Hartlebury
Hartlebury Parish Church
Hartlebury is located in Worcestershire
Hartlebury
Hartlebury
Location within Worcestershire
Population2,549 
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townKidderminster
Postcode districtDY11
Dialling code01299
PoliceWest Mercia
FireHereford and Worcester
AmbulanceWest Midlands
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Worcestershire
52°20′N 2°14′W / 52.33°N 2.23°W / 52.33; -2.23

Hartlebury is a village and civil parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, England. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Kidderminster. The village had a population of 2,549 in the 2001 Census.

The village is green-buffered from surrounding villages except for the village of Waresley which is contiguous with Hartlebury. The civil parish covering the village also includes the outlying villages of Crossway Green and Torton.

History

See also: History of Worcestershire

Hartlebury Castle

Main article: Hartlebury Castle

Hartlebury Castle was built in the mid-13th century as a fortified manor house. Until 2007 it was the residence of the Bishop of Worcester, with two-thirds of the building leased out to Worcestershire County Council as the Worcestershire County Museum. Hartlebury Castle is a Grade I listed building. It is about a mile to the west of the village and half a mile to the west of the church.

Converted buildings

Queen Elizabeth Grammar School

Queen Elizabeth (I) Grammar School (the regnal number was added in 1952 on the accession of Elizabeth II) was in Hartlebury until 1977. The earliest record of the precursor to the school is in Domesday Book compiled in 1086. Other early accounts date to 1400, well before Harrow and Rugby were founded. The school was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1557.[1] Originally a private boys school, it was taken over by the State, and was closed when it was merged in 1977 with King Charles I Grammar School, Kidderminster, and The Kidderminster Girls High School to form King Charles I School. The oldest building standing was converted to a house. Its magnificent New Building has commanding views over fields and woodland and rescued from demolition by its alumni association.[2]

New Elizabethan School

A very small independent school unconnected educationally with Hartlebury School opened in 2008: the fee-paying New Elizabethan School was set up to cater for children "who have found learning and school attendance difficult" on part[which?] of the Hartlebury School site.[3] A private school, for young boys and girls, operated there 1979–2007, Bowbrook School — renamed Hartlebury Independent School in 1999, then Hartlebury School in 2000. In 2007, it became a charitable organisation. Then in 2008 it was re-launched in its new form.[4][5][6]

Former buildings

The Worcestershire house

Main article: Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia

The house later known as The Worcestershire House was a very old house in Hartlebury, dismantled and re-assembled at the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia, USA, in 1992. The John Smith (Smyth or Smythe) family built it in the 1630s. An example of the Tudor frame variety of Timber framing construction, it was dismantled in 1970 and shipped.[7]

Notable people

The ornithologist Henry Eliot Howard conducted much of his research in the grounds of his home, 'Clareland', which is extant, and is Grade II listed.[8][9]

See also

References

  1. ^ Nicholas Carlisle (1818). "Hartlebury, near Kidderminster". A Concise Description of the Endowed Schools in England and Wales. Vol. 2. Baldwin, Craddock and Joy. pp. 757–763.
  2. ^ Hartlebury Old Elizabethans Association
  3. ^ "Ofsted criticises New Elizabethan School in Hartlebury - BBC News".
  4. ^ Sally Jones (30 May 2007). "Independent school to feature in BBC shows". Worcester News.
  5. ^ "New Elizabethan School". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2009.
  6. ^ Wonderland, Series 1: The Woman Who Bought a School For Her Son
  7. ^ American Frontier Culture Foundation. 1998. Traditional Timberframing: The Worcestershire House- A Catalog of the Exhibit Prepared by the Research & Collections Department and Curated by Vivian Lea Stevens to Celebrate the Completion of the Worcestershire House, May 1993. Frontier Museum Heritage Books: Staunton, Virginia. Pages 4-5.
  8. ^ Lowe, Percy R. (1941). "Henry Eliot Howard. An Appreciation". British Birds. 34: 195–197. Retrieved 10 June 2019. (Also available via BHL.)
  9. ^ "Clareland, Hartlebury - 1215681". Historic England. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
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