How interesting to find some new! but actually old information on Broadwas. I found several pages in a book in the Hive in March 2024, I have re-typed everything out; hopefully no mistakes to the original. They are all cuttings from Volume 1, Worcester Herald, and Berrows Journal 1927 - 1937, by Stroller. Hopefully anyone who delves in to them will find some slightly boring facts, but others have a definite meaning and compliment some of the information already amongst the many pages I have on this Broadwas part of my genealogy site.
Famous names already mentioned can be found with a story relating to their family, lives, and importance to the history of Broadwas; along with other names you may never have heard of but who also in the past had much to do with this small village.
Click on the drop-down pages below to open or close each one. Any names you see will be inside that drop-down page, with links to a page with more information about them.When visiting linked pages, using the "Go Back" button on that page will bring you back to this page; as you left it.
[may not work in some browsers] Using the images to link back to this page; will show all the windows below closed.Broadwas vol 1- Humphrey Walsingham
Page 136
BROADWAS
A rectory in the lower division of Oswaldslow hundred and deanery of Worcester; bounded east by Cotheridge, west by Doddenharn, south by Leigh, from which it is divided by the river Tame, and north by Wichenford.
This manor, as well as Icombe, was given by King Offa to the church of Worcester, Eathored being then bishop, about the year 786 [a].
In Domesday it is said to be the lands of the church of Worcester, and is joined with Halhegan, or Hallow, and called Bradewesham. .There were seven hides that paid taxes. In demesne only one hide; and there were two carucates, and ten villans, and seventeen bordars, with ten carucates, There four men servants, and two maids, and two mills, worth ten shillings, and a fishery producing twenty strings of eels, and twenty acres of meadow, and a wood one mile long and one broad. To this manor belonged ten houses in Wich of 5 shillings value, and a falt-pan yielding 5o mitts of salt. Two radmen held two hides of this land, and had two carucates, In the time of Edward the Confessor it was worth a hundred shillings, and was of the same value at the time of the survey [b].
Page 137
Alanus de Bradwas gave his lands here to the priory of Worcester. Sir Robert de Poslewyke with his lady Clare, and William de Segesbery with his wife, were seized of lands in Bradwas [c]. Simon bishop of Worcester gave to Warin prior, .and the monks, that parcel of land which Uhtred formerly had [d].
Randulph prior, and the convent, set to Alan de Bradwas and his heirs the lands which his father formerly held of them ; viz. half a yardland, and half furlong, and a piece of land which prior Senatus gave him for 4d, a year, in Hallage one furlong; in Pechesey one messuage, with the crofts appertaining thereto, and land in Worcester; all at 15 shillings yearly rent [e].
Eclid de Lege and her husband quitted claim to all their right to lands here, for which they received of the prior and monks two marks sterling [f]
John de la Pull fold to the prior and monks Lutleforlonge, with messuage above Holeweie, for which he paid yearly 4d. and received of them 3 s. [g]. Hugh the son of Seward, with the consent of Cicely his wife, quitted claim to all the lands he held of the prior and convent in Broadwas, and to all his other lands that he had here, for which they gave him 30 marks of silver [h].
By an actual survey taken in 1776, it appears, that the whole contents of this parish are 1127 a. and 1 lip. whereof 62 a are freehold, 1023 a. 3 r. 34 p. copyhold and leasehold, and 41 a. waste and belonging to cottages. A great part of these lands are held by Thomas Newnham esquire.
There is a court baron kept at the manor house, at the will of the lord: also a court leet held at the usual times.
In the parliamentary survey taken 1648 it is said that the freeholders of this manor do pay to the lord thereof, by way of relief, double their chief rent :
1.
s.
d.
That three leaseholders pay
Twenty-three copyholders pay
Three freeholders
17
8 09
4
76
8
8Rent-corn
qr. bush.
Out of the rectory of Broadwas
Nine tenants pay1
190
2
The full improved Value Of the leaseholds, besides the rent.
Wheat, was
Of the copyholds1.
77
328s.
13
5
d.
4
11
The custom of the Manor was for the lord to grant to the copyholders three lives in possession, and three in reversion, and no other estate to be granted, so long as one life remained in possession; and on in reversion. The widow had her freebench. Deads year; executor entering upon the meadow and fallow ground at Candlemas after the death, and upon all the refs at Michaelmas following. Copyholders sold to one another. Roots to be used on the manor; and one tenant might exchange with another any copyhold lands without licence. Herriots were due upon death, forfeiture, or surrender.It hath charter warren and benefit of fugitives goods, as most of the manors belonging to the church of Worcester,
The parish is about four miles in circumference; The meadow-ground is rich, and the uplands are fruitful in hops and cyder; but as the estates are held by lives under the church, and the fields
belonging to the several farms very much dispersed, they are not so much improved as they might be. Timber would grow very well here; but the nature of the tenure; and the great want of pollard
trees for hop-poles, makes it the interest of the farmer not to encourage it.It were much to be wished, that some fixed mode of renewing could be agreed upon between the lord and his tenants, so that the latter might cheerfully expend their money in improvements,
without the disagreeable apprehension of the lord's coming and collecting the profit. These servile tenures are inconsistent with the present times; and occasion ill-will to the lords and uneasiness to many honest men.[a] Heming. Chart. f. 328. [b] Domesday, Tab. IV. [c] Habingdon MSS [d] Reg. I. fol. 13. Dec. et Cap.
[e] Ibid. [f] Ibid [g] Ibid [h] Ibid. Vol. I.Page 138
Might not commissioners be appointed, of a superior rank, and more conversant in the law than those for inclosures, to ascertain the value of the lord's interest, and give him a certain proportion, either in corn, or in rent of the estate .
5 Eliz. the parish of Broadwas contained 21 families; now here are 30, according to the return made to bishop North At his primary visitation. It pays to the land-tax, at 4s. in the pound, 12,2/. 10s. paid to the poor, in I 776, 30/. 17s.The Church.
In 1344, the prior and convent of Worcester granted leave to John de Broadwas, clerk, to appropriate certain lands held of them in capite at Broadwas and elsewhere; to the maintaining a chaplain to celebrate daily in the church of Broadwas,
notwithstanding the statute of mortmain [i].The prior and convent afterwards presented to this chantry.
The presentation and advowson of the rectory have always been united with the manor.
Arms and monuments in the church of Broadwas.
In the windows was formerly much painted glass, but it is now broken; among other figures was a priest praying at his desk, with this inscription 'Ora pro anima Ricardi’ Himbery nuper Likewise, a gentleman and his wife praying.
Upon a stone between the chancel and the church were these arms: Paly of six Argent and Sable a fesse Gules, with a crescent for difference. Walsingham. ‘Underneath lie the bodies of Humfrey Walsingham, who died June 22, 1622, aged 91, and his wife Catherine, who deceased June 5, 1610, aged 59.'
In the south chapel joining to the body of the church lies Elizabeth wife of Charles Cratford, who died Dec. 20, 1623. On the tombstone were quarterly four coats. 1. Party per pale Gules and Azure three lioncols rampant gardant Argent Gales. 2. Argent on a chevron Sable between three ogresses as many roses of the field. Ealdington. 3. Gules a cinquefoil Argent gutle Sable. Capdois. 4. Argent three piles in point Gildesburgh. Crescent for difference. The crest, on a wreath Argent and Gules, a demi-lion rampant guardant Argent: a crescent on the crest [k].
On a flat stone in the church: a lion ram pant empaling a dolphin: Humfrey Fitzer, gent. died Dec. 10, 1679, aged 76. Mary his wife, Dec. r11 1679, aged 79.
On another, Richard Ritt the younger, of Broadwas Court, died July 1, 1689, aged 39.
Elizabeth wife of Richard Westley, gent. died Dec. 11, 1691, aged 34.
PATRONS.
INCUMBENTS.
