PLACE NAME
A former abbey in the village of Pershore in Worcestershire, the name is mentioned in records as Persore in 1086, Percior in 1456 and Pershore in 1542. It’s a West Country word, believed to derive from the Middle English persche, meaning osier or twig, and the Old English word for a hill, Ora, literally Osier hill. The abbey is believed to have been established in Anglo-Saxon times, its foundation is alluded to in a spurious charter of King Æthelred of Mercia in about AD681. It purports to be the charter by which Æthelred granted 300 hides (about 36,000 acres) at Gloucester to King Osric of the Hwicce, and another 300 at Pershore to Osric’s brother Oswald. It was rebuilt in the 12thCentury having been destroyed by fire, and again in 1300. It was closed during King Henry VIII’s cull of the monasteries in the mid-16thCentury. Like many of the roads on the St Helier’s estate this is named after British monasteries and abbeys in remembrance of the area’s historic ownership by Westminster Abbey. The road names are in alphabetical order, of which Aberconway Road in the north west of the estate is first.
