Madresfield, Worcestershire

Historical Description

Madresfield, a village and a parish in Worcestershire. The village lies under the Malvern Hills, 2 miles S of Malvern Link station on the G.W.R., 2¼ NE of Great Malvern, and 7 NW by N of Upton-on-Severn. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Great Malvern. The parish comprises 833 acres; population of the civil parish, 152; of the ecclesiastical, which includes part of Powick and Great Malvern, 283. The manor belongs to Earl Beauchamp. Madresfield Court, the earl's seat, is a moated Tudor mansion, and stands in a well-wooded park. It was the seat of the Bracy family till 1321, and then passed to the Lygon family, a descendant of whom was created Earl Beauchamp in 1815. The house was rebuilt and enlarged between 1863 and 1887, and retains very little of the ancient structure. It contains a quilt of flowered damask, embroidered in coloured silks by Queen Anne and the Duchess of Marlborough, some valuable MSS., and also a collection of antiques, miniatures, &c. It was occupied in turn by both parties in the Civil War, Colonel Lygon having. espoused the cause of the Parliament, and was evacuated by the Royalists before the battle of Worcester. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Worcester; gross value, £250 with residence. Patron, Earl Beauchamp. The church was rebuilt in 1867, is in the Decorated style, and has a massive-tower and spire. It contains monuments of the Beauchamps, removed from the original Norman church.

Administration

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

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

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Madresfield from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Madresfield)

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Madresfield 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:

• Worcester Journal
• Worcestershire Chronicle
• Worcester Herald

Visitations Heraldic

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