Alcester, Aulcester, or Allencester, a neat market-town, and a place of great antiquity. It is situated in a pleasant and fertile vale, near the conflux of the Alne and Arrow; from the first of which rivers, and its having been a city or fortified place, in the times of the Saxons, the name is probably derived. The Roman way, called Ykenil-street, passed through or near this place; and many coins, Roman bricks, &c. continue to be found. There is a very considerable market for corn, &c. on Tuesdays. The Earl of Warwick is lord of the manor, and patron of the rectory; and, in the year 1765, generously surrendered the tolls of the market and fairs, for the benefit of the town and country. It is governed by a steward, deputy-steward, two bailiffs, and constables, who are elected annually at the court-leet, &c. of the lord of the manor.

In the parish were formerly two chantries, and an abbey, erected on a piece of ground encompassed with the river Arrow, and a moat, which made it a kind of island. The church is a neat edifice, situate near the centre of the town; here are also three meetinghouses, viz. Presbyterian, Anabaptists, and Quakers. Walter Newport, of Holdenby, in the County of Northampton, in the 34th of Elizabeth, gave the sum of 400l. to buy lands, or an annuity of 20l. a year, to found and endow a school; here are also eight almshouses, for aged men and women, with suitable allowances; and many other charities to the poor of this parish. The principal manufactory carried on here is needle-making, which affords employment to many families. The town, according to the late population-act, consisted of 349 houses, and 1625 inhabitants, viz. 734 males, and 891 females; of whom 370 were returned as being employed in trade and manufacture, and 68 in agriculture."Aulcester, (says Leland) is a pretty market-town. The town hath been a great thing. Some say there hath been three parish-churches in it, and that the priory, now a little without the town, by east-north-cast, was in the middle of it. Many tokens of buildings and bones of men be found in places without the town especially in Black field. The priory was of ancient time a great monastery, since impropriate to Evesham. Aulcester, as it now standeth, on the ripe of Arrowe water, yet seeing that it beareth the name of Aulne, it is an evident token that the old town stood most by Aulne." The Priory was founded by Ralph le Boteler of Oversley, in 1140, for Benedictines, and valued at 651. per annum. "Alcester, (says Gough) takes it name from Allences ter from the river Alne, to which Leland probably enough conjectured it once extended. It has now two handsome stone-bridges over this river and the Arrow. Roman coins of all metals, and other antiquities, have born discovered in great abundance in the town, and the environs called Black fields. Lately, in making the turnpike-road to Stratford, were found several intire skeletons, with Roman cuins, in a bed of gravel. In the church is a monument of Sir Fulke Grevil, lord of Beauehamp's court in this neighbourhood, and grandfather to Sir P. Sidney's friend, Lord Brook. Here Salmon places Manduessedum." The Beauehamps (continues Leland) were lords of Aulcestere, and had a house by the Priory called Beauehamp's Hall. It came by marriage to the Lord Brooke, and now by marriage to Fulk Grevill, who now buildeth at Beauehamp's Hall, and taketh stones from Aulcester Priory, the which he also hath." Gough says, "Sir Fulke Greville was one of those heroes of the Elizcbethan age who panted after opportunities of signalizing their valour and virtues in forejgn courts, or under famous generals, or on discoveries and conquests. The queen having checked his genius, he gave himself up, with his loving and beloved Achates, Sir Philip Sidney, to learned retirement, and to the patronage of the arts. Sir Fulke never ceased soliciting the Queen till she promoted Mr. Camden to the office of Clarencieux, king at arms, in gratitude for which Mr. Camden left him, in his last will, a piece of plate, besides immortalizing him in his Britannia. Speed, in his Theatre of Great Britain, speaking of Warwick Castle, expresses himself thus: "The right worthy knight, Sir Pulk Greville, in whose person shineth all true virtue and high nobility, whose goodues to me ward I do acknowledge, in setting this hand free from the daily employments of a manual trade, and giving it full liberty thus to express the inclination of my mind, himself being the procurer of my present estate." Sir Fulke had the office of the signet at the council in the inarches of Wales, and that of treasurer to the navy, and a giant of Wedgnock park, under Queen Elizabeth. At the coronation of James 1. he was made Knight of the Bath, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and one of the privy-council. He obtained a grant of Warwick Castle, and laid out above 2,000l. in refitting it, and making it fit for his own residence, besides purchasing and planting the Temple-grounds adjoining, with an intention of putting in execution a design, which George, Duke of Clarence, had formed, of making a park of them under his windows, and which George, the present Earl Brooke and Earl of Warwick, since he became lord of the manor, has been able to accomplish. Sir Fulke had in his own person the hereditary right of a peerage, being by his grandmother heir-at-law to Robert Willoughby, Lord Brook. But it probably being not then a clear point in law, that, after an honour had been some, time in obeyance of the female line, it could afterwards be claimed by the heir-at-law (as indeed this question was first determined in this very case, decided on in the Honse of Lords, 8th of William, III., on the petition of Richard Verney, of Compton Murduck,) Sir Fulk accepted of letters-patent, 18th of James I., creating him Lord Brooke, Baron Brooke of Beauchamp's court, in this county, with reversion to his cousin Robert Greville, on whom he settled all his estates, which he had cleared from all intails and other incumbrances. He executed his will, Feb. 18, 1627-8, and added a codicil of annuities to several gentlemen in his service; but omitting one of them, whose name was Haywood, he resented it so highly, that being one day alone with him in his bedchamber at Brook-house, Holborn, he, after warm expostulations, stabbed him in the back, and escaping into another room, which he locked, murdered himself before he could be seized. His lordship, after languishing a few days, died Sep. 30,1628, in the 75th year of his age, and was buried with great solemnity in his vault in Warwick Church, under a monument erected by himself, with this remarkable inscription:— Fulke Greville, Servant to Queen Elizabeth, Councillor to King James, And Friend to Sir Philip Sidney. Trophoeiem Peccati. "His cousin Robert succeeded to his estate and title, and, being slain at the siege of Lichfield close was succeeded by his three sons, and by the descendants of the youngest of them, whose grandson, Francis, was created Earl of Warwick, 1759, and is succeeded by his son George, present and second Earl Brooke, and Earl of Warwick. "Alcester hath for its near neighbour Arrow, whose lord, for his dependence upon George, Duke of Clarence, words unadvisedly uttered and hardly construed through the iniquity of the time, lost his life. But by his grandmother marrying to Edward Conway, brother to Sir Hugh Conway, of Wales, a gracious favourite of King Henry VIII., the knightly family of the Conways have ever since flourished and laudably followed the profession of arms."

