Hook Farm is some 400 years old, standing on land that once belonged to Little Malvern Priory (see map). Following the dissolution, all the priory’s lands in Welland were granted to William and Elizabeth Pinnock in 1545, William Pinnock being Lord of the manors of Hanley and Upton.

The farmhouse seems to have been built around 1600, as a deed of 1608 describes it as ‘newly built’. In that year Nicholas Cotterell, a tanner of Baughton, and his wife Alice, became the owners of the farm, then tenanted by Edward Doughty. The Cotterell family owned the farm until 1762, when the title was transferred to their tenant Joseph Curtis. It was inherited by his son, also Joseph, who died in 1828.

Charles Hastings (1794 – 1866) bought Hook Farm with 25 acres of land in 1833 for £1,550, following the death of Joseph Curtis’s wife. This was the famous Charles Hastings of Worcester Infirmary, surgeon, campaigner for improved housing and sanitation in Worcester, and one of the founders of the British Medical Association. His wife Hannah Woodyatt came from a Ledbury family, and Hastings spent the latter part of his life at Barnards Green.

During Hastings’ ownership the farm was rented by James Oliver. He appears with his family in the census returns for 1841 – 1871. The 1847 tithe map shows that common land still bordered Hook Farm to the west and south and the modern Hook Road did not yet exist. The farm at the time consisted of the house and farm buildings, a garden, and fields named Long Orchard, Broad Orchard Field, Lower field, The Two Acres, Bumpers Ground and Cow Pasture. The parish boundary between Welland and Upton ran along the eastern edge. A few years later, when Welland’s remaining common land was enclosed, Charles Hastings bought the land adjacent to the farm, adding about another 16 acres.

By 1881 James’ son George was in charge, working 40 acres and employing one man and one boy. George Oliver took over the lease in 1891 but also rented nearby Hill Court Farm, which is where he was living at the time of the 1891 census, Hook Farm being temporarily uninhabited.

After Charles Hastings’ death, his son George Woodyatt Hastings inherited a life interest in Hook Farm and Hill Court Farm. This was auctioned when he was declared bankrupt in 1896.

According to the census and other records, there were a number of occupants between 1901 and 1921. These included Thomas Clarke, a Mr Norrington, Walter Woodward and Oliver Ball. The farm was advertised for auction in 1918, following the death of George Woodyatt Hastings the previous year. It was then described as a dairy, stock raising and feeding farm with 51 acres of pasture, orchard and arable land.

John Henry Drinkwater was at Hook Farm with his wife and five sons by 1921 and is recorded on the electoral register at that address as late as 1949. After his death in 1950, the farm was bought by the Roberts family.

We are indebted to the late Mary Roberts, whose collection of deeds and other papers enabled us to establish the early owners and occupiers of Hook Farm.