Under the Reform Act of the county returned four members in two divisions; Droitwich lost one member; Dudley and Kidderminster were re-enfranchised, returning one member each. In Evesham lost one member. In the 16th century, the Worcestershire clothing industry gave employment to people. The clothing industry declined in the 17th century, but the silk-manufacture later replaced it at Kidderminster and Blockley.
Rural production of cloth had been spurred by rural poverty and the need to supplement incomes. Rope making was prominent around Bromsgrove. However, tanning was probably the largest single industry across the county, concentrated near rivers and streams in the north and west of the county. Glassmaking was first established in Stourbridge in the early s, by Hugeonot emigres.
Sir Robert Mansell who had obtained a national monopoly on glass production was pivotal in using the local clay to make glass pots, and greatly expanded the local industry, which began manufacturing window panes as well as bottles and pots. The northern part of the county was already known for metalwork, but was still dependent on small furnaces powered by hand bellows for iron production until shortly before the civil war, when charcoal furnaces using water powered bellows began to be introduced.
Smithies were generally owned by landowners and leased to smiths, who were not organised into guilds, unlike their counterparts in Coventry. This freedom from price and production control may in part explain the industry's sudden growth in the seventeenth century, which caused rivalry with guilds in London who attempted to stop the flow of Midlands goods into their markets. The greatest benefits of the trade accrued to ironmasters who purchased goods from the local producers for sale onwards.
Nailmaking also established itself in the northern parts of the county, such as Bromsgrove, Stourbridge and Dudley. Like other metal trades, it served as a way to supplement otherwise low rural incomes, and then replaced other labouring work for many.
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It grew in part because of the access that the Severn river gave to national and international markets, alongside the local production of iron. Again the nailmasters, who resold nails into the markets beyond the county gained the most from this trade, which even in this period was low paid and exploited. The period also saw many changes to agriculture. For instance, tobacco was grown in Worcestershire in the Eckington and Evesham areas.
There were 17 growers in , when it was banned after pressure from colonial producers.
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Tobacco continued to be grown illegally through most of the rest of the century. The potato, on the other hand, while introduced to the country, was not widely cultivated. Hops may also have been introduced to Worcestershire around this period. Flax and hemp, vital to the cloth trade, were grown, as was woad , for dyeing.
The county grew extensive fruit crops, especially apples and pears, but also plums, cherries, other soft fruits and vines.
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Cider and perry production also thrived. Mulberries were encouraged by James I and Charles II as a prelude to introducing a silk industry, supporting silk-manufacture later established at Kidderminster and Blockley. Market gardening also developed in the period, especially in the Evesham area. Shortly beforehand, in , the prior William More resigned, and was replaced by Henry Holbeach. More had a reputation for fine living, although his standards seem in line with other senior ecclesiasts of the time.
However, there certainly were problems with the administration of the priory, including divisions within the community. The Protestant Hugh Latimer was bishop from , and preached for reform and iconoclasm. John Bell , a moderate reformer, was bishop from —, during the period of the priory's dissolution. In the early 16th century, Worcester had around 40 monks. This declined slightly in the years immediately before , as recruitment seems to have halted. There were 35 Benedictine monks plus the Prior Holbeach at the time of dissolution, probably 16 January ; eleven were immediately given pensions, while the remainder became secular canons in the new Royal College.
Holbeach was re-appointed as the first Dean. A further five former monks were pensioned from the college in July The abolition of the monasteries caused a major reorganisation of the educational system for young people, mostly sons of gentry, who were given Latin and grammar schooling through monastic schools up until this point. The Royal Grammar School, Worcester claims descent from one of these. King Henry set up replacement grammar schools, often still provided in close association with the Church. King's School, Worcester is one of these. The former monastic library of Worcester Priory contained a considerable number of manuscripts which are, among other libraries, now scattered over Cambridge , London British Library , Oxford Bodleian , and the Cathedral library at Worcester of today.
John Bell's successor as Bishop, Nicholas Heath , was religiously much more conservative and Catholic. The records from the dissolution give detail about other religious houses in Worcestershire. Although Roman Catholicism was officially abolished, a number of Worcestershire's aristocratic families remained Catholic.
