DIRECTORY.] 'VORCESTERSHIRE. OFFENBAM. 179

'PRIVATE RESIDENTS. 'rhornely Saml. Uppel' BroomhaU Kyte Jamell, farmer, Lower house Adams Mrs. Wood hall Vevers Rev. Wiluam Winnall RA. Lakcy Thos. farmer, Newlands farm Berkeley Robert D.L., J.P. The Firs Vicararre :.\fason Wm. Hy. farmer, Stoneho. farm Brock Lieut. E. N. L. Norton barracks Watton Miss, Hatfield Merriman Wm. Norton Retreat P.R Chance Arthur Lucas, Norton hall COMMERCIAL. Partington John Sherwood, farmer &; HobsonLieut. E. P. C.Norton barracks Allington Geo. (Mrs.), farmer, Hatfield hop grower, Norton grange Jackson Neville, Hatfield Ballard Alfred, farmer, Hatfield Petford James, blacksmith Malone Capt. C. R. R. Norton barracks Gulliver Geo. Hall, shopkpr. Broomhall Phipps John, farmer, Hatfield Moore Capt. John (quartermaster 4th Graham Malcolm &; Alec, fruit growers, Savage Fdk. Jsph. frmr. Old House fm batt.) (Militia), Norton barracks Hatfield Simmons Georg-e, dairyman Partington In. Sherwcod, Norton grng Harber Henry &; Son, frmrs.Pound ho Taylor Daniel, farmer Pitt George, Littleworth Harber Thomas, baker & grocer Walford John ,farmer, Norton court Swanson Capt. J. G. R. Norton barcks Kimber William, shopkeeper Watson George, farmer, Norton house is a village and parish, 3~ miles south- Boil is loamy; subsoil, principally marl, and in some parts east from Droitwich station on the Worcester and Stour- clay. The crops are all kinds of cereals and a few roots. bridge section of the Great Western railway, 6 north-east The area is 870 acres; rateable value, £1,742; the popu­ from Worcester, and lI8 from , in the Mid divi- lation in 1891 was 152. sion of the county, Lower Oswaldslow hundred, Droit- is a hamlet, I mile north, partly in wich union, petty sessional division and county court this parish and partly in that of , with a sta­ district, rural deanery of Droitwich and archdeaconry and tion on the Midland railway for goods only. diocese of Worcester. The Worcester and Birminl;ham Netherwood, half a Inile south-east, is a farm, and canal runs through the parish. The church of St. was the scene of a tragedy in 1806, when a person named James, almost wholly rebuilt in 1851, from the designs of Hemming, a carpenter, having been employed to 88­ Mr. Hussey, '!'t the expense of J. H. Galton esq. is a sassinate the Rev. G. Parker, then rector, was after­ cruciform building of stone in the Perpendicular style, wards himself murdered by his employers, who were consisting of chancel, nave, transepts, south porch and a fearful of the perpetrator of the horrible deed being western tower containing 3 bells: there is a considerable found out and themselves implicated. quantity of old stained glass, and one of the bench ends Parish Clerk, Thomas GreenhilI. has a wrought-iron standard hour-glass frame: the church Pillar Letter Post, Dunhampstead, cleared at 6 p.m. affords ISO sittings. The register dates from the year Letters received through Droitwich, which dis the 1661. The living is 8 rectory, united in 1878 to , nearest money order &; telegraph office; delivered at 8 average. tithe rent-charge £ 129, joint net yearly value a.m. & 6 p.m £246, including 186 acres of glebe, with residence, in the Parochial School (mixed), for Oddingley & Hadzor. gift of Major H. G. Howard Galton B.A. and held since erected in 1850, for 64 children; average attendance.. r'842 by the Rev. James Bearcroft B.A. of Oriel College, 38; Mrs. Maria Mackmain, mistress Oxford. Major Hubert George Howard Galton R.A., Dunhampstead Goods Station, George L. Knight, sta- S.P. is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The tion master Bearcroft Rev. James B.A.. Rectory Grundy Wm. blcksmth.&;Fir Tree P.B Plain John. shopkeener, Trench lane Bearcroft Harry I Kendall J ames, farmer, Church farm South Wales, &; Gmnock Chase Coal &-- . Blackburn Edward, f~rmer,NetherwoodIHorton George William, farm bailiff to Coke Co. Lim. Midland goods station • Brooks Thoma~ farmer Mr. R. H. Godard

