95-696: The Stour ( / ˈ s t aʊər / , rhymes with "flour") is a river flowing through the counties of Worcestershire , the West Midlands and Staffordshire in the West Midlands region of England. The Stour is a major tributary of the River Severn , and is about 25 miles (40 km) in length. It has played a considerable part in the economic history of the region. The river-name Stour , common in England, does not occur at all in Wales; Crawford noted two tributaries of
190-520: A blast furnace . In the late 18th century, the spread of coke-fired blast furnaces in Shropshire and the Black Country brought charcoal-fired iron production gradually to an end. Heath Forge became a corn mill in the 1810s, while Swindon Forge was modernised in the mid-19th century. Water-power for the continuing industrial activity was so important that James Brindley was prevented from cutting off
285-453: A book, Metallum Martis . The Dudley family had works at Cradley. The Foley family were much more important in the later 17th century and the Knight family in the 18th. Iron production continued well into the 19th century (occasionally, even later), but the valley was overshadowed by the coke-based industry on the Black Country plateau. In the 1660s and 1670s, Andrew Yarranton attempted to make
380-520: A businessman and a merchant. There were two houses at Pratt's Wharf, one occupied by a lock keeper and the other by a clerk. The link was closed c. 1950. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, planned by James Brindley , was built between 1770 and 1772. It shadows the Smestow, and then the Stour from Prestwood southward, cutting across its many bends and meanders. From Stourton Junction (near Prestwood),
475-594: A day. Mazak UK have the parent company's European manufacturing facility (for CNC machine tools) in the north of Worcester. Nearby on the Blackpole Ind Est, Froude Hofmann have their world headquarters, who make dynamometers . Roxel UK develops solid-fuel rockets for missiles south of Kidderminster and in Hartlebury . The West Midlands Safari Park is in Bewdley , west of Kidderminster. Morgan Technical Ceramics
570-643: A framework for administering the resources of each burhs ' outlying estates. It was a separate ealdormanship briefly in the 10th century before forming part of the Earldom of Mercia in the 11th century. The last known Anglo-Saxon Sheriff of Worcestershire was Cyneweard of Laughern . During the Middle Ages , much of the county's economy was based on the wool trade. Many areas of its dense forests, such as Feckenham Forest , Horewell Forest and Malvern Chase , were royal hunting grounds subject to forest law. After
665-406: A fresh importance as this industry grew, driving the fulling and weaving processes, as well as carrying away the effluent - particularly when dyed cloth was washed in the river. The flow of the Stour became so crucial to the manufacturers of the town that they persistently fought attempts to extract water for industrial and domestic use from the Smestow - potentially of great value to Wolverhampton and
760-561: A large complex of pools to the east. Passing through the formerly navigable section around Wilden , it joins the River Severn at Stourport , in a small, old industrial area to the east of the canal port. The Stour rises on the north-eastern edge of the Clent Hills , an outcrop of New red sandstone that traps it on the West Midland plateau . Its course is mainly over similar sandstone, together with some gravels, as it finds its way off
855-563: A large turnover; nearby to west Metalrax , headquartered in Alvechurch , make (via subsidiaries) most of the bakeware sold in the UK. Roger Dyson Group manufactures auto-recovery vehicles in north Droitwich. South of Bromsgrove, L.G. Harris & Co make paintbrushes . Lea & Perrins is in Worcester . Joy Mining Machinery are in the west of Worcester. Worcester, Bosch Group make 1,200 boilers
950-539: A large village, "occupied chiefly by nailors, who work for the neighbouring manufacturers". The nail-makers were thus mainly self-employed contractors, working in their own small forges on iron brought in from the large producers. The demand for water to power the forges continued and even rose well into the Victorian period, during which the Smestow powered at least 30 mills. In some cases, as at Greensforge and Heath, iron-working gave way ultimately to corn milling. Meanwhile,
1045-669: A lock at Pratt's Wharf (misnamed Platt's Wharf by the Ordnance Survey ) connecting the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal with the river. This enabled canal barges to use the River Stour to deliver timber to a steam saw-mill in Wilden. Later it was used to transport coal and iron to the Wilden Works . The wharf was built by Isaac Pratt from Henwick, Worcester in 1835. He is described as
SECTION 10
#17328688342191140-508: A noun, from medieval French roots, it signifies "tumult, commotion; confusion" or an "armed battle or conflict". The primary definition in the Concise Oxford Dictionary is "blowing or deposit of dust", a northern English and Scottish usage of uncertain derivation. Recently it has been suggested by Richard Coates that an Old European river-name was taken for an Old English adjective and that stour came to represent one pole of
