Place:Abberley, Worcestershire, England

Watchers
NameAbberley
TypeVillage
Coordinates52.3°N 2.3667°W
Located inWorcestershire, England
Also located inHereford and Worcester, England     (1974 - 1998)
Worcestershire, England     (1998 - )
See alsoDoddingtree Hundred, Worcestershire, Englandhundred of which the parish was a part
Martley Rural, Worcestershire, Englandrural district of which it was part 1894-1974
Malvern Hills District, Hereford and Worcester, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area 1974-1998
Malvern Hills District, Worcestershire, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area from 1998 onward
source: Family History Library Catalog

Abberley is a picturesque village in northwest Worcestershire, England. It is situated on the northern slopes of Abberley Hill (height 283 metres (928 ft)), between the River Severn and River Teme. The village had a population of 830 in 2001.

Abberley lies halfway between Worcester and Tenbury, at the junction with the road from Worcester to Cleobury Mortimer. The parish was described in 1905 as being "about six miles in length, and nowhere more than one mile in breadth". At the latest census, it had the youngest population of any Worcestershire village.

Abberley is a village of three distinct parts. The oldest part, known as The Village, clusters round the 12th century and 13th century parish church of St. Michael. To the west, and divided from the village by farmland and the Cleobury road, is The Common, where the largest part of the population lives, with new housing and modern amenities. Overlooking the Village is the third part of Abberley, The Hill, with scattered farms, houses and cottages across the steep slopes of Abberley Hill.

On the opposite side of Abberley Hill to the village, to the south of the Worcester-Tenbury road, lies Abberley Hall.

end of Wikipedia contribution

From 1894 until 1974 Abberley was a parish in the Martley Rural District. Since 1974 it has been part of the Malvern Hills District, first in the county of Hereford and Worcester, and then, since 1998, in Worcestershire again.

There is a sketchmap of the parishes of Martley Rural District on the rural district page.

  • Ordnance Survey Maps of England and Wales - Revised: Worcestershire illustrates the parish boundaries of Worcestershire when rural districts were still in existence and before the West Midlands came into being. The map publication year is 1931. The map blows up to show all the parishes and many of the small villages and hamlets. Maps in this series are now downloadable for personal use.
  • British History Online has a large collection of local maps from the Ordnance Survey 1883-1893. These blow up to a size that permits viewing of individual hamlets, farms, collieries, but there is no overlapping of one map to the next, and no overall map to tie the individual ones together.
  • British History Online also has three volumes of the Victoria County History of Worcestershire online. Volume 3 (published in 1913) deals with the Halfshire Hundred; Volume 4 (published in 1924) deals with the City of Worcester, as well as parishes in the hundreds of Pershore and Doddingtree. Volume 2 covers religious houses in the county. The remainder of the county is not represented in the British History Online series.
  • GENUKI makes a great many suggestions as to other websites with worthwhile information about Worcestershire as well as leading to a collection of 19th century descriptions of each of the ecclesiastical parishes.
  • The FamilySearch Wiki provides a similar information service to GENUKI which may be more up-to-date. An index of parishes leads to notes and references for each parish. The auxiliary website English Jurisdictions can also be helpful.
  • Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, The Hive, Sawmill Walk, The Butts, Worcester WR1 3PD (Telephone: 01905 822866, e-mail: archive@worcestershire.gov.uk) The Archives Collections Catalog Summary outlines the contents of the Archives Collection and also notes on what has been transferred to the national online service Access to Archives
  • The Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry has a branch in Bromsgrove which deals in Worcestershire family history. There are also branches at Stourbridge and Worcester.
  • The Midlands Historical Data project produces searchable facsimile copies of old local history books and directories of interest to genealogists. It specialises in the three counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire, working closely with libraries, archives and family history societies in the area. Digital images are made freely available to participating organisations to improve public access. Free search index on its web-site to all its books. In many cases payment will be required to see the extract.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time has
  1. organization charts of the hierarchies of parishes within hundreds, registration districts and rural and urban districts of the 20th century
  2. excerpts from a gazetteer of circa 1870 outlining individual towns and parishes
  3. reviews of population through the time period 1800-1960
  • Brett Langston's list of Worcestershire Registration Districts and parishes within each registration district from 1837 to the present can indicate where to find details of civil registration entries since the process began in England.
  • More local sources can often be found by referring to "What Links Here" in the column on the left.
  • A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 4 edited by William Page and J W Willis-Bund covers the city of Worcester, as well as parishes in the hundreds of Pershore and Doddingtree, in the south and west of the county. These include the towns of Pershore, Great Malvern and Hanley Castle. (Victoria County History - Worcestershire. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1924, and available free online from British History Online)
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Abberley. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.