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.

Edmund George Band was born on 26 June 1884. The son of a farm labourer, he was to become the headmaster of Welland school from 1930 to 1945. Edmund Band followed Mr. Pardoe, who had been the previous headmaster since 1922.

Edmund Band’s wife Marie, née Audebert, was born on 9 September 1880 and, up to the age of at least sixteen, lived in France. The first time we encounter her in England is not until the 1901 census.

In 1891 Edmund was living in Alfrick with his parents George and Elizabeth Band. By 1901, he was living in Chapel House, Alfrick, with his widowed mother – he was then a ‘pupil teacher’. At this time, Marie Audebert was living in Hopton Lodge, Hopton Lane, near Alfrick. The record states that she was ‘head of the household, living on her own account’ (which means that she was self-supporting). Her occupation was ‘dressmaker’, and her place of birth was Lignières, France. It is not unreasonable to surmise that Alfrick was where Edmund and Marie first met. They married on 3 November 1906 at St Edburga’s church, Leigh. One of their witnesses was Christina Featherstonhaugh, who had been Marie’s next-door neighbour when she lived at Hopton Lodge. (Christina lived at Hopton Court.)

By 1911, Edmund and Marie had moved to 12 McIntyre Road, St. John’s, Worcester, and Edmund was recorded as a teacher. At the time of the 1921 census Edmund was working at Hounds Lane Boys’ School and he and Marie were living at 105 Laugherne Road, Worcester.

When Edmund’s posting to Welland school commenced in 1930 they came here to live in a newly built, dormer bungalow style of property named L’Arnon. It was the first dwelling on the right after turning into Upper Welland Road from the A4104 Marlbank Road. This turning became known locally as ‘Band’s Corner’. The river Arnon runs right through Lignières, Marie’s birthplace, so it is not unreasonable to assume that is why their house was named L’Arnon. (The house has since been renamed Priory View.)

Patrick Campbell in his book ‘Plums to Persia’ recalls the house smelling of lavender and Edmund Band walking down Marlbank Road to school in the morning, pupils joining him along the way. He describes Band as ‘an early conservationist, and an unconventional teacher’.

After Edmund retired, the couple continued living in the same property. Edmund died in 1958 and Marie in 1960. They are both buried in Welland cemetery.

The photo shows Edmund Band with some of his pupils from Welland School in the early 1930s.

Photo courtesy of Bernette Arrowsmith

Welland and Hanley Swan Battle Platoon Home Guard, 1943

This photo and a list of names were supplied to us by Malvern Museum. The same photo, originally from the late Gordon Bennett of Welland, also appears in Mick Wilks’ Chronicles of the Worcestershire Home Guard (Logaston, 2014) with a slightly different list of names. The photo shows some of the men from Welland and Hanley Swan (HS) platoons, winners of the Worcestershire Sub District ‘Platoon in Attack’ competition in September 1943 (Wilks). We believe the building in the background may be Welland Village Hall.

From left to right:

Front row: Hubert Preston, Frank Hill, Ken Lawrence, Vernon Reece-Pinchin, Mike Hill, Harold Webb, Bill Shipman (HS).

Second row: Walter Reynolds (HS), George Pitman (HS), Owen Bayliss (HS), unknown, Lt (Col retired) C B Grice-Hutchinson, Major M F S Jewell, E C Watkinson (HS), Alec Dare, Ted Wheilden, G Dovey, Joe Dovey.

Third row: Harry Somers, Fred Carter, Raymond Hill, John Harbidge, Ernie Rouse, Charlie Wheeler, John Lewis.

Back row: John Allison, Don King, Bill Weaver, Joe Bullock, Dick Hart, Pat Oliver, Dennis Barnes, unknown.

Please get in touch if you can supply the missing names or think any of the identifications are wrong.

Situated on the curve of Drake Street near to where the Marlbank Brook passes under the road, Little Brookend is certainly an old farmstead but we do not know just how old it is at present.

The land tax records indicate that William and Mary Bullock owned Little Brookend towards the end of the 18th century and it may then have been called Bennets. Their son Richard Bullock succeeded them.

