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Eldersfield (St. John the Baptist)

ELDERSFIELD (St. John the Baptist), a parish, in the union of Upton-on-Severn, Lower division of the hundred of Pershore, Upton and W. divisions of the county of Worcester, 7 miles (W. by S.) from Tewkesbury; containing 837 inhabitants. The parish is situated at the southern extremity of the county, and bounded partly on the north, and wholly on the south, by the county of Gloucester. It is nearly circumscribed by the roads from Upton to Gloucester, from Gloucester to Ledbury, and from Ledbury to Tewkesbury; and comprises 3310 acres, of which 17½ are woodland, 262 road and waste, and the remainder nearly equally divided between arable and pasture: the soil is a red marl. Stone of inferior quality for building is quarried. A few hands are employed in making gloves for the Worcester houses. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8. 16. 8., and in the gift of Sir Anthony Lechmere, Bart.: the impropriate tithes, belonging to the Rev. Charles Martin, have been commuted for £630, and the vicarial for £290; and the glebe contains 2 acres, with a house in a dilapidated state. The church is a handsome structure, chiefly in the early English style, with an embattled tower surmounted by a spire. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans; and a school, in which 10 boys and 10 girls are instructed, is supported by the interest of £500 in the four per cents., left by Mrs. Pollock. William Underhill, in 1646, bequeathed land now let for £20 per annum, to be distributed among the poor. On Gadbury Hill, an eminence 60 feet in height, are some vestiges of a camp, supposed to be Roman.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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