Great Witley

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Coordinates: 52°17′00″N 2°21′00″W / 52.283333°N 2.35°W / 52.283333; -2.35
Great Witley

The Hundred House, Great Witley
Great Witley

 Great Witley shown within Worcestershire
District Malvern Hills District
Shire county Worcestershire
Region West Midlands
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Worcester
Postcode district WR6
Police West Mercia
Fire Hereford and Worcester
Ambulance West Midlands
EU Parliament West Midlands
UK Parliament West Worcestershire
List of places
UK
England
Worcestershire

Great Witley is a village and civil parish (with Hillhampton), in the Malvern Hills District in the northwest of the county of Worcestershire, England. It is situated around ten miles to the north west of the city of Worcester.

There has been a settlement in the area since before the Norman Conquest.

Great Witley was in the lower division of Doddingtree Hundred. [1]

Following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 Great Witley Parish ceased to be responsible for maintaining the poor in its parish. This responsibility was transferred to Martley Poor Law Union.[2]

The village is home to Witley Court, a Jacobean country house extended on a number of occasions throughout its history, but which became derelict after a spectacular fire in 1937. The mansion, formerly one of the finest in the Midlands, is now in the care of English Heritage, who describe it as their number one ruin. They have restored the extensive gardens leaving the impressive skeletal ruin of the building overlooking them in a poignant and thought provoking way.

Interior of Great Witley Church
Adjoining Witley Court is the 18th century church of Saint Michael and All Angels, which is one of the finest Italian Baroque churches in Britain. It incorporates a richly gilded ceiling with a number of paintings by Antonio Bellucci, a funerary monument to Thomas Lord Foley and his family by John Michael Rysbrack and ten large painted glass windows by Joshua Price dated 1719-1721.[3][4][5]

Nearby is Woodbury Hill commanding extensive views south to the Malvern Hills and over the River Teme valley to the west. On the summit is an Iron Age hillfort. Owain Glyndŵr's army of Welsh and French camped here for eight days in the summer of 1405 facing an army of King Henry IV at Abberley Hill. Skirmishes took place but neither large force initiated full scale battle and the Welsh withdrew under nightfall back to Wales. The location was also used as a meeting place during the English Civil War by Clubmen from the local farms and cottages.

The village also is home to the Grade II listed coaching inn The Hundred House Hotel,[6] once the collection point for agricultural tithes from the districts or 'hundred (division)s' of the local area. In this instance the Doddingtree Hundred.

References

  1. ↑ Worcestershire Family History Guidebook, Vanessa Morgan, 2011, p20 The History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire.
  2. ↑ Worcestershire Family History Guidebook, Vanessa Morgan, 2011, p68 The History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire.
  3. ↑ Witley Court and Gardens, English Heritage. Retrieved 23 May 2009
  4. ↑ Goodwin, Bernard G. (1966). Witley Parish Church : A short history and guide to the Parish Church of St. Michael's and All Angels, Great Witley (3rd ed.). Kidderminster: Cheshires, Printers. OCLC 12194765. 
  5. ↑ 'Parishes: Great Witley', A History of the County of Worcester: volume 4 (1924), pp. 372-375, British History Online. Retrieved 23 March 2012
  6. ↑ The Hundred House and Attached Quadrant Wall to East, Great Witley, British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 23 March 2012

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Great Witley.
Settlements in Malvern Hills District
Towns
Villages
Civil parishes
  • Civil parishes in the Malvern Hills district
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