Handbook to the Severn Valley Railway / Illustrative and Descriptive of Places along the Line from Worcester to Shrewsbury

by John Randall

HIGHLEY,

Or Higley, as it is commonly called, is two and a half miles from Arley. The village is situated high upon the hill, and consists of scattered cottages, with a sprinkling of goodly

houses, some half timbered, after the quaint fashion of former times. The church has an ancient chancel window, and in the graveyard is an old cross, elaborately carved in freestone, a material found very extensively in the neighbourhood. Highley was an old Saxon manor, which, with Chetton, belonged to the widow of Leofric—Godiva, of Coventry celebrity. Kinlet, four miles distant, occupies a picturesque eminence of a horse-shoe form; the church is an ancient structure, containing noble altar tombs, one of which has a rich canopy, with the figure of a knight and lady kneeling.