Mamble (original) (raw)

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Human settlement in England

Mamble
Sun and Slipper, Mamble
Mamble is located in WorcestershireMambleMambleLocation within Worcestershire
OS grid reference SO689714
Civil parish Mamble
District Malvern Hills
Shire county Worcestershire
Region West Midlands
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town KIDDERMINSTER
Postcode district DY14
Police West Mercia
Fire Hereford and Worcester
Ambulance West Midlands
UK Parliament West Worcestershire
List of places UK England Worcestershire 52°20′27″N 2°27′24″W / 52.3407°N 2.4566°W / 52.3407; -2.4566

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Mamble is a village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills District in the county of Worcestershire, England. It is located on the A456 between Bewdley and Tenbury Wells. Notable buildings include the 13th century sandstone church and the nearby 17th century Sun & Slipper Inn.[1]

Roman remains have been found in the area at Sodington Hall, and at the time of the Domesday Book the settlement was known as Mamele. In subsequent years Mamble parish was in the lower division of Doddingtree Hundred.[2] The parish church of St John Baptist dates from about 1200 and has a wooden bell turret.[3] The brick-built side chapel of the Blount family, formerly from Sodington Hall, was added in the 16th century but was unroofed in the mid-20th century and is now in ruins.

Although agriculture was always a major industry for the local inhabitants, coal mining was also important from the second half of the 18th century onwards, and the last local pits to the south-east of the village remained in operation until 1944.[4] In the 1790s the Leominster Canal was opened in the area, which allowed coal to be brought down from the colliery by tramway and carried to Tenbury Wells and Herefordshire, but the canal was unprofitable and was closed in 1859.[5]

There was once a greyhound coursing club in the village in the mid-19th century when races were run for a silver cup.[6][7] Mamble is chiefly remembered today as the title of a 1915 poem by John Drinkwater speculating about what lay at the end of a turning that he never took:

The finger-post says Mamble,

and that is all I know,

of the narrow road to Mamble.[8]

  1. ^ Mamble Parish website
  2. ^ Worcestershire Family History Guidebook, Vanessa Morgan, 2011, p20 The History Press, Stroud, Gloucestershire.
  3. ^ Historic England
  4. ^ David Poyner & Robert Evans, "Mamble Colliery", SCMC Journal #4
  5. ^ Ronald Russell, Lost Canals of England and Wales, David & Charles, 1971, pp.101-5
  6. ^ Thacker's Coursers Annual, 1849
  7. ^ Edward C. Ash, Ruth Fawcett, The Book of the Greyhound
  8. ^ Drinkwater, John, Selected Poems of John Drinkwater, pp.31-32. 'Mamble' (From Swords and Ploughshares, 1915) published 1922 Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd. London. Retrieved 21 June 2009