Stourton, Staffordshire
Encyclopedia
Stourton is a hamlet
in Staffordshire
, England
a few miles to the northwest of Stourbridge
. There is a fair amount of dispute over the pronunciation, being pronounced 'stower-ton', 'stir-ton' or 'store-ton'(the local pronounce it this way) by different people from the area. The nearest sizeable villages are Wollaston
and Kinver
, the nearest hamlets are Prestwood and Dunsley. It lies on the River Stour
. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
and Stourbridge Canal
meet at Stourton Junction, which places Stourton on the Stourport Ring
, a navigable waterway popular with narrowboat
holidaymakers.
Stourton is situated either side of the A458 road
, at the junction of the A449
between Wolverhampton
and Kidderminster
. The name originally related to the area west of the river Stour, is now applied as including the area east (and south) of the river, which was formerly the township of Halfcot. The Stewponey Hotel was formerly situated at the cross roads, until it was demolished to make way for housing. Stewponey remains a local name for the location. The origin of the name Stewponey is obscure, but was in use by 1744.
. Stourton Castle was evidently 'the King's Houses' in Kinver during the reign of King Henry II
. It was called a castle in 1122. By that time, the castle and the manor of Kinver and Stourton, together with the custody of the forest
of Kinver were held by John son of Philip at a fee farm rent of £9. The king resumed possession of the manor in 1293 and granted it back to John (probably the other's grandson) for life. The king granted the keepership of the forest to Hugh Tyrel in 1339, adding the manor in 1340, but the property was in wardship from 1343 until the majority of another Hugh Tyrel in 1362. Following his death in 1381, the property passed to Richard Hampton. It passed down his family until the death of his great-grandson John Hampton in 1472.
The castle and manor then passed to George, Duke of Clarence
, who in 1475 gave it to Tewkesbury Abbey
, who returned it to the crown in 1495. The Castle was the birthplace of Cardinal Pole, whose maternal grandfather Clarence, was the brother of both King Edward IV
, and King Richard III
. Pole was the last Catholic
Archbishop of Canterbury
and his mother Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury
was beatified in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII
.
The castle and manor were granted by Henry VIII to his Attorney General
, William Whorwood
, whose family owned the manor of Compton, also in Kinver. The castle then became a home of that family until the late 1650s. John Whorwood was probably neutral in the Civil War, but the castle was taken by Colonel Thomas Fox in 1644, but surrendered to Sir Gilbert Gerard, the Governor of Worcester
after he routed Fox on Stourbridge
Heath. The present house was presumably built by Thomas Whorwood when he became entitled to the whole of the manor in the 1580s.
Wortley Whorwood (John's grandson) sold the manor and castle to Thomas Foley and his son Philip
in 1672 and soon after settled it on Philip. The property belonged to his descendants until the estate was broken up in 1913, but the Foleys never lived in the castle, but at nearby Prestwood. The castle was occupied as a farm house throughout the 18th century and from 1805 by T. W. Grazebrook, a local glass manufacturer.
The house was remodelled and partially rebuilt in 1832-3 by Sir Robert Smirke for the industrialist James Foster
. His nephew William Orme Foster lived there until 1868, when he sold the lease. The castle was vacant from the death of George Arkle until the sale of the Prestwood estate in 1913. It was bought by Francis Grazebrook, a relative of the earlier tenant, and remained in the family until the death of his son O. F. Grazebrooke in 1974. The 19th century main front incorporates a late medieval gate tower.
terminates by descending through locks to join the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
. This historically important junction on the West Midlands canal network was long disused, but the restoration and reopening of the Stourbridge Canal, from the 1970s onwards, has reasserted its importance. It lies a few hundred metres to the north of the crossroads at Stewponey, and is easily accessed by towpaths along both canals.
, below Stourton Junction. Beside them stand the Stewponey tollhouse, a brick structure of irregular hexagonal plan, which is painted white. The original Georgian brick bridge was complemented in the 20th century by a modern road bridge. The entry to the towpath is still an important access point to the canal for walkers and there is parking immediately opposite for this purpose.
The Stewponey public house and Foley Arms Hotel was built in the centre of Stourton at the junction of the A449
and Stourbridge-bound A458
, immediately adjacent to the locks and bridges, in the 1930s
, also featuring an outdoor swimming pool. It replaced an 18th century inn, which was much smaller and outdated. The hotel was also rebuilt to provide more space for the parking of motor cars.
It was a local landmark for much of the 20th century. By 1999, however, its owners had decided to sell it to property developers and it was demolished in 2001 to be redeveloped for executive private housing,http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/News/Reminder-of-the-heyday-of-the-old-Stewponey-2.htm which has retained the name Stewponey.
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, England
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...
a few miles to the northwest of Stourbridge
Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England. Historically part of Worcestershire, Stourbridge was a centre of glass making, and today includes the suburbs of Amblecote, Lye, Norton, Oldswinford, Pedmore, Wollaston, Wollescote and Wordsley The...
