Hanley Castle is a village in Worcestershire, England, between the towns of Malvern and Upton upon Severn and a short distance from the River Severn. It lies in the administrative area of Malvern Hills District, and is part of the informal region known as The Malverns. The village population together with that of the nearby village of Hanley Swan is around 1500. The village has also been known as Hanlie (11 th century.); Hanlega, Hanlegam, and Hanlea (12th century.); and Hanlegh (13th century).[1]
There was once a Norman castle built as a hunting lodge for King John in 1207 near the present day village. By the end of the 15th century it had been mostly demolished, and the tower was finally removed in 1795. However, a few traces still remain including a dry moat and a mound.
The main features of Hanley Castle are its village green dominated by a huge Cedar of Lebanon tree that is reputed to be approximately 900 years old, the unspoiled 15th-century red-brick and timbered pub and other listed buildings, and the High School.
| “ | ...After this, Hanley Castle became a favourite residence of the Beauchamps. Here Isabel Despenser, herself of royal blood, presented her first husband, Richard Beauchamp, with a daughter, when Henry the Fifth was king (1415). At Hanley Castle she married her second husband, that famous Earl of Warwick who took the standard of Owen Glendower on Shrewsbury battle-field, and who was afterwards guardian of Henry the Sixth and Regent of France. He lies beneath his grand monument at Warwick, she lies by the chapel built to the memory of her first husband in the ancient Abbey of Tewkesbury. At Hanley Castle died their son, who was made Duke of Warwick by Henry the Sixth, and here lived for years his sister Anne, who married Neville the "King-maker" "the great commanding Warwick," "the setter-up and plucker-down of kings." Henry the Seventh appropriated the property of the Beauchamps, and in the days of James the First the Castle of Hanley belonged to the Crown, but was well nigh deserted and neglected. From its situation it could be easily destroyed by cannon, and even the great central Keep must have succumbed in a short time to artillery acting from the broad leys which commanded the Castle from the eastward. Nevertheless it was a place the hunters still loved to visit, and King James often declared that he would himself hunt a stag from his Castle of Hanley in Malvern Chase. He never came, however, and it was rented from the Crown by my father, Miles Forester, who loved the locality on account of its connection with my mother's ancestors, and for its sylvan beauty, its great moat filled with fishes, its keep in which we lived, the shattered turrets which formed the angles, and the connecting galleries now overgrown with ivy and polypody, tower cress, and pennywort. | ” |
P.G. Wodehouse based several stories in the area. Severn End, the stately home of the Lechmere family, was the inspiration for Brinkley Court, the country seat for Bertie Wooster's Aunt Dahlia. In addition, the then Hanley Castle Grammar School was the model for Market Snodsbury Grammar School, with at least one of the stories mentioning the School Hall, now the School Library, in detail.
Founded in 1326, and formerly called Hanley Castle Grammar School, the comprehensive school, Hanley Castle High School, with a population of about 900 pupils is located in the centre of Hanley Castle next to the village green. For much of the 20th century the grammar school was a day and boarding school with a staff of about 15 and around 200 boys aged 11 to 18 who were admitted by selection only after passing the Eleven Plus exam. Although government owned, it was run very much on the traditional lines of a typical English 'Public School'. In 1969 following changes in government education policy, the school developed more in the style of a comprehensive school with a focus on both academic and vocational education. The school serves not only Hanley Castle village itself, but also the nearby town of Upton upon Severn, and other local villages including Hanley Swan, Welland and Castlemorton and is one of three state secondary schools for Malvern children. In 2009 the school received an exceptionally good OFSTED report.
Severn End is a large Elizabethan and Jacobean mansion at the seat of the Lechmere Baronets in Hanley Castle since the 11th century. The stately home is situated on the banks of the River severn, and is reached from an impressive gatehouse by a long private road through the estate.
Hurle, Pamela (1978) Hanley Castle - Heart of Malvern Chase Philimore & Co. ISBN 0850333083
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