1235-573: A running club and doubling as a rugby club from 1880, the football club was founded in 1886. In 1987, the club won the FA Trophy for the first time, and seven years later reached the fifth round of the FA Cup , also winning the GM Vauxhall Conference title in 1994 but being denied Football League status as their Aggborough Stadium did not meet capacity requirements. However, when the club next won
1330-399: A short section west of Stourbridge, the Stour marks the boundary, between the historic counties of Staffordshire and Worcestershire. It also historically formed part of the boundary of an exclave of Shropshire, which contained Halesowen , until the town was transferred to Worcestershire in the 19th century, along with nearby Oldbury . Mills were a crucial part of the medieval economy and
1425-525: A single non-metropolitan county of Hereford and Worcester . The County Boroughs of Dudley and Warley, along with Stourbridge and Halesowen, were incorporated into the new West Midlands Metropolitan county . The West Midlands County Council existed for only a few years before abolition in April 1986, although the West Midlands still exists as a ceremonial county . In the 1990s UK local government reform ,
1520-515: A small section of Amblecote . The Local Government Act redefined its status and the County Borough of Dudley became part of Staffordshire, the county of which all of these areas had been part. At the same time, Worcestershire gained a new county borough named Warley , which was an amalgamation of Oldbury Urban District , Rowley Regis Urban District , the County Borough of Smethwick and parts of Dudley and Tipton . During this reorganisation,
1615-480: A structural opposition, with blyth at the opposite pole, allowing Anglo-Saxons to classify rivers on a continuum of fierceness. However, Margaret Gelling , a specialist in Midland toponyms, emphasises the importance of situating place-names in the landscape. It is hard to see the river in dramatic terms. Undoubtedly it has a history of flooding and can rise quickly after rain, but it is unlikely that anyone familiar with
1710-504: A two-tier non-metropolitan county also called Worcestershire . The county historically had complex boundaries , and included Dudley and the southwestern suburbs of Birmingham . The River Severn flows through the centre of the county from north to south, forming a wide plain. The southwest of the county contains part of the Malvern Hills , a National Landscape which contains Worcestershire Beacon , at 425 m (1,394 ft)
1805-514: Is also a great variety of damselflies and dragonflies . The Smestow took its present shape as a result of the last Ice Age . Glacial action removed part of the low ridge, to the north of present-day Wolverhampton, which separates the River Trent and River Severn catchments, creating the Aldersley Gap. As a result, the Smestow was able to break through to the south, and was thus captured from
1900-513: Is also home to the world's oldest continually published newspaper, the Berrow's Journal , established in 1690. Malvern was one of the centres of the 19th-century rise in English spa towns due to Malvern water being believed to be very pure, containing "nothing at all". The 2011 census found the population of Worcestershire to be 566,169, an increase of 4.4% from the 2001 population of 542,107. Though
1995-583: Is currently no universally-accepted explanation. The river rises in the north of Worcestershire in the Clent Hills , near St Kenelm's Church in Romsley . It collects water from many small tributary streams from the Clent Hills as it descends, following a generally north-easterly course, before veering north into the West Midlands at Halesowen . The river continues to gather strength from Clent streams as it flows through Halesowen, before turning westwards through
SECTION 20
#17328688342192090-774: Is headquartered at Lickhill in Stourport-on-Severn . Egbert H. Taylor in Elmley Lovett , near Hartlebury is a manufacturer of metal bins. Liquid crystal displays were developed in 1972 in conjunction with the Royal Radar Establishment , where Geoffrey Dummer invented the idea of the integrated circuit in 1952. It was based in Malvern , and became the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment , which developed thermal imaging and pyroelectric infrared detectors , and
2185-587: Is in an indefinable way 'home' to me, as no other part of the world is." Smestow Brook The Smestow Brook , sometimes called the River Smestow , is a small river that plays an important part in the drainage of Wolverhampton , South Staffordshire , and parts of Dudley in the United Kingdom, and has contributed to the industrial development of the Black Country . It is the most important tributary of
2280-812: Is now a large site owned by QinetiQ . Morgan Motor Company is in Malvern Link . Commsoft RMS is in Evesham . For many years Group 4 Security , which was the largest security company in Europe, had its headquarters in Broadway , on the edge of the Cotswolds ; G4S Integrated Services now has its HQ there. Local government in Worcestershire has changed several times since the middle of the 19th century. Worcestershire contained numerous exclaves , which were areas of land cut off from
