Kempsey, Worcestershire
| Kempsey | |
 Kempsey |
|
  Kempsey Kempsey shown within Worcestershire | |
| OS grid reference | SO852490 |
|---|---|
| Civil parish | Kempsey |
| District | Malvern Hills |
| Shire county | Worcestershire |
| Region | West Midlands |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | WORCESTER |
| Postcode district | WR5 |
| Police | West Mercia |
| Fire | Hereford and Worcester |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| EU Parliament | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament | West Worcestershire |
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Kempsey is a village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills District in the county of Worcestershire, England. It is bounded by the River Severn on the west, and the A38 main road runs through it and is about 3 miles south of Worcester. The village has a long history. Its name is derived from the Saxon "Kemys' Eye", or the island of Kemys.[1] Kemys was a Saxon chief, whose island lay between marshes and the River Severn. One of the roads in Kempsey, Lyf's Lane, is named after another Saxon chief.[1] The village was recorded in the 11th century Domesday Book as having a value of £7.
The local Anglican church of St. Mary was built between the 12th century and 15th centuries, and the 15th century tower is 82 feet tall. The composer Sir Edward Elgar lived in the village from 1923 to 1927, during which time he was made Master of the King's Music. The village has several pubs including one named after Bishop Walter de Cantilupe.[1]
History
Pre-Roman Kempsey
A piece of iron dated 1500-800 BC According to 'Kempsey Collection' page 9, a piece of iron dated 1500-800 BC was dug up in the Court Meadow area, and is now in the Foregate Museum, Worcester. At that time the River Severn was tidal at Kempsey, and there was extensive marshland and forest in the Severn valley.
Roman Kempsey
A Roman milestone dedicated to the Emperor Constantine the Great (AD 307 – 337) was found in about 1818 when ground was being levelled for a vegetable garden for Court House, opposite the west gate of the churchyard. According to O'Neil,[2] this was probably not its original position as the nearest Roman road was about a mile away. It could have previously been used as masonry for the Bishop's Palace due to the lack of suitable building stone in Kempsey. The Victoria County History entry describes this as "an inscription found some years before 1818, lying in two pieces with other stones 4 feet deep in the west wall of the kitchen garden of the parsonage farm, north-west of the church. Many of the other stones were cemented together and formed some kind of ancient foundation; whether the inscription was one of these, is not recorded. It is itself a flat slab of freestone, 33 inches high by 20 inches wide, and is now in the Worcester Museum. It reads as follows:[3]
Val(erio) Constantine P(io) fe(lici) invicto Aug(usto) 'Emperor Valerius Constantinus, pious, fortunate, unconquerable, Augustus.'
Probably the commencement of the inscription is lost; it may have begun IMP. CAES FL. Imp(eratori) Cs(ari) Fl(avio). Flavius Valerius Constantinus was Constantine the Great, and this stone was presumably set up in his reign (A.D. 308-337). It appears to be a milestone, or rather a road-stone, of the type common in the fourth century, in which the mileage was often omitted - though here it might have been broken off. But it might conceivably be no more than an honorary slab."
The stone is from the Oolites of the Cotswold Hills. It is 3 feet high, 19½" broad and 7½" thick.[4]
Roman roads through and near Kempsey
There are three possible Roman roads through and near Kempsey. One may have run along Old Road South, entering the oldest area of the village where a Roman camp might have been, and exiting possibly along Lyf's Lane (although Lyf was a Saxon chief) and continuing to the Roman settlement at Worcester.
The second runs along the side of the present M5 motorway north by Holdings Lane to Taylor's Lane, where it enters St Peter's Development.
The third, Green Street, connects Kempsey Common with the centre of the village, crossing the second Roman road mentioned above at Palmer's Cross.
Roman finds from archeological digs
Pottery, brooches and a coin from the time of the Emperor Nero were found in burial cists dug out of the gravel beds north of the church.
Celtic tribe
The Celtic tribe that lived around Kempsey in Roman times were the Dobunni.
Dark Ages
Kempsey was part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Hwicce, and then a part of the Kingdom of Mercia.
