Offenham

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Many thanks to Offenham Park for facilitating this camera's location and to Avon Navigation Trust for capitally funding its installation. Offenham, originally established as a monastic grange and medieval deer park in the 13th century by the Benedictine Abbots of Evesham Abbey, held its location where Court Farm now stands. The purpose of this grange was to enclose extensive flocks of sheep required by the Abbots for the wool trade with Flanders. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the grange came under crown ownership, and King Henry VIII granted both Offenham and Evesham to Philip Hoby, one of his English Ambassadors. The grange and park subsequently passed into the possession of the Hazelwood family until the mid-18th century when it underwent subdivision. During this period, the village had evolved into a thriving farming and market gardening community.Offenham village is renowned for its notable 64-foot maypole, standing as the tallest among the mere six remaining permanent maypoles in England.