Northfield, Worcestershire Family History Guide

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Northfield St Laurence (Church Road) is an Ancient Parish in the county of Worcestershire. Cofton Hackett is a chapelry of Northfield1.

Other places in the parish include: Bartley or Bartley Green, Bournbrook, Hay, Shenley, Shendley, and Selly Oak.

The following parishes were created from Northfield Ancient Parish as follows2:

  • 1862 Selly Oak St Mary Ecclesiastical Parish
  • 1926 Bournville Ecclesiastical Parish
  • 1933 Weoley Castle Ecclesiastical Parish
  • 1938 Allens Cross Ecclesiastical Parish
  • 1965 Shenley Green Ecclesiastical Parish
  • 1966 West Heath Ecclesiastical Parish

In 1933 part of Northfield was transferred to Bournville, and in 1939 the parish was enlarged by the addition of part of the parish of St Chad Rubery 3.

Places in the parish licensed for public worship were4:

  • Woodland Park Mission
  • Shenley Fields Homes, licensed from 1928 until the Second World War

Parish registers begin: 1560

Nonconformists include: Primitive Methodist and Wesleyan Methodist Association.

Adjacent Parishes

Northfield Parish Registers

Search online registers of baptisms, marriages, banns and burials including digitised images of original records and registers and indexed transcriptions.

Northfield Index to Bishops Transcripts

Northfield Register of Bishop Transcripts 1612-1700

Northfield Register of Bishop Transcripts 1701-1812

Northfield, Birmingham Church of England Baptisms Marriages and Burials 1560-1812

Northfield, St Laurence, Birmingham Church of England Baptisms Marriages and Burials 1810-1812

Northfield, Birmingham Church of England Baptisms 1813-1841

Northfield St Laurence, Birmingham Church of England Baptisms 1813-1935

Northfield St Laurence, Birmingham Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754-1948

Northfield St Laurence, Birmingham Church of England Burials 1813-1992

Non-Conformist Registers

Bournbrook, Elmdon Road Methodist Church Marriage Register 1929 Jan 05-1939 Nov 25

Dartmouth Road, Bournbrook Congregational Church Register of Marriages 1935-1965

Historical Directory Transcriptions

Northfield Lewis Worcestershire Directory 1820

Bournbrook Bennetts Business Directory 1899

Parish History

Northfield

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

NORTHFIELD, a village and a parish in Kings-Norton district, Worcester. The village stands 1¾ mile W of Kings Norton r. station, 2½ S of the boundary with Stafford, and 6 W by S of Birmingham; and has a post-office under Birmingham.

The parish is divided into the yields of Selly, Hay, Shendley, and Bartley; and is traversed by the Birmingham and Gloucester railway, and by the Birmingham and Worcester and the Netherton canals. Acres, 5,951. Rated property, £14,112. Pop. in 1851, 2,460; in 1861, 3,130. Houses, 637. The property is much subdivided. Weoley Castle belonged to the Botetourts, the Berkeleys, and the Jervoises; and is now a ruin. The land in the E. is flat, but in the W. is hilly. Nail-making is carried on; and there are chemical works and freestone quarries.

The living is a rectory, with the chapelries of Bartley Green and Cofton Hackett, in the diocese of Worcester. Value, £1,170. Patrons, the Rev. J. T. Fenwick and others. The church is good, and has a memorial window to Dr. J. Johnstone. The p. curacy of Selly Oak is a separate benefice. There are two Wesleyan chapels, an endowed school with £13 a year, and charities £5.

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

Worcestershire Delineated C. and J. Greenwood 1822

Northfield – a parish in the hundred of Halfshire, upper division, 7 miles N.E. from Bromsgrove, 6 from Birmingham, and 120 from London; containing 278 inhabited houses. The church is a Gothic building, but on the north side, there is an ancient door-way, now stopped up, which has a round Saxon arch, ornamented with mouldings. The living is a rectory, with Cofton-Hacket chapel annexed; Rev. John T. Fenwick, incumbent; instituted 1805; patron, George Fenwick, Esq. Population, 1801, 1313 – 1811, 1468 – 1821, 1567.

Source: Worcestershire Delineated: Being a Topographical Description of Each Parish, Chapelry, Hamlet, &c. In the County; with the distances and bearings from their respective market towns, &c. By C. and J. Greenwood. Printed by T. Bensley, Crane Court, Fleet Street, London, 1822.

Description of Worcestershire Laird 1814

Northfield parish was anciently the property of the Botetourts; afterwards of the Berkeleys; but now part of the Jervois Clerke estates. Here the antiquarian will be pleased with the ruins of Wooly Castle, an ancient fortress, of which, however, little remains but the south wall. As far as it can be traced, it seems to have been in form of a parallelogram, with an extensive central area, and must have covered about half an acre, but in a very low situation; and even in ancient times would not have been a very strong place of defence, for having no keep, it might be commanded from several points. A very large and deep moat surrounded it, filled with water from a brook which runs on its north side; the whole contents of the castle and moat may, perhaps, be a couple of acres, and its scite is now occupied by a garden.

The surrounding country too is extremely well timbered, and from its diversity of surface, presents many rich and beautiful views. The parish church is well deserving the notice of the tourist. On the north side, there is an ancient doorway, now stopped up, which has around Saxon arch, with the mouldings adorned in a very singular manner, which Bishop Lyttleton, conjectures was part of the ancient Saxon building: and the chancel windows are of a very elegant style of Gothic architecture, apparently of the time of King John. Here the high-road passes through the grounds of an ancient manor-house, which stands on one Side, whilst the offices, particularly a very curious pigeon-house, are on the other. It is inhabited by a farmer, but deserves examinations.

Source: A Topographical and Historical Description of the County of Worcester, by Mr. Laird. Printed for Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, Paternoster Row; and George Cowie and Co. successors to Vernor, Hood, and Sharp, 31, Poultry, London. Printed circa 1814.

Shendley

Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales Circa 1870

Shendley, a section of Northfield parish, Worcester; 5½ miles SW of Birmingham.

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

Administration

  • County: Worcestershire
  • Civil Registration District: Kings Norton
  • Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Worcester (Episcopal Consistory)
  • Diocese: Worcester
  • Rural Deanery: Droitwich
  • Poor Law Union: Kings Norton
  • Hundred: Halfshire
  • Province: Canterbury

References

  1. F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Northern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991) ↩︎
  2. F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Northern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991) ↩︎
  3. Religious History: Churches built before 1800 | British History Online ↩︎
  4. Religious History: Churches built before 1800 | British History Online ↩︎