Place:Feckenham, Worcestershire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Feckenham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Redditch in Worcestershire, England. It lies some south-west of the town of Redditch and some east of the city of Worcester. It had a population of 670 in the 2001 census and its immediate area is the location of notable royal manors that cover over 1,000 years of English history documented in many royal charters and Acts of Parliament. At its greatest, the historic Forest of Feckenham stretched to the River Avon in the south and to Worcester in the west. In 1389 Geoffrey Chaucer was as Clerk of Works and Keeper of the Lodge.

Feckenham in the 21st century is a rural community with a traditional English village green with walking and riding routes, including the long-distance public footpath, The Monarch's Way, that passes about 1.5 miles east of the village.

Feckenham was originally an ancient parish partly in the Blackenhurst Hundred and partly in the Halfshire Hundred of Worcestershire, England.

It was made a civil parish in 1866 and from 1894 until 1933 it was a parish in the Feckenham Rural District. It became part of the Redditch Urban District in 1933. Since 1974 it has been part of the Wychavon District, first in the county of Hereford and Worcester, and then, since 1998, in Worcestershire again.

History

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Feckenham.

Economy

From around 1790 and during the industrial revolution, Feckenham and Redditch were well known for the manufacture of needles and fish-hooks. Cycles and motors have also been manufactured in the area. Agriculture is still a major activity.

Research Tips

• 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.