Little Witley
| Little Witley | |
| Worcestershire | |
|---|---|
 Little Witley | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SO784637 |
| Location: | 52°16’18"N, 2°19’2"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Worcester |
| Postcode: | WR6 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Malvern Hills |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
West Worcestershire |
Little Witley is a village in Worcestershire, on the A4133 west from the River Severn. Great Witley is three miles to the north-west.
History
Pre-history
There has been little if any evidence of early human activity in Little Witley, however Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age finds have been made in neighbouring Holt.
Field-walking has produced evidence of Roman occupation to the west of Little Witley village. More recently two brooches have been discovered in the vicinity of the village. A Roman milestone survived into the eighth century at the boundary between Holt and Little Witley parishes, on the military road known in Anglo-Saxon charters as Stræt, that led from Worcester, through Hallow and Grimley.
Middle Ages
Worcestershire has one of the most complete and ancient collections of Anglo-Saxon charters that detail the grants of estates by the church and crown. Wick Episcopi was an area to the Northwest of Worcester, roughly bounded by the Rivers Severn and Teme and a line through Broadwas, Martley, Wichenford, Little Witley and Shrawley Brook. The manors (later parishes) within Wick Episcopi where defined during that period. Witley was first recognised at that time. Other locations named in the Wick Episcopi grant of 775 include, Ecles Broc (stream from Warford Pool) and Doferic (Shrawley Brook).
Other locations in Holt named in the Wick Episcopi grant of 775 include Heafuchrycg (Ockeridge), Doferic (Shrawley Brook), Sæfern (the Severn) and Bæle Broc (Grimley Brook). Hallow, in 816, was one of the first single manors to be granted to a tenant lord by the Bishopric of Worcester. Before that it had been part of a larger estate, Worgorena leag (the meadow or clearing of the people of Worcester), which also included Little Witley.
Witleage (Little Witley) is mentioned in King Edgar's charter creating the Oswaldstow Hundred.
Eadmaer received a further grant in 969 when he took on four 'mansi', or hides, at Little Witley. The suffix 'Little' is later, as Great Witley did not come into existence until much later, after the Domesday Book.
In 1017 Archbishop Wulfstan of Worcester granted the six hides Beonetleah (Bentley in Holt) with Witley manor to his brother, Ælfwige.
Little Witley is mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086 when Urse d'Abetot, Sheriff of Worcestershire, held one hide (30 acres), with one plough let to Walter Ponther. There was a resident priest, two smallholders and a second plough in the manor. The woodland was three by two furlongs (60 acres). Both before the conquest and in 1086 the taxable value was 10s.
The history of Little Witley church is somewhat obscure. It was not a parish church at the time of the Conquest but a chapelry of St. Helens in Worcester. It apparently did not have a font or burial ground until 1375 when application was made to the mother church, as the parish church of Holt was 2.0 miles (3.2 km) distant and the road, especially in winter, 'watery and muddy'. The church that stands today was rebuilt in 1867, although a blocked doorway in the north end of the nave is said to date from the early thirteenth century. Some of the foundation courses of the current building may be equally as old. The 'new' church was designed by Abraham Edward Perkins, Worcester's church architect.
Little Witley manor passed to the Beauchamp family when Emeline de Abitot, the daughter and heiress of Urse d'Abetot, married Walter de Beauchamp then owner of Elmley Castle. In 1287 Little Witley manor was appended to Great Witley manor, which was under the Cooksey family, as part of a marriage trust agreement.
Recent times
A Cooksey heiress was married to Sir William Russell of Strensham in 1499, and Great Witley manor remained in Russell hands for over a hundred and fifty years. The Russells replaced the thirteenth century manor house at Great Witley with a grander edifice that was to later develop into Witley Court. Little Witley manor followed the descendancy of Great Witley manor until the twentieth century when the estate was broken up and sold off in 1920.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Little Witley) |