Cradley Herefordshire Family History Guide

Cradley, an Ancient Parish in the county of Herefordshire

Status: Ancient Parish

Parish church: St. James

Parish registers begin:

• Parish registers: 1560
• Bishop’s Transcripts: 1660

Nonconformists include:

Adjacent Parishes

• Acton Beauchamp
• Evesbatch
• Mathon
• Bishops Frome with Fromes Hill
• Mathon St James
• Bosbury
• Suckley

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

CRADLEY (East and West), a parish in Bromyard district, Hereford; under the Malvern hills, at the boundary with Worcester, 3 miles N of Colwall r. station, and 7 ¾ SE of Bromyard. It has a post office, of the name of Cradley, under Malvern. Acres, 5, 966. Real property, £8, 858. Pop., 1,830. Houses, 418. The property is much subdivided. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Hereford; and has under it the chapelry of St. John the Evangelist, a vicarage and a separate charge. Value of the rectory, £957; of the vicarage, £100. Patron of the rectory, the Bishop of Hereford; of the vicarage, the Rector. The parish church was restored in 1869; and the church of St. John is very good. A school has £20 from endowment; and other charities £24.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

CRADLEY (St. James), a parish, in the union of Bromyard, hundred of Radlow, county of Hereford, 3½ miles (W. by N.) from Malvern; containing 1504 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the borders of Worcestershire, which bounds it on the north, east, and south; it is intersected by the road from Worcester to Hereford, and comprises by measurement 5966 acres, of which 1008 are woodland, about 140 hop-grounds, and 90 common or waste. A small stream, running from south to north, divides the district into two nearly equal portions, called East Cradley and West Cradley. At Ridgway Cross are quarries of old red sandstone, excellent for building; and there are also quarries of limestone and of Ludlow rock. The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £18, and in the gift of the Bishop of Hereford: the tithes have been commuted for £1001, and the glebe comprises 110 acres, with an excellent glebe-house. The church is a plain edifice with a low tower. There is a place of worship for Lady Huntingdon’s Connexion. A free school was founded in the reign of Charles II., and endowed with £20 per annum from the Vinesend estate, in the parish. Several interesting fossils are found among the strata, including asaphus caudatus, the orthoceratites, and the encrinites.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Parish Records

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Administration

• County: Herefordshire
• Civil Registration District: Bromyard
• Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Hereford (Episcopal Consistory)
• Diocese: Hereford
• Rural Deanery: Frome
• Poor Law Union: Bromyard
• Hundred: Radlow
• Province: Canterbury