BROMSGROVE COURT Leet and Worcestershire County Council’s Archive and Archaeology Service at the Hive have made Court Leet records available to the public for the first time, writes Freddy Pope.
Records were first kept by the court or held in St. John’s Church but have been deposited with Worcester County Archives in recent years to safely store and protect documents and preserve records of happenings in the Manor of Bromsgrove.
At a Spring Court meeting in 2023, Custodian of the Records Jo Slade, proposed that deposited boxes should be professionally catalogued.
Included within the boxes were various legal documents, agendas from Autumn and Spring Court meetings along with press cuttings dating between 1737 to 1948.
Volunteers then began preparing the ancient documents for cataloguing going through a series of steps.
These steps took ten months to complete and was mostly completed by a single volunteer, Helen Voyle, who visited The Hive once a week.
The catalogue is now available for anyone to see online and an event was held at the Hive in Worcester to celebrate the end of the cataloguing project.
Hosted by the Bailiff of Bromsgrove Court Leet, Philip Thomas, guests included Deputy Lieutenant Umesh Udeshi and High Sheriff of Worcestershire Charles Moyle JP.
Employees from The Hive were also in attendance.
Visit www.e-services.worcestershire.gov.uk/CalmView to delve into the archives of Bromsgrove’s history and the workings of a Court Leet.
