Abberley, Worcestershire
Historical Description
Abberley, a parish in Worcestershire, 6 miles SW of Stourport station, on the G.W.R. It has a post office under Stourport; Great Witley, 2 miles distant, is the money order and telegraph office. Acreage, 2360; population of the civil parish, 563; of the ecclesiastical, 595. Abberley Hall was long in the possession of the Walsh family, one of whom was the friend and patron of the poet Pope, but it is now the property of the Jones family. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Hereford; net value, £252. The church, in the Early English style, was built in 1852. The chancel and some arches of the old Norman church still remain. There is a Wesleyan chapel. Abberley Hill, the northern end of the Malvern system, commands a fine view, and faces an ancient encampment on Woodbury, a mile S.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Worcestershire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Abberley St. Michael | |
Hundred | Doddingtree | |
Poor Law union | Martley |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1559 and is in excellent preservation.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary, built in 1852, at a cost of about £7,000, is an edifice of stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and western belfry with spire, containing 6 bells: in 1873 the fabric was greatly injured by fire, but was restored in 1877, at a cost of £4,113: the east window is stained: there is a memorial window in the chancel and two in the nave: the church affords about 350 sittings.
The ruins of the former Early Norman church of St. Michael still remain: the chancel was put in good repair in 1908 and is used for funerals and for daily services: in the chancel is a monument to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir George Blount kt. of Sodington, and wife of William Walsh esq. of Abberley; she died in 1645.
St. Michael (parish church)
The church of St. Michael, in the Early Norman style, is now mainly in ruins. The chancel was put in good repair in 1908 and used for funerals and for daily services: in the chancel is a monument to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir George Blount kt. of Sodington, and wife of William Walsh esq. of Abberley; she died in 1645.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Abberley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Abberley (St. Michael))
Land and Property
The full transcript of the Worcestershire section of the Return of Owners of Land, 1873.
Maps
Online maps of Abberley are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Worcestershire papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Worcestershire 1569 is available on the Heraldry page.