Severn Stoke is an English 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

Malvern Hills District Malvern Hills is a Districts of England, local government district in Worcestershire, England. Its council is based in Malvern, Worcestershire, Malvern, the district's largest town. The district also includes the towns of Tenbury Wells and Upto ...

, in the south of the county of

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 ...

, alongside the A38 trunk road. It had a population of 611 in 2011.

History

In 1996 a hoard of 18 silver Saxon pennies was found near Severn Stoke. Severn Stoke was within the bounds of the

Royal forest A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...

of Horewell during the medieval period. The woodlands were mostly removed around the time of the Civil War. Severn Stoke War Memorial at the corner of Ham Lane and Church is a Grade II listed monument in the form of a Classical

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...

, unveiled in 1920. It lists 14 servicemen who died in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, 82 others who served abroad, and 15 who served at home.

Notable people

Moses Browne Moses Browne (1703 – 13 September 1787), poet and cleric, suffers from uncertainty about the details of his birth. Some records suggest Severn Stoke in Worcestershire, but a London birth is more likely, as he became a pen-cutter in Clerkenwel ...

, poet and devotional writer, born in 1704. * Ralph Taylor, clergyman, nonjuror and sometime chaplain to the court of James II.

Amenities

The village has a pub and restaurant, the ''Rose & Crown'' in Church Lane, which occupies a 15th-century half-timbered building in a garden. There is a village hall with wheelchair access in Ham Lane. The nearest shopping facilities are in Upton-upon-Severn (3 miles, 4.8 km). The annual Croome Hunt was held around Severn Stoke and was a popular pastime for those keen to partake in

fox-hunting Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, normally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds" (or "master of houn ...

. In 1939, members included Lord and Lady Coventry and Capt. Alan Cecil Lupton who had lived at his estate, Severn Bank, until the late 1930s. For the April 1939 event, Lord Coventry was reportedly Master of the Hunt.

Church

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 ...

parish church is dedicated to St Denys. It forms part of the parish of Kempsey in the Diocese of Worcester. The Grade II* listed church is built of grey rubble masonry throughout and dates mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries, but was restored in 1872 and 1890. The building consists of a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

with a south

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

and porch, a

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

on the south side of the church, a tower on the north side, and a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

. There are Romanesque carved fragments set into the chancel walls both inside and out, and reset into a niche on the N side of the nave; the niche has an arched head.

Schools

The local primary school closed in 1986. The nearest primary schools today are at Kempsey and Upton-upon-Severn.

Public transport

The village has occasional daytime buses to and from

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 ...

and

Upton upon Severn Upton-upon-Severn (or Upton on Severn, etc. and locally simply Upton) is a small riverside town and civil parish in the Malvern Hills District of Worcestershire, England. Lying on the A4104 (formerly A440), the 2021 census recorded a population ...

on school days. The nearest railway station is at

Great Malvern Great Malvern is an area of the civil parish of Malvern, Worcestershire, Malvern, in the Malvern Hills District, Malvern Hills district, in the county of Worcestershire, England. It lies at the foot of the Malvern Hills, a designated Area of O ...

(10 miles, 16 km away), with hourly services to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

and to

London Paddington Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a London railway station and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great Western Ra ...

, and two-hourly weekday services to Bristol Temple Meads. (Though Severn Stoke was never connected to the railway, a highly detailed

00 gauge OO gauge or OO scale (also, 00 gauge and 00 scale) is the most popular Standard-gauge railway, standard gauge model railway standard in the United Kingdom, outside of which it is virtually unknown. OO gauge is one of several 4 mm scale, 4 mm-sca ...

model can be seen, based on what the station ''may have looked like'' if there had been one.)Severn Stoke Model Railway
Website

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Worcestershire Civil parishes in Worcestershire