REGISTERS.
Prior et conv. Wigorn.
Walterus le Ster cap. 3 id. Dec. 1288
Will'us de Stanwaya [1], 4 id. Junii; 1306.
Will'us Underhill, 10 Jan. I380.
Ricardus Hambury, cap. 24 Jun. 1421.
Will'us Clerke, cap. 1445.
Robertus Richardesson, cap. 18 Feb. 1479.
Johannes Newe, cap. 19 Oct. 1485.
Will'us Layton, cler. 17. Dec. 1538.Gif. f. 295. b.
Geynest. f. 40. b.
Wakf. f. 29. b.
Morg. v. 2. f. 26. a.
Lib. Alb. f. 477. b.
Alkok. f. 63. a.
lb. f. 152. a.
Lat. v. 2. f. 10. a.
Episcopus jure devoluto}
Henricus Johnson, cler. 5 Marcii, 1548.
Heath, f. 13. a.
[i] See the charter in the Appendix to this parish.
[k] This Elizabeth was daughter of Anthony Gate, master of University College, Oxon: Charles Cratford her husband entered his pedigree at the visitation of
Worcestershire, 1634. (C. 30 f. 105. in Coll. arm.)
[l] He was removed by Richard de Bromwich, visitor, according to the sentence of the Consifstor Court; and reinducted the fourth
Calends of June, 1315.Page 139
PATRONS.
INCUMBENTS.
REGISTERS.
Will'us Cratford de Chelmerilre coin. Salop. ex concessu dec. et}
cap. Wig.Ricardus Battles (m], A. M. 17 Sept. 1561.
Sandys, B. 31. f. 35. a.
Dec. et cap. Wig. et
ad corroborandum Rex.}
Stephanus Boughton, cl. A.M. 3 t Mart. 1630.
R. 33. f. 6. a.
Dec. et cap. Wig.
Nathaniel Tompkinis, S. T. P.
Theophilus Cooke, cl. A. M. 13 Ap. 1662.
Edwardus Underhill, cl. 12 Mart. 1678.
Gulielmus Betterley, cl. A.M. 19 Aug. 1720.Ib. f. 14. b.
R. 34. Earle. s. 13. b.
Ib. Fleetw. f. 29. b.
lb. Hough, f. I 13. a.Dean and Chapter of Worcester}
Thomas Miles, 16 Nov. 1.733.
Philip Duval, .B. LL. 7 May, 1768.
Samuel Nott, M. A. 16 Dec. 176
James Swift, M. A. 8 March, 1775.
Cantaria De Bradewas
PATRONS.
INCUMBENTS.
REGISTERS.
Joh., de Bradwas.}
Ricardus Letyce de Campedon, cap. 12 Dec. 1334.
Waterus le Taverner de Bradwas, cler. Dec. 1344.Wolftan. f. 83. b.
2r Ibid.Joh. prior Wygorn.
Johannes Patrick, cap. 16 Julii, 1349.
Will's Gatebrugg, pbr. 6 Dec. 1361.V. II. f. .17. a.
Brian. f. 41. a.Prior et conv.Wygorn.
Stephanus in the Wynde, 13 Dec. 1370.
Simon Walcot, 26 Jan. 1380.
Johannes Berwe, pbr. 28 Aug. 1387.
Johannes Hunt, cap. .2 Sept. 1392.
Stephanus in le Wynde, cap. 10 Sept. 1396.
Nicholaus Hull de Grimley, cap. 13 Apr.1397.
Johannes Wilmot, cap. 13 Dec. 1457.Lyn. f. 12. a.
Lib. Alb. f. 312. a.
Wakf. f. 48. a.
Lib. Albus, f. 365.
Tidm. f. 9. b.
Carp. V. I. f. 144. b.
Lib. Albus, f. 385.
[m] Vacant by the deprivation of Henry Johnson, an unlearned and stubborn priest, confined to the county of Hereford. See Strype's Hist. Ref. vol. 1. p. 243.
Broadwas vol 2 - King Offa--Charles Cratford
BROADWAS [1] By “A Stroller.”“A Thoroughly English Village.”
Broadwas, whose rectory we found held, since 1928, in conjunction with that of knightwick and Doddenham, is a small and exceedingly fertile Teme-side parish; lying east of Doddenham and expanding east to Cotheridge; and bounded north by Wichenford, and south by the river, which separates it from Lulsley and Leigh.Soil and Crops.
The parish has in modern times, been the subject of several boundary adjustments, giving here and taking there; and now contains 1,108 acres of which 683 are rich Teme-side alluvial deposits, with much liable to flood, and all of similar character to those meadows in Doddenham, that Habington, three centuries ago, pronounced “pasture comparing with the best of the Nation.” These Teme-side lands have for countless centuries been kept in permanent grass, as religiously as the famous “Backs” at Cambridge.
The uplands of Broadwas, mainly tillage, are of much better quality than those of Doddenham. Instead of rising to 570 feet, their maximum height is about 2; and this soil, consisting of marl on subsoil of marl, is well adapted to mixed husbandry, producing excellent crops of cereals, beans, roots, hops and fruit.
The total arable recorded at the Agricultural Census of 195 was 213 acres, or about 27 per cent of the entire area.Drainage and Communications.
The drainage is by the River Teme, and by some very small tributary brooks, mentioned in a charter of the year 786 and which can still be identified.
The main road from Bromyard to Worcester, by way of Knightsford Bridge, passes through the parish from west to east; and is supplemented by minor ones, connecting with Wichenford and with the new Broadheath district of Saint John in Bedwardine.
Worcester is about six miles distant; and Knightwick Station three miles.Population, Occupations and Amenities.
The population at the Census of 1921 was 260; and the sole industry is agriculture; including fruit growing. Village amenities include a famous old wayside Inn, "The Royal Oak," post office with telegraph and telephone services, police station, public garage, motor engineer, haulier, carrier, butcher, smith, and two grocers. The Post Office Directory of forty years ago mentioned several other tradesmen; who have since been driven out of business by the townsman’s van.The Village.
The village, from which there is a fine view of the Malvern Hills, stands on a natural terrace overlooking the Teme; with the church below, in a wooded hollow nearer to the river; and Mr. Noake, after a visit some eighty years ago, reported that he did not know "a more pleasing bit of rural scenery, or a more thoroughly English village," Visitors of today will agree.
An old half-timbered house, known as “The Butts,” and of which there is a view in the Victoria History of Worcestershire, stands in the middle of the village; and is attributed to the Fifteenth Century “or earlier,” with Seventeenth Century additions. Near it diverges the approach to the Church; a lane shaded by lofty trees.“Church Walk.”
“Church Walk” still remained in Mr. Noake’s time, the fitting scene of a picturesque practice at burials when by immemorial visage, the funeral procession halted, whatever the weather, and depositing the coffin in the middle of the road, formed a circle around it, and paid to the dead the homage of a ceremonial bow.King Offa’s Grant.
For seven and a half centuries, Broadwas was Priory property under a Grant of the year 786, made to the Church of Worcester by the great Mercian King Offa, The Grant is one of those treated of in Dr. Grundy’s recently published “Saxon Charters;” in which he has succeeded in tracing and identifying the manorial boundaries.
In those times the name was Broadwas, meaning “Broad-waters;” and it seems probable that Teme at this point then formed a shallow lake, or at least marsh, which is subsequent centuries silted; and that the river channel, changing its course, left portions of the former bed upon opposite banks; which in modern times has involved rectifications of parochial boundaries.
Thus in 1884, portions of Broadwas, which had been left by the shrunken channel south of the river and geographically attached to Leigh, was surrendered to that parish.
In other respects natural features remain much as in Offa’s time, and can be recognised by the description in the survey of that period.A Priory Demesne.
