Kinver is an ancient place, its name in Welsh ‘Cyn-Fawr’ meaning Great Ridge or Royal Ridge. The parish has many historic sites ranging from scatters of flints left by Ice Age hunters, Prehistoric burial mounds, the Bronze Age hillfort, to huge Roman forts, and a settlement at Greensforge.

The village itself is a planned medieval town. It was laid out on the banks of the River Stour in the 13th century, with a wide high street, market hall (where the modern timber clock tower stands today), and timber-framed houses lining each side. Many of these medieval and later Tudor houses survive, some with later brick fronts. Try looking for timber frames on gables or at the rear of houses and you can see how much of the medieval town remains. Above sits the Grade I listed church of Saint Peter with fine medieval architecture and monuments.

Kinver only started being called a village in the 19th century, when its ancient borough status was removed. Kinver’s importance lay in it being the chief town of a royal forest. This wasn’t a forest in the modern sense (i.e. woodland) but was a place where royal law held sway and the personal property of the king with his house at Stourton Castle. Parts of the heathland that made up the ‘forest’ survive on Kinver Edge and in patches throughout the parish.

By the 17th century, the powerful local Foley family had introduced ironworking to the area, using the water of the fast-flowing River Stour to power the bellows and hammers of a number of iron mills. The remains of these can be found along the river and canal which follows part of its route. There are a number of notice boards along the route that give further information.

The parish was not immune from the upheavals of the Civil War with a siege at Stourton Castle and a massacre by the locals of Scottish troops in 1651 when the defeated Charles II found himself lost on Kinver Edge on his flight from the Battle of Worcester.

The most remarkable sites in the parish are the rock-cut buildings (they are not natural caves). Recent work has shown that some of these were created up to a thousand years ago, and some were occupied into the 20th century. Kinver has the highest concentration of domestic rock-cut buildings in the UK and the National Trust sites at Holy Austin Rock are the only ones in the country open to the public. Word has it that these incredible dwellings were an inspiration for Tolkien’s hobbit houses, having visited the parish in his youth.

By the 20th century, Kinver became a place for day trips from the nearby conurbations. Visitors would enjoy beer from the many pubs, visit the tea gardens at the foot of the Edge, and climb the hill before returning home on a tram.

Kinver had ceased to be a town but remained (and remains) an important location on the boundaries of Worcestershire and Shropshire, between the towns of the Black Country and the rural landscape of the Welsh borders. With a unique and strange history of kings, troglodytes, hobbits, tea gardens, and local legends, Kinver remains an interesting place to visit.