At the distance of one mile from Alcester is Ragley Park, the seat of the Marquis of Hertford; about four miles beyond which we arrive at the village of Wood church; three miles and a half to the east of which is Bitford, formerly a considerable town, but it is now so reduced as scarce to deserve the name of village. It is pleasantly situated on the banks of the river Arrow, near its confluence with the Avon.

ALCESTER (anciently written “Alencestre” and “Alnecester,” and by Matthew Paris “Ellencaster,” is a market town, head of a petty sessional division, union and county court district, in the South-Western division of the county, standing at the junction of the Arrow and Alne rivers and near the Worcestershire border, 8 miles west-by-north from Stratford-on-Avon, 15 west-south-west from Warwick, 10 from Evesham, 19 from Birmingham, 13 from Bromsgrove, 7 from Redditch and 102 from London by road, hundred of Barlichway, rural deanery of Alcester, and archdeaconry and diocese of Worcester. There is a junction station here on the Midland Railway, with a branch opened in 1876 and connecting the Midland system with the Great Western at Bearley junction, of miles distant. The streets are lighted with gas from works established in 1850, and the town is well supplied with water from the waterworks at Arrow, by the Alcester Waterworks Co. Lim. established in 1878, mainly through the generosity of the late Marquis of Hertford. The town derives its name from having been a castrum or fortified Roman station, on or near the river Alne, and was probably the Warwickshire Alauna of the Romans, as quoted by Richard of Cirencester in the 14th century: there appears, moreover, to be a strong probability, both from the name and for other reasons, that madern Alcester does not occupy the site of the ancient town, which is assumed both by Lieland and Dudgale to have had a situation upon the Alne river; the latter in particular refers to the remains of buildings discovered at Blacklands, or Blackfields, south of the present town, where, some years since, two urns containing human bones and ashes were found; and in another field, near the Arrow road, a Roman stone coffin has been disinterred uninjured, containing a perfect skeleton. Icknield street, one of the three Roman roads which traverse the county, passes here. The ecclesiastical history of Alcester begins at a very remote period; so early as the eighth century St. Egwin, third Bishop of Worcester and founder of the Monastery of Evesham, visiting it, reproved the inhabitants for their luxury and avarice, and Capgrave, in relating the circumstance, speaks of the place as “Castrum Alnecestre, regale tunc mansum.” No mention, however, is made of Alcester in the Domesday survey, and Dugdale meets with no record of it until Henry II.’s time, when it is styled “Francus Burgus Domini Regis.” In the fifth year of Stephen (1139-40), Ralph Boteler of Oversley founded the priory on a piece of insulated ground, contiguous to where Alcester mill now is, and hence at that time called “The Church of our Lady of the Isle;” but although liberally endowed, and afterwards enriched by pious gifts and bequests, it had become so reduced in Henry VI.’s reign by the ill-management and wastefulness of its abbots, that the King displaced them and committed its government to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester; its prosperity, in spite of this precaution, and an appeal to the Pope, still continuing to decline, it was, in 1467, deprived of its position as an independent house and united to the Abbey of Evesham. The church of St. Nicholas, once dedicated to St. Faith, and standing in the middle of the town, originally belonged to the Priory of Alcester; it afterwards came to the nuns of Cokehill of Worcestershire, and at the Dissolution passed to the Greville family, who long continued the patrons, till, at the close of the last century, it was sold, together with the manor, to the Marquess of Hertford: the existing church is a large building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, and an embattled western tower, in the Decorated style of the 14th century, three stages in height, with a turret at the south-east corner, and crocketed pinnacles at the angles, and containing a clock and 6 bells, with inscriptions, all cast at Gloucester by A. B. Rudhall, in 1735: the body of the church, with a recess for the holy table, was rebuilt between 1727 and 1734, the money for the rebuilding being in part collected by means of briefs, as may be seen by an entry in the parish register of Gatcombe, Isle of Wight; in 1870 a new chancel was built at a cost of £2,600, when an elaborately carved pulpit was erected and a stone font placed in the church as a memorial to the Rev. F. A. Crow M.A. late rector, who died 30 Dec. 1868, and Emma, his wife; in the tower there remains a singular triptych of oak, the folding doors of which, when open, exhibit rudely painted figures; it is dated 1683, and bears an inscription with sundry texts of scripture: here is also preserved an ancient lock with a key nine inches long and in good order: at the east end of the south aisle is a cenotaph, erected to the memory of Francis, second Marquess of Hertford K.G. d. 1882, with a fine life-sized recumbent figure in white marble, by the late Sir Francis Chantrey, a shield of arms and an inscription: under the tower is a white marble statue of the Right Hon. Sir Hamilton Seymour G.C.B., G.C.H. d. 2 Feb. 1880, erected by his son, Arthur Henry Seymour: