Unlocking Stourport's Past

STOURPORT'S WALLS

Stourport is full of old walls which are not recorded. (Not just the canal basin walls which are well recorded and protected.) Look around and you will see there are bits all over the place. If you start to wonder what they were for, you then begin to go into the history of old Stourport.

Some of the most obvious ones are down Moorhall Lane. Those on the right as you go down to the river are the ones that belonged to Moor Hall. Moorhill, later called Moor Hall, was the residence of Jonathan Worthington and called a 'New Mansion' in "The Cambrian Traveller's Guide" 1813. It is not possible yet to describe exactly where all its boundaries were. The sale details of 1844 described Moor Hall as "A mansion of importance seated on an eminence in park-like grounds, the property and residence of Jonathan Worthington who is about to leave the same with domestic offices, coach house, stabling, very superior agricultural buildings, cottage, gardens, hot and green houses, plantations, pleasure grounds and upwards of 105 acres of excellent meadow, orchard and arable land"

Moor Hall gradually became derelict in the 1920's and later demolished. Today only the walls, two lodges and a couple of gateposts remain as physical evidence to show what a grand place and estate it once was. The most complete bit is around what was the kitchen garden which is now the garden of "Robwynne" owned by Mr. and Mrs. Blunt.

The wall is English garden wall bond with lime mortar, has no foundation, is approximately 8' high with the original blue brick copings. The courses follow the contour of the land rather than horizontally as walls of today are built. The remainder of the kitchen garden walls forming the boundary to Moorhall Lane have been lowered

Mr. Blunt built the gate posts to the entrance he made, which complement the walls so well, out of the original bricks.

The kitchen garden originally had greenhouses all the way along the back wall. One still remains which contains a prize winning vine.

Bits of Moor Hall boundary walls, which have been lowered to varying heights, form the boundaries to many properties fronting Moorhall Lane and Lickhill Road -

**Maps showing Moorhall Wall before and after Moorhall demolition**

The gatepost to the main entrance to Moorhall on Lickhill Road is a remaining one of four.

Opposite this entrance was another pair of gates "which greatly interested me as a boy, from the fact that when the one set was opened the opposite ones also opened as though by magic. How these gates opened in contrary directions was always a puzzle to me." (I.L. Wedley, Stourport, Its Rise, Decline and Final Triumph).

There was another pair at what is now Park Lane, but only the lodge remains.

You can find Moor Hall and the kitchen garden on the map of and the remaining walls marked on on the map.

Other walls that we hope to record are :

Those on the other side of Moorhall Lane which bounded the house called The Heath, whose lodge remains called Heath Lodge.

The unbroken wall from Lickhill Road to Tan Lane (can be seen from the Co-op Car Park).

Bullocks Nursery walls, near the Social Day Centre, New Street.

And many, many more.

We hope that at the end of our project we can produce a leaflet showing a trail of some of Stourport's history through its old walls. Keep your eyes open and let us know if you see any walls you think worth recording. Better still join our group of two in seeking out these old walls and recording the forgotten history of Stourport. You would be really welcome.

This page researched by Peter Hall and Jill Fairbrother Millis

This page last updated 10 February 2006