Bockleton

Bockleton
Worcestershire
Bockleton
Location
Grid reference:	SO592614
Location:	52°14’59"N, 2°35’52"W
Data
Population:	190
Post town:	Tenbury Wells
Postcode:	WR15
Dialling code:	01568
Local Government
Council:	Malvern Hills
Parliamentary constituency:	West Worcestershire

Bockleton is a small village and parish in the Doddingtree hundred of Worcestershire, five miles south of Tenbury Wells. According to the 2001 census the civil parish had a population of 190. The village is close to the Herefordshire border and the ancient parish extends into that county, forming the hamlet of Hampton Charles.

History

The village of Bockleton was originally called "Bocklington" until its name changed some time between 1785 and 1787 according to maps of the region. One of the earliest mentions of the village dates from 1246 in the life of Peter of Aigueblanche the then Bishop of Hereford. Extant sources state "In 1246 his new statutes on these points duly received papal confirmation (Bliss, i. 229). He was celebrated in the church of Hereford for his long and strenuous defence of the liberties of see and chapter against ‘the citizens of Hereford and other rebels against the church.’ He bought the manor of Holme Lacy and gave it to his church, appropriated the church of Bocklington to the treasurer, gave mitres, and chalice, vestments and books, and various rents (Monasticon, vi. 1216)."

The parish church of St Michael has an 1867 monument, in white marble, by Pre-Raphaelite sculptor Thomas Woolner to William Prescott, a local squire who died from an infection caught after tending his sick gamekeeper. It depicts him nursing the aged man.

References

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Bockleton)

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