Belbroughton, Worcestershire
Historical Description
Belbroughton, a village and a parish in Worcestershire. The village lies 3 miles S of Hagley station on the G.W. R.) and 5 S by E of Stourbridge, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Stourbridge. The parish includes also the manors of Bromhill and Brian's Bell, and the hamlets of Fairfield, Bell End, and Hartle. Acreage, 4749; population, 1902. An extensive manufacture of scythes, hay-knives, and many kinds of edge-tools is carried on. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Worcester; gross value, £952 with residence. Patron, St John's College, Oxford. The church is ancient, in the Norman style, and has an embattled western tower. Fairfield has a chapel of ease and a post and money order office. There is a Wesleyan Primitive Methodist chapel.
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 | Belbroughton Holy Trinity | |
Hundred | Halfshire | |
Poor Law union | Bromsgrove |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1540.
Churches
Church of England
Holy Trinity (parish church)
The church of the Holy Trinity is an ancient building of stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle and an embattled western tower with spire, containing a clock and 6 bells: the east window is stained; the chancel and the nave have both been rebuilt, and a Norman arch was discovered beneath the foundations, the stones of which have been used in part in the construction of a facsimile arch to a stone porch, the gift of Walter Showell esq. late of Bell Hall: a wall painting was also met with at the east end of the south aisle: the cost is estimated at £4,000: there are now 320 sittings.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Belbroughton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Belbroughton (Holy Trinity))
Land and Property
The full transcript of the Worcestershire section of the Return of Owners of Land, 1873.
Maps
Online maps of Belbroughton 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:
Villages, Hamlets, &c
Bell EndFairfield
Hartle
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Worcestershire 1569 is available on the Heraldry page.