Description
Foreword
There are possibly many English villages as small as Minsterworth that have their historians. But this village at the present day has just 180 or so houses and in the years past many fewer houses and people within them. So, Minsterworth villagers and students of local history are fortunate in having their own historian – Terry Moore-Scott, and his Discovering Old Minsterworth is told with a lightness and elegance that belies the scholarship supporting it.
We learn that the name and estate of the village are first recorded over a 1,000 years ago but the Romans were here before that – as is shown by human burials and pieces of Romano-British pottery from the 1st or 2nd century AD found quite recently within the parish.
People figure largely in the story. There is good evidence to suggest that Edward Ironside, Anglo-Saxon King of England, came perhaps overnight to Minsterworth. Many more people of less fame but of more importance to the village are recorded and their lives and times brought to light. These are people of significance right down to the present day.
Terry Moore-Scott weaves the stories of place and people with details that create extra interest, for example showing the relationship of the River Severn (that once divided the village) to the work and pleasure of the villagers.
(Dr) Anthony Lynch (lately of The Naight, Minsterworth
