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Hagley is a large village and civil parish in Worcestershire, England. It is on the boundary of the
West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
and Worcestershire counties between the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley and Kidderminster. Its estimated population was 7,162 in 2019.


Development

From the time of the Domesday Book until the 1933 boundary changes, the parish of Hagley extended southwards from the village to include the present parish of
Blakedown Blakedown is a village in the Wyre Forest District lying along the A456 in the north of the county of Worcestershire, England. Following enclosures and the arrival of the railway, it developed both agriculturally and industrially during the 19th c ...
. The main focus of the village, on the lower slopes of the Clent Hills, was on the outskirts, where Hagley Hall and the parish church of St John the Baptist can be found. The parish register of Hagley is the oldest in England. It dates from 1 December 1538, which was the year in which registers were ordered to be kept in all parishes. Lower Hagley lies downhill and started to expand with the arrival of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway in 1852 and the eventual building of Hagley railway station. The growth of what is now known as West Hagley initiated a shift in the focus of the village. Today it includes the shopping area and the schools, although the precise dividing line between the two areas is not formally defined.


Civil status

Hagley is part of the West Midlands Urban Area as defined by the Office for National Statistics, and is joined to Stourbridge and the
Black Country The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands county, England covering most of the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall. Dudley and Tipton are generally considered to be the centre. It became industrialised during its ro ...
by the
A491 The A491 is an A roads in Zone 4 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A road in Zone 4 of the Great Britain numbering scheme. History The road north of Oldswinford forms part of an ancient road, probably of Anglo-Saxon origin, joining the bur ...
and B4187 (formerly part of the A450). It is also situated on the
A456 Known as the Hagley Road in Birmingham, the A456 is a main road in England running between Central Birmingham and Woofferton, Shropshire, south of Ludlow. Some sections of the route, for example Edgbaston near Bearwood, are also the route of ...
Birmingham to Kidderminster road. This is known as the Hagley Road in Birmingham, as it was once administered by a turnpike trust whose responsibilities ended at the former boundary of the parish (now in
Blakedown Blakedown is a village in the Wyre Forest District lying along the A456 in the north of the county of Worcestershire, England. Following enclosures and the arrival of the railway, it developed both agriculturally and industrially during the 19th c ...
). There is also a frequent rail service between Kidderminster and Birmingham. Although Hagley has a population larger than some market towns (such as
Tenbury Wells Tenbury Wells (locally Tenbury) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the northwestern extremity of the Malvern Hills District of Worcestershire, England. Its northern border adjoins Shropshire, and at the 2011 census it ...
) and once had its own cattle market, it lacks the marks of a market town.According to the definition in ''West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy'', policy RR3. While it has a shopping street and many local services, it has little local employment beyond these, although unemployment is low: 2.6 per cent of the population at the time of the 2001 census. Hagley is essentially a
dormitory village A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...
for Birmingham or the adjacent
Black Country The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands county, England covering most of the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall. Dudley and Tipton are generally considered to be the centre. It became industrialised during its ro ...
. Prior to the creation of the Parish Council by the Local Government Act 1894, village affairs were run by the ratepayers of a vestry committee based on St John the Baptist Church. Presently, Hagley falls within the boundary of Bromsgrove District Council, but it also has a Parish Council that is responsible for some local sites and services. On this sit the elected District Councillors for Hagley East and West and a number of co-opted members; it also employs a Parish Clerk and Assistant Parish Clerk.