Historical: A piece of land attached to a manor and retained by the owner for their own use. "because labour was cheap, there were ample advantages in cultivating the demesne"
Law: Possession of real property in one's own right.Broadwas was one of those Priory manors in which the monks of Worcester took particular and personal interest. They refrained from leasing it to a middle-man, and retained it in demesne; managing it with the aid of a bailiff, who superintended the home farm, collecting for them the chief rents payable by numerous copyholders and leaseholders, and by the few freeholders of the manor, as well as heriots, on deaths; and attended to the minor details of estate control. The Priory steward presided at the periodical Court Leet and Courts Baron, and with the aid of the bailiff fixed the fines payable on renewals of leases, or on admission to copyholds.
As at Crowle, Grimley, and More, the demesne included a Court-house, where the Courts were held; and to it an orchard and a vineyard were attached, These amenities, coupled with the convenient distance from Worcester, the pleasant situation, and the excellent fishing, must have made an attractive resort of the monks.Domesday.
The Norman Conquest made little difference to Broadwas. As a genuine Priory demesne, it was untouched by the conquerors; whose forbearance emphasises the distinction which they drew between real Church manors, and those with Bishops and Priors, in breach of their trusts, had in Saxon times flung to kinsmen and friends.
The Domesday Survey, accordingly reported Broadwas as “held by the Church of Saint Mary at Worcester,” with no qualification.Sport.
In 1148, the Bishop of Worcester”confirmed” that, as between the See and the priory, Broadwas belonged to the latter; and in 1256 the Prior secured sporting rights over the manor, by obtaining from the Crown a Charter of Free Warren; which enabled him, with palfrey, hawk and hounds to hunt by Teme-side, a right much appreciated by the Priors, who as we found in Feckenham Forest, were keen sportsmen and not above poaching on occasion.The Priory Vineyard.
To special interest of the monks in Broadwas was as a favoured demesne, may be attributed an obligation which they imposed on Doddenham tenants, experienced vine-growers, to work two days a year in their Broadwas vine-yard; as well as to help on two more days in harvesting on the Priory corn land.
This interest is further evidenced by frequent purchases of small plots of land. The Priory seems to have lost no opportunity of “rounding off” its Broadwas estate, by acquiring anything adjacent which came on the market; and several of these purchases, with the names of vendors and other particulars, are detailed in still surviving records.“The Good Fat Boars.”
There were intimate relations between the monks and the Broadwas tenants, and among other interchanges of Courtesies, it became customary for the tenants to present the Priory annually with a “good fat boar,” for the celebration of All Saints; with wood for the tenants at Christmas; and at Christmas and Lady Day a hundred dishes,” probably plates and possibly of wood, made like cricket bats from tough river-side willows.The Passing of the Monks.
Even the dissolution of the Worcester Priory made at first comparatively slight difference to Broadwas. Its long connection with :the Church of Worcester” was renewed by King Henry’s grant of the Priory property there to the newly constituted Cathedral authority, the Dean and Chapter; and so far as Broadwas people were concerned, the chief change must have been the appointment of a ne Steward of the Manor.
More serious consequences resulted, in early Elizabethan times, from a change in the system of estate management.A “Middleman” Lord of the Manor.
In 1561, the Dean and Chapter departed from the immemorial custom of the Priory, to retain the manor in hand as :demesne;{ and in lieu granted a lease to a middleman,” which comprised the “manor,” with the Court house, orchard and vineyard, and other demesne lands; and the lessee became known as “lord of the manor.”
The Chapter doubtless, had in view the saving of trouble, by dealing with a single responsible tenant, instead of numerous smaller ones, each with inconvenient memories of “good old times” when they held under the Priory. Probably, also the letting secured a substantial fine, payable in advance, which relieved temporary financial embarrassment.The Cratfords.
The Lessee was a Cratford; probably of same family as one who, in time of Henry VII., was master of both the Priory and the Worcester City schools; apparently so appointed with a view to terminating a rivalry found injurious to both; and who strengthened his position by obtaining a prohibition of any competing school.
The Cratfords’ connection with Broadwas continued for about a century; the lease apparently being from time to time renewed.
In 1634 Charles Cratford, who described himself as of Broadwas and Claines, entered his arms at the Heralds’ Visitation of Worcestershire; and in 1636 obtained from the Chapter a renewal of the lease of Broadwas. A memorial in Broadwas church of his wife, Elizabeth Cratford, who died 1623, was mentioned by Habington, Nash, and Prattington.
The Cratfords’ tenure of the manor probably ended with the confiscation of the Chapter estates by the Commonwealth; and it had not been uninterruptedly comfortable. Disputes and litigation between themselves are recorded; and the Quarter Sessions Roll mentions that in 1619 one of them was indicted, charged with tampering with the “parish book containing assessments, rules and customs.”A Commonwealth Survey.
For the condition of the manor, some thirty years later than this Indictment of the “Lord,” we are indebted to an exhaustive survey by a Commonwealth Committee. The manor had then been sequestrated.
The rents aggregated £36 1s. 10d., receivable from twenty-nine tenants, of whom three were freeholders, holding 62 acres and paying merely nominal quit rents. Of the remainder, nearly half (£17 9s. 6d.) was paid by three lease holders, who with the freeholders may be assumed to have been the larger holders, or farmers; while £16 4s. 8d. was collected in twenty-three sums from copyholders, who were the “small-holders.”
Eighty years earlier, in Elizabethan times, there had been only twenty-one families in Broadwas, and in Dr. Nash’s day, some century and a quarter later, there were but thirty; and it is therefore probable that in Commonwealth times practically every house-holder was a property owner, either as freeholder, copyholder or leaseholder.“The Three F’s.”
The system was singularly favourable to the tenants. In the case of the copyholders, the rents payable were only one-eighteenth part of the actual or “improved” value; and even the leaseholders paid less than a quarter.
The explanation was that the tenancies were of old creation, having been handed down in the same family, or passed by sale from out going to incoming tenants, in the case of the copyholders from time immemorial, and of the leaseholders for centuries; and that by custom the rents remained as originally fixed, irrespective of improvements to the holdings, or changed value of currency.
The tenants enjoyed the three “F’s,” which in Victorian times were the ideals of “tenant-right” agitators. They had fixity of tenure fair rents and even freedom of sale, at least as between themselves; for copyholders could sell to one another, or exchange, without license from the lords.“Fines.”
The tenure seems an ideal one, but yet tenants were not happy. As a counterpoise to the gradual fall in the purchasing power of the rents fixed hundreds of years earlier, there were “fines” at intervals. The copyhold grants were for six lives, three “in possession” and three “in reversion,” and when these died and had to be replaced a fine was payable, based on the up-to-date annual fee.A Tenant’s Grievance.
Thus arose the tenants’ grievance of assessment on their own improvements, the consequences of which are told by Dr. Nash. “It were much to be wished,” he wrote, “that some fixed mode of renewing could be agreed upon, between lord and his tenants, so that the latter might cheerfully expend their money in improvements, without the disagreeable apprehension of the lord’s collecting the profit. These servile tonures are inconsistent with the present times, and occasion ill-will to the lords, and uneasiness to many honest men. Might not Commissions be appointed to ascertain the value of the lord’s interest, and give him a a certain proportion, either in corn, or in rent?
Broadwas vol 3 - Greswolde-Williams--Rev. Robert Sanders--Church Bells--Rev. William Hancock Roberts D.D.
BROADWAS [2]Enfranchisements.
The time came, some three quarters of a century after Nash wrote, that his suggestion, at least so far as related to Broadwas, was in part adopted. Commissions were appointed, who ascertained the value of the lord’s interest in each property, and gave the copyholders the option of buying at a fixed price; and to stimulate this conversion into freeholds, declined to allow further renewals of copyhold interests.A new Grievance.
