Alcester

Alcester (ˈɒlstər,_ˈɔːl-) is a market town and civil parish of Roman origin at the junction of the River Alne and River Arrow in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England, approximately west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 7 miles south of Redditch, close to the Worcestershire border. In 2020, the population of the parish was estimated at 6,202, with 7,146 in the built-up area. The poet and antiquary John Leland wrote in his Itinerary (ca. 1538–43) that the name Alcester was derived from that of the River Alne. The suffix 'cester' is derived from the Old English word 'ceaster', which meant a Roman fort or town, and derived from the Latin 'castrum', from which the modern word 'castle' also derives. Alcester was founded by the Romans in around AD 47 as a walled fort. The walled town, possibly named Alauna developed from the military camp. It was sited on Icknield Street, a Roman road that ran the length of Roman Britain from south-west England to south Yorkshire. The town was also just north of the Fosse Way, another important thoroughfare in Roman Britain. By the end of the 2nd century, Roman Alcester had developed into a bustling trading and market town: A small walled area in the centre of the town was surrounded by an extensive grid of roads serving a complex of workshops and their associated housing, which specialised in trades such as tanning, metal working and pottery manufacture. Some of the houses of Roman Alcester appear to have been well endowed, with features such as heating, painted plaster and mosaic floors. Along with most Romano-British towns, it appears to have gone into decline in the 4th century when the Romans left Britain. Detailed archaeological work began in the 1920s. In the Early Middle Ages, Alencestre had become an Anglo-Saxon market town in the Kingdom of Mercia. Alcester was also the site of Alcester Abbey, a Benedictine monastery founded in 1138 by Ralph le Boteler. Richard de Tutbury, the last abbot, resigned his office in 1467 and Alcester Abbey was absorbed into the neighbouring Evesham Abbey.