Norton is a village in the

Wychavon Wychavon is a local government district in Worcestershire, England, with a population size of 132,500 according to the 2021 census. Its council is based in the town of Pershore, and the other towns in the district are Droitwich Spa and Evesha ...

district of

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

, from the boundary of the City of Worcester, England. The village sits within the

Norton Juxta Kempsey Norton-juxta-Kempsey is a civil parish to the south of Worcester in the United Kingdom. It contains the villages of Norton and Littleworth. The parish has a population of approximately 2,500. As the parish name suggest, it adjoins Kempsey to the ...

civil parish and is split in two by the

M5 motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

, with the original village to the east. The village saw considerable development in 1990s, mainly centred on the large decommissioned military Norton Barracks, which have been converted into apartments. The village is the location of St Peter's Garden Centre and Worcester Cricket Club. Worcester Norton Hockey Club also originates from the village, but now play and train at nearby Nunnery Wood High School, Worcester.

Economy

In 1939 Morganite Crucible, a subsidiary of

Morgan Crucible Morgan Advanced Materials is a company which manufactures specialist products, using carbon, advanced ceramics and composites. The company is headquartered in Windsor, United Kingdom, and has 85 sites across 30 countries. A public limited compa ...

, opened its works in the village. In 2010 the site, now closed, was sold for use as an industrial estate, but a Morgan presence remains in the form of Molten Metal Products Ltd, distributors of Morgan products, owned by two ex-Morgan employees, Dave Hill and Jim Ritchie. A permanent military presence was established in the village with the completion of

Norton Barracks Norton Barracks is a military installation in Norton, Worcestershire. The keep is a Grade II listed building. History The barracks were built in the Fortress Gothic Revival Style between 1874 and 1877. Their creation took place as part of the C ...

in 1877.

Transport

Worcestershire Parkway railway station Worcestershire Parkway is a split-level railway station where the Cotswold and Cross Country lines cross near Norton, Worcester, England. It opened on 23 February 2020. Purpose The Cross Country Route from Birmingham to Cardiff, Bristol an ...

opened on 23 February 2020. This has a platform on the Birmingham to Bristol line with

CrossCountry CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the Cross Country franchise. The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) ...

services which link to Cardiff, Bristol to the south also Birmingham and Nottingham to the north. There is another platform on the Oxford route to Worcester with

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

services.

References

Villages in Worcestershire Wychavon {{Worcestershire-geo-stub