Parishes: Tibberton

TIBBERTON

Tidbrihtingctune (x cent.); Tidbertun (xi cent.); Titbrictune, Tibrithtun (xii cent.); Tiburtone, Tibritton, Tybryton (xiii cent.); Tyberton (xvi cent.).

The parish of Tibberton lies in the middle of the county to the north-east of the town of Worcester. Its area is 1,271 acres, (fn. 1) of which 473 are arable land and 747 permanent grassland. (fn. 2) The soil is clay with a subsoil of Keuper Marl, and the chief crops are wheat, beans and oats.

The village lies to the west of the Droitwich road, which turns westward to Worcester at Ravenshill Farm, south of the village. The church and vicarage stand on an eminence, about 200 ft. above the ordnance datum, but the land falls to the east and south to the valleys of the brooks which form the eastern and part of the southern boundaries of the parish. The vicarage, which lies near the church, was built in 1884, mainly at the cost of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. To the south of the church is a good half-timber farm-house of the early 17th century; a house of similar type and date stands a little distance to the north of the church. Ravenshill Farm is a red brick house, built on a sandstone base, of two stories and an attic, with twin tiled roofs. The eastern half, dating from the 17th century, has a brick string-course between the ground and first floors and two gables on the east front, while the west part, added early in the 18th century, has no string-course or gables. Some windows on the east and south are blocked. Internally the house retains its original oak floors, stairs and doors. In the first floor rooms of the earlier part of the house are two panelled oak fireplaces with cornices. In the centre panel of the overmantel of the fireplace in the southern room is a painting on canvas of Europa and the bull. To the north-east of the house is a 17th-century half-timber and brick barn with a thatched roof, and to the south is a sheet of water extending in three directions in the form of a Y, which may be the remains of a moat. There is a parish room, opened in 1905.

Foredraught Lane is a district in the north of the parish near the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, which here passes through Tibberton, and Moor End is a district to the south.

An Inclosure Act for Tibberton was passed in 1810. (fn. 3)

Chaunters Close is a place-name found in the 17th century. (fn. 4)

MANORS

Though there is no record of a grant of TIBBERTON to the church of Worcester, it must have owned it before the end of the 10th century, when Oswald, Bishop of Worcester and Archbishop of York, (fn. 5) leased 7 acres of meadow there to a priest named Godingc for three lives, (fn. 6) on condition that he should be amanuensis to the see. At the date of the Domesday Survey Tibberton was a member of the bishop's great manor of Northwick, (fn. 7) and probably had been granted to the church with that manor. It doubtless remained part of Northwick until Bishop Samson (1096–1112) gave it to the Prior and convent of Worcester. (fn. 8) It was confirmed to them by Bishop Simon in 1148. (fn. 9)

Waleran Count of Mellent in the reign of Stephen directed William de Beauchamp to give to the Prior and monks of Worcester the 'forestage' of Tibberton, and he pardoned the prior the king's geld in the forest which belonged to him. (fn. 10)

Richard I made the church's lands in Tibberton free from all forest dues, pleas and exactions. (fn. 11) In 1244 the prior bought some heathland near Tibberton of Alexander D'Abitot. (fn. 12) Four years later William de Bracy gave the prior a pasture in Tibberton, and gave him licence to inclose a field called Purnewude and to make a path 8 ft. wide through the wood of Warndon from the manor of Tibberton to the king's highway which goes to Worcester. The prior was to make a bec to protect the corn, and to give William a messuage and croft in Trotteswell and 10 marks of silver. (fn. 13) In the same year the king granted that the prior might hold free of rent 7 acres of land in Tibberton which he had assarted in the forest of Feckenham. (fn. 14) It was the custom in the 13th century for the prior to lease the manor to the villeins for 102s. a year. (fn. 15)

The manor remained in the possession of the Prior and convent of Worcester until the Dissolution, (fn. 16) when it passed to the Crown. It was granted in 1542 to the Dean and Chapter of Worcester, (fn. 17) and confirmed to them in 1609. (fn. 18) In 1650 the Parliamentary commissioners sold the manor of Tibberton to William Garland and John Houghton for £1,033 5s. 3d. (fn. 19) At the Restoration the dean and chapter recovered the manor. It was confirmed to them in 1692, (fn. 20) and remained with them until 1859, when it was taken over by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, (fn. 21) who are in possession of the manor at the present day. (fn. 22)

The lords of the manor of Tibberton held a court baron which was included in the sale of 1650. (fn. 23) In 1812 this court was held at Himbleton, and the tenants of Tibberton presented the Dean of Worcester with 6s. 8d. saddle money. (fn. 24) No court is held at the present day.

In 1291 the prior owned a windmill in Tibberton. (fn. 25) This mill is again mentioned in 1315, (fn. 26) but seems to have disappeared before 1535.

RAVENSHILL

RAVENSHILL (Raefneshyl, ix cent.; Raeveneshyll, xi cent.) was evidently given to the church of Worcester before 816, when Coenwulf, King of Mercia, freed it from all secular services except building of bridges and strongholds and from military service. (fn. 27) It was then a vill of Hallow. It was given by Bishop Brihteah (1033–8) to his kinsman Brihtwine, (fn. 28) but afterwards Urse the Sheriff seized this land and the church lost it. (fn. 29) Shortly afterwards, however, they must have recovered it, for it is evidently to be identified with part of the 2 nameless hides in the manor of Hallow which two radmanni held in 1086. (fn. 30) The mesne lordship, however, passed with Urse's other estates to the Beauchamps of Elmley, for in the 12th century it was held under William de Beauchamp by Osbert D'Abitot, of whom it was held by John Haltham. (fn. 31) A certain John rendered 40s. for Ravenshill in 1166–7, (fn. 32) and may perhaps have been John Haltham.