The King of Mercia and Kempsey Monastery
Coenwulf, King of Mercia, gave Abbot Balthun of Kempsey Monastery thirty smallholdings in return for the military service and maintenance work of Kempsey locals, according to the Victoria County History of Worcestershire.[5]
An archaeological dig [6] in 2011 at the top of the bank between the church and the river excavated 42 skeletons and left more in place, and carbon 14 dating of four skeletons gave a range between the 9th and the 13th centuries A.D. The field team found skeletons from a cross-section of the local population including males, females and children. According to a speech by Tom Vaughn of the archaeology society in May 2012, there were skeletons with an age range of approximately 12 to 70 years old, and there were so many skeletons that in one place they were buried seven deep. In those days the Bishop's palace and Anglo-Saxon minster sent priests out to local parishes preaching and converting, because the country had reverted to paganism after the Romans left. The dead were brought from a wide area to Kempsey for burial, because the only Christian consecrated grounds in the area were at Kempsey and at Worcester Cathedral. As other local parishes developed there was less need for this, and Kempsey church's graveyard therefore contracted to its present size.
Danish Raiders
To commemorate the departure of the Danes Bishop Aelhun built an oratory dedicated to St. Andrew. Then the Danes raided again, and the monastery was destroyed.[1]
The Saxon Origin of the Name 'Kempsey'
Kempsey is named after a Saxon chief called 'Kemys', the full name meaning "Kemys' Eye", as the original settlement, where the church now stands, was a semi-island between the River Severn and marshland.[1]
In 799 AD the population was about 150.
The Domesday Book
The Domesday Book says of Kempsey:
In the Hundred (Oswaldeslow) The Bishop of the same Churche (Worcester) holds Chemesege (Kempsey) . There are 24 hides paying geld, 5 of these are waste. There are 2 ploughs in the demesne, 13 villeins, and 27 bordars with 16 ploughs. There is a priest, 4 serfs and 2 bondswomen and 40 acres of meadow. The woodland is a mile long and ½ a mile wide. There are 13 hides in the demesne. In the time of King Edward it was worth £16, its present value is £7.
Medieval Times
Royal Visits
King Henry II of England (visited 1186)
King Henry III of England (visited in 1265). On 2 August 1265 Henry III was brought as a prisoner to Kempsey by Simon de Montford, Earl of Leicester and leader of the English barons. Bishop Walter de Cantelupe (who the pub known as "the Wally" is named after) said Mass for him in Kempsey church the next morning, before they set off to the Battle of Evesham, where de Montford was killed.
King Edward I of England (visited 1276) & with Queen Marguerite (26 December 1281)
The Black Death
The population of Kempsey fell from 600 in 1299 to only 86 in 1327.
A Beheading
In 1303, the Reeve (the Lord's official on the manor) of Kempsey beheaded John de Draycote, a clerk, on the highway between Kempsey and Draycote, by order of the bishops bailiff. His head was placed before the Bishop's Palace gates, causing a riot, which was put down.[7]
Alexander Neckham
Alexander Neckham, Abbot of Cirencester, was born on the same night as Richard the Lion-heart, and was brought up as his foster-brother. He was the first Englishman to write about chess, silkworms and the mariner's compass. He died at Kempsey in 1217, while visiting his friend Bishop Silvester.[8]
The Civil War
The Civil War started in 1642, and Kempsey was quickly involved. On 22 September Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes and Colonel Samuel Sandys, Governor of Worcester, led a detachment of Lord Essex's Parliamentary Army across the Severn at Pixham Ferry. The forces of Prince Rupert beat them at the Battle of Powick Bridge on Powick Ham, and many of the fugitives re-crossed the river at Kempsey.[9] However, Green writes that the victory went to the Roundheads, and that Prince Rupert was forced to flee.
Kempsey was raided on 2 July 1646, in an attempt to capture a Colonel Betsworth in his quarters. He was forewarned and eluded capture. According to Rev. Purton, "During the siege of Worcester in 1646, a squadron of 400 dragoons, under Colonel Betsworth, was quartered at Kempsey and on July 2nd an attempt was made by the garrison to seize him there, which was unsuccessful." Noake speaks of a tradition then current in the parish that Cromwell "personally superintended the battering down of the old church, and flattened the nose of every statue then and there lying."[10] There are bullet marks of the south side of the Church tower.
