REDDITCH, a chapelry in that part of the parish
of TARDEBIGG which is in the upper division of the
hundred of HALFSHIRE, county of WORCESTER, 5
miles (E. S. E.) from Bromsgrove. The population is
returned with the parish. This nourishing village, which
has the appearance of a small market-town, is pleasantly
situated on a commanding eminence near the Warwickshire
border, on the new line of road from London to
Birmingham, and contains, besides a neat modern
chapel of ease, places of worship for Independents and
Wesleyan Methodists. The principal articles of manufacture,
for which it has long been famous, are needles
and fish-hooks, which have been brought to perfection,
and afford employment to about four thousand
persons in the village and neighbourhood. There are
fairs for cattle, on the first Monday in August, and
third Monday in September, and it is in contemplation
to petition the legislature for the privilege of holding
a weekly market. A National school is attended by
about ninety boys, and supported by the Earl of
Plymouth, who has an elegant mansion in the vicinity,
and holds a court leet annually in October, as
lord of the manor, at which a constable and other
officers are appointed. A Cistercian abbey of considerable
note formerly existed at Bordesley, near this place,
some slight remains of which may still be traced; it was
founded, in 1138, by the Empress Matilda, in honour of
the Blessed Virgin, and was valued at the dissolution at
£392. 8. 6., when it was granted to Lord Windsor, one
of the ancestors of the present Earl of Plymouth.