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This map will appear in a future update
The map in the summer issue came from the 1650s; this one is 230 years later - 1886 in fact. It is part of the 6" Ordnance Survey map of our area.
It is immediately apparent how 'empty' the land was between Kinwarton and Alcester: today, we have the Conway Estate, the Kinwarton Farm Estate, the Throckmorton Road area Estate, as well as the Industrial expansion straddling the Alcester/ Kinwarton boundary. The Greig Hall, the Alcester R.D. Offices (now Rotary International), four schools and a small shopping centre have further altered the 1886 map. Features have disappeared too - the Sanatorium, Kinwarton Farm, the road bridge over the railway on the Great Alne road, the G.W.R. line itself and many of the field hedges. People in their 80s or 90s living in this district will recognise this1886 map, for all the alterations detailed above are of the 20th century. Not listed above, there have been developments in the Southern section: in 1886 the road to Stratford from Alcester took carts and bicycles through Oversley Green; not until the 1960s did a short by-pass cut off Oversley and lead to the Cherry Trees motel, a garage nearby and a more recent golf practice course.
All these developments have had the effect of making Alcester a larger urban unit and giving Kinwarton a population larger than any time in its history. The area is still of a rural nature but what will the map of 2086 show?