[8] Bromsgrove is sited at the centre of a very large parish, with its church, St John the Baptist, standing at a prominent point in the local landscape.

[b] Bromsgrove, along with all the towns in north Worcestershire,[citation needed] was committed to defending the city of Worcester, and is recorded to have contributed burgesses to Droitwich in 1086.

[14] The town probably benefited from the growth of the local agricultural population in the early medieval period, which began to establish new farmland in places like Stoke Prior and Hanbury through assarting (creating clearings in) Feckenham Forest.

[19] Common trades can be traced from surnames in this period, and included in the years to 1327 bakers, tanners, carpenters, drapers, dyers, butchers, masons, smiths, shoemakers and fullers.

This resulted in higher value goods like wool, leather and meat being sold through Bromsgrove's market and contributed to the town's prosperity in the later Middle Ages.

Bromsgrove did not play a major military role in the English Civil War, although it was a town involved in the support of the Trained Bands, the system of local militias used for law enforcement.

In 1642, as preparations for war were made, Parliament surveyed the capabilities of the trained bands and documented that Bromsgrove had a store of munitions, including ten barrels of powder.

[31] The town would have been subject to the deprivations of the county in the wars, such as high taxation, pressing of men into military service and requisitioning of food and other property as armies passed through the area.

For instance, in 1643, the Worcestershire Committee complained to the King about the "plunderings and abuses" of the Royalist troops of Sir Thomas Aston, which had made it impossible for Bromsgrove and other places to pay their monthly contributions.

[34] The promotion of Catholics and recusants like the Talbots was a source of controversy in Worcestershire, referred to, for instance, by the clubmen in their attempts to resist the demands of both armies in the later part of the first war.

[35] In the third civil war of 1649, the Talbots joined King Charles II at the Battle of Worcester with a force of local men and had a role in his escape.

[39] Spilsbury was removed after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660,[38] and left the Church of England by refusing to conform to the Act of Uniformity[39] along with around 2,000 other Anglican ministers from the Commonwealth period.

Dugdale described the town in 1819 as "a large and dirty place, full of shops and manufacturers of needles, nails, sheeting and other coarse linen.

Despite this, there was a great deal of pressure on wages, which became low, causing an industry-wide strike in 1842, when nailmasters attempted to reduce their purchase prices by 10%.

[55] The industry featured in Robert Sherard's book The White Slaves of England in 1897, which includes a detailed picture of nailmaking in its final years.

[52] "Foggers", or middle men who typically owned general stores, would buy nails at a 30% discount from nailers, and often pay in tokens to redeem in their shops, despite the Truck Act, which had banned such practices.

A particular grievance was that they would sometimes reject a week's work essentially due to oversupply, perhaps claiming the quality was low, leaving the nailmaker with no income and the need to purchase new iron.

The 1 in 37½ gradient imposed long-term costs on the operation of the railway, particularly the need for extra engines to push freight and passengers up the hill.

[64] Two railwaymen, Tom Scaife and Joseph Rutherford, were killed by an explosion that took place on 10 November 1840 while they were inspecting a steam locomotive named Surprise.

He introduced a number of innovations, in the face of a board that was intent on severe cost cutting, by presenting many of the needs he had as means to save money, which often they were.

[83] Bromsgrove was home from 1898 to 1966 to the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts, a company of craftsmen who produced many fine works of sculpture, ironwork, etc., including the gates of Buckingham Palace (the locks of which are stamped with the Guild's name), the lifts on the Lusitania, the Liver Birds on the Royal Liver Building and the famous statue adorning the Fortune Theatre in Drury Lane.

[87] The Bromsgrove constituency was last represented by Labour by Terry Davis, who defeated the Conservative Hal Miller as the result of 10.1% swing in a by-election in 1971.

[89] He was succeeded by Roy Thomason, who was censured by the House of Commons Select Committee on Standards and Privileges for failing to declare loans made to him.

[95] The town was also the host in the 2000s for the annual conference of the "Bromsgrove Group", an organisation of monetary reformers, campaigning against debt-money,[96] members of which have been suspected of far-right links.

National Express West Midlands introduced a partial replacement service from 3 May 2022 numbered 144A which ran between Bromsgrove and Longbridge every 70 minutes.

A previous headteacher, Philip McTague, was heavily involved in political action to reduce the gap in funding between Worcestershire state schools and others across the country.

Former pupils include Digby Jones, head of the CBI for many years and the actors Ian Carmichael, Richard Wattis and Trevor Eve.

[114] The Worcester and Birmingham Canal which runs close to Bromsgrove, is a destination for leisure activities, such as walking and coarse fishing and there are several narrowboat hire centres situated in nearby villages.

From 2012, the dance studio has been converted to hold a maximum of 90 people and provides a space for intimate music, comedy and small theatre.

[122][123] Although with no official function, Bromsgrove's Court Leet continues to exist as a ceremonial body, being sanctioned under the Administration of Justice Act 1977.