William Twinberrow bought the estate about 1830. It was tenanted briefly by William Harris but William Twinberrow then farmed it himself. After William Twinberrow’s death in 1841 his great-nephew Joseph Twinberrow took ownership of the property, with Richard Tyler as tenant, and this was still the case when the 1847 tithe map was drawn up. The tithe records show that Little Brookend’s land at the time included four allotments in Tiltridge (one of Welland’s three common fields), nearby on the other side of Drake Street. Another plot of land, Smithfield (now Bidders Croft), lay further east along Drake Street. The farmhouse had an adjoining garden and orchard and the brook formed the western boundary.

At the time of the 1871 census John Bridges was at Little Brookend, farming 20 acres, and by 1881 the tenant was widow Ann Watkins, who described herself as a ‘market woman’ in the census.

The Tombs family had taken over by 1891. Mark Tombs was a carpenter and wheelwright as well as a farmer. He died in 1904 and his wife Rose in 1906. An auction arranged for 28 September that year advertised livestock, crops and numerous agricultural instruments and equipment.

The farm was bought by L D Stowe in 1906 and Elijah Smith took over the tenancy the same year. (L D Stowe may be Louisa Dorothea Stowe, known to be resident in Castlemorton in 1911.) A few years later, in February 1914, the Valuation Office survey described the farmhouse as brick and half-timbered, with a tiled roof and ‘in fair repair’. It had a hall, sitting room, kitchen, back kitchen, dairy, four bedrooms and a box room. There were also a cellar, loft, mill house, coal house, two pig cots, meal house, stable, coal shed, two outhouses and three sheds. The adjoining orchard and a plot of land in Tiltridge were still part of the farm. The market value was assessed at £800.

Elijah Smith was a poultry and dairy farmer, originally from Lancashire. At the time of the 1911 census his household consisted of his wife Blanche, three young daughters, Margery, Elizabeth and Leanore, and a farm labourer, Lugard Douglas Boswell. Blanche Smith remained in occupation until the mid-1950s.

Several of the farm buildings on the site have been converted into separate dwellings over recent decades, forming Mill Cottage, The Old Cider Mill and The Pottynge Barn.

This tiny timber-framed cottage in a small plot of land once stood set back from the road, next to Holly Cottage on Drake Street (see map). This photo was taken in the late 1940s and the cottage was demolished in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

We do not have a record of when it was built but it resembles cottages elsewhere that date from the 17th century.

The ground floor had a living room and a scullery. Stairs led up to the sleeping area under the eaves. A pump supplied water from a well and there was an outdoor privy.

The tithe apportionment records indicate that Thomas Hawker, an agricultural labourer, lived there in 1847, when the house was owned by Sarah Homan of Lawn Farm.

The land tax records indicate that Lina Reynolds owned the cottage from at least 1893 to the mid-1920s. With a rent of £4 per year it was one of the cheapest houses in Welland.  At the time of the 1891 census cordwainer William Lawley, his wife Mary, and their daughter were the occupants. From 1896 general labourer Joseph Jinnifer was the tenant, living there with his wife Clara and five children.

Records from the Valuation Office Survey show that the house was vacant when the surveyor visited in February 1914. The description reads ‘Cottage & Garden: brick, half timber & thatch in poor repair, with 1 Bedroom, Kitchen and Shed’.

At some point in the 19th century another house was built in front of Honeysuckle Cottage, hiding it from the road.

By the time of the 1939 National Register the house was occupied by William Hill, a coal haulier, and his wife, Rose, who lived their until their deaths in 1950.

The earliest maps of the area do not show roads at all. Instead, they focus on watercourses as markers in the landscape. However, Speed’s 1610 map of Worcestershire shows a bridge at Upton, suggesting an east-west routeway through the region. Furthermore, Welland was part of Bredon manor in medieval times and goods and stock were transported between Welland and Bredon, again suggesting a regularly used route east-west. In the fourteenth century there are records of pigs from Bredon being sent to pasture in the woods at Welland and when logs were transported from Welland to the Severn by people from Bredon in 1395-6, a wassail was provided. Upton’s importance as a port created traffic through Welland – as early as 1289 the Bishop of Hereford had his wine sent from Bristol up the Severn to Upton, after which it was transported by land to his palace in Hereford.

It is possible that the east-west route has existed since prehistoric times. Welland lies close to the ancient frontier of the Malvern Hills, between a crossing of the River Severn (at Upton) and the Dobunni Iron Age hillfort at British Camp. Another Iron Age settlement (possibly a grain management site) has been found recently on the same route, on the far side of the river near Upton. The route extends on to Bredon Hill, yet another hillfort site. Thus the route passing through Welland may have been a significant part of the Dobunni communication and transport network.

