Worcestershire's
Heritage
'that most English of counties'
From prehistoric times man has made his home
along the banks and in the alluvial valleys of the Rivers
Severn, Avon, Teme and their many tributaries. Iron age
fortresses topped the Malverns at British Camp and
Summer Hill; standing stones were raised on
Bredon Hill and ridgeways crossed the hillcrests.
The Romans settled here and brought with them one
of the county's most prized exports – asparagus.
The fertile landscape attracted the great abbeys and
priories – Evesham, Pershore, Great and Little
Malvern – the remains of which are left to us today
together with a rich heritage of parish churches and thatched
half-timbered vernacular dwellings. The wealth of the
abbeys grew rapidly from the tithes on their vast
ownership of land; crops and sheep accumulated even further riches
and ultimately led to their dissolution by an avaricious
Henry Vlll in the mid 16th century.
The great cathedral of Worcester – once the
centre of a See stretching from Lichfield to Bath and Wells – is
the burial place of Henry's elder brother Arthur who should have
been king but died in his teens (ironically Henry had been destined
for the Church and an almost certain Cardinal's hat.) Close
by Prince Arthur's Chantry Chapel lie the remains of
King John, the signer of the Magna
Carta . John's son Henry lll was a
prisoner of Simon de Montfort and only gained his
freedom at the Battle of Evesham where de Montfort
was slain and butchered, his tomb becoming a place of pilgrimage at
Evesham Abbey rivalling that of Becket at
Canterbury and increasing still further the abbey's wealth. De
Montfort, though slain, had planted the seeds of the English
parliamentary system that with the tenets of Magna Carta still lie
at the base of our society.
The English Civil Wars that were to make more
fundamental changes to our country had both their first and last
battles at Worcester 'the faithful city' and it
was from Worcester that the defeated Prince of Wales, the future
Charles ll, made his escape into exile. Worcestershire has indeed
been in the vanguard of political and social change, albeit
sometimes unwittingly and reluctantly.
The modern era saw canals driven through from
the north of the (then) county, the 'Black Country' to supplement
and conjoin with the rivers in the industrial revolution's need for
swift transportation. One whole town, Stourport on Severn, was
created from nothing but a few old cottages when James
Brindley cut his canal to join the Severn there, Bewdley –
a medieval river port – having denied him access.
The heavy 'metal bashing' of Black Country industry was echoed
in a minor way at Redditch, famous for
needle production, but the south and centre of
this small county remained predominantly agricultural with a bias
towards soft fruits. To 'Aysum 'gras (Evesham asparagus) were added
the plums and cherries of the vale, their blossoms
influencing the Bromsgrove poet A.E.Housman. The
poet Housman who penned the famous lines 'In summertime on
Bredon/My love and I did lie' was matched in music by arguably the
county's most famous son – Edward Elgar; it is
difficult to walk on the long stretch of the Malverns, the oldest
hills in England, without hearing in one's mind at least one of the
Enigma Variations. Malvern's natural springs brought the
'water cure' to the county and the town became one
of the most popular health resorts in the Victorian era and well
into the 20th century. Drinking the waters or being immersed in a
whole bath-full were both reckoned to be universal panaceas.
Where ridgeways and rivers, then lanes, canals, roads and
railways (the famous Severn Valley Railway still
travels its steam-powered route from Kidderminster through the
ancient wildwood of Wyre Forest) traversed the county, it was also
one of the first with a stretch of twentieth century motorway – the
M5, that sliced through it and also unfortunately sliced through
one of the county's great estates – Croome Park,
once the home of the Earls of Coventry. Lancelot' Capability'
Brown's landscaped park was split in two by the motorway and its
full splendour forever lost. Other great houses fared better –
Madresfield, a house never sold out of the family since the Norman
Conquest (and the main entrance to which has no external door
furniture as it has never been left unattended!) is a good example.
Some survived but put on a later facade – Hartlebury
Castle, ancient palace of the Bishops of Worcester, and
now home to Worcestershire County Museum, is one such. Others have
vanished without trace or been made ruinous; one in particular has
become 'England's most photogenic ruin' – Witley
Court, a 'pleasure dome' for the Edwardian earls of Dudley
that burned down in the mid-twentieth century but left a
spectacular 'skeleton' and a fountain, the Perseus Fountain' of
great power and beauty.
From prehistory to the present Worcestershire in its various
forms and stages can be seen as 'England in microcosm'. A landscape
of almost ethereal beauty in parts, yet capable of surviving the
blood-letting of baronial conflict and civil strife; willing to
take upon itself, and adapt to, industry and great social
changes.
The County Museum at Hartlebury Castle has
three floors of galleries that illustrate a large part of the
county's long history, and its staff is always happy to share their
knowledge with visitors and enquirers.
David J. Kendrick
BA(Hons).,MPhil.(Oxon.),MSt.(Oxon.),PgDip.Archaeol.,PgCert.Mus.Mgt.,AMA
Collections Officer,
Worcestershire County Museum.
