Eldersfield, Worcestershire
Historical Description
Eldersfield, a village and a parish in Worcestershire, adjacent to Gloucestershire, near the Malvern Hills, 7 miles W by S of Tewkesbury, and 9 SSW of Upton-on-Severn. There is a post office under Tewkesbury; money order office, Corse Lawn; telegraph office, Staunton. Acreage, 3387; population, 548. Gadbury Banks is a British earthwork, forming an irregular square on the summit of a steep hill. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester; net value, £205 with residence. The church is chiefly Early English, with some Norman remains and later additions, and was partly restored in 1852 and again in 1876. It contains an ancient octagonal font and several ancient monuments, and has a tower and a spire.
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 | Eldersfield St. John the Baptist | |
Hundred | Pershore | |
Poor Law union | Upton-upon-Severn |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The registers date only from the year 1718, the earlier one being lost.
Churches
Church of England
St. John the Baptist (parish church)
The church of St. John the Baptist is a building of stone, in the Norman, Early English and later styles, consisting of chancel, nave, with chantry chapel on the south side, north aisle, and a tower, with fine spire, containing 6 bells, cast in 1705: the existing chancel arch is Norman, and there is part of a doorway of this date in the south wall: the structure was much enlarged and nearly rebuilt in the Early English period, and the lines of this reconstruction are still for the most part preserved: the lower portion of the tower is Early English, the upper stage and spire Early Decorated; the latter was partially rebuilt in 1839 and 1862, again in 1867, at a cost of £290, on account of injuries caused by lightning, and again in 1891: the chantry chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is a Perpendicular work, added by one Thomas Holford: the font is octagonal, and bears on all its sides carved shields of arms of families connected with the parish: there still remains in the church a shield of de Clare, impaling de Spenser, with the inscription "Ricardus de Clare, Hugo de Audley, comites. Gloucestriae fuerunt, annis Domini 1262-1347;" and the arms of Berkeley of Coberley, 1200; Brugges (Bridges), 1593, and Spiller, 1629: in the north aisle are mural monuments, quaintly inscribed, to members of the Brown family of Coss, 1661-1712, and including the Ven. Richard Brown B.D. fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and rector of Hendred, Berks, 1700; and there are other memorials to George Thompson, vicar, 1714, and John Cowcher, forty-five years vicar, 1777: in the church is also the tomb of William Underhill, gent. of Rew Green, whose benefaction to the parish is noticed below; he died 21st August, 1647: the church was partly restored in 1852, at a cost of upwards of £800, when the whole of the nave was reseated, chiefly with old material, after ancient examples remaining in the church; a further and more complete restoration was effected in 1876, at a cost of £970 when a new nave roof was put up, the south wall with its buttresses rebuilt and an organ added: there are sittings for 400 persons: in the churchyard are tombs to Capt. Richard Dyer, 1722; Thomas Halsey, 1678; Richard Delamere, 1612; John Jakeman, gent. M.A. professor of physic, and Job Carter, gent. chirurgeon, 1706: there is also a very ancient stone coffin lid, bearing two crosses, and possibly Saxon, disinterred in 1876.
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 Eldersfield from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Eldersfield (St. John the Baptist))
Land and Property
The full transcript of the Worcestershire section of the Return of Owners of Land, 1873.
Maps
Online maps of Eldersfield 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.