Several were involved in the Gunpowder Plot in Some Worcestershire houses have priest holes that survive from the 16th and 17th centuries for example Harvington Hall has seven. The reformation also brought change to rural customs, feasts and fairs, which became gradually more detached from religious significance. As Puritanism rose as a social force in the s and 30s, village sports and activities such as Maypole and Morris dancing came under attack, for instance from legislation in the s. Worcester raised funds to keep players out of the city in and These activities did however gain a revival after the restoration.
Robert Catesby , the main figure behind the Gunpowder Plot, was from Northampton, but most of the plotters were from Worcestershire's Catholic families. After , Charles I attempted to rule without Parliament. This forced him to raise taxes and other revenues, which had a number of impacts on Worcestershire. The sale of royal lands, particularly forests, led to attempts to enclose Malvern Chase and the more successful sale of Feckenham Forest in the s, which in both cases had led to rioting as well as the displacement of the rural poor that had depended on the use of these Royal lands as effectively common land, with long-established although informal usage rights.
Taxes on imports of goods known as ' tonnage and poundage ' were imposed, which reduced the profitability of trade and created opposition in urban centres including Worcester. Similarly, the Ship Money taxation levied in fell heavily on Worcester, which was the sixteenth highest paying city in England. Puritans including Richard Baxter noted the mounting opposition to Royal policies within the county. The unpopularity of these Royalist policies stemmed from the perception that Charles I was attempting to establish a more authoritarian, non-Parliamentary kind of monarchy.
Charles I's religious policies also provoked suspicion in Worcestershire. Although the county had a Catholic minority among its aristocratic families, the vast majority of the population was firmly Anglican, with a growing group of more radical Protestants in its towns.
They had increasing social influence, for instance about public morality and observance of the Sabbath. Increased interest in religious doctrine led to several Worcestershire towns funding lecturers to deliver sermons, including Baxter in Kidderminster. Worcestershire produced some other notable Puritan figures, including Edward Winslow , who migrated to new England with the Pilgrim Fathers. In Worcester, Roger Mainwaring , as Dean, reintroduced vestments and constructed a marble altar. In the early s, stories of massacres of protestants in Ireland helped lead to rumours of Catholic plots than spread through the county leading to anti-Catholic riots in Bewdley in late , and instructions to local militias to guard against conspiracies in the following months.
Worcestershire was under Royalist control during most of the first civil war. Like many parts of England, there was little enthusiasm for either side, and the initial instincts of many was to try to avoid conflict. Different parts of the county had different sympathies, for instance Evesham was notably Parliamentarian, and Kidderminster also had a strong Parliamentarian contingent. The city of Worcester equivocated about whether to support the Parliamentary cause before the outbreak of civil war in , but eventually sided with Parliament.
It was however soon under Royalist occupation, as was the rest of the county. In the first major skirmish of the Civil War, the Battle of Powick Bridge , on the River Teme close to Worcester , occurred when a cavalry troop of about 1, Royalists commanded by Prince Rupert , a German nephew of the King and one of the outstanding cavalry commanders of the war, defeated a Parliamentary cavalry detachment under the command of Colonel John Brown.
An English County During the Civil Wars
The Cathedral was used to store arms during the war, possibly as early as September Parliamentary troops then ransacked the Cathedral building. Stained glass was smashed and the organ destroyed, along with library books and monuments. Worcester was one of three garrison towns in the county and had to bear the expense of sustaining and billeting a large number of Royalist troops.
During the Royalist occupation, the suburbs were destroyed to make defence easier. Responsibility for maintenance of defences was transferred to the military command. High taxation was imposed, and many male residents impressed into the army. The same pressures created great strain on the county as a whole, as it had to sustain a large, unproductive force drawn out of its productive labour. Taxation, requisitioning by armies and cross-border raids caused great deprivations, made worse by the proximity of Worcestershire to Parliamentary forces to the north around Birmingham, to the east in Warwickshire, and at certain times to the south in Bristol and Gloucestershire.