Even then there was dissatisfaction. When copyholder tenure was doomed, its merits became more appreciated. While “Hobsons Choice” was generally accepted, not a few regretted the extinction of a system which had fairly divided the burdens of ownership between lord and tenant; and some copyholders even disputed the right to withhold renewals, based on a custom dating from the dawn of history.Mortgage Hold.
And the main object of the legislature, the extinction of dual interests in land, was not generally affected. Dr. Nash’s proposal to compensate the lord by a rent charge not being acted on, the lord’s place was as a rule taken by a mortgagee, who lent the money to pay him out, and charged for it a much higher rate of interest than the lord was able to make of it.
Land tenure reforms are complicated businesses, but we live and learn; and in some recent legislation with reference to extinction of copyholds, Parliament has actually adopted the plan formulated by Dr. Nash in early years of George III.The Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
In Victorian times the manor of Broadwas as part of the Worcester Chapter Estates, was transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; and its connection with”the Church of Worcester” thus closed, after a continuance of nearly twelve centuries. Courts Lect and Courts Baron, which to that date had been continuously held, then ceased; and enfranchisements practically extinguished the manor.
The present principal landowners are the Greswolde-Williams family, with whom we met as chief owners in the adjoining parishes of doddenham and Knightwick; and their property includes Broadwas Court.A Corn Rent.
The corn rent system, which by payment in kind automatically adjusted rent to seasons and prices, and which Dr. Nash suggested as one alternative to “fines,” was tried by the dean and chapter in their lease of the Manor in 1561. By this, as part of the rent and in lieu of money, the third and tenth sheaves of corn in every “stook” were reserved to the lords.
In Victorian times the system of corn-rents was adapted to rent charges in lieu of tithes, which were made payable in cash, based on the average prices of cereals; and I remember the late Mr. Martin Curtler bringing before the Worcestershire Chamber of Agriculture a proposal for The virtue of the system is evidenced by the tithe problem of to-day. The conversion, a few years ago, of the corn-averages into fixed rent charges has in a falling market affected their incidence.Manorial Customs.
Manorial customs were precise and minute. On the death of a copyholder, a heriot became due to the lords; and the widow took an estate of “freebench,” which gave her the holding for life.
The executor gave possession of meadow and fallow at Candlemas following death; but was entitled to hold land under growing crop until the following Michaelmas, in order to reap the harvest.
Even freeholders were subject to customs, one of which imposed on them a death duty, styled “relief;” a term which might have seemed ironical, had not the amount, a double chief rent, been so small as to be almost negligible.The Manor Mills.
The broad expanse of water, from which the manor took its name, must have served as a capacious mill-pond; and Domesday found a manorial mill so well supplied with water that it could be relied on to grist the corn of Grimley and Hallow, when their local mill streams failed.
In 1240, when the cloth industry was making way in Worcestershire, there were two mills at Broadwas, one devoted to “fulling” and the other to flour; and the latter (still found there in 1776), had the exclusive right of gristing the corn of manorial tenants. To protect the monopoly, a custom , enforceable in the Lords’ Courts, prescribed that a tenant carrying corn for gristing elsewhere’ forfeited his horse to the Prior, and the gristed meal to the Steward of the manor.
There were rules as to the order of procedure in the use of the mill. The Prior was entitled to first turn, and the Parson to the second.
There were other regulations as to grinding malt for brewing. That of manorial tenants intended for private brewing, was ground toll free; but when beer was sold, a toll of four gallons became payable.
In recognition that the mill was a “public utility,” when new mill-stones became necessary, all tenants of the manor could be called on to help in bringing them and fixing them.Pollards.
There is but little woodland; and nash 150 years ago mentioned a scarcity of timber. There were few trees, except in hedge-rows; and those mostly pollarded, in order to supply tenants with hop-poles.
Nash also referred to the dispersion of fields belonging to the same farms, as a drawback to cultivation. This was a not uncommon feature of ancient manors; original grants in which gave to copyholders scattered plots, so that each should have a fair share of good land, bad and indifferent, plough-land, grazing and hayfield.
The copyhold tenure which preserved each ancient grant as a unit, was an obstacle to consolidation; and the dispersion to which Nash referred still prevailed when I first knew Broadwas, more than seventy years ago.How Education Grew.
Education at Broadwas should, as at Martley, have dated from mediaeval times, and preserved memories of Chantry. John de Bradewas’ foundation, to which I will refer later, was much better endowed than the Martley Chantry, and with two priests inadequately occupied, might in this way have justified itself and avoided extinction by atrophy.
Monkish greed and indifference to obvious duty lost the opportunity; and left the parish waiting until Victorian times. Then, when, following the reform of Parliament, the school-master, as in the day of the “Renaissance,” once more “went abroad,” he met at Broadwas with the welcome denied four centuries earlier; and although the endowment was gone, swept away by the deluge which overwhelmed the Priory, a school indebted to no generous founder, “grew” spontaneously, like Mrs. Beecher Stowe’s “Topsy.”
Funds being scarce, makeshifts were adopted, and in 1838 a church-porch was formed into a school-room . There, some half-score years later, Mr. Noake found thirty-five children gathered in a Sunday-school; taught by the rector’s [Rev. Robert Sanders] wife, Mrs. Sanders, helped by volunteer parishioners; and learnt that on week-days the porch was similarly used as a “Dame-school.”
It was all very primitive, but served; and was a “stepping-stone to higher things.” Victorians were very resourceful and earnest. In 1876, after a struggle of thirty-eight years, a “National School” was opened, sufficiently commodious to accommodate all the children of Broadwas, and provided with two teachers.
Some of the Incumbents prior to Robert Sanders, were, James Swift, 1775; William Hancock Roberts, 1783; Thomas Clarke, 1814; Allen Wheeler, 1821
An Early Postal Service.
The postal service of early Victorian days was equally primitive. Mr. Noake found it to consist of a box fixed in the window of the village inn, from which letters were collected by a passing postman, who walked from and to Worcester daily, rendering similar service to other villages. A rural postman’s “round” in those times, was usually about twenty miles a day, and his pay twelve shillings a week, which being some fifty percent above the average wage of an agricultural labourer, and a regular job, with some leisure at mid-day, made the position much saught after, and placed the postman on the same social footing as a village tradesman.
He could also add to his income by delivering, or on agreed signal, collecting, letters at wayside farms, a service gladly remunerated, as there was no public delivery, and the only other alternative, was for those that expected a letter to inquire for it at the Red Lion, where until called for, it lay, handled and canvassed by landlord and, especially landlady, and by inquisitive frequenters; and where callers were expected to become customers “for the good of the house,” which, on this expectation was placed at the service of the Postmaster-General rent free.
In later years the use of the village inns as post-offices was discouraged and even abandoned; but the exchange to a village grocery only substituted half a pound of sugar for the mug of beer, previously obtained with each letter.The Church.
The Church, of which there is an exterior view in the Victoria History of Worcestershire, is dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene, and dates from the year 1170. Portions of the original structure still survive, including some wall of nave and chancel, and the south door way.
The present building, which seats 225, comprises chancel, with south chapel of the Fourteenth Century connected by arcade (and which was originally a Chantry Chapel), nave, and tower with bellcote. The pulpit, of which there is an engraving in Victoria History bears date 1632, and has some good carving of its period.Some floor tiling in the Chancel is of the Sixteenth Century, and bears the Berkeley and other arms; and there are some pews of the Seventeenth Century; one of which bears initials suggesting that it was the pew of the Cratfords, the lesees of the manor.
The church plate includes paten of 1591.
The tower and bellcote are wood-framed and weather-boarded; and contain five bells, two of which are by Rudhalls of Gloucester, and two by Carr of Smethick. The fifth is of the fourteenth Century, and was cast at Gloucester, by an unknown bell-founder.
A restoration in Victorian times disclosed mediaeval paintings on the north wall of the church.Memorials.