2375-593: Is rare, the variety is great. Dredging and other works often disturb wildlife, but recolonisation is usually rapid. The reduction in pollution over the last three decades has allowed wildlife to diversify and flourish. The Smestow Valley reserve claims no less than 170 species of bird as residents or visitors, with 55 species breeding locally. Winter sees the greatest variety with the regular blackbird and common chaffinch reinforced by visitors, like redwing , fieldfare , lesser redpoll , siskin , little grebe , common snipe , lapwing and golden plover . Raptors like
2470-500: The Cotswolds AONB. Worcestershire contains a broad expanse of green belt area, widening to over 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) in places. It is part of the larger belt surrounding the West Midlands county, and first drawn up from the 1950s. All of the county's districts other than Malvern Hills contain some portion of the belt. The largest and most successful football club in the county is Kidderminster Harriers . Founded in 1877 as
2565-704: The County Borough of Birmingham , on 1 October 1891. This was followed by Quinton Urban District , which was ceded to Birmingham in November 1909, and then by the Rural District of Yardley and the greater part of the Urban District of King's Norton and Northfield , which were absorbed into Birmingham under the Greater Birmingham Scheme on 9 November 1911. Thus these areas were transferred from Worcestershire to Warwickshire. Dudley's historical status within
2660-524: The Diocese of Worcester and through its aristocratic links ensured that the exclave was governed on a largely autonomous basis. Worcester was designated a county corporate , and thus became separate from the rest of Worcestershire. In 1926, Dudley County Borough council purchased several square miles of land to the north of the town centre, mostly in Sedgley ( Staffordshire ), including Dudley Castle . This
2755-528: The Foley family and the Dud Dudley , an illegitimate son of Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley . Dudley carried out early experiments, using coal products to substitute for charcoal in iron production. The Dudley family had large works at Cradley, but Dud Dudley claimed his process was used at an iron works at Swindon . His father (also an ironmaster) lived at Himley Hall on a tributary of the Smestow, near which he had
2850-738: The High Middle Ages the county was the site of the Battle of Evesham , in which Simon de Montfort was defeated, and in 1651 the Battle of Worcester was the last major engagement of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . During the Industrial Revolution the north of the county was part of the Black Country , a major manufacturing centre, Kidderminster became famous for carpet production, and Worcester for porcelain . The county borders Herefordshire to
2945-676: The Kingdom of Mercia during the 7th century and became part of the unified Kingdom of England in 927. Worcestershire was established as an administrative and defensive unit in the early tenth century. Its purpose was to take into account and defend the estates within the northern area of the historic See of Worcester , held by the Episcopus Hwicciorum and Worcester Priory , along with the Abbots of Pershore , Westminster and Evesham . The shires and its sub-divisions known as hundreds , formed
River Stour, Worcestershire - Misplaced Pages Continue
3040-707: The Norman conquest of England ; the Domesday Book noted in 1086 that in seven of the twelve hundreds covering Worcestershire, the Crown had no authority. The Crown's authority was replaced by the Bishop of Worcester and the Abbots at Pershore, Westminster and Evesham. William the Conqueror gave to his allies and friends manors and parishes captured from the Anglo-Saxons. Despite
3135-827: The Po River near Turin, spelled Sture . In Germany the Stoer ( Stör ) flows into the River Elbe . The name Stour is pronounced differently in different cases. The Kentish Stour rhymes with tour ; the Oxfordshire Stour is sometimes rhymes with the mower , sometimes with hour . The Worcestershire and Suffolk Stour always rhyme with hour . The origin of the name(s) remains in dispute. The Middle English word stour has two distinct meanings and derivations, still current enough to appear in most substantial dictionaries. As an adjective, with Germanic roots, it signifies "large, powerful". As
3230-432: The River Severn : 52°20′07″N 2°16′34″W / 52.335169°N 2.27608°W / 52.335169; -2.27608 Worcestershire Worcestershire ( / ˈ w ʊ s t ər ʃ ər / WUUST -ər-shər , /- ʃ ɪər / -sheer ; written abbreviation: Worcs ) is a ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England . It is bordered by Shropshire , Staffordshire , and
3325-524: The River Stour, Worcestershire and part of the River Severn catchment. The name of the stream may be of Anglo-Saxon origin, although it was not written down before the 14th century in the Middle English forms Smetheslall and Smethestalle . As late as the 19th century, the name was still generally rendered Smestall in surveys of the county. It means ″place of the smiths″. The whole of this part of
3420-525: The Severn valley. The Severn is the United Kingdom's longest river and flows through Bewdley , Stourport-on-Severn and Worcester . The River Avon flows through the Worcestershire town on Evesham and joins the Severn at Tewkesbury , Gloucestershire . Several coniferous and deciduous woodlands are located in the north of the county. The Vale of Evesham runs through the south of the county and to its south are
