Hartlebury in 1870
Kelly’s Directory – 1870
Hartlebury is a village, railway station, parish and polling place for the Western division of the county; it is distant 24 ¾ miles from Birmingham, 137 ¼ from London, 10 ½ from Dudley, 2 miles east from Stourport, 5 ¾ north-west from Droitwich, 11 ¼ north from Worcester, and 3 ¾ south from Kidderminster, in the hundred of Lower Oswaldslow, Droitwich union and county court district, rural deanery of Kidderminster, and archdeaconry and diocese of Worcester.
The West Midland railway station is 1 mile from the village.
The church of St. James, rebuilt in 1836 is a handsome Gothic stone building, having a tower with clock and 6 bells, nave, aisles and chancel. The register dates from the year 1540. The living is a rectory, yearly value £1,765, exclusive of glebe, in the gift of the Bishop of Worcester, and held by the Rev. Thomas Baker, M.A., of Christ’s College, Cambridge, honorary canon of Worcester and rural dean.
There is a Free Grammar School, chartered by Queen Elizabeth in 1560, and there is also a small Endowed School. The Independents have a chapel here. The yearly income of the charities is £20.
In the hamlet of Wilden are iron works, near the Worcestershire and Staffordshire Canal.
Hartlebury Castle, the seat of the Bishop of Worcester, stands in a park to the west of the village. The Bishop of Worcester is lord of the manor.
The principal landowner is Thomas Wheeler, Esq.
The soil is light. The chief crops are wheat, barley and potatoes.
The population in 1861 was 2,115, and the acreage is 5,474. The population of Hartlebury township is 1,853 and the acreage is 5,138; Upper Mitton 262, acreage 336.
The principal hamlets are Crossway Green, Norchard and Waresley, half a mile south; Chadwick, Titton and Lincomb, 1 mile south-west, near the river Severn; and Charlton, Wilden and Upper Mitton, a mile and a half north-west; Torton and Low Hill, half a mile north.
Parish Clerk, Joseph Cooke
There is a post office letter box in the village. Letters through Kidderminster arrive at 8am; dispatched at 5.30pm; except on Sundays, then at 11.10am.
Queen Elizabeth’s Free Grammar School,
Rev. John Walter Lee, M.A. headmaster;
Mr. George Edwin Tarlton, second master
Railway Station, Robert P. Grove, station master
Among the Private Residents listed were:
Enoch Baldwin at Upper Mitton, and George Baldwin at Wilden
Mr Thomas Millichip at Goldness House
The Very Reverend John Peel D.D. (Dean of Worcester) at Waresley House
John Watson Esq. J.P. at Waresely Court
Right Reverend Dr. Henry Philpott, Lord Bishop of Worcester
Among the businesses listed were:
E.P. & W. Baldwin – charcoal, iron & tin plate manufacturers at Wilden Works
George Blount at the Bay Horse
Edward Cooper at the Talbot (also recorded as coal merchant, farmer & dealer in and agent for manures)
Miss Emma Cooper at the Mare & Colt (was she related to Edward at the Talbot?)
Mrs Mary Holloway at the White Hart
Joseph Maiden at the Mitre Oak