History

Evidence of previous habitation of the area is found in Bronze Age burial mounds in a field on Stakenbridge Lane which were excavated in the 18th century, and the later Iron Age hill fort on
Wychbury Hill Wychbury Hill is a hill situated off the A456 Birmingham Road, at Hagley, Stourbridge, on the border of West Midlands and Worcestershire. It is divided between the parish of Hagley and former parish of Pedmore. It is one of the Clent Hills. ...
. A Roman salt road running from Droitwich crossed the Hagley parish to the west and there have been discoveries of Roman pottery and a coin hoard in the area. But the earliest written reference to the village is as Hageleia in the Domesday Book, when it formed part of the Clent Hundred, later to be amalgamated into the
Halfshire Halfshire (Latin: ''Hundredum Dimidii Comitatūs'', "hundred of half (the) county") was one of the hundreds in the English county of Worcestershire. As three of the five hundreds in the county were jurisdictions exempt from the authority of the sh ...
Hundred. De Hagley lords of the manor first appeared in 1130, a connection lasting until 1411. Intermittent ownership followed until the 1590s, when members of the Lyttelton family took up residence, a connection that has lasted until the present day. Among these, Sir John Lyttleton was implicated in Essex's Rebellion and his brother
Humphrey Humphrey is both a masculine given name and a surname. An earlier form, not attested since Medieval times, was Hunfrid. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name Medieval period :''Ordered chronologically'' *Hunfrid of P ...
was hanged, drawn and quartered for sheltering men involved in the Gunpowder Plot on his Hagley estate, including his nephew Stephen. The most notable member of the family was the statesman and poet
George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton, (17 January 1709 – 22 August 1773), known between 1751 and 1756 as Sir George Lyttelton, 5th Baronet, was a British statesman. As an author himself, he was also a supporter of other writers and as a pat ...
, who landscaped the grounds at Hagley and replaced the old half-timbered hall with the present Palladian mansion. His brother
Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...
, eventually Bishop of Carlisle, was also born at Hagley and was buried there in the family church of St John the Baptist. Another of the family, William Henry, served as rector there from 1847 to 1884.


Churches

The Domesday Book recorded that Hagley had a priest. The original wooden church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist was eventually rebuilt in stone under the De Hagley family, of which there are still traces. These include a mediaeval tomb, now incorporated into the north wall; a stone with an incised lion set into the back wall of the lady chapel; and two sandstone angels added to the 19th-century porch. From 1747 dates Louis-François Roubiliac’s memorial to Lucy Lyttleton; there is also an oval immersion font from this period, which was discarded after the virtual rebuilding of the church in Gothic style by
George Edmund Street George Edmund Street (20 June 1824 – 18 December 1881), also known as G. E. Street, was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex. Stylistically, Street was a leading practitioner of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Though mainly an eccle ...
in the second half of the 19th century. It was then too that a red sandstone tower and spire were added to the building. While the church of St John the Baptist served the old village of Hagley, the development of West Hagley after the coming of the railway initiated the building of an overspill Mission church there in 1882, after which Church Street is named. In 1906 it was replaced by St Saviour’s Church on the corner of Park Road and Worcester Road. This consists of a towerless stone-built nave and chancel in what Nikolaus Pevsner describes as "uninspired" Perpendicular style and has a series of windows by Francis Skeat. There was also a nearby Primitive Methodist chapel, which gave Chapel Street its name. Built in 1857, it was replaced in 1905 by the Free Church now on Worcester Road, whose new building continues to play a central role in the community. This union (non-denominational) church was the second such in the country.


Rural industry

Two watercourses starting from the slopes of the Clent Hills run through the village. On one was Spout Mill, which ground corn near where the Worcester and Kidderminster roads diverge south of the village. The two brooks combined lower down to create Sweetpool (now encroached on by the railway line and silted up); beyond that was the 18th-century Brake Mill, where the stream was dammed to create the mill pool. Before the boundary changes of 1888, a number of ironworking mills established further downstream during the industrial revolution gave Hagley an industrial hinterland. Apart from the abortive Wassell Grove colliery opened during 1866–7, there was little heavy industry in the area. There is early evidence of glass-making in the village but this was probably only a cottage industry. The inhabitants were predominantly engaged in agriculture; thirteen farms are recorded in the 18th century, eighteen in the early 20th, although by the end of it only two remained. The soil is sandy and poor, so there was a greater emphasis on livestock than on arable farming. Hagley had a cattle market by 1600, located just south of the road junction between the Hagley road
o Stourbridge O, or o, is the fifteenth Letter (alphabet), letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in ...
(A491) and the Birmingham road (A456). This was extended in both the 18th and 19th centuries and was served by the railway until the market closed in the 1960s.


Landmarks

* Hagley Hall, the home for several centuries of the Lyttelton family, whose head is Viscount Cobham * Hagley Park, which immediately surrounds Hagley Hall, consists mainly of of landscaped deer park, although it also has a ruined Grade II* listed folly and a recently restored Palladian bridge on the grounds. *
Wychbury Hill Wychbury Hill is a hill situated off the A456 Birmingham Road, at Hagley, Stourbridge, on the border of West Midlands and Worcestershire. It is divided between the parish of Hagley and former parish of Pedmore. It is one of the Clent Hills. ...
with its " monument", an obelisk. The body of "Bella" was believed to have been found in a wood near the hill, sparking the murder mystery "
Who put Bella in the Wych Elm? "Who put Bella down the Wych Elm?" is graffiti that appeared in 1944 following the 1943 discovery by four children of the skeletonised remains of a woman inside a wych elm in Hagley Wood, Hagley (located in the estate of Hagley Hall), in Worceste ...
", about which a play was written by the local drama society.


