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Updated: August 7, 2024
The Vicar of Badsey told me that at the neighbouring church of Wickhamford, then also in his jurisdiction, that when he first came, in the early fifties, it was customary, as the men entered the church by the chancel door, to pitch their hats in a heap on the altar.
As the neighbouring parish of Wickhamford is referred to in connection with Badsey and Aldington several times in these pages, it may not be out of place to give the following inscription on the tombstone of a member of the Washington family.
Badsey in addition to its church has many interesting old houses; and at Wickhamford the church and manor form an attractive group. In the church are some fine canopied monuments, of Jacobean style, of the Sandys family, who owned the adjacent manor house a building of stone and timber, much of it dating from the sixteenth century.
It appears to have given access to two more sites on which Roman coins and relics are found Foxhill about 9-1/2 acres, and Blackground about 4 acres and passing east of the present Badsey church, proceeded through Wickhamford, and by a well-defined track to Hinton-on-the-Green, and on to Tewkesbury and Gloucester.
The old abbey tithe-barn at Littleton of the fourteenth century, Wickhamford Manor, the home of Penelope Washington, whose tomb is in the adjoining church, the picturesque village of Cropthorne, Winchcombe and its houses, Sudeley Castle, the timbered houses at Norton and Harvington, Broadway and Campden, abounding with beautiful houses, and the old town of Alcester, of which some views are given all these contain many objects of antiquarian and artistic interest, and can easily be reached from Evesham.
Aldington possessed the largest rateable value with the lowest population, which was about equal to Wickhamford with the lowest rateable value; and Badsey, with by far the largest population, came between Aldington and Wickhamford as to rateable value the obvious result being that Aldington was called upon to pay an excessive and unfair share of the cost of educating Badsey's children.
This, of course, was mere chaff, for they soon became so efficient that a large room was found for them in the village, and eventually they were annually engaged to perform the musical programme at the Badsey, Aldington, and Wickhamford Flower Show. My gardener was the leading spirit of the Band, a great optimist and the most willing man of any who ever reigned in my garden.
I was elected chairman, and we obtained the services of an excellent clerk, who held the same office for the Evesham Board of Guardians a capable man, and well up in the forms and idiosyncrasies of the Board of Education. Our designation was "the United District School Board of Badsey, Aldington, and Wickhamford."
Hampton, which has been described in the last section may be approached as easily by road as by river; from the top of the village Clark's Hill may be gained, and from here the ferry may be crossed and the town re-entered by Boat Lane. Badsey, and Wickhamford, with the hamlet of Aldington, are all in their different ways worth a visit.
I notice in the local papers that in spite of the interruption of the war they are now again thriving and earning new laurels. Our most important fête day was that upon which the Badsey, Aldington, and Wickhamford Flower Show was held.
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