there is a memorial window erected by public subscription, July, 1885, to Francis Hugh George, fifth Marquess of Hertford G.C.B. d. 25 Jan. 1884 5 and another to Lady Georgina Mary Seymour, widow of Admiral Sir George Francis Seymour G.C.B., G.C.H., and mother of the fifth Marquess, d. 20 Aug. 1878, erected by her daughter-in-law, Emily, Marchioness of Hertford, in 1879, and in 1893 a west window was erected by Mr. F. W. Heath, of Toronto, to his parents, who were for many years residents in the town: in the north aisle stands the 16th century monument of Sir Fulke Greville and the Lady Elizabeth (Willoughby) his wife, consisting of a high altar-tomb on which lie their recumbent effigies, both painted and gilt, and apparently portraits; the sides of the tomb are divided by twisted columns into compartments, enclosing figures and heraldic shields: two rectors, Thomas Jowling M.A. (1745) and Francis Palmer LL.B. (1843) are buried in the church: and memorials have been placed to the family of Brandis or Brandish (1724-1841), Phillips (1782-1825), Bridges (1666-87), Clarke (1811-27) and others, some of which are modern brasses: there were formerly two chantries in the church, one, in “the Chapel of Our Lady,” founded by one of the Botelers, the other by John de Beauchamp, for a daily service at the altar of All Saints: there are 600 sittings. The churchyard is now disused, a former Marquess of Hartford having given two acres of land on the Birmingham road, to be used for burial purposes. The register of baptisms and burials dates from 1560, and marriages from 1561, the first entry in the register of burials being that of “Sir Fulk Gravill, Knight, Nov. 10, 1560.” The living is a rectory, average tithe rent-charge £7, gross yearly value £220, including 84 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Marquess of Hertford, and held since 1869 by the Rev. Alfred Henry Williams, M.A. of Clare College, Cambridge, chaplain in ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen, and since 1877 incumbent of Weethley. The Catholic School chapel, opened 19 March, 1889, and dedicated to “Our Lady of the Isle and St. Joseph,” is a building of local stone, from designs by the Rev. A. J. C. Scales, of St. Joseph’s Presbytery, Bridgewater; it was erected at a cost of about £2,000, inclusive of land, and consists of chancel, nave and south porch, and has a residence adjoining for the schoolmistress and caretaker, and will seat 180 persons. There is a Wesleyan chapel, built in 1872, and seating 140 persons, a Baptist chapel, built in 1869, with 384 sittings, and a chapel for Unitarians. The Town Hall is a building supported on stone pillars, with the carved date 1641; the basement, formerly used as a market place, was, in 1873, converted by the late Marquess of Hertford into a room for holding meetings of magistrates and for the purposes of the Alcester County Court. There is a fire brigade with a station in Gas House lane, containing one manual engine and equipment; the force consists of a superintendent and 8 men. Formerly an extensive trade was carried on in the manufacture of needles, but this has in part been removed to Redditch and its neighbourhood: the manufacture of needles, embroidery hooks, toilet and other pins, is, however, still maintained by Messrs. Wm. Allwood & Sons, Limited, and needle-stamping and scouring are largely carried on, and there are also implement works, a cycle factory, and a brewery. The Metropolitan Bank (of England and Wales) Limited and the Capital and Counties Bank Limited, have each a branch here. The “Alcester Chronicle” is published here every Saturday. A corn market is held on Wednesdays in the Corn Exchange, a structure of brick with stone dressings, erected in 1857 at a cost of about £2,000, and also let for concerts and entertainments and holding for these purposes 1,000 persons. Statute fairs for hiring servants are held the Tuesday before and the Tuesday after Michaelmas. Cattle sales are held here instead of the old fairs, generally on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday, by Mr. E. G. Righton, of Evesham. The Alcester reading room, established Nov. 1889, occupies premises in High street, and is supplied with the leading London and Provincial papers, magazines &c.; it is supported by the subscriptions from about 90 members. The Hertford Memorial Hospital for infectious diseases &c. opened in April, 1886, was erected by public subscription throughout the county, at a cost of £1,300, on a site given by the present Marquess of Hertford, to the memory of Francis Hugh George, fifth Marquess of Hertford G.C.B.: it is a structure of red brick in the Queen Anne style, with twelve beds, and includes a detached residence for the superintending nurse. There are eight almshouses, four in the Bleachfield for men and four on the Birmingham road for women over 60 years of age: these have a land endowment, the profits of which, after paying the necessary disbursements, allow about 3s. 6d. weekly to each of the inmates. Other land at Alne Hills is let at a yearly rental of £40, formerly applied to the apprenticing of poor boys, but this sum, together with Eamshaw’s and other charities, is now under a new scheme framed by the Charity Commissioners, apportioned to the endowment of the Newport Grammar School. Some inferior charities, amounting to about £25 yearly, are expended in the distribution of bread. A bequest of Lady Fulke Greville, now amounting to £6 annually, provides 12 gowns each year for the poor.

