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Hopyard, Dumble Hole Coppice, Upper and Lower Coal Pits, and the Vole.

In WHITBOURNE, Herefordshire, there are Gadbidge, Crumplebury Hill, and Wishmoor, near Inksmoor.

In MARTLEY (Martely, or Mercelei) there are Castle Hill Meadow, Tin Close, War Croft, Bossock Coppy (Coppice), Radbury Bank, Poke Meadow, Berrow Hill, Berrow Stone, Jacob's Baver, Rodge, or Rudge Hill; Battle Field, Hither and Further Callow Field, Callow's Piece, Puckley Green Farm, and Devil's Leap.

In HILLHAMTON, in Martley, there are Upper and Lower Wolstones*, Hell Meadow, Twhit Lane, and Great Castle Field.

In CLIFTON-ON-TEME there are The Old Hills, The Imp Orchard †, Camp Meadow; Hell-hole Orchard, Coppice, and Ash-bed; Egg Down; Round Hill; White-way Head, Ashbed, and Coppice; Upper and Lower Stuckbatch, and Woodmanton. In "Domesday Book," Clifton is named Clistvne.

The estate called Woodmanton is a manor of itself, separate from the manor of Clifton. The knightly family of the Wyshams, who were lords of the manor of Clifton, were seated at Woodmanton between the reigns of Henry III. and Edward III. ‡, that is between 1216 and 1377. Sometime afterwards Woodmanton was possessed by the Callowhills of Tedstone Delamere (the heirs in the female line of the Wyshams). It is now the property of the Cowcher family, and has been so ever since the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign. In Woodmanton Chapel, Clifton Church, there is a raised monument representing a knight in armour, in a tarbard, with a lion at his feet §; he is recumbent and the legs are crossed; this is supposed to be the tomb of Sir Ralph Wysham. The lion at his feet (which looks more like a dog) gave rise to a legend current amongst the peasantry to this day, that as Sir Ralph was one day walking with his dog, from Woodmanton to Clifton, he fell down dead under a yew tree, where he was found lying on his back, with his legs crossed, and his faithful dog crouching at his

See" Astley," as to this name.

+ See "Folk-Lore."

See Nash, Vol. i., pp. 242-249. § Ibid., p. 249.

feet. Sir Ralph is supposed to have been a crusader. The family arms are represented in the painted window of Woodmanton Chapel, and in other windows of the church. Sable, a fess argent, between six martlets of the second*. Martlets, it is said, were depicted on the shields of the crusaders.

The old moated † wooden mansion was taken down in the early part of the present century, and rebuilt of stone by the late Martin Coucher, Esq. In my juvenile days, my venerable grandmother used, when I visited her at the old mansion, to show me one of those remarkable large variegated glass beads called Druid's eggs or adder gems, which some antiquaries suppose were brought from the east by the crusaders as talismans or charms, as a portion of one was found in the tomb of the crusader Udard de Broham §. Others say that they were Druidical, and of Phonician manufacture.

The following extract, from Nash, bears upon the subject of the Woodmanton estate being a manor to itself¶:—“ There are two very ancient deeds in Latin, without date, in the possession of Francis Ingram, of Ticknell, Esq., owner of the Upper Home, in Clifton, whereby some lands are granted to his ancestor, then owner of the Home, or Ham (it being called Home in the one grant and Ham in the other); and these grants are made to hold

See Nash, Vol. ii., App. 93.

It is said there were, at the quadrangles of the inner margin of the moat, four loop-holed round towers or turrets of stone; only one now remains. The draw-bridge was taken down, and part of the moat filled up, probably about a century and a half ago, after the conclusion of the civil war.

"Anguina ova," or Druid's eggs of Pliny.

§ Situate within the chancel of the parish church of Brougham, in Westmoreland.

See the "Archæologia" thereon, Vol. xxxiv., p. 46 to 50, and the "Archæological Journal," of the Institute, Vol. iii., p. 354, and Vol. iv., p. 60. Also, vide the "Proceedings of the Archæological Institute at Salisbury, 1849," p. 3, relative to the "gleyn neyder, or holy adder stone," said to have been found in a cist in a tumulus near Winterbourne Stoke, containing "circular lines of opaque sky-blue and white, representing a serpent entwined round a perforated centre."

