Bentley Pauncefoot, or Lower and Upper Bentley, Worcestershire
Historical Description
Bentley-Pauncefoot, or Lower and Upper Bentley, a township in Tardebigge parish, Worcestershire, 3 miles SW of Redditch, and 4 SSE of Bromsgrove, which is the post town. Acreage, 1688; population, 230. There is a small church at Lower Bentley, a chapel of ease to the parish church of Tardebigge. Bentley Manor, the seat of the lord of the manor, was the residence of Sir Thomas Cooke, Bart., the founder of Worcester College, Oxford.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Worcestershire | |
Civil parish | Tardebigg | |
Hundred | Halfshire | |
Poor Law union | Bromsgrove |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Churches
Church of England
St. Stephen (parish church)
Bentley was originally a chapelry, and the foundations of the ancient chapel, dedicated to St. Stephen, have been traced. At Lower Bentley there is a small church of red brick, consisting of chancel and nave only, in which divine worship was held on Sunday afternoons at 3 o'clock, by the vicar of Tardebigge: there are 100 sittings.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Bentley Pauncefoot, or Lower and Upper Bentley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bentley-Pauncefoot)
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:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Worcestershire 1569 is available on the Heraldry page.