Evesham, Worcestershire

Description
Evesham, a market-town and municipal borough, the head of a poor-law union, two parishes, and a vale in Worcestershire. The town stands on the river Avon, 14 miles SE by E of Worcester, and 98 distant from London (106 by railway). It has a station on the G.W.R., and another on the Birmingham and Ashchurch branch of the M.R. It occupies an acclivity rising from a bend of the Avon, is engirt by that river on all sides except the N, and has pleasant environs of market gardens and orchards. It was known to the Saxons as Eovesham, signifying " the dwelling on a level by a river's side," yet is sometimes alleged to have derived its name from Eeves, a swine herd, who was fabled to have seen a supernatural vision, which occasioned the founding at it of a mitred Benedictine abbey. King Ethelred in 709 gave a site for the abbey, and Egwin or Ecgwyn, bishop of the Wiccii, laid the foundation of it, and became its first abbot. The church was 300 feet long, had a nave of nine bays, 145 feet by 70, a choir of five bays, a Lady chapel, a transept 110 feet long, a south-eastern sacristy, and a north-eastern apsidal chapel; was surmounted by a central tower, and was adjoined by cloisters and a decagonal chapterhouse. It is said to have once possessed 22 towns, and to have maintained 75 monks and 65 servants. It was desecrated in 1265 by a massacre of fugitives in it from the battle of Evesham, but it retained its status till the general dissolution in the time of Henry VIII., and it then had an income variously stated at £1184 and £1268, and was given to Philip Hobby, Esq. Henry III. took up his quarters in it, the Earl of Lancaster and other barons slain in the battle of Evesham were buried in it, and Henry IV. was entertained in it. Most of the edifice has disappeared, but the arch of its vestibule, built in 1295, still remains; the bell-tower of its cemetery, built in 1533, a beautiful structure of three storeys, 110 feet high, 28 square, panelled throughout its height, and containing fine canopied windows, also still stands. Of the domestic buildings the almonry is still intact. The battle of Evesham, between the forces of Henry III. under Prince Edward and those of the insurgent barons under the Earl of Leicester, was fought in a contracted field without any quarter given, and was one of the most remarkable and decisive battles in the English annals. The town was taken by Massey at the head of the Parliamentarian army in 1645.

The town consists chiefly of four or five regular, wide streets, with well-built houses. It is well paved and well drained, and has a good supply of water from the Cotswold Hills. The waterworks were completed in 1884 at a cost of £12,000. It is connected with Bengeworth by a bridge of three arches over the Avon, erected in 1856. A public esplanade, upwards of 400 yards long, adjoins the bridge. The town-hall, originally Elizabethan, has been much enlarged at later dates. The butter and poultry market is held in it. There is a market-place for fruit, vegetables, and cattle. The petty sessions are held at the police station in the High Street, erected at a cost of £5600, and opened in 1894. It is a spacious building, and has a good court-room. The Evesham Institute includes a corn exchange and assembly-room, library and reading-room, classrooms, &c. The Evesham Cottage Hospital was erected in 1879 by public subscription, and is supported by voluntary contributions. The Evesham Sanatorium was established in 1883 for infectious diseases, and is situated at Bengeworth. The cemetery is governed by a burial board. The Grammar School was founded in 1536 by Abbot Lichfield, and was endowed by James I. Deacle's Free School, Bengeworth, was founded and endowed by John Deacle, an alderman of London, in 1706. The town has a head post office, two banks, and publishes two weekly newspapers. A weekly market is held on Monday. The chief business is in market-gardening, malting, and tanning. There is a brick and drain-pipe manufactory and a steam flour-mill. The workhouse is situated at Little Hampton. The town is a seat of petty sessions and county courts. It was made a borough by James I., and sent two members to parliament till 1867, when it was reduced to one representative, and by the Redistribution of Seats Act in 1885 its representation was merged in that of the county. It is governed by a town council consisting of a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors, who form also the urban sanitary authority. The borough, which includes the two parishes of Evesham and the parish of Bengeworth, has a commission of the peace. Acreage of the municipal borough, 2265 , population, 5836.

The two parishes are All Saints and St Lawrence. Acreage of All Saints, 417; population, 1917. Acreage of St Lawrence, 488 ; population, 2547. The living of All Saints is a vicarage, with the perpetual curacy of St Lawrence annexed, in the diocese of Worcester. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. Both churches stand within the parochial churchyard, and both were founded by the monks as parish churches. The church of St Lawrence, consecrated in 1295, was almost entirely rebuilt in the 16th century, and was restored in 1837. Its most striking feature is Abbot Lichfield's chapel on the south side with rich fan-tracery roof and panelled walls. All Saints' Church, partly Early English and partly Perpendicular, was restored in 1876; it contains a richly-decorated mortuary chapel of Abbot Lichfield. There are Roman Catholic, Wesleyan, Baptist, and Unitarian chapels, and places of worship for the Society of Friends and Plymouth Brethren. The Abbey Manor-House, the seat of the lord of the manor, is the chief residence. The vale of Evesham extends along the Avon to the boundary with Gloucestershire, is flanked by the Malvern Hills, possesses a rich loamy soil, contains a considerable aggregate of orchards and market gardens, produces heavy crops of wheat, and presents, with its flanks a series of fine landscapes.

Evesham Parliamentary Division, or Southern Worcestershire, was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 49,538. The division includes the following:- Blockley-Alderminster, Blockley, Cutsdean, Daylesford, Evenlode, Shipston-on-Stour, Tidmington, Tredington; Evesham-Abbots Lench, Aldington, Badsey, Bretforton, Broadway, Cleeve Prior, Church Honeybourne, Church Lench, Hampton, Harvington, Littleton (North), Littleton (South), Norton, Offenham, Rouse Lench, Sedgeberrow, Wickham-ford ; Pershore-Abberton, Abbotsmorton, Besford, Birlingham, Bishampton Bredon, Bricklehampton, Charlton, Comberton (Great), Comberton (Little), Conderton, Cropthorne, Defford, Dormstone, Eckington, Elmley Castle, Fladbury, Flyford Flavel, Grafton Flyford, Hill and Moor, Kington, Naunton Beauchamp, Netherton, North Piddle, Norton-juxta-Bredon, Overbury, Peopleton, Pershore (Holy Cross), Pershore (St Andrew), Pinvin, Pirton, Strensham, Teddington, Throckmorton, Wick, Wyre Piddle; Upton-on-Severn- Borrow, Birtsmorton, Bushley, Castlemorton, Chaceley, Croome D'Abitot, Earl's Croome, Eldersfield, Hanley Castle, Hill Croome, Holdfast, Longdon, Pendock, Queenhill, Redmarley D'Abitot, Ripple, Severn Stoke, Staunton, Upton-on-Severn, Welland; Malvern (part of)-Little Malvern ; Redditch (part of)-Feckenham, Inkberrow; Evesham, municipal borough.