Some interesting mediaeval stained glass memorials, mentioned by Habington, had been broken before Nash wrote; but several Seventeenth Century memorials, described by Nash, still survive, wholly or in part, though their inscriptions have become more or less illegible.
The principal memorial is that, to which I have already referred, of Elizabeth Cratford, died 1623; wife of Charles Cratford, then lord of the manor, and daughter of Dr. Gates, Master of University College Oxford; and which displayed somewhat elaborately, as described by Nash, the arms of her own and allied families.
Another, with arms, is of Humfrey Walsingham, died 1622, aged 91; probably of the family who in the two previous centuries had been lords of a manor in Cofton Hacket’ and who according to Grazebrook, are mentioned in the “Visitation Book,” as of 1634, as still resident in Cofton Hacket.
A memorial of 1689 is referred to by Nash as of Richard Ritt, which perhaps should be Richard Pitt, :of Broadwas Court;” another 1697 (with arms) as of henry fitzer “gent” and his wife; and a third, of 1696, as of Elizabeth wife of Richard Westley “gent.”
Fitzer, whom Grazebrook was unable to identify, was probably a representative of the Fitz-Aers, who were two centuries Lords of Redmarley_Adam in Witley, which they sold in 1528; by which time their name had become corrupted and modernised into one of a single word, variously spelt, in one case as “Fysurs.”
Broadwas vol 4 - Edward Henry Hill--Edward Bird Guest--Mr. Thomas Lawson Walker
BROADWAS [3]The Chantry.
A Chantry, of unusually ambitious proportions, was established at Broadwas in 1340, by John de Broadwas or Bradewas, a tenant of the Priory; who with the consent of his over-lords endowed it with a hundred and twenty acres of land in Cotheridge, “notwithstanding the Statute of Mormains.” A copy of the Foundation Deed is in Nash.
The Chantry Chapel, which has been pronounced “exquisite” and was dedicated to the Virgin, was to be served by two priests, to be nominated by the founder; and whose duty was to say daily mass, primarily for the souls of King Edward III., his Queen (Philippa of Hainault), the Bishop and Prior, and John de Broadwas’ parents, kin and benefactors; and the provision for maintenance included not only the 12 acres of land, but a manse, with household requisites; and live and dead farming stock, comprising eight oxen for plough teams, plough and harrow , a wain and cart; all which the Chantry priests were to preserve intact, and when necessary replace, and hand down to their successors.
Nine years after the foundation, the patronage had passed; presumably by the founder’s death, to the Priory; and a century later the appointment of Chantry priests ceased, with out apparent explanation.
Probably owing to the proximity of Broadwas to Worcester, the service of the Chantry devolved on monks of Worcester; as in a previous case we found similar duties discharged by visiting members of a Hereford fraternity; and the revenue of the Chantry falling into the common fund of the Priory, convenient doubts arose whether so small a village needed three priests, and possibly whether the permission to John de Broadwas to appropriate to the Chantry, “notwithstanding the Statute of Mortains,” lands held under the priory, was justifiable or legal.
The ultimate result was not affected. If by resumption saved from confiscation as Chantry property, the endowment must have passed to the Crown on the dissolution of the Priory; and all that remains to recall John de Broadwas’ foundation is the chantry chapel in the parish church.The Worcester Free School.
In Commonwealth times Parliament was always anxious to redress local wrongs; and it may have been recognition that the Broadwas Chantry endowment should, at least in part; have been devoted to education, which influenced Parliament to order that out of the sequestrated manor, in which this endowment had merged, an annual payment of £20 should be made to the “Worcester Free School,” now styled “Queen Elizabeth’s;” which was not to far away for Broadwas boys to attend.
This annuity, like other of a similar character, of course, ceased when the Restoration revived all pre-Commmonwealth abuses.The Advowson.
The Advowson, from earliest times passed with the manor; and with a brief interval in Commonwealth days so continued until in Victorian times the manor vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, while the patronage of the rectory was left with the Dean and Chapter, as successors to the Priors.A Peculiar.
In pre-Reformation days the rectory was a “Peculiar;” the rector being archdeacon of his own parish, which was exempt from the jurisdiction of the diocesan archdeacon. This distinction, which empowered the rector to hold courts with authority in ecclesiastical matters, such as matrimonial causes and wills, was possibly conceded in recognition of an annual gift by the parish, of a half-quarter of corn, for distribution at the Priory gates on Saint Wulstan’s Day.
At present prices a half-quarter seems a small matter; but corn was more accounted of in Saint Wulstan's time, and the gift was probably represented more than the parish would have to pay to a diocesan archdeacon.Indulgences.
Broadwas church was in a bad way financially; and the Priory; in order to stimulate gifts, obtained from the Bishop a grant to the benevolent of “Indulgences,” of the type which in the following century aroused the wrath of Martin Luther, and brought to a head smouldering discontent with practices of the Church.The Rector’s Emoluments.
The Rector’s emoluments were very clearly defined, and kit is noticeable that they included “paschal-eggs,” which the steward of the manor was to collect for him; but a portion of the great tithes was reserved to the Priory presumably under some episcopal decree of early date.Edward Henry Hill.
Charles Pidcock was followed at Broadwas Court by Edward Henry Hill, of Worcester; younger son of Thomas Rowley Hill, for twelve years M.P. for the City, and whose portrait hangs in the Guild Hall.
Edward Henry Hill, who like his father, has a place in Burton’s ”Worcestershire Worthies,” was for many years Chairman of the important and successful firm of Hill, Evans and Co.; originally founded as a private business, by his father, grandfather and uncle, and since their deaths a joint stock company.
He died in 1911, having by will made very large gifts to local Charities; including £5,000 to the Worcester orphanage, £3,000 each to Worcester Ophthalmic Hospital and the Knightwick Sanatorium, and £5,000 to the Parish of Suckley, for upkeep of its Parish hall, Working Men’s Club and Nurses’ home.The Habingtons.
Thomas Habington, the Count historian, who was a fore-runner of Nash and wrote in the days of Charles I., mentions that in Tudor times his own family were among the Broadwas landowners; and that their property was the subject of litigation in the Court of Cancery. This identifies it as part of the Hanley inheritance; in which the Bantingism by marriage acquired a reversionary interest, and on its falling in found their title disputed. The complicated story, on the merits of which the historian declined to express an opinion, was related in my Hanley William “Stroll.”“The Cedars.”
“The Cedars,” was for several generations the residence of the Guests, a well-to-do yeoman family, who were mentioned by Mr. Noake, some eighty years ago, as among the principal landowners in the parish. Soon after Mr. Noake’s visit, the house was rebuilt by Edward Bird Guest, a leading parishioner, who was very prominent in the publication of the Martley District. He will be remembered by a few of the oldest Worcestershiire Naturalists, as a zealous colleague, and he and his wife, who was a Grosvener of Kidderminster, entertained the Club on their visit to Broadwas in 1871, when as recorded in its “Transactions,” Mr. Guest acted as conductor in the exploration of romantic glens and ravines traversed en route for Ankerdine, including “Devil’s Leap;” and submitted a basalt “holed celt” found there, which he had secured. This the Victoria History include in the traced evidence that, in the Neolithic Age, Worcestershire was inhabited by those of neolithic men, who had their settlements on the grounds like Ankerdine, adjacent to the fertile valley pastures, such as the Teme meadows.The Walkers.
As far back as 1793, on the eve of the Napoleonic war, of which the recent European war was a parallel, there was born to “John Walker of Knightwick,” as recorded in the parish register, a son; whom I know in Mid Victorian times by the same name, and who was then carrying down a family tradition of usefulness and public service.
This is well maintained by their representative, Mr. Thomas Lawson Walker, of the Cedars, Broadwas; who is very prominent in the public life of the Lower Teme Valley, serving on the County Benches, the County Council, and other governing bodies.
