Manor Close
Manor Close is so-called because of its proximity to Badsey Manor House.
It was the final phase of Council housing development in Badsey, with primarily terraced bungalows being built for old-age pensioners. In the late 1960s, 52 bungalows and houses were built (22 terraced bungalows, 12 semi-detached bungalows, two detached bungalows, six semi-detached houses, ten terraced houses), the southern area being developed first. Four more bungalows were built in about the 1980s. If you look carefully, some of the bungalows still have the emergency call lights that would have alerted a warden to the fact that the elderly resident needed assistance.
The northern half of Manor Close is on land which used to belong to Aldington but which became part of Badsey in 1921; the southern half has always been on land in Badsey.
In 1808, just after the Enclosure Awards, the entire Aldington estate was sold to James Ashwin of Bretforton. The eastern section of the field was sold off in 1815 when the new road called Synehurst was built. The rest of the field remained in the Ashwin family for the next hundred years, apart from a small piece of land (80 feet x 42 feet) which was donated in the 1840s to build a school. The building was later acquired by the Royal British Legion (the soon to be demolished Pub in a Club).
As for the southern half of Manor Close, in 1812, at the time of the Badsey Enclosure Act, this plot of land was called Cherry Orchard and belonged to Edward Wilson. It remained in the possession of the Wilson family until it was sold in the 2oth century.