Oddingley
Encyclopedia
Oddingley is a village and civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 in the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...

, approximately 9 km (5.6 mi) north-east of the county town
County town
A county town is a county's administrative centre in the United Kingdom or Ireland. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county. The concept of a county town eventually became detached from its...

 of Worcester
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...

.

History

Toponymy

Oddingley was recorded in 816 as Oddingalea. It was listed in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 of 1086 as Oddunclei. The name derives from the Old English for "Woodland clearing of the family or followers of a man called Odda".

19th century

In 1806, Oddingley became known for the unsolved murder of the village parson
Parson
In the pre-Reformation church, a parson was the priest of an independent parish church, that is, a parish church not under the control of a larger ecclesiastical or monastic organization...

, Reverend G. Parker. Parker was shot and beaten to death by a man widely suspected to be Richard Hemming, a carpenter from Droitwich. Hemming was never apprehended and it was believed that he had escaped the country. In 1830, a body was found which was later identified to be that of Hemming.

Governance

Oddingley is in the Bowbrook ward of the Worcestershire district of Wychavon
Wychavon
Wychavon is a local government district in Worcestershire, England. Its council is based in Pershore. Other towns in the district include Droitwich Spa, Evesham and Broadway. The district extends from the south-east corner of Worcestershire north and west...

. It is part of the constituency of Mid Worcestershire, represented at parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

 by Conservative MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 Peter Luff
Peter Luff
Peter James Luff MP is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament for Mid Worcestershire since the 1997 general election, and was MP Worcester from 1992 until 1997...

. It is part of the West Midlands
West Midlands (European Parliament constituency)
West Midlands is a constituency of the European Parliament. For 2009 it elected 6 MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation. The constituency will also elect a "virtual MEP" who will be able to sit in the Parliament if the Treaty of Lisbon comes into effect...

 constituency of the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

.

Geography

Oddingley lies approximately 9 km (5.6 mi) north-east of the county town
County town
A county town is a county's administrative centre in the United Kingdom or Ireland. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county. The concept of a county town eventually became detached from its...

 of Worcester
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...

 and about 5 km (3.1 mi) south of Droitwich. Nearby villages to Oddingley include Newland
Newland, Worcestershire
Newland is a village and civil parish on the north-eastern edge of Malvern Link, Worcestershire, England, on the A449 road. A church, the St Leonard Chapelry, in Newland is associated with the Beauchamp Community of retired Church of England priests....

, Dunhampstead, Saleway, Sale Green and Tibberton
Tibberton, Worcestershire
Tibberton is a village in Worcestershire, England.The unusual dedication of Tibberton's Church of England parish church to St. Peter ad Vincula is derived from the ancient Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome....

. It is situated close to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal
Worcester and Birmingham Canal
The Worcester and Birmingham Canal is a canal linking Birmingham and Worcester in England. It starts in Worcester, as an 'offshoot' of the River Severn and ends in Gas Street Basin in Birmingham. It is long....

.

Demography

The population of Oddingley, according to the 1801 census, was 110. In the 1991 census, the population of the village was recorded as 165. By 2001, this had grown to 197 with 77 households.
Population of Oddingley
Year 1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891
Population 110 155 168 157 - - 202 195 193 152
Year 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991
Population 130 110 97 113 - - - - - 165
Year 2001
Population 197
  

Church

Oddingley's church is dedicated to Saint James the Apostle and lies to the south of the village.
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