Wick is a village in the district of
Wychavon
Wychavon () is a local government district in Worcestershire, England. The largest towns therein are Evesham and Droitwich Spa; the council is based in the town of Pershore. The district also includes numerous villages and surrounding rural ...
in the county 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. It is located 2 miles from the town of
Pershore
Pershore () is a market town and civil parish in the Wychavon district in Worcestershire, England, on the banks of the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. At the 2011 UK census, census, the population was 7,125. The town is best known for Per ...
in the
Vale of Evesham, and nestles in a large bend in the
River Avon. It is bounded by areas of parkland listed by the Wychavon District Council as Locally Important Parks and Gardens.
The World War II film ''
Our Father
The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, Will of God, will, and Kingship and kingdom of God, kingdom, as well as h ...
'' was partially filmed on location in Wick.
History
Records of the settlement date from Saxon times. In 709 CE,
Offa
Offa ( 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death in 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of ...
, King of Mercia and Coenred and King of East Saxons granted ''Wikewane'', which was made up of seven farms to Bishop
Egwin of Worcester for his newly created monastery in
Evesham
Evesham () is a market town and Civil parishes in England, parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, England, Worceste ...
.
Domesday
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 ...
archives record that parts of Wick had belonged to the land of
Pershore Abbey
Pershore Abbey, at Pershore in Worcestershire, was a Benedictine abbey with Anglo-Saxon origins and is now an Church of England, Anglican parish church, the Church of the Holy Cross.
History
Foundation
The foundation of the minster at Pershore ...
that was confiscated in the 11th century by
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex.
Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeede ...
and given to
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
.
The manor of Wike Burnell was a substantial country house, known to have been in existence at 1500 with extensive parkland. It was owned by
John Nevill, 3rd Lord Latimer, involved in the
Pilgrimage of Grace
The Pilgrimage of Grace was an English Catholic popular revolt beginning in Yorkshire in October 1536 before spreading to other parts of Northern England, including Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham and north Lancashire. The protests occurre ...
in 1538. Upon his death in 1543, he willed the manor to his widow
Catherine Parr
Catherine Parr ( – 5 September 1548) was Queen of England and Ireland as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 12 July 1543 until Henry's death on 28 January 1547. Catherine was the final queen consort o ...
. Parr would go on to marry King Henry VIII as his sixth and last wife in July 1543. After Parr's death in 1548, the house went to Sir
Anthony Babington
Anthony Babington (24 October 156120 September 1586) was an English gentleman convicted of plotting the assassination of Elizabeth I of England and conspiring with the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots, for which he was hanged, drawn and quartered ...
who was executed in 1588 for his part in the
plot to kill Queen Elizabeth I. The manor then fell to Sir
Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebell ...
.
The Hudson family took over the manor and have been the owners since the 18th century. In 2008, Charles Hudson bought at auction which featured a lock of hair supposedly belonging to the late queen consort Catherine Parr. Mr Hudson paid £2,160 for the hair, mounted in an oval frame on ink-inscribed paper which states "''Hair of Queen Catherine Parr, Last Consort of Henry, the night she died September 5th 1548 was in the Chapel of Sudeley Castle''".
St Mary's Church
The oldest surviving building in Wick is the 12th-century church of which parts of the original structure survive in the foundations and stone columns.
Notable people
*
Cressida Connolly, writer, and her daughter
Nell Hudson, actress
*
Edward McMillan-Scott, former MEP and the last and longest-serving (10 years) UK Vice-President of the European Parliament
References
{{authority control
Villages in Worcestershire