Broadwas vol 5 - Henry Bright--Dr. Richard Bright--Benjamin Heywood Bright--James Franck Bright--Butts--Dr. John Thomas Penhall--William Penhall
BROADWAS [4]The “Makers” of the Worcester King’s School.
Very notable among “Worcestershire Worthies,” and pre-eminent among those of Broadwas, was Henry Bright; for 40 years master of the King’s School at Worcester; and upon whom, according to Penn, a Coat of Arms was bestowed by the King “for that he was a most excellent scholar and rare teacher of the tongues.” It is noticeable that the “Arms” as granted were without “crest,” as if to mark recognition of the civilian in lieu of customary military service.
Bright was essentially a Worcester man; the family pedigree in Burke tracing from Nathaniel Bright of Worcester, born 1493, who was his grandfather. Henry himself was baptised at Worcester in 1562; and married a daughter of Rowland Berkeley of Worcester, the common ancestor of the Spetchley and Cotheridge families so that he was a brother-in-law of Judge Berkeley and uncle of Sir Rowland “the Cavalier.”
“The King’s School ,” so styled in recognition of the Charter of Henry VIII., which gave it a regular status, was, like most of those bearing royal names, a refoundation of an ancient monkish school. The dissolution of the Priory left this in a somewhat derelict condition; from which the new constituted governing body, the Dean and Chapter, perhaps from lack of experience long failed to extricate it. There were frequent changes of masters, and unfortunate selection, and much friction, evidenced by formal and probably injudicious “monitions,” administered to the masters in the Chapter House, and by them atested with contempt.Fuller’s Eulogy.
From this chaotic condition, which lasted some forty years, the school was rescued by Henry Bright, of whom Fuller wrote, “For my part I behold this Master Bright placed by Divine Providence in this City in the Marches, that he might equally communicate the lustre of grammar learning to youth both of England and wales,” and whom on death, the Dean as Chairman of the governing body of the school, eulogised in an epitaph inscribed on his memorial, as a “Very famous Schoolmaster, than whom no one was more industrious, learned or skilful, in successful teaching Latin, Greek or Hebrew; as witness both Universities, whom he sufficiently furnished with numerous learned young men.”
Mr. Went’s Tribute.
For more than three hundred years, Bright has been recognised as the greatest of the School’s long line of heads; and Mr. Went, the great Leicester Master, the most notable of its modern products, in an article in the Victoria History of Worcestershire, pays tribute to “the halcyon days of henry Bright.”Grave in Cathedral.
Bright was appointed Master in 1587, and died in harness in 1627, and the Chapter marked appreciation of his services by presenting him in 1591 to Broadwas, which he held for 16 years. The King, in addition to coat of arms, gave him in 1618 a prebendal stall, and when he passed, the Chapter honoured him with grave and memorial in the Cathedral.
The stipend of the master at that time, seems to have been equal to that of a prebendary’ and from his various posts, supplemented doubtless by fees from pupils not on the foundation, and possibly by the dowry of his wife, Bright accumulated a considerable fortune; which he invested in landed estates at Colwall and Castlemorton; where we are told his posterity lived “in general fashion.”The Bright Family.
The Bright family illustrate, in a remarkable degree, the Galton’s theory of heredity. The marked ability which distinguished Henry Bright; has been handed down for three centuries; through a long line of eminent men, witch of whom have places in the National Dictionary of Biography; where Henry is referred to as their ancestor, and where others were fully qualified for notice, had space permitted.The Discoverer of “Bright’s Disease.”
Most notable of the Colwall Brights, and among the most notable Englishmen of the nineteenth Century, was Dr. Richard Bright, classified in the National Dictionary as :”Palliologis,” and ranked as “one of the well known greatest names in the roll of English Physicians.” His fame is not contoured to England, or even to Europe. He is known in all lands, as the successful investigator of a previously mysterious scourge, after him named “Bright’s Disease,” which, by persistent and long continued post-mortem examinations and experiments, coupled with rare and highly trained powers of observation and deduction, he traced to the source, and brought within range of successful medical treatment, which the editor of the Dictionary regards as one of the then most important medical discoveries of the first half of the Nineteenth Century.
Richard Bright qualified himself for his great career by a very special course of preparation, studying at Edinburgh, under Dugald Stewart, at Guy, under Astley Cooper, at Cambridge, and at all the great Continental Schools of Medicine, travelling for this purpose from University to University, and from Hospital to Hospital. His studies included botany and geology; and the lands visited extended from Iceland to Hungary. Studies and travels occupied five years, and brought him to Brussels in time to aid I treating the thousands of victims of Waterloo.Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that are described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. It was characterized by swelling and the presence of albumin in the urine, and was frequently accompanied by high blood pressure and heart disease.
Work at Guy’s Hospital.
A year later, at the age of twenty seven, he obtained his diploma as Licentiate of the College of Physicians, and began hospital practice. At thirty one he became Assistant Physician there. At 54 he retired, with recognition as Consulting Physician to the Hospital.
While at “Guy’s,” he published two volumes of :Reports of medical Cases,” and contributed largely to “Guy’s Hospital Reports.”
His honours included the F.R.S. and in 1857 he was appointed Physician Extraordinary to the Queen. His consulting practice became the most important in London.
He died in 1858, and is memory is preserved by busts at Guy’s, and at the College of Physicians, where also is his portrait in oils, and by a metal monument in St. James’ Church, Westminster.
His special characteristic was open mindedness. He had no prepossessions or prejudices to obstruct the search for truth.A Shakespearean Critic.
Benjamin Heywood Bright, approximative in direct line of the Rector of Broadwas, was notable as an antiquarian and book collector, and Shakespearean critic, and his correspondence with Joseph Hunter, the famous antiquary, is preserved in manuscript in the British Museum. He may have derived his second Christian name, Heywood, which is frequent in the Bright pedigree, from the Rector of Broadwas’ mother-in law, the wife of Rowland Berkeley; who was a Heywood of Worcester, of a family prominent there in Tudor times’ and of whom I treated in my Stroll at Saint Martin’s, Worcester.“Master of University College” and Historian.
James Franck Bright, who in Victorian and Edwardian times was for 25 years”master” of University College, Oxford, was a younger son of Dr. Bright, the “pathologist,” and got his second Christian name from Dr. Franck, a professor under whom his father studied at Vienna. Maternally James Franck was nephew of Sir William Webb Follett, a distinguished lawyer and statesman, who served as attorney General in Sir Robert Peel’s Administration.
“Master” Bright died so recently as 1920, and already has a place in the National Dictionary of Biography.
Educated at Rugby, with Jex Blake, who became Head of the School, and who in later life became Rector of Alvechurch in this county; as schoolfellow , Bright proceeded to University College, of which he was destined to become head; and which was then ruled by Dr. Frederick Plumtree, a don whose convenient initials according to “Cuthbert Bede,” were used to delude Verdant Green, “the Oxford Freshman,” as to the meaning of the letter “F.P.” upon the Oxford Fire Plugs.
Bright graduated at Oxford with First Class Honours; and a few months after, was appointed head of the newly established modern school at Marlborough, where he introduced many regulations after Rugby model.
In 1881, when Dr. Bradley, then a Canon of Worcester left University College to become Dean of Westminster, Bright succeeded him as “Master;” and on retiring in 1906, devoted his pension to assistance of poor students, providing for its extinction by a legacy of £2,500.
At Marlborough, Oxford, and in retirement, he was a progressive, and dying in the eighty-ninth year of a fully employed life, left as a memorial, among other writings, a well-known History of England, in five volumes; which the lack of a suitable one for a boy’s school, had inspired him to begin in his Marlborough days.Henry Arthur Bright.
Henry Arthur Bright, who has a place in the National Dictionary of Biography as an author, was in fact much more. For many years he was the centre of literary interests and friendships in Liverpool, and enjoyed the intimacy of the celebrated Nathaniel Hawthorn, then United States Consul there, in whose works he is frequently alluded to.
