Ombersley

Ombersley is a village and civil parish in Wychavon district, in the county of Worcestershire, England. The parish includes the hamlet of Holt Fleet, where Telford's 1828 Holt Fleet Bridge crosses the River Severn. The 2011 census recorded a population of 2,360 for the parish.[1]

Ombersley
The Kings Arms, Ombersley
Ombersley is located in Worcestershire
Ombersley
Ombersley
Location within Worcestershire
OS grid referenceSO844635
 London103 miles
Civil parish
  • Ombersley
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townDROITWICH
Postcode districtWR9
Dialling code01905
PoliceWest Mercia
FireHereford and Worcester
AmbulanceWest Midlands
UK Parliament

History

The first known reference to the village[2] was the granting of a Charter to Abbot Egwin, later Saint Egwin, of Evesham Abbey in 706 AD. This was the Charter of King Æthelweard of the Hwicce, which granted twelve cassates in Ombersley to the Benedictine Abbey at Evesham.[3]

During the reign of William the Conqueror, the Domesday Book indicates the village was within an exclave of the ancient hundred of Fishborough in 1086 and remained the property of the Abbey of Evesham (Saint Mary).[4] It remained the property of the abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the early 16th century. By 1848 the village was within the parish of Ombersley (St. Ambrose), in the hundred of Oswaldslow.[5]

Royal forest

Ombersley was part of a Royal forest until 1229. The forest gives the village its name.[6]

Ombersley Court

Ombersley Court is traditional home of the Lords Sandys, many of whom are buried in the family mausoleum in the churchyard of St Andrew's parish church. When St Andrew's was built in its current form between 1825 and 1829, the chancel of the old church was adapted for use as mausoleum for the lords of the manor.[7] The architect of the church was Thomas Rickman; the cost of building was £18,000 of which two-thirds was contributed by Mary Sandys, dowager Marchioness of Downshire.[8] It is grade I listed. [9]

St Andrew's church
Churchyard of Saint Andrew's church

Governance

Since 1973 there has been a combined parish council for Ombersley and Doverdale. The parish council website, as of April 2022, states that "combining of the Parishes of Ombersley and Doverdale in 1973 created one of the largest parishes in Worcestershire",[10] and the Neighbourhood Development Plan refers (eg page 5) to "the parish of Ombersley and Doverdale",[11] but other sources - Office for National Statistics, Ordnance Survey, MapIt,[12] NHLE[13] - indicate that the two parishes still exist as separate entities.

Ombersley is in Wychavon district of the county of Worcestershire, and in the parliamentary constituency of Mid Worcestershire

Geography

Ombersley is 6 miles north of Worcester, 4 miles west of Droitwich, and 10 miles south of Kidderminster on the intersection of the A449 & A4133. The western boundary of the parish is the River Severn; to the east, Hadley Brook forms much of the boundary with the parish of Doverdale in the east, and the River Salwarpe, to the north of the Droitwich Canal, forms the southern boundary before it joins the Severn.

Listed buildings

As of April 2022 there are 151 listed buildings in the parish. Ombersley Court is grade I listed, five buildings are grade II* listed and 145 are at grade II.[14]

Notes

  1. UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Ombersley Parish (E04010421)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics.
  2. Article about Ombersley, The Birmingham Post (May 2006)
  3. University of London & History of Parliament Trust (2003–2007). "Houses of Benedictine monks - Abbey of Evesham". British History Online. Retrieved 1 April 2007.
  4. Open Domesday Online: Ombersley, accessed November 2017.
  5. A Topographical Dictionary of England. Originally published by S Lewis, London, 1848. Pages 476-79.
  6. "Parishes: Ombersley | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  7. Sandys Mausoleum
  8. Goodall, John (2015). Parish Church Treasures. London: Bloomsbury; p. 248
  9. Historic England. "Ombersley Court (1172877)". National Heritage List for England.
  10. "About Us - Ombersley & Doverdale Parish Council". www.odpc.co.uk. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  11. Ombersley and Doverdale Neighbourhood Development Plan 2020-2030: Adopted version. DJN Planning Limited for Ombersley and Doverdale Parish Council. October 2021.
  12. "MapIt : map postcodes and geographical points to administrative areas". mapit.mysociety.org. Retrieved 25 April 2022. Compare searches for WR9 0DS and WR9 0QB
  13. Compare Historic England. "Ombersley Court (1172877)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 April 2022. Parish: Ombersley and Historic England. "Doverdale Manor (1215111)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 April 2022. Parish: Doverdale
  14. To view the full list, go to https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/advanced-search?searchType=nhleadvancedsearch and enter "Ombersley" as "Parish"

References and further reading

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