Genealogical and historical information and links for anyone researching their ancestors in England and the British Isles

 Home ==> County Links ==> Worcestershire


 <== Wiltshire
Yorkshire ==> 

Themes Explorers and Adventurers Nobel Prize Winners
Actors and Directors Famous People Places of Interest
Anglo-Saxons and Danes Historic Events Prime Ministers
AONB (National Landscapes) Inventors and Scientists Royal Consorts and Heirs
Artists and Architects Monarchs World Heritage Sites
Composers and Musicians National Parks Writers and Poets

Nature
Worcestershire
Wildlife Trust
Birmingham & Black Country
Wildlife Trust
Books


THE HOBBIT
by
J.R.R. Tolkien
(1937)		 In 1896 J.R.R. Tolkien moved with his brother and mother to the village of Sarehole (now in Birmingham).

The family had arrived in England from Bloemfontein in the Orange Free state (now South Africa) the previous year to visit family in the area but Tolkien's father, who had stayed behind, died and the family never returned.

Tolkien lived in Wake Green Road (the house still exists) between the ages of four and eight and later said the village, the people and the area were the inspiration for the Shire and its inhabitants the hobbits.

Specifically the Sarehole Mill (still exists and opposite where the family lived), the Moseley Bog (behind Tolkien's former house) and the nearby Malvern Hills all returned later in other forms in Tolkien's books.

Worcestershire

Worcestershire lies in west-central England. In 1974 the new county of the West Midlands was formed from part of the county together with parts of Staffordshire and Warwickshire. The West Midlands has since been broken up into smaller authorities. The same year Herefordshire and Worcestershire were united into one county but have since regained their separate county status.



 Towns include the county seat of Worcester.

Anglo-Saxons and Danes
The small kingdom of the Hwicce lay between the kingdoms of Mercia to the north and that of the West Saxons (Wessex) to the south.

National Landscapes
(Formerly: AONB or Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty)

The Malvern Hills form a ridge running from north to south providing spectacular uninterrupted views west into Wales and east over the Cotswolds. The relatively small National Landscape is spread over three counties, with the eastern party lying in Worcestershire. It includes a mixture landscapes and it was this variety which was the main reason for its designation in 1959.



 The Cotswolds stretch over six counties, with a small portion of their northern end lying in Worcestershire. They became the country's largest designated area on its creation in 1966. The area is distinctive due to the underlying limestone rock which has created a unique landscape and habitat for plants and animals.

Composers and Musicians
Edward Elgar was born at Lower Broadheath in 1857. He died in Worcester in 1934 and was buried at Little Malvern.

Edward Elgar
Birthplace museum, Lower Broadheath

Historic Events

Major Battles
In 1265 Simon de Montfort was killed at the Battle of Evesham ending his rebellion. He had ruled England since his capture of Henry III at the Battle of Lewes the previous year. The battle was part of the second of the Barons' Wars (1263-67), a struggle by the powerful barons to define and therefore restrict the power of the monarch, which would eventually lead to the foundations of today's Parliament.



 In 1650 the future Charles II, son of the executed Charles I, landed in Scotland from forced exile in France and proclaimed King by the Scots. The following year his army marched south but were defeated at the Battle of Worcester by the Parliamentarians under Oliver Cromwell.

Charles managed to evade capture and fled back to France. Although the defeat signalled the end of the English Civil Wars which had been fought on and off since 1642, the Royalist cause would eventually be successful and Charles would ascend the throne in 1660.

 Charles II


Monarchs

House of Plantagenet
House of Plantagenet
In 1216, a year after signing the Magna Carta at Runnymede, King John was buried in Worcester Cathedral. The last of the three Angevin Kings from the House of Plantagenet he had ruled England since 1199.

King John


Nobel Prize Winners

Physiology or Medicine
The pharmacologist John R. Vane was born in Tardebigg in 1927. In 1982 he shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with the Swedish scientists Sune K. Bergström and Bengt I. Samuelsson. Both Vane and Bergström died in 2004.

 John R. Vane


Places of Interest

Cathedrals and Abbeys
Worcester Cathedral

 Cathedrals of England and Wales

Historic Buildings
Edward Elgar's birthplace, Lower Broadheath


Prime Ministers
Prime Ministers
Stanley Baldwin, three times Prime Minister in 1923-24, 1924-29 and 1935-37, was born at Lower Park House in Bewdley in 1867. He died at his home at Astley Hall near Stourport-on-Severn in 1947 and is buried at Worcester Cathedral. His administrations saw the General Strike of 1926 and the abdication crisis of Edward VIII ten years later but it was his handling of foreign affairs which finally ended his premiership, when he was forced to resign in 1937 for failing to foresee the threat of Nazi Germany.

 Stanley Baldwin

Royal Consorts and Heirs

House of Tudor
The eldest son of Henry VII and heir to the throne Arthur, Prince of Wales was buried at Worcester Cathedral in 1502. It was his younger brother who became king as Henry VIII on their father's death in 1509.


Writers and Poets
The author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien lived in the village of Sarehole (now in Birmingham) from 1896-1900. Aged four when he moved there, the area and its people would become an inspiration for his later books. The area became built up during the 20th century and Tolkien later described it as his "lost paradise".

J.R.R. Tolkien
Tolkien Society

County Links Genealogy in England

























Preserve the past
And the future

Genealogy Links


Births, Marriages
and Deaths (BMD)
West Midlands
Family History Societies
Malvern
Record Offices
and Archives
Dudley
Archives
Societies
Worcestershire Archaeological Society