Henry Arthur Bright was nephew of Dr. Bright, the pathologist, and at Cambridge was one of the two first Nonconformists to take a degree, which he obtained in 1857.
His writings included, among others, “Year in a Lancashire Garden,” published in 1879, and which has been described as :a delicious narrative:” “The Lay of the Unitarian Church,” his own religious body; and “The Bright of Colwall,” a record of his own family.
With literature and its encouragement, he combined business on the grand scale, as partner in the famous shipping firm of Gibbs, Bright and Co., who established the first regular communication with Australia; and after a life too short, but exceedingly full and satisfying, died in 1884, aged 54.“The World of Nature.”
As a fair specimen of Henry Arthur Bright’s poetry, I quote a few lines from verse on, “The World of Nature.”
“The flower! the blade! the ear of corn!
The bird! the bee! the frog!
The bird of song! the butterfly!
The corncrake o’er of the bog!
The fern leaf on the primrose bank!
By stone arch’d rushing brook!
The hyacinth in the leafy glade!
The violet in the nook!
Each has its glorious part to play!
Each in its own delightful way!
Through his good nature!”Alan Heywood Bright.
In 1900 the senior branch of the Brights passed into the female line, and the Colwall estate handed down for three centuries from the Rector of Broadwas, coming on the market, was bought by one of a younger branch, Allan Heywood Bright, M.P., for Oswestry 1904-06.The Village Butts.
The Quarter Sessions Roll of three centuries ago, records a prosecution of three Broadwas men, which shows that the Act of Henry VIII., for encouraging archery, was still operative, though owing to a long peace somewhat neglected.
Despite progress made in development of fire-arms, then in use for more than two hundred years, the bow still remained the ordinary and probably the most effective weapon; and to acquire its efficiency, men of age to bear arms were required by law to practice at least once a month, at the parish “Butts” and also, when summoned by the Constable, to present their arms at special “musters,” for inspection.
In Broadwas and several adjacent parishes which were ancient Priory manors, and perhaps owing to this, both shooting and inspection appear to have been neglected, and probably it was an official instigation that in 1627, a “common informer” laid formal information, charging three parishioners of Broadwas with failing to show themselves armed with bows and arrows when summoned, and also with neglect to take part in monthly practice, :as required by Statute.”A Rectification.
William de Stanwaye, appointed to the Church in 1306, was removed by the Visitor, “according to the decision of the Consistory Court,” but as he was immediately re-inducted, we may assume a mere rectification of some informality in his original induction, which left no stain on his character.
A Recusant Rector.
When Bishop Sandys, in early Elizabethan times, took up his episcopal duties at Worcester, he was horrified to find at Broadwas a recusant rector; and took prompt, and drastic steps to remove what he regarded as a disgrace to the diocese.
I am not sure that, with a free hand, Sandys would not have followed Marian precedent, and sent the offender to the stake. This not being permissible, the unfortunate parson, whose only crime was a conscientious inability to adapt himself to the rapid changes of faith in high places, was pronounced “an unlearned and stubborn priest,” deprived of his rectory, and deported to Herefordshire, there to abide.Sale of a Presentation.
On the recusant rector being got rid of, or perhaps in anticipation of the riddance, the Dean and Chapter, evidently in financial difficulties, sold the presentation to the rectory; for that time, finding a purchaser in William Cratford of Chelmarsh, Salop; whom Crazebrook assumes, and doubtless correctly, to have been of same family as the Cratfords who at the same date secured a lease of the manor.When the Rectory was a Naboth’s Vineyard.
Of Henry Bright, who became rector in the times of James I., I shall have to speak at some length. On his death, in 1627, the preferment, now so slightly esteemed that, in order to secure an incumbent, it has been found necessary to unite the parish with two others, became the subject of a serious struggle between the Chapter and the secretary of state, as a prize worth quarrelling over.
Secretary Conway, a local man and M.P. for Evesham, who later became lord conway of ragley, near alcester, wanted the rectory for his own chaplain, Thomas Archibold, and alleged a promise by a former Dean of the first vacancy, while the new Dean pleaded a personal promise to one of his Chapter, and the Chapter collectively protested that they had already nominated one of their own body.
Conway was persistent, and when the Dean died, renewed his claim; and the new Dean, William Juxon, the historic Juxon who later, as a bishop, attended Charles I., on the scaffold, referred the matter to the Bishop, by whose mediation the dispute was compromised.Modern Rectors.
Mr. Sanders, [Robert Sanders 1838 -1853] whose wife ran a Sunday school in the Church porch, was a minor Canon of Worcester, and later became Vicar of Cropthorne-on-Avon, and subsequent rectors have generally been Worcester clergymen, who, like the monks of old, have sought by Teme-side change of air, and comparative repose of rural environments.The Cider and Perry Tithe.
As at Martley, and much about the same date, there were differences at Broadwas between rector and parishioners, as to the tithe payable in respect of cider and perry. Increased production, , stimulated by the propaganda of Andrew Yarranton, awakened clerical interest.
Instead of a rough drink, made from crabs and wild pears for farm labourers, cider and perry had become marketable commodities of importance, made from “vintage” fruits specially selected and carefully cultivated.
The rector of Broadwas, like the rector of Martley, claimed tithe of the produce; while the farmers alleged a customary “modus” of two pence per hogshead, or only half of that offered at Martley.
Evidently in the High Court some of the farmers secured evidence of aged man as to the custom. Probably the witness had been paid for their statements, for the rector, who speaks of them as “ two old beggars,” alleged abornation of perjury; and the others, alarmed by a threat of prosecution, were compromised for arrears, by payment, of in some cases as high as eighteen pence, and made to pay tithe on cider and perry fruit, on same basis as on smaller farm products. The terms of settlement appear to have been put on record, as an order of the Court of Exchequer, and are noted in the Parish book under date 1699, certified by the Rector. [Edwardus Underhill 1678 - 1720]Seventeenth Century Church Collections.
The parish books contain records of church collections, of the latter part of the Seventeenth Century; which Mr. Noake, as was his custom examined.
It is interesting to note the catholicity of objects. There was especially kind feeling for sufferers by fires, not then protected as nowadays by insurance; and whose misfortunes might any day be shared by those who, as they passed the church door, dropped contributions on plates held by the church-wardens. There were no collecting bags in those days, so that the benevolent did not hide their light under a bushel; and the rector gave frequent opportunities of exhibiting it.
The sympathies of the parishioners extended far and wide, and many collections are reminders of European disasters and sorrows. One was for relief of distressed Irish, probably victims of the Civil War following the Revolution of 1688; and two were in aid of Protestant Churches, then suffering from persecution in Poland and the German Palitinate. One was to relief of French Huguenots, victims of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; another towards ransoming Englishmen, held captives by the piratical Turks.English Earthquakes.
Of especial interest is a collection, on July 23, 1688, for sufferers by an earthquake in Yorkshire. This must have been one of a series of earthquakes, mentioned in Evelyn’s Diary, as felt at a number of places in England; and which in London were accompanied by “a storm of wind as had seldom happened,” which, “kept the flood tide out of the Thames, so that people went on foot over several places above London Bridge.” These outbreaks led to an interesting correspondence on the cause of earthquakes, between Evelyn and Dr. Tenson, then Bishop of Lincoln and later Archbishop of Canterbury; which may be regarded as the up-to-date explanation as to then accent experiments with explosives.“The New Hall.”
“The New Hall,” a building which seats 180, was built in 1890 by Dr. John Thomas Penhall, a parishioner, for undenominational religious services.
Dr. Penhall was an eminent medical man, who on retiring from practice settled at “The Cedars” in Broadwas, in succession to Mr. Edward Bird Guest; and incapable of inactivity became prominent in local life.