3515-745: The Southern Premier League , and Worcester City of the Midland Football League . The county is home to Worcestershire County Cricket Club , traditionally the first stop on any touring national side's schedule in England. Formed officially in 1865, the Club initially played in Boughton Park, before moving to its current New Road ground, which today can host 5,500 spectators, in 1895. The club has won five County Championships in its history, most recently in 1989. Worcester Rugby Football Club,
3610-425: The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal was constructed as a substitute for a navigable river, the Smestow supplying it with water. The Smestow flows through an important local nature reserve at Wolverhampton, and its lower course largely follows the conservation area associated with the canal, often through linear woodland, as well as small areas of wetland. Hence, it is home to a wide range of wildlife: if little
3705-528: The Stourbridge Canal led to Stourbridge, thus shadowing the upper Stour, while branches led towards collieries near Brierley Hill and linked to the Dudley Canal . These were all built in the late 18th century, effectively creating a canal network parallel to the river network. Kidderminster, long a centre of cloth manufacture, increasingly specialised in carpet-making from about 1785. The Stour took on
3800-482: The Stourbridge Canal . It leaves the conurbation via the suburb of Wollaston , descending fairly rapidly from the West Midlands plateau to Prestwood . The Stour enters Staffordshire at Prestwood and veers southwards, henceforward shadowed by the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal , which crosses over it on a sandstone aqueduct just before its confluence with the Smestow Brook , an important tributary that drains
3895-512: The West Midlands county to the north, Warwickshire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south, and Herefordshire to the west. The city of Worcester is the largest settlement and the county town . The county is largely rural, and has an area of 1,741 km (672 sq mi) and a population of 592,057. After Worcester (103,872) the largest settlements are Redditch (87,036), Kidderminster (57,400), and Malvern (30,462). It contains six local government districts , which are part of
River Stour, Worcestershire - Misplaced Pages Continue
3990-476: The West Midlands ). Worcestershire County Council was reformed, although some services are shared with the newly formed Herefordshire Council , including waste management and the youth offending service. The former Hereford and Worcester districts of Redditch, Worcester, Bromsgrove, Wychavon and Wyre Forest were retained with little or no change. However the Leominster and Malvern Hills districts straddled
4085-711: The Worcester Warriors , are the county's largest and most successful Rugby Union team, having been promoted to the Premiership in 2004. The Warriors were relegated to the RFU Championship in 2010 but rebounded back to the Premiership in 2011. Worcester Warriors play at the Sixways Stadium on the outskirts of Worcester, holding over 12,000 spectators, thus making it the largest stadium in the county. Sixways has hosted
4180-434: The buzzard and sparrowhawk also hover. Insect life is also rich and varied, with more than 20 kinds of butterfly seen on the reserve, including ringlet , common blue , holly blue , peacock , red admiral , painted lady , green-veined white , comma , gatekeeper , small skipper , large skipper , meadow brown , purple hairstreak , small heath and small copper and, rarely, brimstone and clouded yellow . There
4275-451: The 17th century there was a proliferation of iron forges fined pig iron and slitting mills , which cut bars of iron into rods for the production of nails in the Black Country . Blade mills (on tributaries), sharpened the blades of scythes and other tools from the 15th century. Richard Foley established one of the earliest slitting mills at the Hyde, Kinver in 1627. Many of the mills on
4370-499: The 19th century, Worcester was a centre for the manufacture of gloves; the town of Kidderminster became a centre for carpet manufacture, and Redditch specialised in the manufacture of needles, springs and hooks. Droitwich Spa , situated on large deposits of salt, was a centre of salt production from Roman times, with one of the principal Roman roads running through the town. These old industries have since declined, to be replaced by other, more varied light industry . The county
4465-528: The Birmingham boundary at Frankley , Rubery and Rednal . Frankley parish was later split into two: New Frankley and the area around Bartley Reservoir transferred from Bromsgrove District to Birmingham in April 1995; but the small village of Frankley remained in Worcestershire and became a new civil parish under the same name. From 1974, the central and southern parts of the county were amalgamated with Herefordshire and with Worcester County Borough to form
4560-409: The Black Country. The magnificent Stambermill Viaduct carries what was the former Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway line over the Stour between Stourbridge and Lye. It now is only used by goods trains. The main tributaries of the Stour are, travelling upstream from its confluence with the River Severn : The main settlement on the Stour are, travelling upstream from its confluence with
