page_title: Bewdley
section_title: History and government
hierarchical_section_title: Bewdley / History and government
caption_attribution_description: The Guildhall, Load Street, Bewdley
context_page_description: Bewdley is a small riverside town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District. It is in the Severn Valley 3 miles west of Kidderminster and 22 miles southwest of Birmingham. It lies on the River Severn, at the gateway of the Wyre Forest national nature reserve, and at the time of the 2011 census had a population of 9,470. Bewdley is a popular tourist destination and is known for the Bewdley Bridge, designed by Thomas Telford.
context_section_description: Mesolithic-period settlers have been identified through excavations in Wribbenhall, which found 1,400 fragments of flint tools, as well as post holes, a hearth, gullies and a pit. This site has been dated to roughly 6,800 BC, making it the oldest settlement yet identified in Worcestershire. Pollen evidence shows that crops were already being grown and woodlands cleared at this time.
  The settlement of Wribbenhall, on the eastern side of the Severn, and now part of Bewdley, was recorded in the Domesday Book as being part of the manor of Kidderminster. By the 14th century, the town had come to be known as Beau lieu, French for "Beautiful place." Two centuries later John Leland wrote in his Itinerary that "a man cannot wish to see a towne  better".
  Bewdley was granted borough status, as well as a weekly market, by King Edward IV in 1472. It retained this status until the local government reorganisation in 1974. A parliamentary report of 1777 listed Bewdley as having a parish workhouse accommodating up to 80 inmates.
  The borough had a population in 1841 of 7,458.
  During the Second World War, Ribbesford House in Bewdley was used as the headquarters for the Free French officer cadets. The cadets consisted of 200 teenagers who undertook military training at Ribbesford House until they joined with other allied forces in the D Day invasion.
  Bewdley is now governed by three tiers of local government, in increasing order of size: Bewdley town council, Wyre Forest district council, and Worcestershire county council.
  For many centuries Bewdley had its own Member of Parliament (MP), most notably Stanley Baldwin, who served as the Conservative Prime Minister, who represented it from 1908–1937. Reflecting changes in population, in 1950 the Bewdley constituency was abolished, and the town was included in the Kidderminster constituency.
  In 1983, the Kidderminster constituency (including Bewdley) was absorbed into the Wyre Forest constituency. The MP for Wyre Forest is Mark Garnier of the Conservative Party, who in 2010 unseated the incumbent, Richard Taylor of Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern (often simply Health Concern), a local organisation. The Labour Party held the seat from 1997–2001.
  The former quayside on the western bank of the river has been much upgraded and landscaped over the last few decades. Its rows of Georgian townhouses and buildings are well seen from Telford's bridge. Since the completion of the flood defences in 2006 (see below), a "Civic Space" has been introduced to replace the old bandstand. It is used on a variety of occasions, including the twice monthly Bewdley Riverside Market.
caption: The Guildhall
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