. There is a fair amount of dispute over the pronunciation, being pronounced 'stower-ton', 'stir-ton' or 'store-ton'(the local pronounce it this way) by different people from the area. The nearest sizeable villages are Wollaston
Wollaston, West Midlands
Wollaston is a village and suburb of Stourbridge, in West Midlands, England. It is within Dudley Metropolitan Borough. It is situated on the border between Dudley Metropolitan Borough and Staffordshire County , and until 1974 was in Worcestershire. Wollaston is one mile from Stourbridge town...
and Kinver
Kinver
Kinver is a large village in South Staffordshire district, Staffordshire, England. It is in the far south-west of the county, at the end of the narrow finger of land surrounded by the counties of Shropshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands. The nearest towns are Stourbridge in the West...
, the nearest hamlets are Prestwood and Dunsley. It lies on the River Stour
River Stour, Worcestershire
The Stour is a river flowing through the counties of Worcestershire, the West Midlands and Staffordshire in the West Midlands region of England. The Stour is a major tributary of the River Severn, and it is about in length...
. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is a narrow navigable canal in the English Midlands, passing through the counties of Staffordshire and Worcestershire....
and Stourbridge Canal
Stourbridge Canal
The Stourbridge Canal is a canal in the West Midlands of England. It links the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal with the Dudley Canal, and hence, via the Birmingham Canal Navigations, to Birmingham and the Black Country.-History:The Stourbridge and Dudley canals were originally proposed as a...
meet at Stourton Junction, which places Stourton on the Stourport Ring
Stourport Ring
The Stourport Ring is a connected series of canals forming a circuit, or canal ring, around Worcestershire, The Black Country and Birmingham in central England...
, a navigable waterway popular with narrowboat
Narrowboat
A narrowboat or narrow boat is a boat of a distinctive design, made to fit the narrow canals of Great Britain.In the context of British Inland Waterways, "narrow boat" refers to the original working boats built in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries for carrying goods on the narrow canals...
holidaymakers.
Stourton is situated either side of the A458 road
A458 road
The A458 is a route on the UK highway network that runs from Mallwyd, near Machynlleth, in Wales, to Halesowen, near Stourbridge, in England. On the way it passes through Welshpool, Shrewsbury, Much Wenlock, Bridgnorth and Stourbridge.-Welshpool to Shrewsbury:...
, at the junction of the A449
A449 road
The A449 is a major road in the United Kingdom. It runs north from junction 24 of the M4 motorway at Newport in South Wales to Stafford in Staffordshire....
between Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
and Kidderminster
Kidderminster
Kidderminster is a town, in the Wyre Forest district of Worcestershire, England. It is located approximately seventeen miles south-west of Birmingham city centre and approximately fifteen miles north of Worcester city centre. The 2001 census recorded a population of 55,182 in the town...
. The name originally related to the area west of the river Stour, is now applied as including the area east (and south) of the river, which was formerly the township of Halfcot. The Stewponey Hotel was formerly situated at the cross roads, until it was demolished to make way for housing. Stewponey remains a local name for the location. The origin of the name Stewponey is obscure, but was in use by 1744.
Stourton Castle
Believed to be a medieval hunting lodge dating from the reign of King William IIWilliam II of England
William II , the third son of William I of England, was King of England from 1087 until 1100, with powers over Normandy, and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales...
. Stourton Castle was evidently 'the King's Houses' in Kinver during the reign of King Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
. It was called a castle in 1122. By that time, the castle and the manor of Kinver and Stourton, together with the custody of the forest
Royal forest
A royal forest is an area of land with different meanings in England, Wales and Scotland; the term forest does not mean forest as it is understood today, as an area of densely wooded land...
of Kinver were held by John son of Philip at a fee farm rent of £9. The king resumed possession of the manor in 1293 and granted it back to John (probably the other's grandson) for life. The king granted the keepership of the forest to Hugh Tyrel in 1339, adding the manor in 1340, but the property was in wardship from 1343 until the majority of another Hugh Tyrel in 1362. Following his death in 1381, the property passed to Richard Hampton. It passed down his family until the death of his great-grandson John Hampton in 1472.
The castle and manor then passed to George, Duke of Clarence
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, 1st Earl of Salisbury, 1st Earl of Warwick, KG was the third son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III. He played an important role in the dynastic struggle known as the Wars of the...
, who in 1475 gave it to Tewkesbury Abbey
Tewkesbury Abbey
The Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Tewkesbury in the English county of Gloucestershire is the second largest parish church in the country and a former Benedictine monastery.-History:...
, who returned it to the crown in 1495. The Castle was the birthplace of Cardinal Pole, whose maternal grandfather Clarence, was the brother of both King Edward IV
Edward IV of England
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
, and King Richard III
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
. Pole was the last Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
and his mother Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury
Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury was an English peeress, one of two women in sixteenth-century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband, the daughter of George of Clarence, the brother of King Edward IV and King Richard III...
was beatified in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
.
The castle and manor were granted by Henry VIII to his Attorney General
Attorney General for England and Wales
Her Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales, usually known simply as the Attorney General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown. Along with the subordinate Solicitor General for England and Wales, the Attorney General serves as the chief legal adviser of the Crown and its government in...
