical parishBromsgrove St. John The Baptist 
HundredHalfshire 
Poor Law unionBromsgrove 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Bromsgrove or Broomsgrove from the following:


Land and Property

The full transcript of the Worcestershire section of the Return of Owners of Land, 1873.


Maps

Online maps of Bromsgrove or Broomsgrove are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Worcestershire papers online:


Villages, Hamlets, &c

Bourn Heath
Burcot
Chadwick (Bromsgrove)
Dadford or Dodford
Sidemoor

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Worcestershire 1569 is available on the Heraldry page.