The Battle of Worcester (3 September 1651) was the last main Battle of the Civil War, and King Charles hid in an oak tree afterwards, while trying to elude the parliamentarians.
The Industrial Revolution
In 1827 there was a duel on Lord's Meadow, which is the large field near the site of the old Pixham Ferry. The duelists were John Somerset Russell (later John Pakington), who later became Secretary of State for War, and J. Parker, the Master of the Worcestershire Hounds. They were arguing over a quarrel they had while hunting. Both their shots missed, and the seconds persuaded them to make up.
The Victorian Era
Parish Magazines
"Kempsey Parish Magazine appeared in January 1877, and finished (without any explanation being given) that December."
"In January 1889 another attempt to produce a magazine was made under the vicar, the Rev. W.N.R. Longhurst, in the form of the Kempsey Church Monthly."
The Pig Club
This was "set up with the object of the insurance and relief of each of the members who might have the misfortune to lose a pig."
The Wrecking of the Revolutionary Elm
"In June on Whitsunday afternoon 1897 "The Revolutionary Elm" was wrecked by a sudden storm. It was probably the last of the trees planted to celebrate the events of 1688." Note: this was the Glorious Revolution of 1688-9, when the catholic King James II fled and the protestant William of Orange (husband of the King's elder daughter Mary) was invited by parliament to be King William III of England.[1]
Victoria Cross
Major General Edward William Derrington Bell, winner of the Victoria Cross at the Battle of Alma in the Crimean War in 1854 is buried in Kempsey churchyard.
Kempsey Windmill
A photo of Kempsey windmill was taken by Benjamin Brecknell Turner sometime between 1852 and 1854. The photo is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The windmill burned down on 20 January 1802 in a hurricane.
In 1889 Benjamin Williams Leader's painting of Kempsey Church from across the river, entitled "Severn Side, Sabrina's Stream at Kempsey on the River Severn", was exhibited at the Royal Academy.
The 20th Century
In 1918 Lieutenant Robert Vaughan Gorle of Napleton (an area of Kempsey parish) won the Victoria Cross on 1 October.
The composer Sir Edward Elgar (1857–1934), lived in Kempsey from April 1923 to October 1927.
In 1940 during World War II a stick of bombs hit the garden of The Nash country house, straddling the house.
In the late 1950s the Severn Trow (a kind of boat) named 'EFFORT' caught fire at Kempsey Moorings. Later it was used to support the eroding bank on Kempsey Ham, south of the church.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kempsey, Worcestershire. |
- British History Online
- An old parish map on Worcestershire County Council web site
- www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Kempsey and surrounding area
- www.kempseyhub.co.uk : News, pictures and information about Kempsey
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 St. Mary's Church, Kempsey Worcestershire 1984 Kempsey Collection ISBN 0-9509914-0-6 Re-printed with additions 1990.
- ↑ O'Neil, Helen E. 1956 "Court House Excavations, Kempsey, Worcestershire", in Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society pp. 33–44
- ↑ O'Neil, Helen E. 1956 'Court House Excavations, Kempsey, Worcestershire', in 'Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society' pp. 33–44
- ↑ O'Neil, Helen E. 1956 'Court House Excavations, Kempsey, Worcestershire', in 'Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society' pp. 33 - 44
- ↑ http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43148&strquery=Kempsey
- ↑ Worcester Archaeology No.27: October 2011: ISSN1468-1862
- ↑ Kempsey Collection p.14
- ↑ Fraser, Maxwell 'Companion to Worcestershire' p.11
- ↑ Kempsey Collection
- ↑ Historical Notes Relating to the Parish of Kempsey by the Rev. R. C. Purton M.A., Read at the Guildhall Worcester 11th December 1900
St. Mary's Church, Kempsey Worcestershire 1984 Kempsey Collection ISBN 0-9509914-0-6 Re-printed with additions 1990.