, William Whorwood
William Whorwood
Sir William Whorwood was Solicitor General from 1536 to 1540 and then Attorney General under Henry VIII until his death.He was a younger son of John Whorwood, one of a family of minor gentry, who had long lived at Compton in Kinver...
, whose family owned the manor of Compton, also in Kinver. The castle then became a home of that family until the late 1650s. John Whorwood was probably neutral in the Civil War, but the castle was taken by Colonel Thomas Fox in 1644, but surrendered to Sir Gilbert Gerard, the Governor 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...
after he routed Fox on Stourbridge
Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England. Historically part of Worcestershire, Stourbridge was a centre of glass making, and today includes the suburbs of Amblecote, Lye, Norton, Oldswinford, Pedmore, Wollaston, Wollescote and Wordsley The...
Heath. The present house was presumably built by Thomas Whorwood when he became entitled to the whole of the manor in the 1580s.
Wortley Whorwood (John's grandson) sold the manor and castle to Thomas Foley and his son Philip
Philip Foley
Philip Foley was the youngest of the three surviving sons of the British ironmaster Thomas Foley . His father transferred to him in 1668 and 1669 all his ironworks in the Midlands for £60,000...
in 1672 and soon after settled it on Philip. The property belonged to his descendants until the estate was broken up in 1913, but the Foleys never lived in the castle, but at nearby Prestwood. The castle was occupied as a farm house throughout the 18th century and from 1805 by T. W. Grazebrook, a local glass manufacturer.
The house was remodelled and partially rebuilt in 1832-3 by Sir Robert Smirke for the industrialist James Foster
James Foster (ironmaster)
James Foster was a prominent Worcestershire ironmaster and senior partner in the important iron company of John Bradley & Co., Stourbridge, taking its name from his elder half-brother. As well as the Stourbridge ironworks, the business owned a number of coal and ironstone mines, furnaces, forges...
. His nephew William Orme Foster lived there until 1868, when he sold the lease. The castle was vacant from the death of George Arkle until the sale of the Prestwood estate in 1913. It was bought by Francis Grazebrook, a relative of the earlier tenant, and remained in the family until the death of his son O. F. Grazebrooke in 1974. The 19th century main front incorporates a late medieval gate tower.
Stourton Park
Stourton Park is the homeground of Stourbridge R.F.C.Stourbridge R.F.C.
Stourbridge RFC are a Rugby Union side based in Stourbridge, West Midlands.They play their home games at Stourton Park, which was redeveloped in 2003 to provide a larger clubhouse and social area which can also be used for weddings and other functions...
Stourton Junction
Stourton Junction is the point at which the Stourbridge CanalStourbridge Canal
The Stourbridge Canal is a canal in the West Midlands of England. It links the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal with the Dudley Canal, and hence, via the Birmingham Canal Navigations, to Birmingham and the Black Country.-History:The Stourbridge and Dudley canals were originally proposed as a...
terminates by descending through locks to join the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is a narrow navigable canal in the English Midlands, passing through the counties of Staffordshire and Worcestershire....
. This historically important junction on the West Midlands canal network was long disused, but the restoration and reopening of the Stourbridge Canal, from the 1970s onwards, has reasserted its importance. It lies a few hundred metres to the north of the crossroads at Stewponey, and is easily accessed by towpaths along both canals.
Stewponey
The name Stewponey or Stewpony was given to the locks and bridge on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire CanalStaffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is a narrow navigable canal in the English Midlands, passing through the counties of Staffordshire and Worcestershire....
, below Stourton Junction. Beside them stand the Stewponey tollhouse, a brick structure of irregular hexagonal plan, which is painted white. The original Georgian brick bridge was complemented in the 20th century by a modern road bridge. The entry to the towpath is still an important access point to the canal for walkers and there is parking immediately opposite for this purpose.
The Stewponey public house and Foley Arms Hotel was built in the centre of Stourton at the junction of the A449
A449 road
The A449 is a major road in the United Kingdom. It runs north from junction 24 of the M4 motorway at Newport in South Wales to Stafford in Staffordshire....
and Stourbridge-bound A458
A458 road
The A458 is a route on the UK highway network that runs from Mallwyd, near Machynlleth, in Wales, to Halesowen, near Stourbridge, in England. On the way it passes through Welshpool, Shrewsbury, Much Wenlock, Bridgnorth and Stourbridge.-Welshpool to Shrewsbury:...
, immediately adjacent to the locks and bridges, in the 1930s
1930s
File:1930s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression; Due to the economic collapse, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese...
, also featuring an outdoor swimming pool. It replaced an 18th century inn, which was much smaller and outdated. The hotel was also rebuilt to provide more space for the parking of motor cars.
It was a local landmark for much of the 20th century. By 1999, however, its owners had decided to sell it to property developers and it was demolished in 2001 to be redeveloped for executive private housing,http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/News/Reminder-of-the-heyday-of-the-old-Stewponey-2.htm which has retained the name Stewponey.