64 BROADWAS.

Broadwas.

FAMOUS for hops and cider, rich meadows and upland above the left bank of the beautiful Teme, a pretty rural village and an ancient church, the whole some six or seven miles west of Worcester. The Saxon King Offa, noted for profuse liberality in favour of the religion to which he was a convert, gave this fair possession to the Church of Worcester, and I find in the ancient records of the Priory of that city that Broadwas was one of the twelve manors appropriated to the charity of the brethren, the tenants also furnishing to the monks a hundred plates or dishes at Christmas and the feast of St. Mary, wood for four boats for servants " in aula in Natale Domini," and a good fat boar at the feast of All Saints. The Dean and Chapter Worcester, as representatives of "the monks of old," are still patrons of the living, but having handed over their possessions to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the latter are the lords of the manor. The lands were chiefly, up to a late period, copyhold for lives, two in possession and two reversion, renewable by custom, but the Commissioners dispute the right of renewal. Much of the land is now process of enfranchisement. The principal landowners are C. Pidcock, Esq., (who resides at the Court) W. Berkeley, F. E. Williams, B. Davies, E. B. Guest, and E. Pullen, and the acreage is about 1,250, the parish being four miles circumference. There were twenty-one families in the time of Elizabeth; at present the population numbers 311, who are chiefly employed in agriculture. Wheat, beans, turnips swedes, and mangolds are grown, besides hops and apples and with such a diversity of crops as fall to the farmers' share in hop and apple countries they have great advantages over