White Ladies Aston, St John the Baptist
White Ladies Aston Worcestershire Delineated C. and J. Greenwood 1822
White-Ladies-Aston – a parish in the hundred of Oswaldslow, lower division, 5 miles E.S.E. from Worcester; containing 54 inhabited houses. In 1708, a estate in this parish came to Bishop Lloyd, (in consequence of the execution of its heir for an atrocious murder), who being unwilling that his family should, under such circumstances, derive any benefit from it, he conveyed it over to trustees, for the endowment of two schools at Worcester, for twenty-four boys and girls, to be chosen out of the several parishes within the city.
It was at the manor-house in this parish, then the residence of a Mr. Symmonds, that Oliver Cromwell had his head quarters the night before the battle of Worcester, in 1651.
The living is a vicarage, Rev. Charles Neve, incumbent; instituted 1808; patron, Robert Berkley, Esq. Population, 1801, 266 – 1811, 305 – 1821, 342.
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.
White Ladies Aston 1855
White Ladies’ Aston is situated 4 miles S.E. from Worcester, and contained in 1851 a population of 356 inhabitants.
This parish was originally called Aston, or Eston, signifying a town lying east of the monastery or mother church, to which it was subject. It was called at the time of the Conquest, Eston Episcopi, belonging then to the Bishop. Godfrey de Gifford, in the year 1268, held the great deal of England and the crosier of Worcester, and gave to the nuns of Whiston, at Worcester, called White Ladies, from their dress, the manor and patronage of Eston, with certain reservations, and from that time it has received the appellation of White Ladies’ Aston.
The Church is an ancient building, consisting of nave, chancel, and western wooden spire. The windows are principally Norman, with the exception of a few square-headed and plain ones. The principal memorial is to Thomas Elrington, Esq., who died in 1809; he was an officer in the army 65 years, and was at the battles of Fontenoy, Falkirk, and Culloden, and in the American wars; was also at the taking of the French West India Islands, and at the siege if Havannah. There is also another to Major General Richard Goodall Elrington, who died 1845. He entered the army at the early age of fourteen, and carried his Majesty’s arms into America, the Persian Gulph, and India, and was shot through the body while bearing the colours of the 14th Regiment, before Dunkirk. The living is a Vicarage, in the patronage of R. Berkeley, Esq. Rev. Henry M Sherwood, B.A., Vicar; Mr. George Manton, Clerk. Service - 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., alternately.
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