Hartlebury, Worcestershire

Description
Hartlebury, a village and a parish in Worcestershire. The village stands 1 1/2 mile E of the river Severn, 2 miles E by S of Stonrport, and 3 1/2 S by E of Ridderminster, and has a station on the G.W.R., and a post, money order, and telegraph office under Ridderminster. The parish contains also the township of Upper Mitton, and the hamlets of Crossway Green, Norchard, Waresley, Chadwick, Titton, Lincomb, Charlton, Wildon, Torton, and Low Hill. Acreage, 5714; population, 3723; of the ecclesiastical parish, 1491. The manor has belonged to the Bishops of Worcester since very early times. Hartlebury Castle, the seat of the bishops, was built in the time of Henry III. by Bishop Cantelupe; was seized and destroyed in 1646 by the Parliamentarian force; was rebuilt after the Restoration, and stands in a park to the W of the village. Ironworks are in Wildon hamlet, near the Worcestershire and Staffordshire Canal. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Worcester, net value, £845. Patron, the Bishop of Worcester. The church was rebuilt in 1836, and is a handsome edifice in the Early English and Decorated styles, with a tower; it was partially restored in 1877. The churchyard contains the tombs of Bishops Hnrd, Carr, and Pepys. A mission church for some of the outlying hamlets was erected in 1882 at Bishop's Wood, by Bishop Philpott, who is buried there. Upper Mitton andWildon are included in the ecclesiastical parish of Lower Mitton. There are a Congregational chapel and an endowed grammar school.