At first sight, Welland appears to be in a relatively flat area but a look at a combined LIDAR/aerial image (zoom in towards the red dot and use the slider to view with aerial photography) shows the lumps and bumps of the topography. It therefore seems likely that the routeway, and possibly the village itself, are sited where they are because the brook has cut through a ridge here, providing easier access up to the higher ground and the Hills.

A 1628 survey map of Malvern Chase names the route as Drake Street as it passes through the village (still its name today). Drawings of houses on the 1628 survey map hint at the existence of other roads (or tracks) such as that along the edge of what was then Welland Common (now the B4208), and also Woodside Lane.

There will have been other routeways but these are not recorded on maps before the mid-nineteenth century. The road from Drake Street to Welland Court and the old church (see map) must have been a routeway for centuries. Byefield Lane (see map) is an example of a road that presumably existed in medieval times, passing as it does alongside Westfield, one of the village’s common fields. There are many footpaths over and around the common fields too – evidence that these have been rights of way for a very long time.

Some old routeways have been “lost” over the years. The 1628 survey map shows a route heading south in Little Malvern, at the base of the Malvern Hills and a 1720 plan of Little Malvern also marks this route, naming it as “the road to Gloucester”. This suggests it was a major road, now only discernible as various minor roads and tracks along the base of the steep slope of the hills.

Roadways did not always have a system of maintenance. From the sixteenth century, it was up to each parish to manage their road system and this was a haphazard affair, despite appointment of (unpaid) Surveyors of the Highways to supervise the work. Pot holes, ruts and mud abounded, resulting in frequently used routes becoming very wide as users tried to avoid the terrible conditions along the centre. A Welland example of local maintenance responsibilities comes from historical evidence from the sixteenth century that shows that the maintenance of the road bridge over the brook at Brookend was the responsibility of the one of the copyholders who was allowed to take wood from the Bishop’s land to maintain the bridge. But there are few references in Welland’s parish records to highway maintenance so it seems reasonable to assume that the parish did not make road maintenance a high priority. In 1633, Welland was one of several Worcestershire parishes to be rebuked for the state of its roads. During the latter part of the nineteenth century responsibility for the upkeep of the roads was gradually removed from the parish and placed in the hands of other authorities. However, one major road (what is now the A4104) ceased to be the responsibility of the parishioners much earlier than this. From 1663 onwards, turnpike trusts were empowered to build roads and levy tolls from users – see our separate article on Turnpikes and Tollhouses.

The A4104 remains a major route through Welland for traffic heading east-west between Upton on Severn and Ledbury, though the B4208 heading north-south has become a second significant road in more recent years, providing a route between Worcester and Gloucester (and to the M50). This road crosses what used to be Malvern Chase and, as the road crosses the southern parish boundary, it passes immediately into the largest remaining piece of the Chase, Castlemorton Common.

Other roads were created or enhanced as a result of the Welland Enclosure Act, as a result of which the part of Malvern Chase in Welland parish was enclosed. The Inclosure Map of 1849 marks the road from Danemoor Farm towards The Hook as “New Road”. Such roads are typically very straight, following new large field boundaries.

The crossroads of the A4104 and B4208 has stimulated recent development of the village around this point so that the area around the crossroads is now considered the village centre. The crossroads also demonstrates the continuing development of our road system – the school is now bypassed by the main road.

Summerfield was built on Gloucester Road (B4208) in the early 1850s, after the land was enclosed from Welland Common and the plot sold to Sarah Bullock. It was a generous plot, 2.819 acres as shown on the 1886 ordnance survey map. It was only the second house to be built on that side of the road between the crossroads and the edge of the common.

The original one-up one-down house had a bread oven. There was a smaller single storey building against the boundary line, possibly another dwelling or a business. A well between the buildings still exists.

The Wagstaff family were occupants but not owners in the census returns of 1891 and 1901. When the house was auctioned in 1903 a Miss Wagstaff was tenant. The advertisement names the house as Summerfield, formerly Dutfields. (William Dutfield was one of the early owners.) It was described as a cottage with sitting room, three bedrooms, usual domestic offices and outhouses, etc. The rent was £26 per year.