4655-413: The Blakedown area, on the western fringe of the Clent Hills. The Stour then bisects Kidderminster from north to south. Here it is hidden from sight for a short distance as it passes beneath the canal, to emerge on its eastern side. At the southern edge of Kidderminster the Stour is joined by the Barnett Brook, a major tributary which begins in the Clent Hills, and which, together with the Hoo Brook, creates
4750-473: The Conference title six years later, their stadium had been upgraded and promotion was granted, giving the county its first (and thus far only) Football League members. However, the club's Football League membership was short-lived, as Harriers were relegated back to the Conference in 2005 after just five years in the Football League, and have yet to reclaim their status. The county is also represented by Alvechurch , Bromsgrove Sporting and Redditch United of
4845-419: The Grange Furnace, near Trescott , Heath Forge near Wombourne, Swindon, Greensforge , and Gothersley. To power the Heath Mill, a substantial leat was constructed to divert water from the Smestow at Trysull into a mill pond above the little valley of the Wom Brook , whence it dropped into the brook, powering a series of mills, and then flowed back into the Smestow. Key names connected with these developments were
SECTION 50
#17328688342194940-412: The Norman Conquest, the rest of the county was still held by the Abbeys of Pershore and Evesham, the Bishop of Worcester and Priory . The first Norman Sheriff Urse d'Abetot , built the castle of Worcester and seized much church land, some of which became part of the Crown's hundreds in Worcestershire. and was in dispute with the Bishop of Worcester over the rights of the sheriff. Bishop Wulfstan
5035-500: The Severn, into which it flows, could see the Stour as embodying raw power or turbulence. The Victorian etymologist Isaac Taylor , now long discredited on many counts, proposed a very simple solution: that Stour derives from dŵr , the Welsh word for water. (Celtic origins are quite likely in the West Midlands and Worcestershire.) It is possible that the various Stours do not share a common origin or significant characteristics, requiring each to be considered on their terms. Certainly there
5130-485: The Smestow. This was blocked by opposition from the carpet makers of Kidderminster , who feared that extraction from the Smestow would affect the flow of the Stour, which they used to carry away their effluent. The following year, Marten put forward a scheme for drinking water extraction from the lower Smestow. This time he sent water samples to analytical laboratories in London, where they were pronounced exceptionally clear and free from decaying matter. The aquifer beneath
5225-494: The Stour was well able to power them. At Cradley, at the confluence of the upper Stour and the Lutley Gutter (also known as the Pudding Brook), in what was to become the Black Country, the earliest mentions of mills date back to the 12th century. Two corn mills are mentioned in Kinver in the Domesday Book . From the Middle Ages, the lower Stour was important in this early industrial development, as its fulling mills thickened cloth made in Worcester , Kidderminster, and Kinver. From
5320-582: The Stour were formerly concerned with the iron industry. Whittington, near Kinver, had a forge and then a slitting mill, and finally a nail mill. Mills were converted from one use to another, as demand fluctuated: fulling mills of the 16th century, often became forges or slitting mills in the 17th. The 17th century iron industry along the Stour and its tributaries is connected with the name of Dud Dudley (an illegitimate son of Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley ) who carried out early experiments, using coal products to substitute for charcoal in iron production and wrote
5415-448: The Trent by the Severn catchment. In some areas, especially around Wolverhampton, the Smestow runs over beds of gravels, laid down in the last Ice Age. For a large part of its course, however, the Smestow flows over deep Bunter deposits of sandstone, also known as Triassic Sherwood sandstone – similar to the deposits underlying Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire and Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. These are highly permeable, allowing
5510-410: The West Midlands was famed for iron production from the Middle Ages onwards. The nearby Kinver Forest and Wyre Forest supplied charcoal for smelting and working iron before the Industrial Revolution . Both the lower Smestow and the Stour were lined with bloomeries and forges , their water used for cooling and later to power simple machinery. Some local people maintain that the lower part of
5605-430: The aquifer became increasingly vulnerable to nitrate pollution. The relative decline of heavy industry in the region makes this the main, and growing, pollution threat to water supplies in the Smestow valley. The Smestow runs very close to a number of Roman sites, the most important being at Greensforge , where two camps were successively situated, one apparently using the stream as part of its fortifications. However, it
