Blakedown

In ancient times the Roman road between Droitwich and Greensforge ran just east of Blakedown and later developed into a saltway supplying the West Midlands. Another road linking Kidderminster to Birmingham was made a turnpike in 1753, and a toll house was built above Blakedown Pool at the junction with the Belbroughton Road. A milestone from this era with an 1807 metal plate still exists on the first bend coming into the village from Kidderminster.[8] The toll house income dwindled with the coming of the railway and the building was eventually replaced with a shop. One source of financial loss was Samuel Bradley, the owner of Spring Brook Forge, who made a short cut from Forge Lane to the station in order to avoid paying dues on his goods. Planted with trees, it is still known as The Avenue.[9]

The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway opened a station at the edge of the village in 1853 on land made available by the Squire of Harborough Hall. Originally it was named Churchill, then Churchill and Blakedown following the amalgamation of the two parishes.[10] Now it is known simply as Blakedown railway station. In the station yard there still remain the single storey cottages built at the time for railway workers.[11] The original viaduct over the wide valley of Wannerton Brook was built on wooden trestles. In 1885 what was by then the Great Western Railway replaced it with a parallel blue brick viaduct, although the red brick abutments of the old structure can still be seen on either side of the valley.[12] The station was situated on Mill Lane, where level crossing gates were operated from a signal box. After that became redundant, it was acquired by the Churchill and Blakedown Historical Society for their headquarters and in 2016 was shifted across the road to a site adjoining the station.[13]

Settlement of the area along the Kidderminster road came slowly. The timber-framed Harborough Hall was built in 1635 for William and Anne Penn on land that had belonged to the family since the reign of Edward III. On William's death it was left to his two daughters, of whom the elder married Thomas Shenstone and was the mother of William Shenstone the poet.[14] Damming produced a chain of pools below the house, curving round to Broome Mill, which was disused by the 1880s. Following shortly on the enclosure of Harborough Common in 1832, Harborough Farm was built on the other side of the main road, with two farm cottages further along the hillside.[15]

The main street in 1917 at the Belbroughton turn; the telegraph office on the left is now the post office

At the opposite end of the village, beyond the parish boundary, there was once a half-timbered cottage on the slope, with the village smithy on the other side of the main road, both of which were demolished in the early 20th century. Springbrook House, dating from the turn of the 18th century, still survives, as does the contemporary Churchill corn mill beside Wannerton Brook.[16] Along the village street there are two survivals from the end of the 18th century, Castle Ash and Jack's Cottage (which now adjoins the Post Office). Rose Cottage, near the Belbroughton Road, dates from 1820 but has since been combined with the former blacksmith's round the corner. Beyond the blacksmith on Belbroughton Road (which continued to be called by its old name of The Common for decades) there were the narrow plots of Victorian cottage developments, each with their peaked porch.[17] On the other side of the road were the cottages built for foundry workers in the 1830s at the top of Forge Lane.[18]

By 1860 there were enough inhabitants in the village for the church of St James the Great to be built to a design by Gothic revivalist George Edmund Street. At first it consisted of a simple nave and chancel with an ornamental bell-turret at the gable end. The sandstone for the church was quarried from the grounds of Hagley Hall, the residence of the Lyttelton lords of the manor at the time. In 1865 two Sunday morning services were held to accommodate the growing population and in the following year a rooftop wooden bell-tower was added (later renewed in 1915 at the same time as a new aisle and vestry were built).[19][20] A school associated with the church was first housed in a tin hut in the churchyard, replaced in 1885 with a brick building which now functions as a nursery school. The new primary school occupies modern buildings on a site adjacent to the churchyard.

Among the 20th century houses in the area, Knoll Hill along the Belbroughton road is notable for having been the former home of the show jumping champion Dawn Wofford.[21] Above the Kidderminster Road, Harborough Hill House was built in 1925; the much larger and more secluded Wannerton House dates from 1924 and is accessed by a private drive leading off Churchill Lane.[22] And along New Wood Lane is a newly restored Art Deco house, known as Blakedown Rough when it was first built in 1934.[23][24]