Norton, Worcestershire
Historical Description
Norton, a village and a parish in Worcestershire. The village stands 1¼ mile W of the river Avon, 1½ SSW of the boundary with Warwickshire, 1 SW of Harvington station on the Birmingham, Evesham, and Ashchurch branch of the M.R., and 3 miles NNE of Evesham, and has sometimes been called Abbot's Norton, having belonged to Evesham Abbey. The parish contains the hamlets of Lenchwick and Chadbury, and its post town is Evesham; money order office, Harvington; telegraph office, Harvington (R.S.) Acreage, 2656; population, 407. There is a parish council consisting of seven members. The manor and most of the land, with a fine hunting-box at Chadbury, called Wood Norton, belong to the Due d'Aumale. At Lenchwick are remains of the manor house of the Biggs, and another house contains 17th century wall paintings. Vestiges of an ancient stone bridge which crossed the Avon are at Twyford. Part of the battlefield of Evesham is within the parish, and has yielded relics of the battle. The living is a vicarage, called Norton and Lenchwick, in the diocese of Worcester; net value, £240 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Worcester. The church is Late Perpendicular, with a tower, was partly rebuilt, partly repaired in 1844, and contains an ancient stone lectern from Evesham Abbey, effigies of the Bigg family, and banners, &c.,of the Cravens. In 1871 a Perpendicularwindow was removed from Bengeworth church and inserted in the N nave wall, causing the removal of a 15th-century doorway, which now stands at the entrance of the churchyard. The private Roman Catholic chapel at Wood Norton contains stained glass windows in memory of members of the Due d'Aumale's family. There was formerly a chapel of St Michael at Lenchwick.
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 | Norton St. Egwin | |
Hundred | Blackenhurst | |
Poor Law union | Evesham |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Norton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Norton (St. Egwin))
Land and Property
The full transcript of the Worcestershire section of the Return of Owners of Land, 1873.
Maps
Online maps of Norton 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
ChadburyVisitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Worcestershire 1569 is available on the Heraldry page.