Feckenham 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Redditch Redditch is a town and non-metropolitan district with borough status in Worcestershire, England. It is located south of Birmingham, east of Bromsgrove, north-west of Alcester and north-east of Worcester. In 2021, the town had a population of ...

district in

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

, England. It lies some south-west of the town of

and some east of the city of

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engl ...

. It had a population of 670 in the 2001 census and its immediate area is the location of notable royal manors that cover over 1,000 years of English history documented in many royal charters and Acts of Parliament. At its greatest, the historic Forest of Feckenham stretched to the River Avon in the south and to Worcester in the west. In 1389

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

was as Clerk of Works and Keeper of the Lodge. Feckenham in the 21st century is a rural community with a traditional English village green with walking and riding routes, including the long-distance public footpath,

The Monarch's Way The Monarch's Way is a long-distance footpath in England that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester. It runs from Worcester via Bristol and Yeovil to Shoreham, West Su ...

, that passes about 1.5 miles east of the village.

History

Name

The village name has been recorded as Feccanhom (9th century), Feccheham (11th century), Fekkeham, Fekeham (12th century), Feckeham, Feckaham, Fecham (13th century), Flechenham (16th century), and Feckyngham in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Early and Medieval

In Roman times the village developed from its position on the ancient

saltway A salt road (also known as a salt route, salt way, saltway, or salt trading route) refers to any of the prehistoric and historical trade routes by which essential salt was transported to regions that lacked it. From the Bronze Age (in the 2nd m ...

track between

Alcester Alcester ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England. It is west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 7 miles south of Redditch. The town dates back to the times of Roman ...

and

Droitwich Droitwich Spa (often abbreviated to Droitwich ) is an historic spa town in the Wychavon district in northern Worcestershire, England, on the River Salwarpe. It is located approximately south-west of Birmingham and north-east of Worcester. ...

which later became a

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

(now the modern B4090 road) and on the early stretches of the Bow Brook. In the year 840 Feckenham Manor was given by Ethelric to Wœrferth, and it is mentioned in the 11th century

Domesday Survey Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

as being in the

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

of Esch. The manors of Feckenham and Holloway in Hanbury were surveyed in 1086 under Herefordshire, because they had belonged to the

Earl of Hereford Earl of Hereford is a title in the ancient feudal nobility of England, encompassing the region of Herefordshire, England. It was created six times. The title is an ancient one. In 1042, Godwin, Earl of Wessex severed the territory of Herefordshir ...

, and though they remained in the hundred of Esch in Worcestershire, the Earl had so far annexed them to his lordship of Hereford that they were surveyed under that county. Changes in land ownership led to the inclusion of Feckenham parish in the hundred of

Halfshire Halfshire (Latin: ''Hundredum Dimidii Comitatūs'', "hundred of half (the) county") was one of the hundreds in the English county of Worcestershire. As three of the five hundreds in the county were jurisdictions exempt from the authority of the sh ...

in the 13th century. The village once stood in the middle of the ancient Royal Forest of Feckenham. The area was a substantial forest covering much of Worcestershire, and was used by Norman royalty for hunting. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, Feckenham was the administrative centre for the royal forest; and it grew into a thriving town while today's nearby large town of Redditch was still a small village. The forest court and prison building was located near the centre of the village, in an area now used as a sports ground. The village was visited by all the early kings of England, who had a lodge in the park of Feckenham Manor. Several entries in

Pipe Rolls The Pipe rolls, sometimes called the Great rollsBrown ''Governance'' pp. 54–56 or the Great Rolls of the Pipe, are a collection of financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, or Treasury, and its successors, as well as the Exche ...

and

Patent Rolls The patent rolls (Latin: ''Rotuli litterarum patentium'') are a series of administrative records compiled in the English, British and United Kingdom Chancery, running from 1201 to the present day. Description The patent rolls comprise a regis ...

between the years 1166 and 1169 relate to the repair of the king's houses in the manor, and there was a royal hunting lodge near the village. The remains of one ancient hunting lodge are believed to lie beneath the village recreation ground.