5700-407: The aquifer, not directly from the river, and were actually sited closer to the canal, which could be used to supply them with coal. In the 20th century attempts were made to clean up the Smestow. These, together with the almost total collapse of heavy industry in Wolverhampton and the Black Country during the 1980s, have allowed the river to recover from earlier pollution. Today the water is clear and
5795-427: The area north to Wolverhampton . The Stour flows south to Stourton and then loops along the eastern edge of the large village of Kinver , whence it flows back into Worcestershire. Passing through the villages of Caunsall , Cookley and Wolverley , it is joined by the Horse Brook, which drains an area extending northward into Shropshire , and the Honey Brook. Further south, the Wannerton Brook brings in water from
SECTION 60
#17328688342195890-485: The area of the administrative county grew only where Stourbridge took in the majority of Amblecote Urban District from Staffordshire and the designation of Redditch in 1964 as a New Town . This in turn saw expansion into the area in and around the villages of Ipsley and Matchborough in Warwickshire. The Redditch New Town designation coincided with a considerable programme of social and private house building in Droitwich , Worcester, Bromsgrove, Kidderminster and along
5985-423: The brook itself often appears scant in flow and unimportant is that the rock beneath is highly-permeable sandstone. Hence, very large quantities of water can be locked away not far below the surface, in the underlying aquifer . As early as 1851, the engineer Henry Marten gauged the supply at ten million gallons (approximately 45,000,000 litres) per day and proposed to extract water for drinking and industrial use from
6080-418: The county is even more colourful, changing hands from Worcestershire to Staffordshire and Warwickshire, before returning to Worcestershire at differing times over the centuries. The southern boundary of the county was also complex, with parish boundaries penetrating deep into Gloucestershire and vice versa. Worcestershire County Council came into existence following the Local Government Act 1888 and covered
6175-409: The county of Hereford & Worcester was abolished, and the non-metropolitan county or shire county of Worcestershire regained its historic border with Herefordshire. The recreated County of Worcestershire came into existence on 1 April 1998 as an administrative and ceremonial county, although this excluded the Black Country towns of Dudley, Halesowen, Oldbury and Stourbridge (which remained part of
6270-417: The county's highest point. The southwest contains a small part of the Cotswolds , and in the northwest is part of the Wyre Forest , a national nature reserve . There is some evidence of Roman occupation in Worcestershire; the area later became part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Hwicce , and then Mercia . Worcestershire was constituted as a county around 927, as the Kingdom of England formed. During
6365-437: The county: the Severn and the Avon . The geographical area now known as Worcestershire was first populated at least 700,000 years ago. The area became predominantly agricultural in the Bronze Age , leading to population growth and more evidence of settlement. By the Iron Age , hill forts dominated the landscape. Settlement of these swiftly ended with the Roman occupation of Britain. The Roman period saw establishment of
6460-577: The final of the LV Cup on three occasions. The village of Broadheath , about 6.2 miles (10 km) northwest of the city of Worcester, is the birthplace of the composer Edward Elgar . It is claimed that the county was the inspiration for the Shire , a region of J. R. R. Tolkien 's fictional Middle-earth , described in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings . Tolkien was thought to have named Bilbo Baggins ' house " Bag End " after his Aunt Jane's Worcestershire farm. Tolkien wrote of Worcestershire, "Any corner of that county (however fair or squalid)
6555-488: The flow of the upper Smestow when the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal was developed, around 1770. Instead he was forced to preserve the flow with a "water bridge" or aqueduct at Dunstall, in the Aldersley Gap, which carries the brook over the canal and releases it to descend to its natural course. The canal itself allowed coal, coke and iron to be transported more easily, allowing industrialists to combine water and steam power, alongside coke-fired blast furnaces, wherever
6650-413: The historic traditional county , except for two designated county boroughs at Dudley and Worcester. Birmingham's continuous expansion has been a major cause of Worcestershire's fluid boundary changes and associated housing issues. The district of Balsall Heath , which had originally constituted the most northerly part of the parish of King's Norton , was the first area of the county to be added to
6745-450: The historic border, so a new Malvern Hills district was constituted which straddled the pre-April 1974 county boundary to the west, south-west and north-west. The remaining parts of the former Hereford and Worcester district of Leominster, returned to Herefordshire. These settlements were historically part of the county as noted above, that now fall under the counties of Warwickshire and West Midlands . The Malvern Hills , which run from
