Paul, You are quite right that the greater part of Tardebigge Parish - both Civilly and Ecclesiastically - was in Worcestershire. According to the 1851 Census Report, the then-estimated areas comprised 5,544 acres in WOR and 3,450 as being formerly in Warwickshire. My error here was conflating Ecclesiastical and Civil Parishes, for the Parish Church was in the formerly Warwickshire portion. However, I have several doubts about the entry in the 1868 National Gazetteer... By whom was it published? [It sounds as if it may have been a reprint of an earlier work.] My doubts are caused by the inclusion of Tardebigge as anything other than an Ecclesiastical Parish at that date, for it had been abolished for Civil Purposes in 1866 on its division into the four Civil Parishes of Bentley Pauncefoot, Redditch, and Webheath (all originally WOR) and Tutnall and Cobley (the former WAR part) under the provisions of 29 & 30 Vict. c. 113. According to the 1851 Census Report on [the Registration County of] Worcestershire [page 79; Note a (part)] "... Part of [Tardebigg (sic)] Parish, viz., the Hamlet of Tutnall and Cobley, formed part of the County of Warwick until October 1844, when it became for all purposes part of Worcestershire, under the Act of 7 & 8 Vict. c. 61." However, I agree that Tutnall and Cobley was originally in the Alcester Division of Barlichway Hundred (from the 1841 Census Report on Warwickshire; p324), although after 1844 it was included in Halfshire Hundred, and (most probably) in the Upper Division, along with the rest of the original Parish. Equally I agree that the present-day hamlet of Tardebigge lies on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal [I spent the weekend of June 23-4 at Tardebigge New Wharf at a Boat Rally, and will be back there on Wednesday to help take a boat down the flight of locks]. But my knowledge of former Railway Companies is insufficient to be able to confirm that the Birmingham and Bristol Railway ever ran significantly through the Parish. The two stations named of Bromsgrove and Blackwell - the two ends of the Lickey Incline - certainly lie on the former Birmingham and Gloucester Railway, but no more than ½ a mile of that was within Tutnall and Cobley.... (But maybe the Birmingham and Bristol line branched off through Alvechurch and Redditch.) Gus ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Prescott" <paul@toranean.demon.co.uk> To: "Gus Tysoe" <gustysoe@tiscali.co.uk>; "Mike" <casofilia@xtra.co.nz>; <WARWICK@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, July 02, 2007 10:06 AM Subject: tardebigge Gus: > Redditch itself was a WOR chapelry/township of the Parish of Tardebigge - > which was a detached part of WAR until 1844 - although Redditch did not > become a separate Parish Ecclesiastically until 1855 or Civilly until > 1866. I am hesitant about correcting such an expert on boundary changes, but only a small part of Tardebigge parish was in Warwickshire, and it was predominantly in Worcestershire. The 1841 census - the only one to be arranged strictly by county - has 90 pages of Tardebigge in Worcestershire, but only 11 in Warwickshire (covering Tutnall and Cobley). Redditch town was always in Worcestershire (although over time it expanded and absorbed surrounding areas formerly in Warwickshire). I'm less sure about when the boundary was tidied up, but suspect it may not have been in the great national boundary changes of 1844, as the following, taken from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868), and found on GENUKI, indicates. "TARDEBIGG, a parish chiefly in the upper division of Halfshire hundred, county Worcester, but partly in the Alcester division of Barlichway hundred, county Warwick, 3 miles S.E. of Bromsgrove, its post town, and 2 S. of the Blackwell railway station. The village is situated on the Worcester and Birmingham canal, and on the Birmingham and Bristol railway. The parish includes the town of Redditch and the hamlets of Bentley, Pauncefoot, Webheath, and Tutnall. The soil is rich and productive, and the subsoil abounds in building-stone." Best wishes Paul Prescott