Hanbury, Worcestershire
| Hanbury | |
|---|---|
 St Mary the Virgin, Hanbury |
|
 Hanbury
|
|
| Hanbury shown within Worcestershire | |
| OS grid reference | SO963637 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Bromsgrove |
| Postcode district | B60 |
| EU Parliament | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
Hanbury is a small rural village in Worcestershire, England near Droitwich Spa and the M5 motorway.
Although some flint tools of indeterminate date have been found in the parish the main feature surviving from prehistory is the iron age hill fort on Church Hill. Remains of the embankments and ditch are well preserved on the north side of the hill, and are more faintly discernible on the south and east side. Most of the hill top area has been used as a burial ground from earliest Christian times, but in an area outside the burial ground a trial excavation was conducted a few years ago by the Worcestershire Archeology Service, and clear signs of iron age settlement were found. That occupation on the hill top continued through the Roman period is shown by the discovery of Roman coins, and it can be conjectured that in the 4th century AD, when the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, a church was first built here.
Hanbury was extensively farmed during the Roman period. Work led by Christopher Dyer has shown that most of the parish was cultivated during this period, and that perhaps 60 farms existed, as shown by finds of Roman pottery. Hanbury is only a few miles from the important salt producing centre of Droitwich (Roman Salinae) and an important Roman road ran east west through the parish leading from Droitwich to Alcester and the ford over the Avon at Stratford. A modern road follows the same line except for a stretch through the middle of the parish where the route was later interrupted by an enclosed hunting park.
There is little evidence from the post Roman period, but a copy of a charter from 660 AD exists which refers to the "minster" at Hanbury, which shows that Christian worship has taken place on Church Hill from at least that date, and may possibly have existed continuously since the first church in the 4th century. The present church incorporates Norman work, with many later additions.
At some time under the kings of Mercia an area in the centre of the parish was enclosed for use as a royal hunting park, known as Feckenham Park, and this certainly existed by the time of Domesday, when indeed all the parish was regarded as in the Royal Forest of Feckenham. However, in 1301 the area of the Forest was reduced, and from that time till dissaforestation in 1629 only that part of the parish lying to the east of Church Hill was in the Forest. Gallows Green, to the west of Hanbury on the Salt Way was the site of executions for forest law offences.
...
Wikipedia