Habington mentions a Richard de Ravenshill who flourished in 1305, (fn. 33) and Robert de Ravenshill (Reveshutt) paid a subsidy of 8d. at Tibberton in 1327. (fn. 34) Richard Baugh held the estate in Habington's time (17th century), and it had been in his family for some time before that. (fn. 35) It was purchased of the Baughs by the Berkeleys of Spetchley, (fn. 36) and is perhaps included in the land at Tibberton of which Rowland Berkeley died seised in 1611. Ravenshill was the residence in 1655 of Thomas son of Sir Robert Berkeley of Spetchley, and in 1681 it is recorded that there was a Roman Catholic chapel at the house of Mr. Thomas Berkeley at Ravenshill. (fn. 37) In 1689 a warrant was issued for the protection of Mrs. Anne Berkeley of Ravenshill and her son Thomas. (fn. 38) The estate has since remained in the possession of the Berkeley family, and now belongs to Mr. Robert V. Berkeley of Spetchley Park.

An estate belonging in the 16th century to the Winters, and known as the manor of TIBBERTON, is said by Habington to have been the half hide of land in 'Ivelinge' granted by Ralph Prior of Worcester to Thomas Fitz Aldred for 8s. yearly. (fn. 39) In 1240 Alexander de Iveling was paying this rent to the prior for half a hide of land at Tibberton, (fn. 40) and in 1280 Richard de Iveling paid a subsidy at Tibberton. (fn. 41) He had been succeeded before 1327 by John de Iveling. (fn. 42) Habington states that this property afterwards passed to the Hodingtons, and descended with the manor of Huddington (q.v.) to the Winters. (fn. 43) Certainly Roger Winter held it at the time of his death in 1535, (fn. 44) and it then passed with Huddington in the Winter family until the middle of the 17th century. (fn. 45) After the Revolution of 1688 the Jesuit fathers of the Catholic Mission at Worcester retired to Evelench. (fn. 46) Nash writing at the end of the 18th century does not give the owner of the Evelench estate, which was purchased in 1851 by the Rev. H. W. Walmesley and others. It is now in the possession of the Jesuits of St. George's, Worcester. (fn. 47)

CHURCH

The small church of ST. PETER AD VINCULA, built in 1868, consists of a chancel, nave, porch and west bellt-urret. The walls are of brick faced with stone, and it is in 13th-century style. In the east wall of the chancel is a pointed window of three lights, and in the side walls are two lancets on the north side and one on the south, with a square-headed two-light window further west.

The nave is lighted by three pairs of lancets on the north and two pairs on the south, while to the west are single lancets on either side. In the west wall are four lancets with a traceried circular window above. The entrance is by a pointed doorway in the south wall covered by a wood porch. A timber turret stands above the roof at the west end and above it is an octagonal spire. Some oak work from the old church is said to have been used in the present flooring and alter rails.

The former building is described by Dr. Prattinton in 1818 as consisting of a nave, chancel and south porch, with a timber bell-turret at the west end. The chancel was lit by a three-light east window and three single-light openings in the side walls. He also mentions two uninscribed bells in the turret.

The font is now octagonal, but from the remains of a horizontal roll at the corners it would appear to have formerly been round in plan and was probably of the 13th century.

There are two modern bells, both by J. Taylor.

The communion plate consists of an Elizabethan cup and cover paten dated 1571, the maker's initials being H.W., a stand paten of 1839, and a flagon of 1869.

The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) baptisms 1680 to 1760, burials 1684 to 1760, and marriages 1683 to 1754; (ii) baptisms and burials 1761 to 1812; (iii) marriages 1756 to 1811.

ADVOWSON

The advowson of the church of Tibberton belonged to the Prior and convent of Worcester until the Dissolution. (fn. 48) In 1314 the church was appropriated to the office of precentor of the convent (fn. 49) for the provision of new books and rolls, the repair of the old ones, and the keeping of horses for the business of the convent. (fn. 50) A vicarage to the value of 5 marks was ordained in the following year. (fn. 51) In 1535 the rectory of Tibberton was returned as annexed to that of Himbleton. (fn. 52) The advowson and rectory (fn. 53) were granted to the Dean and Chapter of Worcester in 1542, (fn. 54) and the advowson has remained with them ever since. (fn. 55) The vicarage was annexed on 6 October 1841 to the rectory of Bredicot. (fn. 56)

The precentors of Worcester seem to have had a residence at Tibberton, for in 1657 the Parliamentary trustees sold to Robert Urwyn the site of the rectory of Tibberton and the mansion-house belonging to the same, with land called Chaunters Close, which had been leased by the dean and chapter in 1641 for three lives to Mary Gibson. (fn. 57) The rectory seems to have been leased from time to time by the dean and chapter, and was in 1666 and at the beginning of the 19th century in the possession of the Bearcroft family. (fn. 58)

The church house of Tibberton was granted in 1573–4 to John and William Mersh. (fn. 59)

There is a Wesleyan Methodist chapel in the parish.

CHARITIES

In or about 1813 Mrs. Anne Sumner, late wife of the Rev. Dr. Sumner of King's College, Cambridge, and widow of Mr. George Wingfield, by her will, in pursuance of her first husband's will, bequeathed £500, the interest to be applied in buying gowns to clothe poor women, the said £500 to be equally divided between the several parishes of St. Martin and St. Nicholas, Worcester, and the parishes of Claines, Warndon and Tibberton in the county of Worcester.

The sum of £100 coming to this parish, reduced by the legacy duty, is represented by £105 consols with the official trustees, the annual dividends of £2 12s. 6d. being duly applied.