an area now used as a sports ground. The village was visited by all the early kings of England, who had a lodge in the park of Feckenham Manor. Several entries in Pipe Rolls and Patent Rolls between the years 1166 and 1169 relate to the repair of the king's houses in the manor, and there was a royal hunting lodge near the village. The remains of one ancient hunting lodge are believed to lie beneath the village recreation ground. 17th century In 1629, after a survey of the royal forests, Feckenham was disafforested in order for the Crown's lands to be cleared, and placed in the possession of rich courtiers close to Charles I. Rights of common that had been established by tradition were abolished, causing considerable riots, in which several miles of enclosure fences were broken up in early 1631. The disturbances followed a pattern found in other Royal Forests across the West and Midlands. Three hundred people rioted the following year and were met by the Sheriff, a Deputy Lieutenant and a Justice of the Peace with forty armed men. The rioters "in a most daring and presumptuous manner presented themselves unto us with warlike weapons (vizt) pikes, forrest bills, pitchforks, swords and the like". On this occasion, the authorities acted to suppress this "flatt [flat] rebellion", tried to arrest the rioters and injured a number of them. After disafforestation, the previous site of the court and prison building at Bennet's Bower was "planted with tobacco which grew very well, till the planting of it was prohibited by Act of Parliament". Edward Leighton was a major beneficiary of the disafforestation, gaining around 360 acres of lands. The manor lands of Feckenham were sold by Leighton to Lord Coventry in 1632. Recent Under the Local Government Act 1894 the civil parish was formed out of the part of Feckenham parish that was in the former Redditch Urban District, and was divided into Feckenham Rural and Feckenham Urban Districts, and the communities of Headless Cross and Crabbs Cross became part of Redditch Urban District. Economy From around 1790 and during the industrial revolution, the parish and Redditch were well known for the manufacture of needles and fish-hooks. Cycles and motors have also been manufactured in the area. Agriculture is still a major activity. Feckenham was the corporate headquarters of Barretts of Feckenham, a former nationwide chain of camping and