Noake's Worcestershire Page 164

164 FLADBURY.

were Throckmorton, Ab or Abbot's Lench, Stock and Bradley, Wyre Piddle, Hill and Moor. Stock and Bradley, being no less than a dozen miles distant from the mother parish, has at length been treated in the same way that most of our colonies should be—namely, allowed to set up for itself in a separate and independent state of existence; Abbot's Lench also has been put to Church Lench; and Throckmorton and Wyre are now the only chapelries. The town of Pladbury was giren to the Bishop 6f Worcester by King Ethelred in 631, and the bishop's bailiff governed the place. Throekmorton belonged to the ancient family of that name, and Wyre to the Earls of Warwick. Population of Fladbury three centuries ago, about 200; now increased to upwards of 1,500. The bailiff of the town in 1635 was Mr. W. Sandys, who spent the then enormous sum of £20,000 in rendering the Avon navigable for vessels of fifty tons from Tewkesbury to Stratford, a distance of twenty-four miles, and which proved a great advantage in distributing coals through "The Vale." A market was held here on Wednesdays, in the open space between the Anchor Inn and the Church. An interesting description of the place is given by Richard Symonds in his diary, seventeenth century, recently published by the Camden Society. Symonds accompanied Charles I in the civil wars; and for the first week in July, 1644, he says:- "Fladbury: the king was here with part of his army. This is a mother church of five or six hamlets. In the east window of the chancel [Symonds, in the hottest of the war, had an eye to antiquity] the pictures, notwithstanding being broken about a fortnight before by Waller's men - these six following coates, very fair and old. [Describes the arms of Le Despencer, Montfort, Mortimer, Bosco, or Corbett, Boteler, and another Montfort.] Upon a flat stone in the chancel, the picture of a churchman with this coate and inscription:- [To Thos. Morton, B.L., treasurer of Saint Paul's, London, and rector of Fladbury.] In the middle of the yle stands a faire altar tombe, the top inlaid with brasse, with the pictures of a man in armour, in the form of the Black Prince,