If you walk, cycle or drive from Badsey to Willersey, the corner where Willersey Road ends and Bowers Hill begins has been known for centuries as Pear Tree Corner. The track leading from it to go to Bretforton has always been known as Pear Tree Lane and is marked as such on the Enclosure Map of over 200 years ago. But that didn’t stop it erroneously being named “Brewers Hill Lane” for a few years – but no one in Badsey knew of this as there was no street sign!
At some stage in the dim and distant past, it appears that someone at Worcestershire County Council decided that the track must have a name. The assumption is that someone probably scribbled down “Bowers Hill Lane” (which would make sense for someone who did not know the history of the area) and this was misread as “Brewers Hill Lane”. As there is already a road in Badsey called Brewers Lane, the decision to name a new road with a very similar name would be a recipe for disaster.
The road name only came to light when a planning application was submitted to Wychavon District Council for change of land use of an area of land on the south side of the lane. Local residents were up in arms when two men from the Council were seen placing a sign on the corner. Wychavon Council, on being consulted, said that they were simply using the Worcestershire County Council street gazetteer.
A Facebook campaign was launched to lobby the Council. Mysteriously, the sign disappeared overnight – and no one’s owning up to being the culprit! It’s thought that the ghosts of Pear Tree Corner (aka Jim Agg and Mike Hewlett, market gardeners who tilled the land there for many a year) were at work!
A copy of the Enclosure Map was sent to the Council showing that for at least the past two centuries the track has been known as Pear Tree Lane. Reference was made to Chapter 2 of Aldington and Badsey, Villages in the Vale, in which Terry Sparrow describes the Bowers Hill area of Badsey, giving a detailed description of the lane. But, however many reasons were given as to why the track should never have been called Brewers Hill Lane in the first place, we had to accept the status quo – for the time being. The only way that the name could be changed was via the Parish Council taking steps under the Public Health Act 1925. The Parish Council agreed to set in motion a period of consultation and surprise, surprise, local residents were unanimous in wanting the name changed from Brewers Hill Lane to Pear Tree Lane.
The announcement of the name change was put on an official notice attached to a lamp-post. Headed “Order Naming Streets under the Public Health Act 1925, Section 18”, stated that: The Council in pursuance of the powers conferred on it by Section 18 of the Act orders that the Street shall have the name assigned to it as set out in the schedule below:
Brewers Hill Lane to be renamed Pear Tree Lane.
We now await the arrival of an official Council sign with the new name!
Maureen Spinks, July 2017
POSTSCRIPT, November 2017 – The new sign is at last up!