In 1908 the house and 0.75 acre of land were sold to Miss Harriett Thompson, who was already there as a tenant. Harriett described herself as lady gardener in the 1911 census. This photograph of two ladies in the 1900s is believed to show Harriett standing outside Summerfield but we do not know which of the two she is or the identity of the other lady.

By the 1921 census Harriett was recorded as a market gardener. This census also lists Clara Alcock as a boarder, and Robert and Margaret Carless as visitors.

Winifred Postlethwaite was living there at the time of the 1939 National Register. The house was requisitioned by military personnel during the war, with Winifred being relegated to living in a purpose-built nissen-style hut in the garden. This was provided with essentials such as a chimney and cooking stove and an outside solid fuel heated laundry tub. The hut had survived in a dilapidated state, as shown in this photo, when the current occupants moved in a few years ago; it has since been restored, retaining all its original features, to make a pleasant garden-room.

The original plot was gradually sub-divided and is now occupied not only by Summerfield but also Orchard Close, Sunnymede, Red Gables and the village shop.

Photo credits: Sue Haywood

John Archer was a son of Humphrey Archer of Umberslade Hall near Tanworth in Warwickshire. His name appears in the court rolls for Welland from 1607 but he may have settled here earlier. He married Eleanor Frewen of Hanley Castle and they had at least seven sons. He was buried under the chancel of old St James Church, a privilege only granted to the most important people in the parish.

John appears to have lived at Hunts Farm (later known as Woodside) and in his will of 1640 he left this property and the water mill plus various pieces of land, to his wife. The extent of his landholdings is shown by the fact that in 1648 Eleanor was paying more than 25% of the total rent due for the manor of Welland.

Another three generations of John Archers followed in Welland. The hearth tax records of 1663 state that the house of John Archer, grandson of the above, had five hearths, second in number only to Welland Court, making it likely to have been Hunts Farm. In 1672 St James Church was re-built. An engraved stone was put up in the new church to commemorate this event, naming churchwardens John Archer and Ralph Taylor as well as the vicar Anselm Harford and architect John Avenant of Kings Norton. This John Archer died in 1713, pre-deceased by his son John in 1701.

The parish records for Welland are particularly sparse for the 17th century but there are few records under the name of Archer in Welland for any period. There are, however, many more in the surrounding parishes, who may or may not be related to the Welland Archers. A much later John Archer (1791-1877), who ran the Foley Arms Hotel in Malvern for many years, claimed descent from the Welland Archers, but we cannot substantiate this.

Woodside, now called Willow Grange, is a handsome timber-framed and brick house, one of the oldest in Welland. Its grade II listing describes it as probably 16th and early 17th century with 20th century additions. At the back of the house are the remains of a moat (see aerial image). The house lies off a track leading from the B4208 (see map).

The house is likely to be the one shown in approximately the correct position on the 1628 survey map of Malvern Chase and was probably called Hunts Farm before Woodside. John Archer is known to have owned Hunts Farm as it is mentioned in his will of 1640.

William Boulter owned Woodside from at least 1788 to his death in 1817. He was one of the Boulter family who provided three successive vicars to Welland between 1762 and 1828 but he was not a member of the clergy himself. His widow inherited it and then his son, also William.

Charles Mayfield Turner rented the estate in the 1840s from Thomas Hornyold. It was later farmed by Abraham Watkins, who was to donate the land for St James Church in the 1870s.

As the name suggests, the estate once adjoined and possibly included substantial woodland. A timber auction in 1829 advertised several lots of trees including 161 elms, 35 oak and 74 ash, all from Woodside. Welland Mill also seems to have been part of the estate until at least the mid-19th century.

In 1879 Woodside was bought by James Hartill Purser, whose father had owned coal and iron mines in Cradley Heath. The estate comprised 220 acres at the time. The family were there for about 20 years before moving to Church Villa. Woodside was then farmed by Frederick Hamilton and by 1939 stock farmer William Morris and his wife were living there.

The Birmingham Daily Post advertised Woodside for auction in July 1973, describing it as a ‘fine Elizabethan house’ with three cottages, farm buildings and 175 acres.

Most of the remaining land was later sold to the Ross-on-Wye Steam Engine Society to provide a permanent site for the Welland Steam & Country Rally, held in Welland since 1993.