Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

Upton-upon-Severn 19 SW, Tewkesbury 22 SW, Droitwich 12 W, Bromsgrove 12 NW,
Kidderminster 21 NW, Halesowen 20 NW, Stourport 22 NW, Bewdley 24 NW, Dudley 24
NW, Stourbridge 22 NW. The Greville and Brooke families (sometime Earls of Warwick)
held the manor until 1813 when it was sold to the Marquess of Hertford, whose seat was at
nearby Ragley Hall. There must have been much early enclosure but the award of 1771
enclosed Alcester Heath and the common field.
A post town.
Zone B, The Southern (Champion) Country
Bidford-on-Avon - a large parish of 3311 acres including the considerable village of
‘drunken’ Bidford and the hamlets of ‘beggarly’ Kings Broom, Barton and Marlcliff;
Warwick deanery, Worcester diocese; Stratford Division of Barlichway Hundred,
Warwickshire, but Alcester Union. Alcester (post) 4, Evesham 7, Stratford 7. For most of
the period Bidford manor was held by the Skipwith family. Bidford Grange, Marlcliff and
Barton had been separate manors, but became part of the main manor of Bidford. Broom
was originally two separate hamlets, namely Burnells Broom and Kings Broom. Burnells
Broom became depopulated before the seventeenth century. Kings Broom, sometimes
included in the constabulary of neighbouring Temple Grafton, was held by the
Throckmorton family. From the thirteenth century Bidford had been a market centre, but
the market was discontinued before the end of the eighteenth century and the market cross
was already in ruins by 1639. Fairs in April and September until 1872. The Avon
(navigable at this point) and the Arrow flow through the parish. An important bridge
1 Information about the various parishes is mainly from VCH, but supplemented with information from
Rudder for Gloucestershire parishes.
2 These distances are only approximate as the road system changed over time.
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