Historic Kidderminster Project Reports

Affiliated to the Kidderminster Civic Society,The Historic Kidderminster Project began in 2006, funded by lottery money in the form of the Local Heritage Initiative. One of the main tasks of the project was to record the history of interesting buildings in Kidderminster. This was a partnership with the archaeologists of Worcestershire County Council. Historical reports on particular buildings or streets have been produced by project members and placed on the Historical Environment Record (HER) held by the archaeologists. Printed copies of the reports are available for inspection at the Museum of Carpet, Kidderminster Library and the Worcestershire Archive at the Hive. Digital versions are available on the Civic Society website: Kidderminster Civic Society and on our website.

Although HKP was wound up as a funded project in October 2008, the work of compiling building reports has continued. We hope that our activity will extend for some years to come.

The reports are intended to be open to possible updating or revision from time to time. Our intention is to involve the public as much as possible. Our organisation is informal and consists of enthusiasts rather than experts. Anybody who has knowledge of a building of historical interest can write a report for the project.

What qualifies a building to be of ‘historical’ interest? We are in no way elitist about this. So, for example, the working class terraced houses and streets are of great interest to us. Virtually everything before 1900 is worth recording and much that came afterwards. We are seeking to view the history of the town and its people through its buildings. It follows that this is not a project primarily about the architectural merit of buildings, but about their social history and the people who lived and worked in them.

Additionally, the funded project 2006-2008 included provision for a radar survey of the churchyard of our historic St Mary's church. This was the beginning of a search for evidence concerning the location of a Saxon monastery or minster church which gave the town the "minster" part of its name. The survey revealed evidence of a buried structure, which could not be identified from recent historical records. A description of subsequent developments can be found on the Kidderminster Civic Society website.