¶ Vol. ii., Corrections and Additions, p. 9.

of the grantor and his heirs, and not of the lord of the fee, which must be antecedent to the year 1290, when the statute of Quia emptores terrarum' was made, which prohibits such inferior holdings. The deeds are in good preservation; the one is by Lucianus de Woodmanton, and the other by Elias Venator de Woodmanton, and the name of the former is still legible on the seal; and the habendum' and tenendum' is 'de me et hæredibus meis pro servitio,' &c. Woodmanton was formerly the Wysham's, and adjoins to the Upper Home or Ham, the ancient estate and residence of the Ingrams."

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John Coucher, who purchased the Woodmanton estate in 1569, was High Bailiff of Worcester in 1563 and 1565*. John, his son (Alderman of Worcester) was Bailiff of that city in 1593 and 1595 †, and also a burgess in several parliaments, temp. James I. and Charles I. In Green's "History of Worcester," Vol. ii., p. 36, there is a curious account (dated 28th January, 19th James I., 1620) of the wages, 2s. 6d. a-day, paid by the citizens. to their members, Robert Barkeley and Mr. Coucher§, for attending the parliament.

The alderman's son, Edmond, married Anne, eldest daughter of Philip Bearcroft, of Meer-green Hall, Esq., as appears by the pedigree of Bearcroft in the Herald's Visitation, Worcester, in 1682-4. Edmond's sister (Mary) ¶ married George Twitty, of Clifton-upon-Teme, as appears by the pedigree of Twitty in the same Visitation. Edmond's grandson, Thomas (son of his son Edmond) in 1726, married Susannah **, daughter of Edward Ingram, of Upper Home, or Ham, Esq., by his wife Susannah, daughter of John Cox, Esq, of Clent.

* See Nash, Vol. ii., Appendix, 112.

+ Ibid.

Ibid., Vol. i., Intr., p. 30.

§ He was also one of those who were appointed aldermen in the charter of the 2nd of October, in the 19th year of James I., 1620.

In the parish of Hanbury.

There is a blank for her name in the Visitation Book, but I have supplied it from the will of her eldest brother, Thomas Coucher, dated in 1643.

** She was his second wife.

In SHELSLEY WALSH, or Little Shelsley, there is Witchery Hole*. This parish was anciently called Caldesley, Seldesley, and Sheldesley; and in " Domesday Book," Caldeslei.

In SHELSLEY BEAUCHAMP, or Great Shelsley, there are Street Bank, Camp Hill, Big Holbourn, Round Hill, Poke Meadow, Hell Hole, Harborough Hill, and Barrel Heald, or Barrel Hill. It was anciently called Sholdesley, and in "Domesday," Celdeslai. There is a hamlet in this parish called Shelsley Kings.

See "Folk-Lore."

Iter VII.

ANCIENT ROAD FROM MALVERN HILLS TO TENBURY, &c.

A BRANCH road from the Malvern line* may have gone northwestward from Cowley Park †, in Leigh (at the end of the North Malvern Hill), through Cradley, in Herefordshire, by Ridgeway Cross, along the Ridgeway, and by the Ridgeway Oak; thence through Acton Beauchamp, in Worcestershire, and Wofferwood Common, Avenbury, Claterpark, Bromyard Downs, and by Broad Oak and Brockampton, in Herefordshire; thence through Edwin Loach, a detached part of Worcestershire (where there is a camp), and by Wall Hill Camp, at Thornbury, west of Collington; thence by Lower Sapey and through Upper Sapey(between which and Shelsley Walsh there is a camp at Farmers' Copse, on the border between Worcestershire and Herefordshire); thence by Stoke Bliss and Wolverlow otherwise Wolferlow, in Herefordshire, and by Handley William, Handley Child, and Kyre to Tenbury in Worcestershire; from whence it may have continued northward to Edge Hill, and the ancient encampment at Titterstone §, on Clee Hill, in Shropshire.

IN MATHON (or Mathin) which is partly in Worcestershire and partly in Herefordshire, there are Street Meadow, Horsenett's Coppice, Horsenetts, Rowburrow Wood, Clater Park, Castle Field, Castle Bank, Little Castle, the Yell,

* See p. 238.

+ See Chap. iv., relative to the hoar-stone in that part.

Where it probably crossed the Portway hereinafter described. See Iter XIV.

§ See "Hoar-Stones," Chap. iv., concerning one of the summits of Titterstone called War-edge.

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