Powick

Powick is a Worcestershire village two miles south of the city of Worcester and four miles north of Great Malvern, close to the River Teme.

Powick lies on the A449 and has two bridges across the River Teme, one ancient. the village contains a primary school and was once the site of the county psychiatric hospital.

English Civil War

The old bridge across the Teme at Powick was the scene of one of the very first skirmishes between Royalist and Parliamentarian soldiers in the English Civil War in 1642 in what became known as the Battle of Powick Bridge. It was a short, sharp, but decisive cavalry engagement that resulted in a victory for the Royalists and showed the Parliamentarian cavalry their shortcomings, setting the tone for the early stages of the conflict.

The more famous Battle of Worcester was fought later on in the war, in 1651, in much the same locality. The church in Powick village was used by the Royalists as a lookout point as it commanded elevated views over the surrounding countryside and the bridge and its approaches. Its tower has a lot of pockmarks from small bore cannon balls which were fired by Parliamentarian gunners to deter the Scottish Royalist forces using the tower. They extend up the south face of the tower from as low as head height up to the top.

Victorian power station

A former water mill, adjacent to Powick Bridge, was converted in 1894 to become the world's first combined steam/hydro electric power station. Electricity from this provided about half the city of Worcester's needs. The Powick site continued generating until the 1950s. In its turn, when it closed, it was converted firstly into a laundry and has again been converted into smart residential apartments.

The site was chosen as a mill site from at least the 11th century, and very probably earlier than that. The mill leat was dug in 1291. A succession of water mills replaced each other throughout the Middle Ages and into the 16th century and later.

Elgar Connection

A mile from the village towards Malvern was the Worcester and County Lunatic Asylum, in later years just known as Powick Hospital. Edward Elgar became the bandmaster of the asylum when he was 22, in 1879 until about 1886, before he became famous, and wrote compositions for the asylum's band.

External links

* [http://www.powickparish.org.uk/ Powick parish community web site]
* [http://www.powickce.ik.org/home.ikml Powick primary school]
* [http://www.lukehistory.com/ballads/btlwor.html Ballad of Powick Bridge]
* [http://www.worcestercitymuseums.org.uk/content/pothist/ph18thc.htm Worcester Museum website - page including Powick Mills]
* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42877 British history online entry]
* [http://www.wdcra.org.uk/powick.htm Bell-ringing in Powick]
* [http://worcestershire.whub.org.uk/home/wcc-records-burney-powick Powick watercolours of Burney]
* [http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/795873 Old Powick bridge photograph]
* [http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/53924 Church photograph]
* [http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=3743716 photos of Powick and surrounding area on geograph]