UPTON WARREN
Houpton (viii cent.); Uptune (xi cent.); Shirrevesupton, Upton Fitz Waryn (xiv cent.); Upton
Waryn (xv cent.).
Upton Warren is situated about 3¼ miles north of
Droitwich, and has an area of 2,520 acres, of which
only 4 are water. In 1905 there were about
886 acres of arable land 1,398¼ acres of permanent
grass and 31 acres of woodland. (fn. 1) The Salwarpe River
forms part of its southern boundary and the Hampton Brook and one of its tributaries part of the
western boundary. The main road from Kidderminster to Worcester forms the northern boundary,
and a branch from it passes from north to south
through the parish. The land is undulating at a
height of about 200 ft. above the ordnance datum.
The soil is clay, which at one time was worked,
but now agriculture is the only industry, the most
important crops being beans and wheat. The village
is situated in the south-east of the parish on the River
Salwarpe.
Badge Court, formerly Batchcott, is a half-timber
and brick house, built about 1630, lying 3 miles west
of Bromsgrove. According to Nash an Earl of
Shrewsbury lived here, and in his time it was a large
pile of buildings. (fn. 2) It is H-shaped in plan and is of
two stories with an attic, with tiled roofs and gables
front and back. The original timbers are exposed
at the back and on the east side, but elsewhere they
are covered with ½-in. boards or thin lines have
been painted on the brickwork. There is an original
brick chimney projecting from the centre of the
north side. The main doorway at the front admits
to a small square porch, and then to a passage with
the kitchen on the east, and the hall on the west
occupying the centre of the house; the stairway and
parlour, reached through the hall, are in the west
wing. The porch is entirely panelled, the lower
part being of the 18th century, and the upper, with
linenfold panelling, of the 17th century. In a
diagonal panel in the ceiling is a painted shield of
Winter of twelve quarters with a helm crested with
an eagle coming out of a mural crown. The motto
is 'Omnia Desuper.' The hall, parlour, and the
room above the parlour are all entirely panelled in
oak of the original date of the house. The fireplace
is flanked by oak twin columns in two tiers rising to
the full height of the room, each pair crowned by a
single Ionic capital. In an 18th-century frame over
the fireplace flanked by diamond-shaped projections
is an achievement similar to that in the porch, but
part of the motto is missing. The door to the
passage is flanked by fluted oak pillars with Corinthian
capitals. The heavy chamfered ceiling beams are
now supported on 4-in. iron pillars. Over the
entrance to the stairway and including some of the
panelling is a segmental fanlight with carved angels
in the spandrels. The panelling in the parlour is
in small squares with a fluted frieze and moulded
cornice, and over the fireplace are three semicircularheaded panels divided by fluted pilasters with Ionic
capitals supporting consoles. The ceiling beams are
moulded and there is a boss at their intersection in
the centre of the room. The plain oak stairway
leads to the wainscoted room over the parlour, which
has three moulded panels over the fireplace divided
by panelled pilasters. In the hearth are seventyseven square tiles of the late 15th or early 16th
century variously arranged; some are of the four-tile
Talbot pattern so often met with in this part of the
county, while others have foliated and geometrical
designs. Of the heraldic tiles five have a shield of
Beauchamp and six a shield of Wyatt of Tewkesbury.
The floors, ceiling beams, and roof timbers are of
oak, and there are two original iron-studded doors,
one with its original iron hinges in the dairy, and
another constructed of two thicknesses of oak and
heavily studded in an outhouse at the back. In the
roof over the kitchen there is a closed chamber
which has no entrance, and in which a bell can be
rung from the outside.