OFFENHAM is a small village and parish on the , and the present Manor farmhouse is believed ? navigable river Avon, with a station {called Littleton and to stand npon the site of the ancient abbatial mansion: Badsey) on the Oxford and Worcester section of the Great in one of the rooms is a fine carved oak mantel-piece, in Western railway, 2 miles north-by-east from Evesham the centre of which are the arms of the Haslewood stations on the Great Western and Midland railways, and family: extensive foundations, and fragments of an old

r6 south-east from Worcester, in the Southern division building, were discovered about 1860, and the moat • of the county, Upper Blackenhurst hundred, Evesham which surrounded the residence may still be traced: in petty sessional division, union and county court district, the neighbourhood, towards the north-west, is a broad rural deanery of Evesham and archdeaconry and diocese fosse, oalled the" Deer's Leap," supposed to be a portion of Worcester. The church of St. Mary and St. Milburg, of the boundary of the deer park extending along the entirely rebuilt, with the exception of the tower, in 1861, river side, and belonging to the mansion: in 1887 20 is an edifice of stone in the Decorated style, consisting of skeletons were dug up in a field adjoining Mr. Brown's;, chancel, nave of four bays, north aisle, south porch, and mill: three of these were headless, and one was found' an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing 5 lying upon a slab, together with several bronze coinll:" bells and a clock erected in 1887, at a cost of about £80: at the end of the village stands the May pole, recently­ the east window is stained, and there are memorial win­ erected in place of an older one blown down during a dows to the Rev. R. Lawson, late vicar, and to Lieut.­ late gale. The Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, Ox· Col. R. Preedy; in the tower is another stained window, ford, who are the lords of the manor, George Hugh the gift of the Rev. R. Lawson; the pulpit ill of carved Digby and John Gibbs esqrs. and John Swift esq. of 12 Derbyshire marble, supported on a cluster of silo: polished Clyde road, Didsbury, Manchester, are the principal piers; there are 148 sittings. The register dates from landowners. The soil is light sandy; subsoil, gravel and the year 1538. The living is 8 vicarage, average tithe sand. The chief crops are wheat, market garden pro­ rent-charge £57, gross yearly value £293, net £220, in­ duce, oats and barley. The area is 1,215 acres; rateablq cluding 4 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of value, £3,632; the population in 1891 was 563, the Dean and Chaptcr of Christ Church, Oxford, and Sexton, George Porter. held since 1865 by the Rev. William James Bristow M.A. Post Office.-Soloman Salisbury, sub-postmaster. Letters, of Christ Church, Oxford. Rere is B Baptist chapel, through Evesham arrive at 7.30 a.m. & are dispatched" erected in 1871. A Working Men's Club and reading at 5.35 p.m. week days only. Postal orders are issued:;' room, erected at tEe sole cost of Mr. John Smith, was here, but not paid. Evesham is the nearest money opened October 24, 1887, and is supplied with the Lon­ order office &; the nearest telegraph off_ don and local papers, various games &c. and supported by voluntary subscriptions. There are two charities, Wall Box (The Laurels), cleared at 5.40 p.ll Brent's and Kerry's. aggregate value about £10 yearly, which sum, with the exception of £1 given to the vicar National School (mixed &; infants), erected in 1873, with for preacbing a sermon on Good Friday, is devoted to­ master's residence, by voluntary contributions, for 130 wards the support of the school; the poor's land and the children; average attendance, 100; Albert Duddell, rent of a cottage produce together about £10 yearly, master; Miss Ellen Taylor, infants' mis-tress; tbere is which is given to the poor in bread on Christmas day. a children's library of about ISO volumes attached OfIenham ill said to have been a retreat of the Abbots of Railway Station, Henry Edward Dipper, station wastet· Bramble William, Agra villa Bean Thomas, market gardener Cole AlIen, market gardener Bristow Rev. Wm. Jas. M.A. Vicarage Beereroft Wm. markt. gardnr. Boat la Cook Nelson, Bridge inn, Ferry Malcolm George Boswell Frank, market gardener Cresswell Herbert, thatcher COMMERCIAL. Brown Frank, miller (water), Faulk mll Drinkwat~r William, market gardener Andrews James, market gardener Canning In. Kettle, market gardener Freeman Alfred, market gardener Andrews John, sen. market gardener Careless John. market gardener Gibbs John, farmer &; landowner Andrews Rose (Mrs.), market gardener Careless Richd. mrkt.grdnr.&;landownr Gladwin Albert James, market gard!U' Antie Edwin, market gardener Careless William, commission agent Gould Edwd. coal dealer &; carr:er WORCS. ]2*