From the Time Traveller's Guide to Drakes Broughton

Scroll down the page until you find the information you need. You will find more information about this place in the Time Traveller's Guide on the heritage detective's website.

You have found The Old Oak village pub.  

Information for Arthur.

Tell Arthur that this pub was here long before they started to build the modern village of Drakes Broughton.  The name ‘The Old Oak’ reminds everyone that this was once a wooded area, Arthur will also be interested to learn that the street names around here also remind everyone that this was once precious woodland. Tell him that we have discovered that until very recently this area was a part of the great Croome Estate owned by Lord Coventry. Most people who lived here worked on the land for Lord Coventry and lived in cottages owned by him, they paid him rent. A long long time ago this part of the Croome Estate was included in the Manor of Allesborough. It was owned by the Abbot of Pershore.  After the dissolution of the monasteries the manor was owned by the Sadleir family, Thomas Sadleir had been secretary to Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell worked for Henry VIII in the dissolution of the monasteries. The Coventry family bought Allesborough Manor in 1622, the first Baron Coventry called himself Baron Coventry of Allesborough.

Does this information help Arthur?

 You have found Stonebow Road a street of houses that runs right through Drakes Broughton from the B4084 to the A44.

Information for Arthur

Most of these houses have been built since the 2nd World War.  You can tell Arthur that the modern houses he can see around him have their own water supply and their own electricity. They also have gas for central heating and mains drainage. Arthur will probably think this is all rather remarkable. He will remember small, smokey, two-roomed houses with fires in the middle of the living room and animals living in the room next door - they all kept each other warm at night!  You had better talk to him about electricity and its dangers because he will not know about electric shocks! 

Does this information help Arthur?

You have found a busy school. This school is St. Barnabas First and Middle School. 

Information for Arthur.

You have discovered that this is quite a large school and most of the buildings are fairly new but there is one small building at the front by the road that was built in Victorian times.  This old part of the school was built on land given by Lord Coventry not long after the church was built.  The church and the school are both dedicated to St Barnabas an early Christian saint and a disciple of Jesus. When the church and the school were first built the village looked very different, it was small and there were very few houses. Most of the people worked on the land and took their produce to Pershore market. 

Does this information help Arthur?

You have found an old farmhouse.

Information for Arthur

This farmhouse is made from brick and timber and it has enormous chimneys. It looks old but houses were not built with bricks in Arthur's time.  A little way down the road there is a ford that crosses Bow Brook a fast flowing stream that joins the River Avon near Defford. Warn Arthur that in times of heavy rain this ford can be extremely dangerous.  This area is called Walcot, there has been a settlement here for a very long time, some records say that it was an ancient British settlement but there is nothing to see today that will prove this, perhaps there are something in an old document.

Does this information help Arthur?

The church is dedicated to St. Barnabas. It looks quite old.

Information for Arthur.

You can tell Arthur that this is an old building but it is not a very old.  It was built in Victorian times because the people who lived around here had no church and it was a long way to walk to their parish church in Pershore. They petitioned for a church and got this one. The land belonged to the Croome Estate and Lord Coventry provided the land for the chapel.  His architect chose to build the church in a gothic style so that it looked medieval. In those days Drakes Broughton and Wadborough were just tiny villages with farms scattered around them. The people still had to go to Pershore Abbey for some of their services. Take Arthur inside the building to see a window that commemorates the vicar of Pershore who organised the building of the chapel. Find the carving on the capital that still reminds people of the historic connection between this place and Pershore.

Does this information help Arthur?

You have found the village fish and chip shop with its bright lights shining and the hustle and bustle of people going in and out.

Information for Arthur.

This is a modern building so Arthur would not recognise it but he will recognise the idea of eating fish. We have discovered that fish has always been an important part of people’s diet. Today you can see that everyone coming out of this building is carrying a parcel wrapped in paper.  Inside many of the parcels there will be a portion of fish and some chips. Arthur will be quite familiar with people eating fish, everyone in Christian Europe ate fish on Fridays but you will have to ask him if he likes batter! Remember Arthur will not know about chips or potatoes as they had not been discovered in his time. Be aware that Drakes Broughton will seem like a small town to Arthur - there are probably more houses in Drakes Broughton village than there were in Pershore in his time!

Does this information help Arthur?

You have found street name that includes the word 'Croome'.

Information for Arthur.

You can tell Arthur that we have discovered that a lot of the land in the parish of Drakes Broughton and Wadborough once belonged to the Lords Coventry and was part of the Croome Estate.  It wasn't until the 1980s that the estate was sold and the land developed for housing.  Before the Coventry family bought the land it had belonged to Sir Ralph Sadleir, secretary to Thomas Cromwell and before that to Pershore Abbey.  For nearly a thousand years the land around here belonged to the monastery in Pershore. 

Does this information help Arthur?

Information from the Heritage Knights

When the heritage detectives from St. Barnabas School in Drakes Broughton thought about their report for Arthur they were not sure that they would find anything that would be of interest to tell him. Nearly all of the houses in the village of Drakes Broughton were built on land that was once a part of the Croome Estate and the land was not sold for development until the later part of the twentieth century.

Their teacher contacted the archaeologists at The Hive, the library in Worcester. They gave her a copy of the Historic Environment Record for their area, (this is a record of all the archaeological findings in a given area)  As the heritage detectives studied the report they realised that their parish was actually very interesting and there were many stories to tell.  As there is very little to see today they used their imagination and made a model of the village as they thought it might have been long ago.  In those days the whole of today’s civil parish of Drakes Broughton and Wadborough belonged to Pershore Abbey!  The area consisted of a number of small farming settlements with the vast open fields of the abbey between them and the great abbey church. This church in Pershore was the parish church!  Drakes Broughton and Wadborough remained a part of the Parish of Holy Cross until 1922!   You can find out more in The Time Traveller's Guide.