Husmerae

 ( Kidderminster ) 

The Husmerae were a tribe or clan in early medieval England, possibly forming an early settlement of the Hwicce subkingdom.

Charter evidence also referred to the group as Wiogorna and was also considered a prouvincia or provincia, an administrative division with its own territorial boundaries.

Alexander R. Rumble (2025). 9781843837008, Boydell Press. ISBN 9781843837008

Michael Wood (2025). 9780563522744, BBC Books. ISBN 9780563522744

An account also refer to the Husmerae territory as a regio.

Stephen Rippon (2025). 9780199533787, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199533787

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History The Husmerae settled on the banks of the River Stour prior to 736. Victoria County History, Worcestershire III They probably took their name from Usmere, a pool on the boundary of Wolverley whose name in preserved in Ismere House in Churchill, Worcestershire.D. Hooke, Worcestershire Anglo-Saxon Charter-bounds (Boydell, Woodbridge, 1990), 61-3. A source cited that the term was derived from British word udso, Welsh ws (water) and Old English mere.

Della Hooke (1990). 9780851152769, The Boydell Press. ISBN 9780851152769

The tribe is mentioned only in the Ismere Diploma of 734, and subsequent charters relating to the same property until 964, when Usmere occurs on the boundary of Cookley in Wolverley.D. Hooke, Worcestershire Anglo-Saxon Charter-bounds, 169-74. This charter was for the foundation of a coenubium (minster). That minster was probably at Kidderminster, quite probably occupying the site of the parish church there.P. W. King, 'The minster aet Sture in Husmere and the northern boundary of the Hwicce' Transactions of Worcestershire Archaeological Society 3rd ser. 15 (1996), 73-4.

Although the Husmerae may have been of West Saxon origin, settling into the area some time after the West Saxon defeat of the Britons at the Battle of Dyrham in 577, the Ismere Diploma suggests that Husmerae is the ancient name for area, although uncertainty over its provenance leave the origins of the name open to question.John Blair, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society (New York, Oxford University Press, 2005). It was specifically referred to as the province south of the Mercia heartlands and was considered an extensive folk territory. A historical description cited it as the area next to the River Stour in a charter records that detailed a grant by King Æthelbald of Mercia to build a monastery in the location.

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