Belbroughton, Worcestershire Family History Guide
Belbroughton is an Ancient Parish in the county of Worcestershire.
Other places in the parish include: Brian’s Bell, Brian’s Bell Manor, Bellbroughton Manor, Hartle, Broomhill Manor, Fairfield, Fairfield Manor, and Bromhill.
Parish church:
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1539
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1615
Nonconformists: Primitive Methodist, Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
History
Description from Wikipedia:
Belbroughton was at the core of the North Worcestershire scythe-making district. Many of the mills of the area were formerly blade mills used for sharpening them, after a scythesmith had forged them from iron, with a thin strip of steel along the cutting edge. From the late 18th century until about 1870, the Waldron family of Field House Clent were the leading manufacturers. They were succeeded by Isaac Nash, whose business finally closed in about 1970. Scythes were formerly not just made in Belbroughton, but also several adjacent parishes, including Chaddesley Corbett.
Parish History
Belbroughton
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
Belbroughton, a manor, a parish, and a subdistrict, in the district of Bromsgrove, Worcester.
The manor lies 4 ¼. miles S by E of Stourbridge r. station, and 5 NW of Bromsgrove; and has a post office under Stourbridge, and fairs on the last Monday of April and the second Monday of Oct.
The parish includes also the manors of Fairfield, Bromhill, and Brian’s Bell, and the village of Hartle. Acres, 4,605. Real property, £11,450. Pop., 1,995. Houses, 405. The property is much subdivided. An extensive manufacture of scythes, hayknives and many kinds of edge-tools, is carried on.
The living is a rectory in the diocese of Worcester. Value, £1,244. Patron, St. John’s college, Oxford. The church is old but good; and there are Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels.
A school has an endowed income of £10, and other charities £24.
The subdistrict comprises five parishes and part of a sixth. Acres, 15,584. Pop., 4,867. Houses, 1,053.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
Belbroughton (Holy Trinity), a parish, in the union of Bromsgrove, Lower division of the hundred of Halfshire, Stourbridge and E. divisions of the county of Worcester, 5 miles (N. W. by N.) from Bromsgrove, on the road to Stourbridge; containing 1765 inhabitants.
The parish is divided into the manors of Belbroughton, Brian’s Bell, Fairfield, and Broomhill. It comprises 4733 acres, of which a considerable portion is pasture land; the soil is fertile, producing wheat, barley, turnips, &c.; the surface is rather hilly.
The manufacture of hay-knives and scythes is carried on extensively; and fairs take place on the last Monday in April, and the Monday before St. Luke’s day. Mr. Rufford, banker, has a mansion here.
The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £19; net income, £1244; patron, the President and Fellows of St. John’s College, Oxford. The church is a handsome structure, with a tower and spire; it stands on the south-west side of the village, on the eastern bank of a good stream of water, which turns several mills.
There is an endowment of about £10 per annum for the instruction of children. In 1833, a Roman jar, containing more than a hundred coins of the early emperors, was found on the Fern estate, near Fairfield.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848.
Worcestershire Delineated C. and J. Greenwood 1822
Belbroughton – a parish in Halfshire hundred, lower division, 3 miles N.N.W. from Bromsgrove, and 117 from London; containing 311 inhabited houses.
It is a parish of considerable extent, and has 2 annual fairs, viz., the first Monday in April, and the Monday before St. Luke’s, (18th October). Here are several manufactories for scythes and other articles in the iron trade; and a sheriff’s court is held every third Wednesday in the month, for the recovery of small debts.
The living is a rectory; Rev. G. F. Blackiston, D.D., incumbent; instituted 1798; in the gift of St. John’s College, Oxford. Population, 1801, 1266 – 1811, 1318 – 1821, 1476.
Bell-Hall, in the parish of Belbroughton, 3 miles from Bromsgrove, the residence of Mrs. Noel.
Source: Worcestershire Delineated: Being a Topographical Description of Each Parish, Chapelry, Hamlet, &c. In the County; with the distances and bearings from their respective market towns, &c. By C. and J. Greenwood. Printed by T. Bensley, Crane Court, Fleet Street, London, 1822.
Laird Description of Worcestershire 1814
Belbroughton lies about three miles north-west from Bromsgrove, and is remarkable on account of its fairs, which take place an the first Monday in April, and the Monday before St. Lukes (18th of October) for horned cattle, horses, and cheese.
We have no reason to believe this place to be more insalubrious than any other part of the county; yet it is a curious fact mentioned by a gentleman who had spent the greatest part of his youth here, that after an absence of no more than fourteen years, he met with only three people whom he had known formerly. “Such is the mutability,” as he justly observes, “of this uncertain state.”
The church is a very handsome edifice, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and is a rectory in the gift of St. John’s College, Oxford. Here are still some remains of armorial windows, which have escaped the ravages both of the puritanic, and modern Goths more generally known by the appellation of church-wardens, who in their rage for beautifying, have destroyed almost every remnant of antiquity in many of our country churches.
We cannot here omit a simple, yet elegant monumental effusion, which connubial love has engraved on a tablet to the memory of a late rector, the Rev. Dr. Clarke.
“When sorrow weeps o’er virtue’s sacred dust,
Our tears become us, and our grief is just;
Such were the tears she shed who grateful pays
This last sad tribute of her love and praise;
Who mourns the husband and the friend combin’d,
Where gentle pity met a manly mind;
Mourns, but not murmurs; sighs but not despairs;
Feels as a wife, but as a Christian bears.”
Source: A Topographical and Historical Description of the County of Worcester, by Mr. Laird. Printed for Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, Paternoster Row; and George Cowie and Co. successors to Vernor, Hood, and Sharp, 31, Poultry, London. Printed circa 1814.
Fairfield
Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales Circa 1870
Fairfield, a manor in Belbroughton parish, Worcester; 3 ¼ miles N of Bromsgrove. It forms a curacy with Belbroughton; and has a post-office under Bromsgrove.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Directories
Belbroughton Bennett’s Business Directory for Worcestershire, 1914
Chaddesley Corbett & Belbroughton Pigot and Co.’s National Commercial Directory 1835 – Google Books
Chaddesley Corbett, Belbroughton Pigots Directory 1842
Administration
- County: Worcestershire
- Civil Registration District: Bromsgrove
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Worcester (Episcopal Consistory)
- Diocese: Worcester
- Rural Deanery: Kidderminster
- Poor Law Union: Bromsgrove
- Hundred: Halfshire
- Province: Canterbury