Tenbury, Worcestershire
Historical Description
Tenbury, a small market-town, the head of a poor-law union, petty sessional division, and county court district, and a parish in Worcestershire. The town stands on the river Teme, which is here crossed by a bridge of five arches, 21 miles NW of Worcester, and 130½ by road and 153 by railway from London. It has a station on the G.W.R. and L. & N.W.R., and a head post office. It is pleasantly situated in a sheltered and fertile valley, and consists of two streets crossing each other at right angles. A mineral spring was discovered in 1839, and a pump-room and bath-rooms, with reading-rooms attached, have been established for the convenience of persons taking the waters, which are efficacious in scorbutic and cutaneous disorders. The county courts are held in the corn exchange and petty sessions in the magistrates' room in Teme Street. The church of St Mary the Virgin is of various dates, the tower and the chancel dating from the llth century. It was restored in 1865, and contains some interesting monuments, one bearing the diminutive effigy of a crusader; another, connected with the Lucys of Charlecote, a pair of recumbent figures in alabaster, very handsome and well-preserved. There are Baptist and Primitive Methodist chapels. The town contains a market-house, a police station, a workhouse, a dispensary, and three banks. A weekly newspaper is published. Markets are held on Tuesdays, stock sales on alternate Tuesdays, and fairs on 22 April. Considerable trade is done in fruit, hops, and cidor, and some making and tanning are carried on. The parish includes Sutton and Berrington hamlets, and comprises 5582 acres; population of the civil parish, 2054, of the ecclesiastical, 1695. The ecclesiastical parish of St Michael and All Angels, Oldwood, is partly in this parish. There is a parish council consisting of thirteen members. The church and the training college, about 2 miles from the town, were erected in 1855-58 by the Rev. Sir F. A. Gore Ouseley, Bart. The church is a handsome edifice in the Decorated style, anJ contains a fine organ. The college is intended for the training of boys in church music, together with a classical and mathematical education. The living of Tenbury is a vicarage in the diocese of Hereford; net value, £355 with residence. The living of St Michael is a vicarage in the diocese of Hereford; net value, £160 with residence. Patrons, the trustees of St Michael's College.
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 | Tenbury St. Mary the Virgin | |
Hundred | Doddingtree | |
Poor Law union | Tenbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Tenbury from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Tenbury (St. Mary the Virgin))
Land and Property
The full transcript of the Worcestershire section of the Return of Owners of Land, 1873.
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Worcestershire papers online:
Villages, Hamlets, &c
BerringtonSutton
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Worcestershire 1569 is available on the Heraldry page.