TARDEBIGGE. 343

part of Feckenham to form the district of St. Luke's, Headless Cross. In 1867, Headless Cross was, by an Order in Council, formed into a rectory. For civil purposes the whole of the parish is now in Worcestershire, but ecclesiastically the hamlet of Tutnell and Cobley remains in Warwickshire.

Baroness Windsor is lady of the manor, patroness of the living, and the largest landowner in the parish. Her ladyship's mansion, built in 1717, by the Earl of Plymouth, is an unpretending structure, being simply a square, with a portico to its principal front, supported by six Composite columns and pilasters between the windows. From this front is seen the obelisk erected on the Lickey to the Earl of Plymouth. The park is beautifully laid out; a large sheet of water, many acres of ornamental ground around the house, and ten devoted to kitchen gardens. The Duchess of Kent and Princess (now Queen) Victoria slept at Hewell Grange on the 5th of November, 1832, and received there addresses from the nobility and others of the county. The Worcestershire Regiment of Yeomanry escorted the Royal party, and since that event they have taken the name of "Queen's Own." Hewell Grange, and a great part of the parish, belonged to the Abbey of Bordesley till the Dissolution, and since then to the Windsors, Earls of Plymouth, and descendants.

Among the resident gentry are R. Hemming, Esq., of Bentley Manor, who is a principal landowner; G. R. Collis, Esq., of Foxlydiate House; and Miss Emmott, of Tutnell Mount. Bentley Manor was formerly the residence of Sir T. Cookes, founder of Worcester College, Oxford.

Population of Tardebigge, 1,251; acreage, 7,500. The ordinary crops are raised; a few of the inhabitants are engaged in the needle and fish-hook trade, and others in gloving.

Rev. C. A. Dickins, M.A., is the vicar; value of living, £524. The church, which has 420 sittings, of which 86 are free, is not yet a century old, and therefore requires no remark, except that it has a graceful spire, seen from long distances.