Old Swinford

• The most significant collections are at:
  • Worcester County Record Office
  • Dudley Archives
  • Stourbridge Public Library

• Oldswinford St Mary's Monumental Inscriptions have been transcribed and are available from BMSGH Bookshop.

• Oldswinford Census Records for 1841-1901 and any indexes and inscriptions can found in the usual places described on GENUKI Worcestershire.

• St Mary's Church:

  St Mary's Church, Oldswinford.

  The sandstone church has a C14th west tower, but is mostly Victorian - nave of 1843 by Griffiths and chancel, vestry and south chancel of 1898 by Chatwin. There was also a spire but this was removed in 1982. The earliest known rector was John in 1199, but other famous rectors include Simon Ford 1676-1699, who had been chaplain to the King and the Lord Mayor of London. Thomas Philip Foley, rector 1797-1835 was a supporter of the prophetess Joanna Southcott (who lived briefly in the rectory, and her sealed box of predictions was kept there). The church history is described in The story of St Mary's church and the parish of Oldswinford, by N Perry, 1989. 950643971.

• Printed transcripts 1693-1813 have been produced by BMSGH and are available from BMSGH Bookshop.

• Certificates of birth, death and marriage can be obtained from the Superintendent Registrars at Stourbridge District Register Office.

• Quarter Session records which mention Oldswinford are included on the Access to Archives (Now part of Discovery) [search for oldswinford AND quarter sessions].

• The parish stretched from Norton and Wollaston through Amblecote, Upperswinford and Stourbridge (Bedcote) in the middle to Lye, Wollescote, Foxcote and Oldnall in the east. It was surrounded by Kinver, Pedmore, Halesowen and Kingswinford.

  The parish later lost Amblecote, Stourbridge, Wollaston, Stambermill, Wollescote and Norton.

  The name is derived from the place where swine forded the river (Stour).

• A description of Stourbridge and Oldswinford in Noake's Guide to Worcestershire, 1868.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• The transcription of the section for Old Swinford from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin Hinson.

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Old Swinford to another place.

• Genealogy webpages can be found on:
  • Stourbridge Genealogy
  • Black Country Genealogy

• Wychbury Hill is an Iron Age hillfort, and there is the line of a Roman road which can still be followed.
• The first documentary evidence is in a charter of 954 referring to a small estate of 6 hides called Swine Ford. Referred to as Suineforde in the Domesday Book 1086. It later became known as Oldswinford to distingish it from the adjacent Swinford Regis or Kingswinford over the river.
• Much of the more significant history of the parish is tied up with that of the township Stourbridge, now a major town and parish in its own right. The definitive history is given in:
  • Perry, N - History of Stourbridge. Phillimore, 2001. ISBN 1-86077-183-1.
• Specifically there is a History of Wollaston website.

• Wayne Cronin-Wojdat has published a book on Land Ownership & Use in Wollescote, Old Swinford, Worcestershire 1710 - 1830: Transcripts of various documents dated between 1710 - 1830 relating to the ownership and use of numerous pieces of land in Wollescote, in the Parish of Old Swinford, Worcestershire, England. 

• The historical parish comprised the manor of Amblecote in Staffordshire, and the manor of Oldswinford itself. There was later a submanor of Bedcote (for the township of Stourbridge). The manor was variously owned by the Beauchamps, the Crown, the Lyttletons, the Foleys, and the Earls of Dudley.
• Facsimile maps for Stourbridge North (1901) and Stourbridge South (1914) have been published by Alan Godfrey Maps available from BMSGH Bookshop.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SO905833 (Lat/Lon: 52.447577, -2.141204), Old Swinford which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

• The most well-known occupation was glassmaking, and old glassmaking families are given in URL no longer valid

• Poor Law records have been indexed and can be bought from BMSGH Bookshop.

• Being in the diocese of Worcester, most wills proved prior to 1858 will be at Worcester Record Office.

• King Edward Grammar School was founded in 1552.

• Oldswinford Hospital School:

  Oldswinford Hospital School was founded in 1667. Its school records are included in the Access to Archives (Now part of Discovery) [search for oldswinford AND hospital]

• BMSGH Stourbridge Branch (site shared with Bromsgrove) has many members researching in the Oldswinford area.

[(c) Genuki 2004 Compiled : Dave Huddart. Last modified by him 7th September 2004]
Amended 10th April 2006 - Peter Abbott.