Highly appreciated for his own work, he was more widely known as father of William Penhall; a young man of brilliant promise, and one of the most distinguished members of the Alpine Club of his day; whose tragic death, overwhelmed by an avalanche while ascending the precipitous cliffs of the Swiss Wetterhorn, was a sensation of the summer of 1882; and with the almost simultaneous death of Professor Balfour cast a gloom over the climbing season of that year.
The Alpine Journal of August, 1882, pays high tribute to William Penhall, both as man and Alpinist.
Broadwas vol 6 - Edmund Pitt--Thomas Newnham--Charles Pidcock
BROADWAS [5] [1932]Parish Charities.
The principal parish characteristics consist of two funds of £1,000 each, gifts in 1892 of the late Mr. J. F. Greswolde-Williams; one specifically in aid of a Church of England school. The income of the other, and of some small additional charities, is distributed annually in doles of money or “in kind.”Broadwas Court.
The Court-house of the manor, to which the priors attached vineyard and orchard, was sold in 1649 by a Parliamentary Committee, as a confiscated property.
The purchaser was Edmund Pitt; and at that time there was an Edmund Pitt, alderman of Worcester and Mayor in 1656, and presumably a Roundhead, with whom we made acquaintance at Rock, as a naturalist of eminence, who in 1678 communicated to “philosophical Transactions,” an interesting account of the historic Sorbas tree in Wyre Forest.
Nash, in his account of Broadwas, mentions a slab on the floor of the church, dated 1689, which was a memorial of Richard “Ritt” the younger of “Broadwas Court.” The capital letters “P” and “R” are very like , and after a century of the wear and tear of trampling over the church floor, may have become indistinguishable; and a change from Pitt to Ritt may have been one of the numerous lapses, which led a captious critic to suggest sending Nash’s work to the “House of Correction.”
Whether Pitt or Ritt was the name on the slab, it is the only clue we have to the ownership of the Court for nearly a century.The Newnhams of Broadwas Court.
When Nash wrote his “Worcestershire,” towards the end of the eighteenth century, “Broadwas Court” was the seat of the Newnhams (otherwise Newmans), who owned by various tenures a considerable adjacent estate. They came to Broadwas from Chaddesley, near Kidderminster, where they had lived from Tudor-times, and probably longer.
One of them, Margaret, a native of Chaddesley, who must have been born in Elizabethan times, by a second marriage had become a Dolabore, in 1637 founded there some alms-houses, still functioning; and another, John, who died in 1706, had a mural memorial in Chaddesley Church.
The Newnhams were an “Armorial Family,” of the rank from which County Sheriffs have been customarily selected; and in 1742 Jacob Newnham, grandson of John of the memorial’ and described as of Winterfold in Chaddesley, became Sheriff. He married an Amphlett of Ombersley, sister of another sheriff, and it was their oldest son, Thomas Newnham, who migrated to Broadwas.
The marriage of Thomas brought to the Newnhams of Broadwas the Blanquettes Estate, near Worcester; and his son, a second Thomas, who inherited both, and who was grandson of the Sheriff of 1742, became Sheriff in 1802.
The Stewarts and Oldnalls.
The second Thomas Newnham died in 1819, without issue; and was followed by a sister, who had married Samuel Stewart, of Comberton and Stone, near Kidderminster. Their two daughters, who in 1830 inherited all the family properties, were long known as “the Misses Stewart of Stone and Comberton;” and though one ultimately married, both died childless.
The Newnhams are now represented by the oldnalls of Sion House, Chaddesley, and of Stone and Comberton; who descend from a daughter of James Newnham of Winterfold; and inherited the Stone and comberton properties of the Stewarts, under the Wills of the Miss Stewart. The late Mrs. Perowne, first wife of the present Bishop of Worcester; was of this family, and a descendant of the Newnhams.Charles Pidcock.
When Mr. Noake visited Broadwas, in the early”sixties” of last Century, he found Broadwas Court in the occupation of Charles Pidcock, a Worcester solicitor, who lived to become the local doyen of his profession. Mr. Pidcock was a younger brother of Henry Pidcock, a retired member of the Indian Civil Service of the days of “John Company”” who settled at Oakfield near Worcester, dying in 1862, and whom I mentioned in my Claines “Stroll.”
Charles Pidcock was a leading citizen of Worcester, and notable in his day, both professionally and as a recognised leader of the local Conservative party. He was a man of considerable ability, and fine presence. By birth he was a Pidcock of “The Platts, Stourbridge,” a family of whom four generations are recorded in Grazebrook’s “Heraldry of Worcestershire,” and who were prominent in the public and business life of North East Worcestershire; though Charles, as a sixth son, probably owed little to birth, beyond name and education, and some help in the purchase of a share in Worcester practice.Worcester Solicitors of a 100 Years Ago.
The practice however was one to confer prestige; for it was probably the oldest in Worcester, and in the palmy days of his immediate predecessors, Messrs. Wells and Dickens, had certainly been the most important.
I have a very vivid recollection of their offices in Sansome Street, surely one of the curiosities of the Worcester of that day. They must at some earlier time have formed part of an old-fashioned Inn, probably a coaching house; and every room was on the ground floor, and opened on to a stone-paved Courtyard.
There and in a few first floor rooms over, Mr. Wells had lived a long life, throughout which he combined law with a hospitality which fed the business, and consumed its profits. This was dispensed daily, from 3pm to 3am, the fumes being dispersed by an early ride in the country, before sitting down to morning studies of the strange “black lettered’ parchments, the “fines” “ Recoveries,” and “Indentures,” which in those days recorded the title to real estate, in letters as undecipherable by the laity, as the phraseology was unintelligible.In Victorian Times.
Wells and Dickens were succeeded by their head clerk, Charles Bedford, a singularly handsome athlete, and like his predecessors of social inclinations; and he, on taking over the practice, was joined by Charles Pidcock, who survived his partner by many years, and was followed some half-century ago by sons; one of whom was named Foley, after his mother, one of a Stourbridge branch of the family who so long ruled at Witley Court.
The practice had by this time been removed to Foregate street, and no more modern offices, and later passed into the hands of Messrs. Hughes and Brown.
Charles Pidcock and his sons were connected with it for nearly the whole of the long reign of Queen Victoria.“The Henzels of Lorraine.”
Through the wife of the first of the Stourbridge Pidcocks, the family trace an exceedingly interesting descent, as co-heirs of a notable Huguenot stock, the Henzels of Lorraine, who in Elizabethan times, as exiles for conscience sake, took refuge in England; and settling at Amblecote, near Stourbridge, introduced into the country the manufacture of “plate glass,” which at a still earlier period they had brought to Lorraine from Bohemia.
Their establishment at Amblecote was contemporary with the rise of the Foley family; and they did for the Stourbridge glass industry what the Foleys did for its twin staple of iron.
In Lorraine the Henzels ranked as nobles; glass manufacture, regarded as an art not derogating from their rank; and they figure in Mr. Grazebrook’s book among the “armorial families” of Worcestershire.
When in more modern times, the Pidcocks obtained from Herald’s College a coat of arms, it was based on that of the Henzels; which included the figure of a “pied-cock;” a coincidence which gave rise to a theory that the Pidcocks’ name was derived from their arms, or alternately that the arms were a pun on their name.A Notorious Liar.
An offence not now heard of in the Courts, but apparently in former times cognizable by Common Law, is mentioned in the Sessions Roll of 1628. A Broadwas parishioner was charged on presentment of the Constable, with being “a notorious liar.” Incidentally it was mentioned that he maintained lies “by oaths,” and was often drunk, but these, which might nowadays be regarded as the tangible offences were then mere aggravations.
Did not Queen Bess herself use oaths?Church Lane.
A correspondent very familiar with Broadwas was, informing that the road to the Church is known as “Church Lane,” and leaves the main road near to “Stone Farm.”
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