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Alcester or Aulcester, – usually called Auster, – is a bustling and considerable market town, in Barlichway hundred, 8 miles west from Stratford-on-Avon, 19 miles from Birmingham, and 103 from London; pleasantly, though remotely, situate on the western skirts of the county, at the confluence of the rivers Alne and Arrow, over each of which is a bridge. In 1803 the sum raised by its parochial rates was £1009 8s. 6d, at 6s. 6d. in the pound. In 1811 it contained 416 houses and 1862 inhabitants. In 1821 it contained 465 houses and 2229 inhabitants, of whom, it is supposed, 500 are employed in the manufacture of needles. In 1826 it was valued at £6296; - its proportion to the county rate was £26 4s. 8d. It is a Rectory, value £14 2s. 10d. – Patron, the Earl of Warwick.

Alcester was formerly a place of much greater importance than at present, as well as a principle Roman station, ascertained not only from the various coins, urns, and bricks which have been found near it, but from the Roman way, called Ickneild Street, which passes through it. It is said formerly to have had three parish churches and an abbey, on a piece of ground encompassed by the Arrow and a moat. It was the residence of some of the kings, and anciently a borough, by prescription; and, as it has been already observed, “the buildings of Alcester prove the commercial respectability of the place in the 16th and 17th centuries. The chief houses have now received modern fronts, but the interior of many is yet unaltered, and here are seen the massy timbers and abundant carvings of past days.” There is a Free School in the town, founded in the reign of Elizabeth, in pursuance of the will of Walter Newport, gent. There are also almshouses for aged men and women, and a workhouse. The church, a gothic structure, is much admired, and the monument of the Marquis of Hertford, recently erected, is particularly fine. It also contains the well preserved altar tomb of Sir Foulke Greville and Lady Elizabeth his wife. On the top are the recumbent effigies of the deceased. Over the ornamented Market Hall the Marquis of Hertford, as Lord of the Manor, holds his courts. The colonnade below is appropriated to the market people. The market, on Tuesday, is always abundantly supplied with corn, and well attended. Not only Camden and Dugdale, but all modern writers agree on the antiquity and consequence of this place; and Mr. Brewer justly remarks, and agrees with Dugdale, “that this was a Roman station may be asserted on secure grounds. Its name evinces its antiquity, as the word Cestre or Cester, was invariably used by the Saxons to express a fortified place; and the situation of the town Ickneild, or Ryknild Street, readily points to the people by whom those fortifications were raised. Vestiges of the Romans are, likewise, frequently discovered.” Dugdale mentions “old foundations of buildings, Roman bricks, and coins,” which were often found here in his time. Gibson says, that “about fifty years ago, in digging a cellar, there was an urn taken up, with 600 and odd pieces of Roman coin in it’” and Gough notices coins found in making the turnpike road, to lead from Alcester to Stratford. Remains of the Romans are frequently turned up by the spade and plough, at the present period. In the 17th volume of the Archaelogia, is an account of two urns found in a piece of ground, termed Blacklands, near Alcester: one contained many fragments of human bones, which had evidently passed through the fire; the other was of squat proportion, and held on a small quantity of human dust or ashes. – These urns were submitted to the Society of Antiquaries, by Joseph Brandish, Esq. and are now in the possession of that gentleman, who kindly favoured us with a view of them. From the remarks with which we were also favoured by Mr. Brandish, during our investigation respecting Alcester, we are enabled to observe, that urns are occasionally met with in every quarter of this vicinity, though they are usually knocked to pieces by the inadvertence of the rustic labourers: while here we also procured a vast number of small Roman coins. It is likewise a curious fact, that the earth is seldom penetrated to the depth of more than two feet, without the discovery of a human skeleton. It seems evident that Alcester was a Roman station of some importance, and its situation shews it to be the Alauna of Richard of Cirencester. A general synod is supposed to have been held in this place early in the eighth century, at which were present Bertwald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Wilfrid, Archbishop of York; but there is not any mention of Alcester in Doomsday-book, nor does the name directly occur in any record discovered by Dugdale, till the time of Henry I.; in that reign Alcester was styled a borough, and in 23rd of Henry II. it paid four marks to the King, amongst the other boroughs of this county. A monastery was founded here by Ralph Boteler, in the 5th of King Stephen, and stood on the north of the town, on a spot now called Prior Close. The site was completely insulated; the river Arrow forming a boundary on the north and east, and a moat being constructed on the other sides. This moat is still apparent, though in many places filled with earth, and overgrown by trees. The area within comprehends somewhat less than two acres, and was considered arable in the early part of the 17th century. On ploughing within the limits of the monastery a few years back, a stone coffin was discovered, with places formed to admit the head, the elbows, and the heels of the corpse. A moiety of the manor being purchased by the Beauchamps, in the latter part of the reign of Henry III, that powerful family fixed their chief seat in the vicinity, and became munificent patrons of the town. By the Beauchamps were procured several charters for fairs, and the family of Greville, which succeeded to the lordship by marriage of the daughter of Sir Richard Beauchamp, in the reign of Henry VIII, continued to reside in the ancient mansion, and to protect the interests of the town. Some of the old materials of this city, (which stood where the Blacklands now are) are said to have been made use of in building Bidford Bridge. In the 15th century, there was a description of trade here called Town Knitters.

Source: The History Topography and Directory of Warwickshire 1830. Wm. West. Printed and Published by R. Wrightson, Athenaeum, New-Street; and sold by Baldwin and Craddock, and Hurst, Chance and Co., London. 1830.