HANLEY CASTLE - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"HANLEY CASTLE, a parish in the lower division of the hundred of Pershore, county Worcester, 1½ mile N.W. of Upton, its post town, 6 miles W. of Defford railway station, and 9 S.W. of Worcester. The parish, which is extensive, is situated on the river Severn, and includes the chapelry of Malvern Wells. The tithes were commuted for land and money payments under an Enclosure Act in 1795. It was successively possessed by the Nevilles, earls of Warwick, the Despensers, and the Lechmeres, who had a castle here on the banks of the Severn.

The living is a vicarage* [the asterisk denotes that there is a parsonage and glebe belonging to the living] in the diocese of Worcester, value £650. The parish church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient structure, with a tower containing six bells. The church was thoroughly restored in 1858, at the expense of Sir E. A. H. Lechmere, Bart. In the interior are two fine stained-glass windows, one to the memory of Sir Edmund Hungerford Lechmere, Bart., and the other to the late Mr. William Moore, churchwarden, which has recently been added.

There is also a district church, dedicated to St. Peter, at Malvern Wells, the living of which is a perpetual curacy The charities produce about £170 per annum, with Lechmere's free grammar school. The Roman Catholics have a place of worship. There is a National school for both sexes. The principal residence is Blackmoor Park. Hanley Castle, once the seat of Brittic, son of Algar, who was imprisoned at Winchester for refusing to marry Maude, daughter of the Earl of Flanders, is now a farmhouse. John Vincent Hornyhold, Esq., is lord of the manor."
"MALVERN WELLS, a village in the parish of Hanley Castle, hundred of Lower Oswaldslow, county Worcester, 1 mile N. of Little Malvern. There are railway stations here, as well as at Malvern. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Worcester. The church is a modern structure dedicated to St. Peter."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]