Wolverley

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Wolverley
Worcestershire
Wolverley village, Worcestershire - geograph.org.uk - 1025168.jpg
Wolverley village
Location
Grid reference: SO835795
Location: 52°24’48"N, 2°14’38"W
Data
Post town: Kidderminster
Postcode: DY10, DY11
Dialling code: 01562
Local Government
Council: Wyre Forest
Parliamentary
constituency: 		Wyre Forest

Wolverley is a village and ancient parish in Worcestershire. It is two miles north of Kidderminster and lies on the River Stour and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Together with nearby Cookley (a mile north-east), it forms a civil parish with a population of 2,096 in 2001.[1] The village has also been known as "Overley" at various times.[2]

Notable features

There are 13 Listed Buildings within Wolverley, three of which are grade II*.[3]

One of the unusual features of the area are rooms cut into the sandstone cliffs behind some of the houses. In the centre of the village, next to the Queen's Head Public House car-park are some caves which reflect this usage.[3]

Wolverley has one of the few remaining animal pounds in the area.[4]

St John's Church

Woverley's Church of England and parish church is dedicated to St John. It is claimed as a tradition that there has been a church or chapel on the site since Anglo-Saxon times. The first documented evidence of a church was the mention of a parish priest in the village in the Domesday Book (1086). A church on the site of the current parish church site has been in deanery of Kidderminster since the 13th Century. The current building was consecrated on 20 September 1772, and belongs to the Church of England. The current clergyman with responsibility is The Revd Shaun Armstrong.[5]

History

Wolverley was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under an ancient spelling of Ulwardelie.[6]

The Worcester Member of Parliament John Atte Wode is recorded as holding land at Wolverley prior to 1357.[7]

The Legend of the Swan

According to ancient legend a crusading member of the Attwood family was rescued from a dungeon and returned to his home Wolverley Court by a swan.[8][9]

William Sebright

Wolverley was the birthplace of William Sebright, who as a Town Clerk of London accumulated an estate in Bethnal Green, which he left in his will of 1620 for the foundation of a grammar school in Wolverley.[10] The site of the original Wolverley Grammar School is still in the centre of the village: the grammar school changed its name to Sebright School in 1931 when it moved to a new site. The new school was opened by Bewdley-born Stanley Baldwin.[11] Between 1948 and 1970 Sebright was a public school, and from 1965 to 1969 the sculptor Fritz Steller was the Head of Art. Sebright School closed in 1970[12] and reopened as Wolverley High School, now called Wolverley C E Secondary School, a state run secondary school. However, the junior wing, Heathfield Knoll School, continued in existence and now includes pupils up to 16. Over the years the endowment left by William Sebright has grown to millions of pounds, and the original scope of the educational foundation he set up has been broadened to include grants to local schools, and to former pupils of those schools.[13]

Tinplate Industry

Wolverley Lower Mill, which was established in 1670 by Philip Foley and Joshua Newborough, helped the village play a key role in the early tinplate industry.[14]

Baskerville the printer

The village was also the birthplace of John Baskerville, the celebrated printer (1706–1775).[15]

Wolverley Camp

During the Second World War the US Army Medical Corps opened its award-winning 52nd general hospital at Wolverley Camp.[16]

Notes

  1. ↑ "2001 Census". http://worcestershire.whub.org.uk/home/cs-research-census-populationreport.pdf. 
  2. ↑ Everard1 Horton2, Judith1 Wendy2 (July 2021). "VCH SHROPSHIRE: Wem Rural: Wolverley". http://www.vchshropshire.org/_Wem_Rural_Texts/Wolverley.pdf. Retrieved 28 February 2024. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Wolverley Conservation Area Character Appraisal, Wyre Forest District Council, July 2007, p. 17, http://www.wyreforestdc.gov.uk/media/64881/Wolverley-Conservation-Area-Character-Appraisal_opt.pdf 
  4. ↑ Wolverley Conservation Area Character Appraisal, Wyre Forest District Council, July 2007, p. 23, "The animal pound, and the surrounding grass is currently completely fenced off with hoped railings, whilst the original door is now looking in poor condition. As part of the history of the Area, and one of the few such remaining pounds in the area, this feature should be enhanced." 
  5. ↑ Church staff. "St John's Church in Wolverley". St John the Baptist Church Wolverley. http://www.stjohns-wolverley.org.uk/wolverley-church/. Retrieved July 13, 2012. 
  6. ↑ Allies 2003, p. 307.
  7. ↑ Driver, J. T. Worcestershire Knights of the Shire 1377–1421 Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society. Third Series Vol 4 1974 p20
  8. ↑ ""Parishes: Wolverley"", Victoria County History, Worcestershire, 3, 1913, pp. 567–573, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=43175 
  9. ↑ Church staff. "The Legend of the Swan". St John the Baptist Church Wolverley. http://www.stjohns-wolverley.org.uk/legend-of-the-swan/. 
  10. ↑ "Bethnal Green: Estates", in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11, Stepney, Bethnal Green, ed. T F T Baker (London, 1998), pp. 155-168. British History Online [accessed 15 July 2020]
  11. ↑ "Arrangements for to-day", The Times, London, 10 October 1931, p. 15.
  12. ↑ "School to close", The Times, London, 21 February 1970, p. 3.
  13. ↑ Old Wolvernian Association 2006.
  14. ↑ King 1988, pp. 104–13.
  15. ↑ "Famous Brummies and others that worked or lived in Birmingham". http://www.virtualbrum.co.uk/people.htm. 
  16. ↑ DiGi-Masters.com. "ex-Army Barracks near Kidderminster". Wolverley Camp. http://www.wolverleycamp.org.uk. Retrieved 3 May 2015. 

References

Outside links

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