Photograph (Many thanks to Major [Retd] Janet Brodie-Murphy) showing Church Cottage and above it the school at Knightwick. I wondered after seeing the topiary on some of the Talbot Hotel postcards and now seeing the topiary at the entrance to Church Cottage, if the person who lived there, was responsible for them both? The 'knob' picnic area for locals and visitors from afar can be seen at the top of Ankerdine Hill.

Kelly's Directory - 1900 - Knightwick

 

Knightwick is a village and parish, with a station on the Bromyard branch of the Great Western railway, 9 miles west from Worcester, 5 east from Bromyard, 4 southwest from MartIey and 122 from London, in the Western division of the county, hundred of Lower Oswaldslow, union of Martley, Worcester petty sessional division and county court district, and in the rural deanery of Worcester West, and archdeaconry and diocese of Worcester. The village is on the borders of Herefordshire, on the south bank of the river Teme (over which
is a bridge of two arches connecting the parish with Doddenham), and is surrounded by beautiful scenery. The church of St. Mary, for the two parishes of Knightwick and Doddenham, erected in 1856, is at Knightsford Bridge,
in the parish of Doddenham: on the site of the chancel of the old church of St. Mary a mortuary chapel was erected in 1879, at the expense of J. F. Greswolde-Williams Esq.; on the floor of the nave were formerly stones inscribed to Grace Lane and Dorothy Lane, ob.1721, nieces of Jane Lane, who assisted in the escape of
Charles II. The register dates from the year 1539, and has recently been published. The living is a rectory, with the Chapelry of Doddenham annexed, joint net yearly value £195, including 38 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Worcester, and held since 1881 by the Rev. Joseph Bowstead Wilson M.A. of Pembroke College, Cambridge. The charities amount to about £20 a year. A house for the residence of a trained nurse for the parishes of Knightwick, Doddenham and Lulsley, was built, endowed and presented to these parishes in 1892 by Capt. Suckling and Miss Baynton, in memory of their cousin, the late John Francis Greswolde-Williams esq. Francis Wigley Greswolde Greswolde-Williams esq. of Bredenbury Court, Herefordshire, is lord of the manor and principal landowner. About one mile from Knightwick station is Ankerdine
Hill, a great resort for pleasure parties; the finely wooded heights, between which the Teme here flows, lend to the spot of its greatest charms, and Knightsford Bridge, close by, is a favourite resort for anglers and picnic parties. The soil is loam, clay and marl. The chief crops are wheat, beans, fruit and hops. The area is 700 acres; rateable value, £1,432; the population in1810 was 143.

Parish Clerk, Philip Grubham.
Assistant Overseer, George Porter.
Letters through Worcester arrive at 7, and the nearest money order and telegraph office is at Knightwick, in Doddenham parish.
Church School, erected in 1888, with house for mistress at a cost of £1,400, by the late J. F. Greswolde-WilIiams
esq.; for the parishes of Knightwick and Doddenham; it will hold 80 children; average attendance, 70; Miss Selina Price, mistress
Railway Stations, Knightwick (in Lulsley parish), John Morris, station master; Suckley (in Knightwick parish),
Frederick Price, station master.
Mrs. Bullis, Grange Cottage.
Mrs. M. Gardener.
James Heynes Greensill , Woodford
Frederick Twinberrow, The White House.
Rev. Joseph Bowstead Wilson M.A., F.S.A. Rectory.
Clergymen's Widows & Orphans Society for the Archdeaconry of Worcester
(Rev. J. B. Wilson M.A. hon. sec.), Knightwick Rectory.
Frederick Green, coal dealer, Station
James Heynes Greensill M.R.C.S. Eng. surgeon, Woodford.
Harry M. Lewis, builder and contractor, wheelwright &; general smith &; coal, timber &; builders' merchant.
Stanley Lewis, farmer and butcher.
Miss Mary M. Malpas, district nurse.
Chas Porter, farmer and hop grower, Brick hall.
George Porter farmer and hop grower, Grove farm.
Thomas Roper, miller (water).
Thomas Lawson Walker , farmer and hop grower, Manor house.
Worcester Diocesan Architectural & Archeological Society (Rev. J. B. Wilson, hon. sec.), Knightwick rectory.
Worcestershire Historical Society (established 1893) (Rev. J. B. Wilson.hon. sec.), Knightwick rectory
John Williams, farmer and hop grower, Highfield.