Badsey, Worcestershire
Historical Description
Badsey, a village and a parish in Worcestershire. The village stands on a tributary of the river Avon, 1 mile S of Littleton and Badsey station on the G.W.R., and 2½ miles E—3E of Evesham. Post town, Evesham. Acreage, 1208; population, 574. The parish includes also the hamlet of Aldington, with an acreage of 675; population 173. Much of the land is devoted to market gardening. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester; value, £240. Patron, Christ Church, Oxford. The church is ancient, chiefly Early English and Perpendicular, with a Norman doorway and a massive W tower with grotesque gargoyles. It was restored in 1885.
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 | Badsey St. James | |
Hundred | Blackenhurst | |
Poor Law union | Evesham |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1838, and there are some interesting ancient parish accounts, dating from 1525.
Churches
Church of England
St. James (parish church)
The church of St. James is an ancient edifice of stone, in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, nave, north transept, south aisle with porch, and an embattled western tower, containing 8 bells; in 1898 the 6 old bells were rehung in an iron frame; in 1903 two more bells were added as a memorial of the reign of Her late Majesty Queen Victoria, and in the same year the ancient clock, three centuries old, was replaced by a new one, with Westminster chimes, at a cost of £140. The interior of the church retains much of its original character, and has a monument, much mutilated, to the Hoby family, and on the north side of the nave is a good example of a Norman doorway, and a small Norman window, originally in the south wall of the nave: there is a stained window in the north transept to Mr. Edward Appelbee, who died in 1851, presented by his widow, and another memorial window, placed in 1902, to the Rev. T. H. Hunt; M.A., vicar here 1852-87: the church was restored in 1884-5 at a cost of £2,131 8s. 10d, and affords 206 sittings: in the churchyard is a very fine yew tree, and near the porch is a churchyard cross, erected to the memory of the Rev. T. H. Hunt, in which are incorporated portions of the pedestal of an ancient cross.
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 Badsey from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Badsey (St. James))
Land and Property
The full transcript of the Worcestershire section of the Return of Owners of Land, 1873.
Maps
Online maps of Badsey 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.