Salford Priors, Warwickshire

Historical Description

Salford Priors, a village and a parish in Warwickshire. The village stands near the confluence of the rivers Arrow and Avon, 4 miles S by W of Alcester. It took the latter part of its name from an ancient priory, of which no traces exist, and has a station on the M.R. and a post office under Evesham; money order and telegraph office, Bidford. The parish contains also the hamlets of Salford Abbots, Dunnington, Cock Bevington, Wood Bevington, Parkhall, Pitchell, Rushford, and Irons Cross. Acreage, 4769; population, 780. There is a parish council consisting of six members. The Vineyard was the seat of Sir Simon Clarke, owner of the manor in the time of Elizabeth. Park Hall belongs to the Marquis of Hertford, and was rebuilt after having been destroyed by fire in 1879. Salford Abbots House, now called the Nunnery, was occupied by French Benedictine nuns after the French Revolution till about 1856, and is now partly a farmhouse, partly a Roman Catholic chapel. Roman relics have been found. The rocks are chiefly of the lias formation, and abound in fossils. There are extensive marl pits, a salt spring, and a petrifying spring. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester; gross value, £154 with residence. The church is of Norman and later dates, has a spacious chancel, a S aisle separated by heavy arches, a flamboyant N window, and a tower 60 feet high; it was restored in 1874. There has since been added a spacious organ chamber and oak choir stalls. It contains numerous ancient monuments to the Clarke and other families. There are Reman Catholic and Baptist chapels.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

The Warwickshire County Record Office hold the following registers for Salford Priors:

Most of the records prior to 1911 have been digitised and are available on Ancestry.co.uk

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Salford Priors from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Salford (St. Matthew))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Warwickshire is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Salford Priors are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Warwickshire papers online:

• Leamington Spa Courier

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Warwickshire 1619 is available on the Heraldry page.