6840-451: The industries of north Wolverhampton continued to use the water of the Smestow for a range of purposes, not least to carry away effluent. From the 1870s water was extracted in large quantities at the source for the brewing industry. The large Springfield Brewery that was built for William Butler at the source of the Smestow in 1873 was to operate until 1991, for much of its life in the hands of Mitchells & Butlers . The main reason that
6935-513: The jurisdiction of the queen mother. In 1642, the Battle of Powick Bridge was the first major skirmish of the English Civil War . The county suffered from being on the Royalist front line, as it was subject to heavy taxation and the pressing of men into the Royalist army, which also reduced its productive capacity. The northern part of the county, which was already a centre of iron production,
7030-468: The land above to drain quickly and reducing the flow within river courses. As a result, the areas of South Staffordshire around the river, despite fairly high rainfall, had a natural vegetation of heath and open birch woodland. This was modified progressively after the Anglo-Saxon settlement, with a gradual clearance of farmland. With the emergence of modern, high input farming, from the 18th century onwards,
7125-526: The main geographical area of Worcestershire and completely surrounded by the nearby counties of Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Oxfordshire . The most notable islands were Dudley, Evenlode, Blockley and the area around Shipston-on-Stour. Herefordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Shropshire had their own exclaves within the main part of Worcestershire at Rochford , Broome , Clent, Tardebigge ( Tutnall and Cobley ) and Halesowen respectively. Tardebigge's history outside
7220-405: The narrow section from Aldersley to Wightwick, although it can be used for the entire catchment, including the much wider plain south of Trescott. The Smestow itself created neither of these features: it simply flows through a landscape opened up by glaciation in the last Ice Age . The Smestow is entirely non-navigable. However, its valley forms a natural north-south route of such importance that
7315-501: The plateau by a fairly circuitous route, to the Severn valley. In this it is similar to the Tame and its own tributary, the Smestow : all are forced to wander far along generally shallow gradients as they find their way from the plateau, which is essentially a shallow dish in shape - a low tableland with raised edges. It carries mainly sandy sediments, as can be seen after rainfall. The Stour
7410-401: The river Stour itself navigable along much of its course. But these efforts were finally abandoned around 1680, when funds were exhausted. It is doubtful whether it would have been a profitable enterprise, had it succeeded. At Wilden a short section of the Stour, of about a mile, was successfully made navigable but because of all the bends it is recorded that it was not easy to navigate. There was
7505-426: The river and canal ran close together. The result was the development of larger iron-works at Swindon and Gothersley on the Smestow, as well as nearby at the Hyde, near Kinver on the Stour – all situated between river and canal. The Swindon works included a rolling mill and generated power mainly from coal, although its drop hammer was driven by a large water wheel . It was to last until 1976. Although iron production
7600-567: The sandstone is itself very vulnerable to pollution, and the actual river water at that time is unlikely to have been free of chemical and microbial pollution. Perhaps it is a good thing that Marten's idea was not put into practice until the 1890s, when a large pumping station was constructed at Ashwood, south of Swindon, to supply water to Black Country industry. This was soon followed by the Bratch pumping station at Wombourne, built to supply Bilston with drinking water. Both of these extracted water from
7695-754: The south in Washford , and GKN (it has the second largest turnover in the West Midlands) is in Riverside . Mettis Aerospace are in Enfield, north Redditch, and make light metal components ( former High Duty Alloys , which made most of the forged pistons for Britain's aircraft engines in WWII). Phoenix Group (non-public life assurance schemes) is in the north-east of the county near the Warwickshire boundary, at Wythall , and has
7790-467: The south of the county into Herefordshire, are made up mainly of volcanic igneous rocks and metamorphic rocks , some of which date from more than 1,200 million years ago. They are designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The Worcestershire Beacon , which at 425 metres (1,394 ft) is the highest point in the county, lies in this range. The rest of the county consists of undulating hills and farmland stretching either side of
7885-465: The southern part of the Black Country , staying within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley . It flows through Cradley and Lye and then between Stourbridge , to which it gives its name, and Amblecote , historically an important centre of the glass industry. Here it passes half-concealed through industrial estates that have replaced traditional heavy industry , shadowed for a few kilometres by