17th century

In 1629, after a survey of the royal forests, Feckenham was disafforested in order for the Crown's lands to be cleared, and placed in the possession of rich courtiers close to

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

. Rights of common that had been established by tradition were abolished, causing considerable riots, in which several miles of enclosure fences were broken up in early 1631. The disturbances followed a pattern found in other Royal Forests across the West and Midlands. Three hundred people rioted the following year and were met by the

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

, a Deputy Lieutenant and a Justice of the Peace with forty armed men. The rioters "in a most daring and presumptuous manner presented themselves unto us with warlike weapons ( vizt) pikes, forrest bills, pitchforks, swords and the like". On this occasion, the authorities acted to suppress this "flatt latrebellion", tried to arrest the rioters and injured a number of them. After disafforestation, the previous site of the court and prison building at Bennet's Bower was "planted with tobacco which grew very well, till the planting of it was prohibited by Act of Parliament".'Parishes: Feckenham', in A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 3
(London, 1913), pp. 111–120 ccessed 25 August 2015 Edward Leighton was a major beneficiary of the disafforestation, gaining around 360 acres of lands. The manor lands of Feckenham were sold by Leighton to Lord Coventry in 1632.

Recent

Under the

Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The act followed the reforms carried out at county leve ...

the civil parish was formed out of the part of Feckenham parish that was in the former Redditch Urban District, and was divided into Feckenham Rural and Feckenham Urban Districts, and the communities of Headless Cross and Crabbs Cross became part of Redditch Urban District.

Economy

From around 1790 and during the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

, the parish and Redditch were well known for the manufacture of needles and fish-hooks. Cycles and motors have also been manufactured in the area. Agriculture is still a major activity. Feckenham was the corporate headquarters of Barretts of Feckenham, a former nationwide chain of camping and walking equipment stores that ceased trading in 2008. A new chain of stores specialising in camping and outdoor equipment, Winfield's, took over much of the Barrett business and operates from the former premises in Feckenham. Several bed & breakfast guest houses and two pubs represent the village's hospitality industry. There is a garage carrying out motor maintenance and repairs.

Architecture

There are two churches in the village. The

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church of

St. John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

was built in the mid 13th century and a has a peal of eight bells; the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church is dedicated to St.

John Fisher John Fisher (c. 19 October 1469 – 22 June 1535) was an English Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Rochester from 1504 to 1535 and as chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He is honoured as a martyr and saint by the Catholic Chu ...

and St.

Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VII ...

. The former site of the forest court and jail (Bennet's Bower) is now a sports field, west of the Anglican church. The village also contains several examples of black and white

half-timbered Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

work, especially Middle Bean Hall. One of the most notable is the 16th-century Shurnock Court Farm, situated about east of the village. The largest house in the neighbourhood is Norgrove Court, a large red brick two-storey mansion built in the mid 17th century. The massive oak door of a building that housed a former grammar school is recorded on a plaque on the south wall as: 'Erected A.D. 1611. Repaired A.D. 1848.' The village also contains well-preserved examples of

Georgian architecture Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarchs of the House of Han ...

Activities and attractions

A range of community activities includes an annual two-day horse show, and a tri-annual Feckenham Flower and Garden Festival that has been held since 1985. There is an annual Summer Fair (called the Wake) and Spring and Autumn Flower Shows were held from the mid 1930s until 2023. A major refurbishment of the village hall was undertaken in 2003 with grants from the

National Lottery National Lottery may refer to: *National Lottery (Ireland), the state lottery of Ireland *National Lottery (United Kingdom), the lottery franchise in the United Kingdom *South African National Lottery, established in 2000 *A number of countries con ...

and other donations. It is the location of the FeckenOdeon Cinema and many other social and community activities including the village Nursery School. Feckenham's Wylde Moor nature reserve is an area of

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

managed by the

Worcestershire Wildlife Trust Worcestershire Wildlife Trust is one of 46 wildlife trusts throughout the United Kingdom, part of The Wildlife Trusts partnership, the UK's largest charity network dedicated to conserving all our habitats and species. It was founded in 1968 to ...