Beauchamp Court, or Manor House, the moat of which may still be traced, was formerly the residence of the families of Beauchamp and Greville, the direct ancestors of the present Earl of Warwick, but is now the property of the Marquess of Hertford, and is occupied as a farm house. The Marquess of Hertford P.C. is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The number of acres is 1,626; rateable value £7,382; the population in 1881 was 2,430, and in 1891, 2,406.

Petty Sessions are held at the Town hall every alternate Monday at 11.15 a.m. The places in the Petty Sessional division are Alcester, Arrow, Great Alne, Bidford, Coughton, Exhall, Haselor, Ipsley, Kinwarton, Morton Baggott, Oversley, Salford Priors, Sambourne, Spernall, Studley, Weethley & Wixford.

Alcester Union

The Alcester union comprises 24 parishes and hamlets, viz.: —Abbot’s Morton (Worcester), Alcester, Arrow, Great Alne, Aston Cantlow, Bidford, Coughton, Exhall, Feckenham (Worcester), Feckenham Urban (Worcester), Haselor, lnkberrow (Worcester), Ipsley, Upper Ipsley, Kinwarton, Morton Baggott, Oldberrow (W orcester), Oversley (hamlet), Salford, Sambourne (hamlet), Spernall, Studley, Weethley & Wixford. The population of the union in 1891 was 19,978; area, 55,447 acres; rateable value in 1895, £87,777.

The Workhouse at Oversley on the road to Henley-in-Arden, was built in 1837, at a cost of £3,039 4s. 6d. & enlarged in 1865 & 1867 & is now available for 260 inmates; the front is of stone given by the late Sir Charles Throckmorton bart.

Alcester Rural District Council.

Meets at the Board room, Workhouse, on the first Wednesday in each month at the conclusion of the Guardians’ Meeting.

Schools

Alcester Endowed Grammar, founded in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in pursuance of the will of Walter Newport esq. & re-organized under a scheme of the Charity Commissioners in 1880, by which some land at Alne Hills & Earn-shaw’s & other charities have been added to the endowment, which is now £110 yearly, and the management placed in the hands of twelve Governors of whom three are ex-officio, two appointed by the rector & churchwardens, three by the vestry & four co-optative; the school occupies the site of the Benedictine abbey founded by Ralph Boteler A.D. 1140, part of the walls of which still remain. There is attached a residence for the master, who takes 15 boarders; there are at present 4 boarders & 28 day boys, 8 being educated free.

Clerk to Governors, Samuel Alfred Gothard, Alcester.

National, erected in 1843, on a site given by the late Marquess of Hertford & enlarged & a house built for a master & mistress, in 1874, at a cost of about £1,600; the schools will hold 130 boys, 120 girls & 110 infants, the latter department has to be enlarged; average attendance, 112 boys, 100 girls & 127 infants.

Catholic, erected in 1888-9 for 180 children; average attendance 45.