7980-514: The stream, approximately from Wombourne, is properly called the River Smestow, while the upper section is the Smestow Brook. Certainly the lower Smestow is much more impressive since dredging and course alterations in the 1990s. In practice, however, both forms are used for the whole length of the stream, with Smestow Brook predominating. Similarly, the term Smestow Valley is sometimes reserved for
8075-553: The third civil war. There was little enthusiasm or local participation in the mostly Scottish Royalist army, whose defeat was widely welcomed. Nevertheless, Parliamentarian forces ransacked the city of Worcester , causing heavy damage, looting and destruction of property. Around 10,000 mostly Scottish prisoners were sent into forced labour in the New World or fen drainage schemes. The small bands of Scots that fled into Worcestershire's countryside were attacked by local forces and killed. In
8170-587: The total number of people in every ethnic group increased between 2001 and 2011, the White British share of Worcestershire's population decreased from 95.5% to 92.4%, as did the share of White ethnic groups as whole, which went from 97.5% to 95.7%. Worcestershire is still much more ethnically homogeneous than the national average. In 2011, 79.8% of the population of England identified as White British; much lower than Worcestershire's figure of 92.4%. 95.7 0.4 1.2 0.2 100 In Redditch are Halfords , to
8265-507: The villa system in the Cotswolds and Vale of Evesham. Droitwich (Salinae) was probably the most important settlement in the county in this period, due to its product of salt. There is also evidence for Roman settlement and industrial activity around Worcester and King's Norton. The area which became Worcestershire formed the heartland of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the Hwicce . It was absorbed by
8360-418: The west, Shropshire to the north-west, Staffordshire only just to the north, West Midlands to the north and north-east, Warwickshire to the east and Gloucestershire to the south. The western border with Herefordshire includes a stretch along the top of the Malvern Hills . At the southern border with Gloucestershire, Worcestershire meets the northern edge of the Cotswolds . Two major rivers flow through
8455-450: Was important for military supplies. Parliamentarian raids and Royalist requisitioning both placed a great strain on the county. There were tensions from the participation of prominent Catholic recusants in the military and civilian organisation of the county. Combined with the opposition to requisitioning from both sides, bands of Clubmen formed to keep the war away from their localities. The Battle of Worcester in 1651 effectively ended
8550-481: Was once a trout stream, but became severely polluted with chemicals that were released into it by industries along its banks, particularly acid from the holloware industry of Lye. In the final decades of the 20th century, this pollution ceased, and the river was cleaned up. Nowadays, wildlife is making a comeback in the Stour with kingfishers and grey heron present, as well as recent reports of salmon and trout beginning to recolonise as far as Stourbridge . For
8645-566: Was part of a wider campaign by the De Montforts and their allies in the run-up to the Second Barons' War , aimed at undermining Henry III. Worcestershire was the site of the Battle of Evesham in which Simon de Montfort was killed on 4 August 1265. A few years later, in 1275, the Jews that were still living in Worcester were forced to move to Hereford , as they were expelled from all towns under
8740-517: Was the Anglo-Saxon settlement that brought significant permanent human habitation to the valley, and it is probably from these settlers that the stream took its name. The banks of the Smestow and Stour were home to a thriving iron industry, based on locally produced charcoal, from the Middle Ages until the 18th century. This included many forges but also, from the mid-17th century, some fairly large enterprises run by wealthy businessmen, like those at
8835-536: Was the last Anglo-Saxon bishop in England, and remained in post until his death in 1095. Under his tenure Worcester Cathedral began major reconstruction, and he opposed political interventions against William and the Normans. He was later made a saint. During Henry III 's disputes and wars with his Barons, in 1263 Worcester 's Jewish residents were attacked by a baronial force led by Robert Earl Ferrers and Henry de Montfort . Most were killed. The massacre in Worcester
8930-400: Was thus centralised, the small-scale, decentralised working of iron not only continued but increased. An 1817 commentator tells us that Swindon has "an iron-works, some forges, and a blade-mill, where by a peculiar temperament of the iron, it is formed into scythes, sickles, axes, &c." A survey of 1834 adds corn mills to the list of enterprises at Swindon. It also tells us that Wombourne is
9025-569: Was to build the Priory Estate , a large new council estate on which construction began in 1929. The boundaries of Worcestershire were altered to include all of the proposed new housing estate in Dudley. During the Local Government reorganisation of April 1966, Dudley expanded beyond its historical boundaries and took in the bulk of Sedgley , Brierley Hill and the south of Coseley as well as
#218781