Romsley is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Bromsgrove District Bromsgrove is a local government district in Worcestershire, England. Its council is based in the town of Bromsgrove. It borders the built up area of Birmingham to the north. Other places in the district include Alvechurch, Aston Fields, B ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, England, on the east side of the

Clent Hills The Clent Hills lie south-west of Birmingham city centre in Clent, Worcestershire, England. The closest towns are Stourbridge and Halesowen, both in the West Midlands conurbation (and also historically in Worcestershire). The Clent Hills rang ...

about 4 miles south of

Halesowen Halesowen ( ) is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the county of West Midlands, England. Historically an exclave of Shropshire and, from 1844, in Worcestershire, the town is around from Birmingham city centre, and fro ...

. In 2001 it had a population of 1,601. The parish church, dedicated to

Saint Kenelm Saint Kenelm (or Cynehelm) was an Anglo-Saxon saint, venerated throughout medieval England, and mentioned in the ''Canterbury Tales'' (The Nun's Priest's Tale, lines 290–301, in which the cockerel Chauntecleer tries to demonstrate the reality o ...

is a Grade I listed building. The nave of the church continues directly into the chancel, both are from the 12th century and built of red sandstone. A 15th-century tower is of greenish sandstone, and the church has a timber porch. The chancel is built over a crypt that once contained the shrine of St Kenelm. A spring marks the reputed site of his martyrdom. Hammer Hill House in Romsley, built in 1923, was designed by

Clough Williams-Ellis Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales. He became a major figure in the development of Welsh architec ...

. The village and its area attract walkers, campers, and caravanners on the Clent and Walton Hills and on the Cuckoos Corner site. The main road that runs through Romsley is called Bromsgrove Road. There are limited local amenities including a post office, a butcher, a pub-restaurant, and a hairdresser. The village is served by the 147 bus service which connects the village to Halesowen and

Catshill Catshill is a village in Worcestershire about 2.5 miles north of Bromsgrove and 10 miles south-west of Birmingham. The parish of Catshill was formed around the Turnpike Road (A38) in 1844. The population of Catshill in 2011 was 6,858. Educati ...

. It is operated by

Worcestershire County Council Worcestershire County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Worcestershire in England. The most recent elections to it were in 2021. Worcestershire County Council has its headquarters at County Hall in Worcester, w ...

, but is to be taken over by Kev's Bus and extended to

Bromsgrove Railway Station Bromsgrove railway station serves the town of Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, England. It is located at the foot of the two-mile Lickey Incline which ascends at a gradient of 1-in-37.7 towards Barnt Green on the line between Birmingham and Worceste ...

on 26 February 2018. Romsley features in

Geoffrey Hill Sir Geoffrey William Hill, FRSL (18 June 1932 – 30 June 2016) was an English poet, professor emeritus of English literature and religion, and former co-director of the Editorial Institute, at Boston University. Hill has been considered to be ...

's long poem ''The Triumph of Love'': Spraddled ridge-
village sacred to the boy-martyr,
Kenelm, his mouth full of blood and toffee.

References

External links

Villages in Worcestershire {{Worcestershire-geo-stub