1 Colwall Draft October 2019 for Comment
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COLWALL DRAFT OCTOBER 2019 FOR COMMENT 1 PROPOSED LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Collewelle in the Domesday Book 2. Colwall and surrounding area shown on This New Map of the County of Hereford, surveyed by Isaac Taylor (Ross, 1754) 3 . Colwall and surrounding area shown on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map in 1887. 4. Photograph of farm buildings at Colwall showing the spoil heap from shaft construction of the Colwall Tunnel, 1861 5. Photograph of Hereford and Worcester Railway contractors: Brassey and Ballard, engineering staff, 1861 6. Drawing of Perrycroft by C.F.A. Voysey 7. Photograph of Perrycroft 8. The British Camp and the Herefordshire Beacon by Henry Harris Lines, 1872 2 9. Colwall: Herefordshire Beacon, reproduced from Victoria County History of Herefordshire, I (1908), 205. 10. Photograph of Park Farm, 1929 11. Photograph of Pigeon House at Barton Court 12. Aerial photograph of Brockbury Hall, 1921 13. Plan of the Hope End Estate, in the Parishes of Colwall, Ledbury, Coddington, and Bosbury, Herefordshire for sale in 1867. 14. Hope End House before 1907 15. Plan of Colwall Park Farm, drawn by Edward Peters. 16. Photograph of the Community Orchard and the newly restored Apple Packing Shed with members of the Colwall Orchard Group in 2018. 17. Aerial photograph of Ballard’s Malt Vinegar Works, Colwall Stone, 1933 3 18. Ballard's Malt Vinegar label 19. Photograph of Colwall Park Hotel, 1932. 20. Photograph of Colwall Rangers Football Club, 1929 21. Aerial photograph of Colwall Park Racecourse, Colwall Stone, 1933 22. Photograph of the Downs Light Railway. 23. Front cover of A most straunge, and true discourse, of the wonderfull iudgement of God. Of a monstrous, deformed infant, begotten by incestuous copulation, betweene the brothers sonne and the sisters daughter, being both vnmarried persons. Which childe was borne at Colwall, in the country and diocesse of Hereford, vpon the sixt day of Ianuary last, being the feast of the Epiphany, commonly called Twelfth day. A notable and most terrible example against incest and whoredome. 24. Photograph of Colwall Green Methodist Chapel.. 25. Plan of Colwall Church, 1837 4 26. Watercolour sketch of the Church of Saint James the Great, Colwall, 1846 by Charles F. Walker 27. Ground plan of Colwall church by J.T. Micklethwaite and Somers Clarke junior, 1880–1 28. Photograph of Colwall church from the south-east in 2018. 29. Churchyard cross. 30. Photograph of Colwall Alehouse from the churchyard. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Colwall is the third parish history to be produced under the auspices of the Trust for the Victoria County History of Herefordshire. It continues the work on the Ledbury area which was started during the VCH-sponsored and Heritage Lottery-funded England’s Past for Everyone project. Like the history of Eastnor and Bosbury, published in 2013 and 2016, it will eventually form part of a VCH red book on Ledbury and the neighbouring Malvern Hills parishes. The work of VCH Herefordshire has been supported by many donors, to all of whom we are extremely grateful. The production of the Colwall history has been a team effort and the VCH Herefordshire volunteers, under the guidance of Dr Sylvia Pinches and most recently Dr James Bowen, have made major contribution to the research. Jonathan Comber wrote the sections on communications, modern settlement and local government. David Whitehead provided material on Colwall Park, Brand Lodge, agriculture and the church in the 19th century. Dr Edward Peters contributed the section on nonconformity and assisted with writing the entries for Brockbury Hall, Hope Pole and Joyces Cottage, Stone Holt, Cowlbarn Farm and Victoria Cottage. He also contributed material on farm buildings. Dr Jane Adams read and commented on a draft on springs and brooks and wrote the sections on the mineral water works, vinegar brewery and visitor economy. Dr John Fagg provided biographical information on celebrities and contributed material on retailing and highlighted the comparison of census figures for Colwall and neighbouring parishes. Gordon Wood shared his notes on railway history and the construction of the Malvern tunnels. Celia Kellett contributed to the research and writing of sections on occupations and 6 hotels, inns and alehouses. She also undertook genealogical research for the landownership section. Penelope Farquhar-Oliver offered helpful guidance on historic maps particularly relating to Malvern Chase. Mark and Gillian Archer read and commented on the account of Perrycroft and C.F.A. Voysey. Dr Keith Ray researched and wrote the sections on Early Settlement, British Camp and the Herefordshire Beacon. Dr John Freeman has generously shared his notes taken from mainly medieval documents for his research on Herefordshire place-names for the English Place Names Society. Professor Michael Rosenbaum, John Payne and Moira Jenkins