evidence of previous habitation of the area is found in bronze age burial mounds in a field on stakenbridge lane which were excavated in the 18th century, and the later iron age hill fort on wychbury hill. a roman salt road running from droitwich crossed the hagley parish to the west and there have been discoveries of roman pottery and a coin hoard in the area. but the earliest written reference to the village is as hageleia in the domesday book, when it formed part of the clent hundred, later to be amalgamated into the halfshire hundred.