The inclosure award for this parish is included
with Bromsgrove and dated 5 July 1855. (fn. 3)
Among the 16th and 17th-century place-names
are Nunchurch Meadow, Priors Field, (fn. 4) Barnsley, (fn. 5)
Leverads, Wattlekens, Pyes Deane, Crowud Perry,
Cattpurse Coppice. (fn. 6)
MANORS
UPTON WARREN is included in a
spurious grant which Ethelbald of Mercia
is said to have made to Egwin, first Abbot
of Evesham, in 716, (fn. 7) and is among the lands which
Abbot Ethelwig redeemed from Edward the Confessor
and others shortly before the Conquest. (fn. 8) After
Ethelwig's death in 1077 Upton was seized by Odo,
Bishop of Bayeux, (fn. 9) and he appears to have given it to
Urse D'Abitot, who was holding it in 1086, although
the Domesday Survey states that it ought then to have
belonged to Evesham. (fn. 10) The overlordship passed
from Urse to the Earls of Warwick and remained in
their possession until the 15th century. (fn. 11) It then
belonged to the Crown until it lapsed some time after
1630–1, when the last mention of it occurs. (fn. 12)
Herlebald was holding the manor under Urse in
1086. Warin Fitz William de Upton is the next
under-tenant whose name is known, and he may
have obtained it by gift of one of the Beauchamps
on his marriage with Hawise de Beauchamp. He
and his wife Hawise are mentioned in a charter of
William Earl of Pembroke (1224–31), and were
benefactors to the monastery of Pershore in the early
13th century. (fn. 13) Warin was succeeded in this manor
by a son William called Fitz Warin, (fn. 14) who seems to
have been a man of some note in Worcestershire,
and was made sheriff of the county in 1229. (fn. 15) In
1254 William Fitz Warin de Upton was exempted
for life from being put on juries, &c., against his
will. (fn. 16) At about the same time he was engaged in
a controversy with Richard de Montviron as to
common at Woodcote. (fn. 17) Before 1315–16 the manor
had passed to Edmund de Grafton, (fn. 18) and in 1319–20
John son of Edmund with his wife Alice granted the
manor to William Fitz Warin for life, with reversion
to John and Alice and their heirs. (fn. 19) William Fitz
Warin died about 1338, (fn. 20) and the manor reverted
to John de Grafton, (fn. 21) and subsequently followed the
same descent as Grafton Manor (fn. 22) (q.v.).
Urse the sheriff was overlord of COOKSEY
(Cochesei, Cochesie, xi cent.; Cokeseia, Kokeseye,
xiii cent.), a member of the manor of Bromsgrove,
at the time of the Domesday Survey, (fn. 23) and the overlordship afterwards formed part of the barony of
Elmley, being mentioned for the last time in 1630. (fn. 24)
Under the lords of Elmley the manor was held by
knight service.
There were two manors at Cooksey, held before
1066 by Alfwine and Atilic, two thegns of Earl
Edwin, and in 1086 by Herbrand and William. (fn. 25)
About 1218 a controversy arose between Maud
daughter of Henry and Richard de Montviron and
others as to the title to a hide of land at Little
Cooksey. (fn. 26) It seems probable that Richard de Montviron won the suit, for Little Cooksey appears to
have subsequently followed the same descent as the
manor of Woodcote, of which Richard was lord at
that time, as it passed to the Bishopsdons in the 14th
century. (fn. 27) Before 1346 it appears, however, to have
passed to the Cookseys, (fn. 28) lords of Great Cooksey, and
probably became merged in that manor after the
middle of the 15th century. (fn. 29) Nash, writing in the
latter part of the 18th century, says that 'the distinction of great and little Cokesey still prevails,
though both are comprised in one manor.' (fn. 30)
The other manor, GREAT COOKSEY, gave its
name to the important family of Cooksey. Walter de
Cooksey held the manor about the middle of the
13th century, (fn. 31) and he or a descendant of the same
name held it about 1280. (fn. 32) Elizabeth de Cooksey
was lady of the manor in 1300, (fn. 33) and Walter son
