Evolution of Worcestershire county boundaries since 1844 where more parishes or manors changed hands with neighbouring counties, usually as 'gifts' by the monarchy, church or through conquest. By 1844; the administration of Worcestershire was carried out by the Courts of Quarter Sessions, who were responsible for law and order, civil jurisdiction and certain administrative functions in the county. These roles included the licensing of alehouses, police, weights and measures, construction/maintenance of highways and bridges, poor law disputes and setting taxes. The county was then divided into five hundreds, four separate boroughs for the larger towns (Bewdley, Kidderminster, Droitwich, and Evesham), and Worcester itself, which was a county
Economics of English towns and trade in the Middle Ages set of taxes that could be raised by the towns, including murage for walls, pavage for streets or pontage, a temporary tax for the repair of bridges. Combined with the "lex mercatoria", which was a set of codes and customary practices governing trading, provided a reasonable basis for the economic governance of the towns. The 12th century also saw a concerted attempt to curtail the remaining rights of unfree peasant workers and to set out their labour rents more explicitly in the form of the English Common Law. This process resulted in the Magna Carta explicitly authorising feudal landowners to