contributed to the section on geology. Dr Lawrence Warner advised on the history of Piers Plowman, and Dr Mark Hailwood commented on a draft on the church house. Dr Sylvia Pinches, who carried out preliminary research on Colwall, commented on a draft on charities. Dr Sarah Ann Robin commented on a draft of the section on the monstrous birth. Colwall Orchard Group, in particular Wendy Thompson, undertook map regression analysis of the extent of orchards in the parish and we are grateful to Liam Delaney, Historic Environment Record Officer at Herefordshire Council for his assistance with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and providing access to the Historic Environment Record (HER). Emily Lister revised the account of the Downs School and the Headteacher of Colwall Primary School checked the account of the school. John Eisel and Robin Riches read and commented on the account of the church bells. Dr Janet Cooper and Professor Charles Watkins provided much advice and feedback and offered valuable editorial experience acting as County Editors. Professor Christopher Dyer read thedraft text, 7 suggested corrections, and contributed at short notice sections on medieval tenant farming and the medieval social character. We are grateful to John Croft, Chairman of The Trust of Dame Laura Knight for granting permission to use ‘Harvest 1939’ as the cover image. The British Library, The National Archives, The Royal Institute of British Architects, Lambeth Palace Library and Archive, Bodleian Library, Oxford and Historic England and Historic Environment Scotland have provided copies of images and granted permission for their inclusion as illustrations. We would like to thank the staff of the Herefordshire Archive Service and Herefordshire Libraries who have been extremely helpful and staff of the other archives record offices and libraries that have been consulted. We have also been granted access to the archives of Eastnor Castle and the Malvern Hills Conservators. Finally we would like to thank Dr Adam Chapman and Jessica Davies of VCH Central Office at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, for their work on the final editing of the book and seeing it through the press. 8 Colwall Colwall lies 4 miles (7 km.) north-east of Ledbury, and 15 miles (24 km.) east of Hereford. The eastern end of the parish lies on the steep slopes of the Malvern Hills, where the parish boundary forms part of the border between Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The prominent Iron Age hill fort called British Camp lies in the south-eastern corner of the parish. Modern-day settlement within the parish is focused on Colwall Stone, a hamlet that grew up at a junction of field lanes with the road from Ledbury to the Wyche Cutting. The eponymous stone which stands in the middle of this junction is of uncertain origin,1 but is said to have been brought in the late 18th century from a quarry near the Wyche to its present site, where an earlier stone may previously have stood.2 The bishops of Hereford were the principal landowners until modern times, although several other large estates have been built up since the 16th century. Until the 19th century Colwall’s economy was predominantly agricultural, including the cultivation of fruit and hops. The construction of the railway station on the line between Hereford and Worcester, which passes through the Colwall tunnels, has stimulated new settlement in the parish. The quality of the numerous springs which rise on the slopes of the Malverns has been appreciated since the 17th century, and commercial bottling of mineral water was an important industry in Colwall from the later 19th century until the closure of the bottling plant in 2010. Other industries were promoted locally by the prominent Ballard family, including a brickyard, vinegar brewery, ice works and fruit cannery. The development of the spa attracted increasing numbers of people from the mid 19th century. The presence of artists and writers during the 20th century led to Colwall gaining a reputation as a cultural centre. It was suggested by Allan Heywood Bright of Barton Court in 1928 that the 14th-century poet William Langland, author of The Vision of Piers Plowman, was from Colwall.3 Although the poem appears to describe the landscape of the Malvern Hills and a hill-top fortress corresponding with British Camp, few scholars give Bright’s claims any credence. Nevertheless, the proposed association of Langland with Colwall persists.4 Figure 2 Colwall and surrounding area shown on Isaac Taylor’s New Map of the County of Hereford (Ross, 1754). 1 PastScape, no. 113829. 2 Below, Landscape, Settlement, and Buildings. 3 ODNB, s.v. Langland, William, poet (accessed 30 Sep. 2019). 4 See, for example, a plaque beside the car park at Wynd’s Point. 9 LANDSCAPE, SETTLEMENT, AND BUILDINGS Boundaries and Parish Origins The parish of Colwall was estimated to measure 3,800 a. in 1831, revised 20 years later to 3,771 a.5 A detached portion of Coddington parish, measuring 76 a.