A 'lost' church has been discovered in Hanley Castle thanks to research carried out for a new book by Worcestershire Historical Society.

Launched this week, The Records of Hanley Castle 1147-1547, was edited by James Toomey of Stourport, who based his research on documents found among the Lechmere papers donated to Worcestershire Records Office in the 1950s.

Mr Toomey said these had never been examined closely before, as they were largely written in Latin and needed deciphering.

"Hanley Castle has proved a very interesting subject really," he said.

"We've learnt a great deal about it which we wouldn't have learnt otherwise - the kind of things we often don't know about other parishes.

"For example, we learnt from documents that there was an early church in Hanley - the church of St Botulph - but we don't know where it was.

"He's a very unusual saint in this area originating from East Anglia before the Norman Conquest. None of the church exists at all now. In most places documentary evidence has disappeared, so we're very lucky to have found documents like these.

"The Lechmere family managed to keep together documents that go back to the 12th Century. The family itself is almost unique as it has managed to descend generation by generation without losing its name and it's still there of course."

Mr Toomey also found out more about the castle that gave Hanley Castle its name and discovered who funded the building of Hanley Castle High School in 1486.

The book was launched at the school on Tuesday by Worcestershire Historical Society. The society dates back to 1893 and publishes a book every year or two years based on documents about Worcestershire.

Its chairman, Stephen Roberts, said their next publication would be about taxes in the Tudor period.

Copies of The Records of Hanley Castle 1147-1547 are available from Worcestershire Records Office at County Hall, Worcester.