Stone 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the Wyre Forest District of

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

, England. Of

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

origin, it lies two miles south-east of

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a market town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester, England, Worcester. Located north of the River Stour, Worcestershire, River Stour and east of the River Severn, in th ...

on the A448 road to

Bromsgrove Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England, about north-east of Worcester and south-west of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 34,755 in at the 2021 census. It gives its name to the wider Bromsgrove District, of which it is ...

History

Stone (then spelt Stanes) was recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

(1086) as a formerly Anglo-Saxon manor with an associated mill lying within the Cresslow

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

. Some 24 people then lived in the village. Immediately adjoining it downhill was the separate but smaller manor of Dunclent. After Cresslow was combined with others to create the larger Halfshire, what was by then the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Stone also included the settlements of Dunclent, Shenstone, Stanklin and part of Hoobrook. Stone Common was enclosed under the ( 3 Geo. 3. c. ''33'' ), and on its excellent soil were raised crops of wheat, barley, potatoes and beans. There were once two mills within the village boundary, one of which spun yarn for the carpet works at Kidderminster. Towards the end of the 19th century there were 104 houses in the area, with a population of 475. Included in this number were the large dwellings at Stone House, the Hoo, Dunclent House and Spennell House. At the 2001 census the area had a population of 782. The early 18th-century Stone House, situated just behind the church, is noted for its walled gardens and associated nursery, set up in the mid-1970s. The property was Grade II listed as a historic building in 1958. On its edge is the steep cleft of Fenny Rough, known locally as a dingle, in which is to be found the Devil's Den, and "concerning which some horrifying tales are told of the fatal results happening to persons who attempted to penetrate therein".

St Mary’s Church

A chapel at Stone was dedicated in honour of the Virgin Mary in 1269 but until 1392 it was dependent on the church at

Chaddesley Corbett Chaddesley Corbett is a village and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District Council, Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire, England. The Anglican and secular versions of the parish include other named neighbourhoods, once farmsteads or milli ...

. Presently it lies within the Anglican Diocese of Worcester but is under the patronage of the

Lord Chancellor The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...

. After the building was badly damaged by fire, it was rebuilt in 1831–2 with a tower and six bells, and the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

was enlarged in 1899–1900. One of the windows incorporates some pieces of medieval and 17th-century stained glass; some 17th-century memorial brasses also remain. The church has been a Grade II listed building since 1958. Adjacent to it is Church House, which has also functioned as a school and parish room, and parts of which date from the 16th century. Both the church and school were supported by various

financial endowment A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of Financial instrument, financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to Donor intent, the will of its fo ...

s, including income from fields in the parish and "some lands near

Stourbridge Stourbridge () is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Situated on the River Stour, Worcestershire, River Stour, the town lies around west of Birmingham, at the southwester ...

containing clay for making fire-bricks". In the churchyard is a war memorial using the restored base and steps of a medieval preaching cross.Philip Halling
Geograph
/ref> Also there is the grave of the racing driver Peter Collins, who came from nearby Mustow Green.

References

{{authority control Villages in Worcestershire