Bands of Clubmen formed in west Worcestershire in the later part of the first war, with the objective of keeping both armies and their demands away from the rural civilian population, to resist despoilation and requisitioning. There was also a vein of resentment towards the prominent role given many Catholics in the county. The Clubmen's Woodbury Hill proclamation stated that they would not obey any Papist or Papist Recusant, "nor ought [they] … be trusted in any office of state, justice, or judicature".
As Royalist power collapsed in May , Worcester was placed under siege. Worcester had around 5, civilians, together with a Royalist garrison of around 1, men, facing a 2,—5, strong force of the New Model Army. Worcester finally surrendered on 23 July, bringing the first civil war to a close in Worcestershire. In a Scottish army marched south along the west coast in support of Charles II 's attempt to regain the Crown and entered the county.
The 16, Scottish force caused Worcester's council to vote to surrender as it approached, fearing further violence and destruction. The Parliamentary garrison decided to withdraw to Evesham in the face of the overwhelming numbers against them. The Scots were billeted in and around the Worcester, again at great expense and causing new anxiety for the residents.
The Scots were joined by very limited local forces, including a company of 60 men under John Talbot. The Battle of Worcester 3 September , took place in the fields a little to the west and south of the city, near the village of Powick. Charles II was easily defeated by Cromwell's forces of 30, men. Scottish troops fleeing capture were attacked and killed in local skirmishes, while the vast majority were pressed into forced labour in the east of England or new world. Only three canons were alive from the period before the Bishopric's abolition in Between and , Parliament supported a very broad toleration of views in the Church of England, and did not seek to expel ministers except those with most radical religious views.
This ended in , when the Act of Uniformity required ministers to accept the Church of England prayer book.
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Around 2, Anglican ministers from the Commonwealth period resigned from the Church of England, including Richard Baxter of Kidderminster, who had also acted as chaplain to Parliamentary troops. In Bromsgrove, John Spilsbury, previously a fellow of Magdalen College , was removed after the Restoration of the Monarchy in , [91] and left the Church of England by refusing to conform to the Act of Uniformity [92] Thomas Hall , at King's Norton, was also expelled.
Spilsbury was confined to his house, banished from the county and finally imprisoned for his non-conformism. At the other end of the religious spectrum, many of the aristocratic families of Worcestershire were Catholics, and were also unable to fully participate in public life. Catholic worship was illegal, however an average of eight priests operated in the county during the seventeenth century.
Although there was little evidence against him, he was hanged, drawn and quartered , the last Catholic to be executed for his faith in the United Kingdom. Charles II's last years were dominated by his attempts to face down demands from the Whigs to prevent the succession to the throne of a Catholic, Charles' brother James being next in line.
To this end, Charles dissolved the Parliament, which was debating an Exclusion Bill, and then attempted to limit the ability of towns and cities to elect MPs that were unsympathetic to his views. The mechanism for this was the alteration of town charters, to allow the crown to dismiss key officials, and to limit the Parliamentary franchise to the same officials. In , the previous royal charters of Evesham and Worcester were withdrawn, and Evesham given a new restricted franchise along these lines.
King James II issued a new Charter to Worcester which was less restrictive than Evesham's but allowed him to dismiss council officials. Catholic worship became more open during James II's rule, and a chapel was established in Worcester near Foregate around Anti-Catholic riots in the city were narrowly prevented in outside a private house used for Catholic worship. These moves were unpopular in Worcestershire as elsewhere. The Civil Wars Experienced. The Battle of Northampton From Wakefield to Towton.
The Battle of Towton English Civil War Fortifications — The Battlefields of England. Killing Fields of Scotland. R J M Pugh.
Battle of Worcester
Bristol and The Civil War. Atlas of the English Civil War. Yorkshire in the Civil Wars. The English Civil Wars — The Battle of Marston Moor The Great Siege of Newcastle A Flame Now Quenched. Sweet William or the Butcher? Winning the British Civil Wars. The Wars of the Roses. The Great Siege of Chester. The Battles of St Albans. The Royalist War Effort Earl Bathurst and British Empire. Yorkshire in the 17th Century. History for Common Entrance: Britain and Empire Roberts and Kitchener in South Africa.
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