of Walter was holding it in 1316, (fn. 34) and it was
perhaps he who, as Walter de Cooksey, received the
custody of the earldom of
Warwick in 1325 during the
minority of Thomas de Beauchamp (fn. 35) and paid a subsidy
at Cooksey in 1327. (fn. 36) In
1335 Hugh, brother and successor of the last-mentioned
Walter, who had succeeded
him before 1333, (fn. 37) received a
grant of free warren in Cooksey. (fn. 38) He died in 1356, and
his wife Denise, one of the
daughters and heirs of Edward
le Boteler, who survived him,
held the manor in dower until
her death in 1376–7. (fn. 39) Walter, their son and heir,
was only thirteen at the time of his father's death,
but had been married three years before to Isabel
daughter of Urrian de St. Peter. (fn. 40) He settled the
manor on his son and heir Walter, who succeeded
him in 1404. (fn. 41) Hugh son of Walter, who succeeded
his father in 1406–7, (fn. 42) settled the manor on his wife
Alice in 1441 and died four years later without issue. (fn. 43)
Alice married Sir Andrew Ogard and on her death
in 1460 the manor passed to Joyce Beauchamp, widow
sister and co-heir of Hugh. (fn. 44) Joyce appears to have
been married three times, first to — Beauchamp,
secondly to Leonard Stapleton, and thirdly to John
Grevill. (fn. 45) Her son and heir Sir John Grevill, kt.,
succeeded her in 1473, at the age of forty, (fn. 46) and died
seised of the manor in 1480. (fn. 47) Owing to the importance of the estates which he had inherited from
his mother his only son Thomas took the name of
Cooksey, (fn. 48) but died without issue in 1498–9. (fn. 49) His
property passed to Robert Russell and Roger Winter,
the heirs of Cecily (fn. 50) wife of Thomas Cassy, another
sister of Hugh Cooksey, the manor of Cooksey being
assigned to Roger Winter. (fn. 51) The manor then followed
the same descent as Huddington (fn. 52) (q.v.).
Cooksey. Argent a bend azure with three cinqfoils or thereon.
There seems no longer to be a manor of Cooksey, (fn. 53)
and probably when it passed into the hands of the
Earls of Shrewsbury it became merged in the manor
of Upton Warren.
Cooksey with a house there called Batchcott (now
Badge Court) (fn. 54) was left by Sir George Winter to his
widow Mary for life with reversion to Gilbert Talbot,
a younger brother of Francis Earl of Shrewsbury, who
agreed to pay £1,500 for it. (fn. 55) On Sir George's death
Gilbert at once laid claim to Badge Court, asserting
that Sir George Winter had no power to leave it to
his widow; but a suit which Mary Winter brought
against him was 'after long debate' decided in her
favour. (fn. 56)
The Winters had a park at Cooksey in the 16th
century, (fn. 57) and closes called Little Park and Wood Park
are mentioned in a survey of the manor taken in
1650. (fn. 58)
A mill was in existence at Upton Warren at the
time of the Domesday Survey, (fn. 59) and another appears
to have belonged to the manor of Cooksey during the
17th and 18th centuries. (fn. 60) There is now a corn-mill
in the village on the Salwarpe.
CHURCH
The church of ST. MICHAEL consists of a chancel 20 ft. by 15 ft., nave
50 ft. by 20 ft., small north vestry and
a south tower 11½ ft. by 10 ft. These measurements
are all internal.
A church probably existed here at the time of the
Domesday Survey, but was rebuilt towards the end
of the 13th century and consecrated in 1300. (fn. 61) The
whole structure except the tower was rebuilt in the
18th century, the chancel in 1724 and the nave in
1798. The tower, which is of two stages, is evidently
a late 14th-century rebuilding. The tower arch has
a pointed head of two orders. The south window
of the ground stage is of the same date, and has two
ogee-headed lights with a quatrefoil above; a similar
window on the east side has been filled in. In the
west wall is a small circular light with a segmental
rear arch, and below the offset on the south side is a
small lancet window.
