164 



DEER AND DEER PARKS. 



Ch. VII. 



provided ' that on the day of his anni- 

 versary, the brothers should have one doe 

 from the deer park of OfFenham,with wine 

 from the cellar of the Abbot.' 



The Abbots of Pershore had also their 

 park at Goldicote, in the parish of Alder- 

 marston, in that detached part of Wor- 

 cestershire which extends from near Strat- 

 ford-on-Avon to Shipston-on-Stour. The 

 ancient park of Goldicote is marked in all 

 the old maps, and its site is well known, 

 though no park is believed to have existed 

 here since the Reformation. 



Within the limits of Malvern Chase 

 were formerly two parks, Hanhy and 

 Blackmore. Of the former Leland ob- 

 serves : — , 



' Hanley is from Upton a mile in dextra 

 ripa Sabrinse, a mile above Upton, and a 

 flite shotte from Severne. It is an up- 

 landisch Towne, the Castelle standith in 

 a park at the weste parte of the Towne. 

 Syr John Savage and his Father, and 

 Grandfather lay much aboute Hanley and 

 Theokesbyri, as kepers of Hanley. The 

 Erles of Glocester were owners of this 

 Castel, and lay much there. Mr. Come- 

 ton clene defacid it yn his tyme beyng 

 keper of it after Savage.' ' Hanley Park 

 does not appear in the ancient maps, 

 having probably been disparked by Mr. 

 Compton, afterwards Sir William, and the 

 ancestor of the Earls and Marquisses of 

 Northampton, and the same who de- 

 stroyed the Castle of Fulbroke in War- 

 wickshire. 



Blackmore Park is mentioned in all 

 the surveys, though no deer appear to 

 have been kept here within the memory 

 of man. At Severn-End in the parish of 



' Leland's Itn. vol. vi. p. 76, fol. 80. 

 '' Nash, vol. ii, p. 304. 



Hanley, the venerable seat of the Lech- 

 meres, it may be observed, there was a 

 small park or paddock of deer in the last 

 century. It was disparked about the year 

 1790, and the deer sent to Ludford in- 

 Herefordshire. 



At Croome, the seat of the Earl of Co- 

 ventry, in this southern part of the county, 

 is a large park, which with the pleasure- 

 grounds are estimated by Nash at near 

 1,200 acres. It was probably enclosed at 

 the commencement of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, and contains a herd of 400 fallow- 

 deer. 



At Strensham, the ancient seat of the 

 Russells, near Croome, was a park, marked 

 in the Surveys of Saxton and Speed, but 

 which has been long disparked. 



At Bushley, near Tewkesbury, was a 

 large park which belonged to the Le De- 

 spencers Earls of Gloucester, aften^rds 

 to the Crown and to the Bishops of Lon- 

 don. It is not marked in the ancient 

 maps. 



Ridmerley Park, in this neighbourhood, 

 on the borders of Gloucestershire, was 

 one of the numerous parks belonging to 

 the Beauchamps, and came afterwards by 

 attainder to the Crown, by whom it was 

 granted, like Bushley, to the See of Lon- 

 don, before the reign of Queen Elizabeth.^ 



Adjoining to Ridmerley is Staunton, 

 where in the seventeenth of Edward III. 

 free warren was granted to Robert de 

 Staunton, and hcense for his park of 

 Haukesshurne in Hawgrove.' 



The ruins of Ehnley Castle, in former 

 ages a principal seat of the Beauchamps, 

 near Bredon Hill, stands in a deer park, 

 containing 105 acres and a herd of from 



^ Cal. of Patent Rolls, p. 230. 



