Rebecca Rushout (née Bowles), Lady Northwick, held the manor in 1810. The 1605 charter of the Borough of Evesham added the Parish of Bengeworth within its boundary, superseding the initial 1604 borough charter which had encompassed the parishes of All Saints and St. Lawrence. Over the next two centuries, the population of Bengeworth expanded to the north and east, while Evesham expanded to the north and west. The inhabitants of Bengeworth and nearby Evesham were deeply involved in the English Civil War in the early 17th century. Five Parliamentarian soldiers who participated in the horror of the war became convinced of the pacifist theology of the Society of Friends, and met for religious meetings in 1655 at the home of Thomas Cartwright in Bengeworth. Their beliefs greatly disturbed the mainstream religious and secular authorities, which caused their persecution. The medieval Anglican church was demolished in 1870. It was replaced by Bengeworth St. Peter, a large church designed in the Gothic Decorated style by Thomas Denville Barry and his son Charles Garret Barry, of the firm T. D. Barry and Sons of Liverpool, and built between 1870/72. The architect John Henry Price first articled at their firm 1884–1888. William Blews & Sons of New Bartholomew Street, Birmingham, cast the church bells. The Bengeworth Post Office was forced to close, which led to protests in 2008. Schools In the late 18th century, free schooling in Bengeworth was charitably endowed through donations and bequests of South Sea Stock and South Sea Annuities from investors who had profited from the restructured South Sea Company. John Deacle's Charity funded the purchase of land and construction of a school in Bengeworth. The Bengeworth CE Academy had to suspend classroom instruction and begin a home learning program for its students on 20 March 2020 to aid the nationwide effort to decrease the rate of transmission of COVID-19. Railways It was served by the nearby Bengeworth railway station on the Gloucester Loop Line on the Midland Railway between Ashchurch and Evesham. Bengeworth railway station was not in Bengeworth, but rather was the station in the centre in the nearby village of Hampton. The railway station was called 'Bengeworth' as that was considered a distinctive name, while 'Hampton' is a common England village name. The station opened 1 October 1864. It closed in 1953, but trains continued to use the line until closure in 1963. References Villages in Worcestershire