and has two bird-watching hides. Local walkways and sections of countryside have been used as locations for films. It is one of three fen wetlands in Worcestershire. The peat is in places 4 metres deep. Within the reserve are 4 meadows, all of which are floristically rich. The southern meadow unusually contains sea club rush due to the saline ground water found in the area. The village has a family owned

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

, a gastro-pub and a community village shop, "The Village Shop", opened in 2009 and run by the local community. Feckenham Cricket Club was founded in 1959 and its ground at the foot of Mill Lane is one of the most picturesque in the county. Its teams play in the Worcester County League and there is a thriving junior section, accompanied by the ECB-sponsored All Stars program for children of 5–8. In addition to the cricket activities, the club is supported by a fine bar with real ales and ciders, open Wed-Sun during the season, Thu-Sun outside. New members welcome. Feckenham Football Club, affectionately nicknamed 'The Millers', was formed in 1881 by local villagers and played for nearly a century at Mill Lane – the recreational ground known by locals as 'The Playing Fields'. The team moved in 1998 when it had to relocate as the ground could not be brought up to the standard required to play in the Midland Combination Premier Division. Despite the club having moved, the clubhouse is still intact and the pitch maintained, with youngsters enjoying the chance formally to train over summers with the club or informally kick about. Maisie Baker,
former Aston Villa ladies'
an
England U19 footballer currently on scholarship at the University of Miami
hails from Feckenham and cites utilising this area as an important part of her own football development. It also has its own Facebook page – Spotted Feckenham. The Feckenham Forest History Society, founded in 1990, holds meetings and publishes a magazine, the ''Feckenham Forester'', about the local history of Feckenham and the surrounding area.Feckenham Local History Society website
/ref> The village publishes a monthly magazine ''Feckenham News'' and in 2016 a community internet based radio station "Swansbrook Radio" began broadcasting.

Education

Feckenham has a Church of England first school (primary school).

Sport

The village of Feckenham has a cricket ground and a recreation ground (which serves mainly as a football pitch). The latter is affectionately known by locals as 'The Playing Fields'. In 2007, the final match of the five-match series of the India v England Blind Cricket tour was played at the Feckenham Cricket Club ground as the Worcester CC pitch had been flooded by the River Severn earlier that year.

Transport

The

A441 List of A roads in zone 4 in Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the ...

is one mile east of the village, and the

M5 motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

is about west. The nearest railway stations are Redditch and

Evesham Evesham () is a market town and Civil parishes in England, parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, England, Worceste ...

. One bus route (354 – Droitwich to Redditch) serves the village with one service in either direction on Tuesdays and Thursdays only. The

National Cycle Network The National Cycle Network (NCN) was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout the United Kingdom, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the charity Sustrans who were aided by a £42.5 million N ...

Route 5 can be reached around north of the village. The nearest airport is Birmingham International Airport.

Notable people

* John Feckenham (c. 1515–1584), canonised English ecclesiastic and last abbot of Westminster, was born at Feckenham. * Sir Thomas Cookes (1648–1701) of

Norgrove Court Norgrove Court is a stately home near Redditch in North Eastern Worcestershire built in 1649. It is listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for England. Location Norgrove Court is located on Norgrove Lane, in the parish of Feckenham near ...

. He settled an endowment on

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was ad ...

with a preference for students from Feckenham among others. *

Suzanne Virdee Suzanne Nicole Virdee (born 16 October 1969 in Solihull, Warwickshire, now the West Midlands) is a British journalist and television presenter, working on a freelance basis with UK news organisation ITN. Early life Virdee was born on 16 October ...

(b. 1969), is a News reader for

BBC Midlands Today ''BBC Midlands Today'' is the BBC's regional television news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasti ...

. * Mike Hopkins MBE (b. 1958),

Principal Principal may refer to: Title or rank * Principal (academia), the chief executive of a university ** Principal (education), the head of a school * Principal (civil service) or principal officer, the senior management level in the UK Civil Ser ...

for South & City College Birmingham. Honoured for services to education.

References

External links

Feckenham C. of E. First School

FeckenOdeon Cinema

Feckenham Parish Council web site

Worcestershire Wildlife Trust

Swansbrook Radio
{{authority control Villages in Worcestershire Civil parishes in Worcestershire Redditch