BREDICOT
Bradingecotan, Bradigcotan (xi cent.); Bradecote
(xiii cent.); Bradicot, Bradecot, Brodecot (xiv cent.).
Bredicot is a small parish lying almost in the centre
of Worcestershire and about 4 miles east of Worcester.
It covers an area of 399 acres, of which 212 are laid
down in permanent grass, 33 are woods and plantations and 111 are arable land, (fn. 1) and the chief crops
are wheat, oats, beans and peas. The soil is marl
and clay and the subsoil clay. The village, consisting
of the church, rectory and court farm and a few
cottages, lies in the centre of the parish on a branch
road from the Worcester and Alcester high road.
The main settlement, which lies about a quarter of
a mile south-east of the church, forms a picturesque
group of houses mostly of half-timber and brick dating
from the 16th and 17th centuries. Bredicot Court,
to the south of the village, is an early 17th-century
half-timber and brick house of two stories and an
attic with tiled roofs, added to on the south in the
18th century and plastered and modernized on the
west front. The original timber work is exposed on
the east and north. The stairway, in the 18th-century addition, has a moulded handrail and retains
in part its original slender turned balusters. East of
the house there is a 17th-century half-timber and
brick barn with a tiled roof. On the opposite side of
the road is an L-shaped half-timber house dating
probably from the 16th century, but restored with
brickwork in the 18th century. It has an original
projecting chimney on the north terminating in two
diagonal shafts and retains its heavy oak timbers and
floors. The stairway has square newels with shaped
finials; of its original shaped pierced balusters only
one remains. Over a fireplace in an upper room is
a piece of an oak moulded beam.
The nearest station is at Worcester, although the
Midland railway passes near the village, crossing the
parish from north to south. The parish was inclosed
under Acts of 1836 and 1840, and the award is
dated 1 December 1846. (fn. 2)
A Roman urn was dug up in 1839 near Bredicot
Court. (fn. 3)
Among the place-names occur Goding's Mere (fn. 4)
(x cent.), Spert Meadow (fn. 5) (xv and xvii cent.), Upper
Stocking, Nether Stocking, Wyorsland Close, New
Tyning, the Hill Ways and Kimbersley Coppice (fn. 6)
(xvii cent.).
Prattinton, writing in the 19th century and quoting
the Parliamentary Survey of 1650, says: 'There is a
waste ground or common within the said manor called
Ridley containing about 18 acres, in which the tenants
of the said manor have common of pasture for their
cattle at all times of the year appertinent to their
copyholds, but the lessee of the farm hath pasture
there only for one mare and colt.' (fn. 7)
MANOR
There is no recorded grant of the
manor of BREDICOT to the church of
Worcester, but it had certainly been
acquired before 985, when Bishop Oswald granted
the vill to a priest named Goding on condition that
he did any writing that was necessary. To this, it
is said, he willingly assented, and wrote many books
for the monastery. (fn. 8) He retained the vill until his
death, (fn. 9) and his heirs are said to have held Bredicot
after him of the church of Worcester until it was
taken away by the Normans. (fn. 10) The record adds that
the church of Worcester thus lost the lordship, but
in 1086 it was held of the bishop's manor of Northwick. (fn. 11) Brictwold the priest, who held it in the
time of King Edward, performing such service for it
as the bishop willed, was possibly one of Goding's
heirs.
The manor was still held of the manor of Northwick at the end of the 13th century, (fn. 12) but after that
time the bishop's overlordship seems to have lapsed.
In 1086 Walter Poer (Ponther) held the manor
under the Bishop of Worcester, (fn. 13) and it formed part
of the two and a half fees which Hugh Poer held of
the bishop in 1166. (fn. 14) Early in the 13th century John
Poer held this manor. (fn. 15) The chief seat of this branch
of the family was at Battenhall in Worcester, and
Bredicot became a member of that manor, the Poers'
interest in Bredicot passing with Battenhall to the
Prior and convent of Worcester in 1330. (fn. 16) This
intermediary lordship lapsed in 1377, when the
prior and convent acquired the manor in fee.
