St Peter and St Paul's church, Rock, Worcestershire

Rock is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Wyre Forest District Wyre Forest is a local government district in Worcestershire, England, covering the towns of Kidderminster, Stourport-on-Severn and Bewdley, and several civil parishes and their villages. Its council was previously based in Stourport-on-Seve ...

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 H ...

, England, which lies south-west of

Bewdley Bewdley ( pronunciation) is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District in Worcestershire, England on the banks of the River Severn. It is in the Severn Valley west of Kidderminster and southwest of Birmingham. It lies on the Riv ...

. It had a population of 2,366 in 2001. In the parish is

Fingerpost A fingerpost (sometimes referred to as a guide post) is a traditional type of sign post primarily used in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, consisting of a post with one or more arms, known as fingers, pointing in the directio ...

, the junction of the A456 and A4117 roads. The parish council erected a large commemorative stone near the junction for the

Diamond Jubilee A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne or wedding, among others) or the 60th anniversary of an institution's founding. The term is also used for 75th anniver ...

of Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states durin ...

. The Church of St Peter and St Paul contains a number of

Herefordshire School The Herefordshire School is the name of a hypothetical group of master masons working in Herefordshire and Worcestershire (in England) during the 12th century. The name was coined by Polish-English scholar George Zarnecki. Their distinctive Roma ...

Romanesque carvings. The local church has a major congregation, and the village hall always has local events taking place from wedding functions to the Rock Show. The Bewdley School and Sixth Form Centre provides secondary education for pupils from the area.

History

Rock was in the lower division of Doddingtree Hundred. It is a geographically large civil parish, embracing various settlements including

Far Forest Far Forest is a small village in north Worcestershire, England, approximately west of Bewdley, and next to the border with Shropshire. It is on the A4117 road, on the edge of the Wyre Forest near Fingerpost, Worcestershire, Fingerpost. Far For ...

. There is a moated site, and earthworks showing remains of a medieval village, near the church. A grammar school was established in

King Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...

's reign.

Mary Whitehouse Constance Mary Whitehouse (; 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permi ...

, the tv/radio clean-up campaigner and founder of Mediawatch UK, was reportedly living at Triangle Farm farmhouse in Rock just before moving to Essex in 1975.Report by Toby Neal, part of 'Great Lives' series on Midlands worthies, which noted she was reportedly living there in April 1975.

References

Villages in Worcestershire Romanesque architecture in England Civil parishes in Worcestershire {{Worcestershire-geo-stub