White Ladies Aston.

Nestled in the heart of the Worcestershire countryside, this small village has considerable history, built along the original saltway, many a tale can be told about the goings on in the area.

In the earliest days of it's existance it was known as Aston Episcopi, and it took it's present name when it's tithes were given, in 1283, to the Cistercian Nunnery of Whitstones, in Worcester, So hidden away from the world is the village of half-timbered cottages that their Black and White colouring, and their peace, seems to hold the lovely tranquillity of the nuns whose name has outlived their nunnery.

With the exception of the north aisle and wooden porch built in the nineteenth century, the church is almost entirely of twelfth century work, and has a number of memorials. None, curiously enough, are earlier then the eighteenth century. Three soldiers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who fought in distant lands are commemorated, and also a boy of nineteen who died in the Great war. His grandfather was vicar there for seventy-one years, almost a record of long service. He did not retire until he was ninety-six and lived for another two years.

Cromwell made his headquarters at White Ladies Aston before the battle of Worcester, for he had a friend there of the name Symonds, with whom he stayed. Fifty years later, Thomas Symonds, a descendant of Cromwell's friend, was a man of another type, for he headed a gang of incendiaries and thieves. When he was caught and executed, his estate was handed to the good Bishop Lloyd of Worcester, but the Bishop refused the gift which had come to him through such crimes, and put it in trust, to aid in the education of poor children.

Not far from the church is Aston Court, which is in part timber framed; and also a moated site which was probably that of the manor of Nether Aston.