The early history of the tenants under the Poers
is obscure. John de Bredicot presented to the church
in 1288 and 1289, (fn. 17) and was probably lord of the
manor at that time, as the advowson was apparently
an appurtenance of the manor. He was holding the
manor in 1298. (fn. 18) He granted the rent and services
of one of his tenants at Bredicot to John de Everley
in 1304–5, (fn. 19) but in 1317 Reginald Baldewyn as
'former lord of Bredicot' gave the manor to John de
Dufford and his wife Cecily. (fn. 20)
John de Dufford was escheator in Ireland, (fn. 21) and in
1324 became indebted for 40 marks to William de
Kirkby. (fn. 22) He evidently mortgaged Bredicot Manor
as security for the payment of this debt, for in 1327
William de Kirkby and Hugh de Dufford, whom
John had nominated in 1327 as his attorney in
England during his absence in Ireland, (fn. 23) were in
possession of the manor. (fn. 24) In 1330 William de
Kirkby transferred the debt owed to him by John
de Dufford to Sir William de Walkington, (fn. 25) who
accordingly entered into possession of the manor. (fn. 26)
As Sir William Walkington presented to the
church in 1337, (fn. 27) he was probably still in possession
of the manor at that date, but it seems to have been
redeemed by the Duffords before 1346, when William
de Dufford held it. (fn. 28) In 1346 William de Kirkby
gave to William de Dufford and his wife Katherine
messuages and lands in Bredicot formerly belonging
to Richard Chasteleyn. (fn. 29) In 1352 William de Dufford
released his life interest in the manor to his son
Thomas, to his brother of the same name and to
William de Kirkby. (fn. 30) It is possible that Thomas de
Dufford the younger became a priest and gave up his
rights in the manor to the Prior of Worcester in consideration of a yearly allowance, for in 1370 Thomas
Dufford, chaplain, acknowledged 40s. in part payment
of £4, a yearly pension which he received from the
prior, (fn. 31) and the Dufford family afterwards ceased to
hold property in Bredicot. In 1377 Richard II
gave licence to the priory to acquire the manor and
advowson of Bredicot of William de Astley, chaplain,
John de Kirkby and John de Wellesbourgh. (fn. 32)
The Prior and convent of Worcester remained in
possession of the manor until the Dissolution, (fn. 33) when
it passed to the Crown. It was granted in 1542 to
the Dean and Chapter of Worcester (fn. 34) and was
confirmed to them in 1609. (fn. 35)
During the Commonwealth the dean and chapter
were deprived of their possessions and Bredicot was
sold to Richard Higgons in 1650. (fn. 36) It was restored
on the accession of Charles II to the dean and
chapter and was confirmed to them in 1692. (fn. 37) The
dean and chapter remained in possession of the
manor until 1859, when it was transferred to the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners, (fn. 38) who are the present
owners.
In 1773 the 'leasehold manor or site of the
manor held for eleven years and renewable every
seven years' was put up for sale. (fn. 39) It appears to
have been bought by Samuel Brampton, who became
a bankrupt in 1816, and the Bredicot Court estate
was then sold. (fn. 40) In the middle of the 19th century
Bredicot Court was for many years the residence of
Henry Chamberlain, and the estate was purchased of
his trustees in 1864 by Robert Berkeley of Spetchley,
father of the present owner.
CHURCH
The church of ST. JAMES THE
LESS is a simple rectangular structure
41 ft. long by 15 ft. wide inside. It
has been very much restored in modern times, but its
walls probably contain 13th-century material. In its
east wall is a pointed window of three lights with plain
heads and intersecting tracery over. The other five
windows, two in each side and one in the west wall,
are of two lights each with a plain piercing over. To
the south of the chancel is a piscina with a trefoiled
ogee head and a mutilated basin. The south doorway has a pointed head of two orders. The porch
is of wood, and on the floor are some old tiles with
the monogram R.E. The font is octagonal with
shallow trefoiled panels on the side of the bowl and
a small square diaper above. The bowl may be
as early as the 13th century, but the stem and base
are modern. All the other furniture is of recent date.
There is one bell above the west gable.
The communion plate includes an Elizabethan cup
and cover paten of 1571, a stand paten of 1842,
a plated flagon of 1869, and a brass almsdish of
1867.
The registers (fn. 41) before 1812 are as follows: (i)
baptisms 1702 to 1812, burials 1702 to 1810 and
marriages 1713 to 1753; (ii) marriages from 1754
to 1805.
ADVOWSON
The advowson of the church of
Bredicot seems from early times to
have belonged to the owners of the
manor, (fn. 42) and was granted in 1542 with the manor
to the Dean and Chapter of Worcester, who are
patrons at the present day. (fn. 43)
In 1585 Edward Dalton of Holbury presented to
the church by a grant of the dean and chapter, and
another grant of the advowson was made by them to
John Archibold, whose widow Eleanor presented in
1624. (fn. 44) The living is a rectory, and was united
in 1841 to the vicarage of Tibberton. (fn. 45)
Until 1543 Bredicot had all parochial rights except
that of sepulture, the parishioners being obliged to
carry their dead to the churchyard of the church of
Worcester. (fn. 46) In that year the right of burial was
granted to the parish and a piece of land adjoining
the church was consecrated. For this the parishioners paid to the dean and chapter a yearly pension
of 6d. under pain of excommunication for nonpayment. (fn. 47)
CHARITIES
Poor's Land.
—This parish is in
possession of about a quarter of an
acre, producing £2 3s. yearly, which
is distributed in coal to the poor.