TARDEBIGG - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"TARDEBIGG, a parish chiefly in the upper division of Halfshire hundred, county Worcester, but partly in the Alcester division of Barlichway hundred, county Warwick, 3 miles S.E. of Bromsgrove, its post town, and 2 S. of the Blackwell railway station. The village is situated on the Worcester and Birmingham canal, and on the Birmingham and Bristol railway. The parish includes the town of Redditch and the hamlets of Bentley, Pauncefoot, Webheath, and Tutnall. The soil is rich and productive, and the subsoil abounds in building-stone.

The manufacture of needles and fishhooks is extensively carried on at Redditch [which see]. 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 £590. The church, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, has monuments of the earls of Plymouth, and of Lady Anna Maria Cookes. It was rebuilt by Act of Parliament in 1776. There are various charities, which are distributed to the poor yearly. There are chapels at Redditch for Roman Catholics, Wesleyans, and Independents, and National schools for both sexes, supported by the Baroness Windsor, of Hewell Grange, who is lady of the manor."
"BENTLEY-PAUNCEFOOT, (or Bentley, Upper and Lower), a township in the parish of Tardebigg, and hundred of Halfshire, in the county of Worcester, 3 miles to the S.E. of Bromsgrove. The Bristol and Birmingham railway runs near it. Bentley House is the principal residence.

"COBLEY, a hamlet in the parish of Tardebigg, in the hundred of Barlichway, in the county of Worcester, 2 miles E. of Bromsgrove. It is situated on the Birmingham canal, and was, until recently, included in the county of Warwick."
"TUTNALL and COBLEY, hamlets in the parish of Tardebigg, Alchester division of Barlichway hundred, county Worcester, formerly in Warwickshire, 2 miles S.E. of Bromsgrove, on the Birmingham railway and canal."
"WEBHEATH, a township in the parish of Tardebigg, upper division of Halfshire hundred, county Worcester, 2 miles S.W. of Redditch railway station, and 3 S.E. of Blackwell. There are some brick and tile kilns. The Baptists have a chapel. Foxlydiate House is the principal residence."

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