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THE PLACE AND ITS NAME

According to the English Place-Name Society the name Throckmorton is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word “throc” meaning a drain. A.I.Rowse in his “Raleigh and the Throckmortons” renders this as “the farm by the frog-marsh”. The name may come from the draining of a water-logged “moor” by digging the moat to the north-east of the church. This surrounds a site reputed to be that of the original manor house. There are other moats near the Court Farm (the half-timbered house to the south), which until 1972 was the last remaining holding of the Throckmorton family in the village from which they got their name.

The earliest mention is in a charter of “Wulstan, called the Archbishop”’referring to “three mansae” at Throckmorton. Wutstan was both Bishop of Worcester and Archbishop of York in about 1014 - 1020. The manor, along with Bishampton and about four-fifths of Worcestershire was held by the Bishops several of whom were also Archbishop of York, but needed the revenues from Worcester to keep up their estate in the less prosperous north. There are various other references to it during the Middle Ages; “Reoland Trokemardtune” was a juror for the Hundred of Oswaldslow in the mid 12th century; ‘”Henricus, Filius Johannis deTrockemertone” is granted half a hide which he claimed in Fladbury.
In about year 1200.Throkemerton” is listed in the Lay Subsidy Rolls in the time of Edward I. This was a tax levied on private property, goods and chattels - thirty five persons were liable for this tax in the village and paid in total 6.19.8d. In Fladbury, by comparison, 81 persons paid 6.16.0d and in Evesham, 91 persons paid 45.3. Id,At about the same time, the “Red Book” of Worcester gives land values in the village as 6d per acre for arable, 24d per acre for meadow Pasture was 4d per acre but none was recorded.
.Historic relics are few. The only early coin found in the parish so far is a silver penny of Edward I.