Notable residents

* Jon Bentley (born 1953), of Channel Five's Fifth Gear and The Gadget Show, lives in Hagley. * Jude Bellingham of Borussia Dortmund and the England football team (born 2003) lived in Hagley during his childhood. * John Bonham (1948–1980), drummer for Led Zeppelin, lived in Hagley in 1969–1972. *William and Henry Bowles, 17th century poets and churchmen, were both born in Hagley and eventually became rectors in Enville, Staffordshire. * Adrian Chiles (born 1967), presenter of Match of the Day 2 and formerly of The One Show * Andrew Downes (born 1950), composer * Clive Everton (born 1937),
snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...
professional and commentator * Jon Ford (born 1968), professional
footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...
with Swansea AFC,
Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...
etc. * Doug Hele (1919–2001), motorcycle engineer, died in Hagley. *
Jason Koumas Jason Koumas (born 25 September 1979) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played for Tranmere Rovers, Cardiff City, West Bromwich Albion and Wigan Athletic, as well as the Welsh national team. He spent nine years in the Liverpool aca ...
(born 1979), professional footballer, lived in Hagley when playing for West Bromwich Albion. *The Lyttelton family, owners of Hagley Hall: **
Meriel Lyttelton Meriel Lyttelton or Littelton (died 1630) was an English aristocrat with extensive family and court connections. She was a daughter of Sir Thomas Bromley and Elizabeth Fortescue. The MP for Worcestershire Thomas Bromley (died 1641) was her nephew ...
(died 1630), letter writer ** Emily Pepys (1833–1877), child diarist,''The Journal of Emily Pepys'', intr. Gillian Avery (London: Prospect, 1984). became the first wife of the rector, Rev. William Henry Lyttelton. **
Lucy Cavendish Lucy Caroline Cavendish, also known as Lady Frederick Cavendish ( Lyttelton; 5 September 1841 – 22 April 1925), was a pioneer of women's education. A daughter of George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton, she married into another aristocratic fa ...
, née Lyttelton (1841–1925), advocate of women's education, was born at Hagley Hall. *
Dan O'Hagan Daniel O'Hagan is a freelance football commentator and TV presenter as well as covering the UEFA Champions League for SBS in Australia and BT Sport in England. Formerly he was the voice of the world feed for the French Football League. He is best ...
(born 1978), television football commentator and
Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
fundraiser *
John Richards (MP) John Richards (2 April 1780 – 9 June 1847) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons between 1832 and 1837. Life Richards was from Wassell Grove in the parish of Hagley, Worcestershir ...
(1780–1847), politician, sat in the House of Commons in 1832–1837 and served as High Sheriff of Worcestershire in 1844. * Lee Sharpe (born 1971), professional footballer with
Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
etc., studied at
Hagley Catholic High School Hagley Catholic High School is a coeducational school for ages 11–18 situated in the village of Hagley, Worcestershire, England. Currently a member of the Catholic Emmaus trust of schools, it was founded by the Catholic community in Worcester ...
.


See also

* Hagley Hall *
Wychbury Hill Wychbury Hill is a hill situated off the A456 Birmingham Road, at Hagley, Stourbridge, on the border of West Midlands and Worcestershire. It is divided between the parish of Hagley and former parish of Pedmore. It is one of the Clent Hills. ...
* Hagley railway station *
Hagley Catholic High School Hagley Catholic High School is a coeducational school for ages 11–18 situated in the village of Hagley, Worcestershire, England. Currently a member of the Catholic Emmaus trust of schools, it was founded by the Catholic community in Worcester ...
* Haybridge High School *
Stourbridge News The ''Stourbridge News'' is a local free newspaper which serves the Stourbridge area of the West Midlands, England, ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations)br>Regional Publications Circulation Cerftificate July to December 2011/ref> circulating in th ...
– Hagley's local newspaper, covering the Stourbridge area


Notes


References

* *Pagett, Tom
An Introduction to the History of Hagley
Hagley Historical and Field Society, 1997 * * *


External links


Hagley Catholic High SchoolHaybridge High SchoolHagley HallPhotos of Hagley and surrounding area on geograph
{{Authority control Villages in Worcestershire