The parish, which independently of Netherton, contains an area of 2,062 acres, lies on the slope of Bredon Hill, a steep gradient attaining at its highest point an elevation of some 900 feet, whilst its lowest is only 200 above sea level. Clouds drifting from the Bristol Channel before the South West winds are prone to discharge themselves on Bredon; and under these circumstances it is not surprising to find two thirds of the land in pasture, and the parish watered by a purling brook. This finds an outlet in the Avon, and on its way serves as a mill stream, that six years ago, also provided fisheries worthy of record as an asset of the Manor.
The soil is marl and clay, on a sub-soil of lias and gravel, and the village crops are mainly beans, wheat and barley, with an apparent preference for beans. Mr. Noake seems to have found roots, cabbages, peas and fruit, but probably on an experimental scale. And yet there must be some favoured nook, with rich soil on a sheltered, sunny, slope, such as one meets with in lands of terraced vines; for in olden days the monks of Worcester Priory levied by the wine in Elmley Castle, and as tythes were then collected in kind, and the Benedictines excellent judges, the vintage must have been at least “passable.”
Elmley Castle lies some five miles from everywhere, including both Pershore and Evesham, but it has always maintained a carrier, the latest railway development gave it a railway station within 3 miles, at Hinton, a place associated with the Laslett Almshouses at Worcester.
The population is as nearly as possible the same as in the reign of Elizabeth. There have of course been fluctuations, but they have been comparatively insignificant. In Nash’s time there were 68 families, and the high water mark was probably reached at the census of 1841, when the population was 403. Since then there has been a fairly steady decline, averaging rather more than one a year; and the 1911 census showed only 316, exclusive of course of Netherton, annexed in the interval. In Elizabeth’s reign there were 57 families, which assuming the customary average of 5½ per family, gave 313. Few parishes can show such slight variation in comparing periods three and a half centuries apart, but Elmley does not lend itself to intensive culture, and its husbandry has probably changed little since Tudor times.
This stereotyped population is reflected in values. That in Anne’s reign, as ascertained for land tax purposes, was £741 a year, and the present rateable value is only £2,266, a nominal increase far more than counterbalanced by the diminished real value of money.
It is noticeable that there has been no inclosure act for Elmley Castle but it does not follow that there have been no inclosures. Some remarks of Mr. Allies on the diversions of the ancient “Saltway” point to at least one instance.
Elmley Castle is rich in antiquities and traditions. Among the former is a portion of the prehistoric road known as the “Lower Deviation Salt-way,” which Mr. Jabez Allies traced and described as “an old and very miry bye-way running for about a mile under the name of the Salt-Way, in a direction inclining northwards towards Pershore and southwards towards Ashton-under-Hill.” He mentioned that upon an inclosure taking place the original line of the road was modified and diverted into the direction of Cropthorne.
Mr. Allies also mentions an immense mound called “Winds-End” mid-way between the site of the ancient castle and Kemerton Camp, composed of earth and loose stones and running from the bottom of Bredon hill to the brow, where it is called “Sheep Hill.” This mound has the appearance of a lateral moraine of some prehistoric glacier. Similar ones, so recognised, may be met with in the Lake country, and are fairly common in some Alpine districts, where glaciers have shrunk, but must be very rare in the West Midlands.
Between “Winds-End” and the Castle Mr. Allies found some trenches known locally as “The Horse Camps,” and supposed to have been used in baronial days by horse cavalry encamped in proximity with the castle, and the castle moat remained still perfect in Mr. Noake’s time.
In connection with the neighbouring manor of Woollashill, reference was made to a suggestion that wolves in ancient times had their lairs in the recesses of Bredon Hill.
Some confirmation of this is afforded by the grant by Henry I. of “wolf-charter” to Walter Beauchamp, son-in-law of Urso d’Abitot, and first of the Beauchamps of Elmley Castle.
Source info: MS note by AW “Worcester Herald July 25th”.
Watkins did not keep the rest of this article about the parish of Elmley Castle, Worcs. Probably he was most interested in the salt-way and the moat.