The windows to the bell-chamber, which have
evidently been reset, are survivals from the earliest
building on the site and date from c. 1220. Each
has two trefoiled lancets inclosed by an outer order
with a two-centred drop arch; the spandrel above
the lancets is pierced by a trefoil. The embattled
parapet is probably modern, and from it rises an
octagonal stone spire of ashlar work.
The furniture is modern, the font being octagonal
with panelled sides. The east window contains some
remarkable modern glass.
In the chancel are several slabs, one to John Hill,
son of John Hill, rector, and Sarah his wife, died
1667, aged six years, and another to the above-mentioned (rector for more than forty years), died 1699.
In the nave is a mural monument to John Sanders,
died 1670.
There are three bells: the first by John Martin of
Worcester, 1653; the second by William Brooke of
Bromsgrove, 1743; the third by John Greene the
younger of Worcester, 1618; this last bears his mark,
three bells and I. G.
The plate includes a large Elizabethan cup and
cover paten of the usual type, with the hall-mark and
inscription of 1571.
The registers are as follows: (i) baptisms 1604 to
1645, burials and marriages 1605 to 1645; (ii) all
entries 1657 to 1722; (iii) all 1722 to 1801;
(iv) baptisms 1793 to 1812; (v) burials same period,
and (vi) marriages 1754 to 1812.
ADVOWSON
There was a priest at Upton in
1086. (fn. 62) The advowson apparently
belonged originally to the lords of
the manor, (fn. 63) and passed with the manor in 1350–1 to
Thomas Earl of Warwick. (fn. 64) When the manor passed to
the Hastings family the earl retained the advowson, (fn. 65)
and it passed to his son Thomas Earl of Warwick,
who forfeited it in 1396. (fn. 66) The glebe land and
advowson were granted in 1398 to the king's
nephew Thomas Duke of Surrey, (fn. 67) but the advowson
was evidently restored to the earl in 1399, as he died
seised of it in 1401, (fn. 68) and it afterwards passed to his
descendants the Earls of Warwick. (fn. 69) Richard Nevill
Earl of Warwick presented in 1463, (fn. 70) and the advowson probably passed on his death in 1471 to the
Crown, as it was included in 1485 in the grant of
the manor to Gilbert Talbot. (fn. 71) Since that time the
advowson has descended with the manor, (fn. 72) the Earl
of Shrewsbury and Talbot being the present patron.
Upton Warren Church: The Tower
In the time of Edward VI a parcel of land at
Cooksey given for the maintenance of a lamp in the
church at Upton Warren was valued at 12d. (fn. 73)
CHARITIES
John Saunders, some time alderman
of the City of London—as appears
on a monument in the church—
settled an annuity of £10 to be for ever paid by the
Grocers' Company, London, for placing out a boy of
this parish as an apprentice in London, and for lack
of such a boy, then a boy of Stoke Prior or Chaddesley.
In 1910 a premium of £10 was paid, and there was
a balance of £40 in hand.
Charities of Elizabeth Lacy, the Earl of Shrewsbury, Alice Nash and other benefactors mentioned
in the Parliamentary Returns of 1786.—The endowment now consists of four cottage; and gardens at
Staple Hill and 2 a. 2 r. at Rock Hill, near Bromsgrove, of the annual rental value of £30 10s.
By an order of the Charity Commissioners 18 September 1906 five-sixths of the net income was determined to be the proportion applicable for educational
purposes, under the title of the Lacy Educational
Foundation, and the remainder for the poor.
The poor also receive a rent-charge of £1, paid
out of land in Bromsgrove in respect of the charity of
the Rev. John Hill.
In 1828 William Cole, by his will proved in the
P.C.C. 18 February, left £30, now £30 consols,
with the official trustees, the annual dividends of 15s.
to be distributed on the first Sunday after Candlemas
in bread to poor persons brought up to the Church of
England.