In the later Dark Ages there were battles fought between Ethelred's son Edmund Ironside and Cnut the Dane.

In 1538 the Roman Catholic Church was disestablished by King Henry VIII, and the area became the possession of The Crown, until under an arrangement with Henry, the possessions of Bordesley Abbey passed to Andrew Lord Windsor, and therefore to the stewardship of the Earl of Plymouth at adjacent Hewell Grange.

Several members of the earls' families are buried in the cemetery of St Bartholomew's, including Robert Windsor-Clive, 1st Earl of Plymouth, GBE, CB, PC (1857–1923), and his parents-in-law, Sir Augustus Berkeley Paget, GCB (1823–1896), and Walburga, Lady Paget (1839–1929), the diarist, writer and friend of Queen Victoria.

The cidermaker Steve Cooper planted a mixed orchard of traditional apple varieties of about 100 trees in 1995.

There is a good mix of businesses, including industrial and manufacturing, artists, beauty and holistic, as well as an on-site tea room.