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Studley (St. Mary)

STUDLEY (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Alcester, Alcester division of the hundred of Barlichway, S. division of the county of Warwick, 4 miles (N. by W.) from Alcester; containing 1992 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the river Arrow, and on the road from Birmingham to Alcester; and comprises about 4500 acres. There are good beds of clay within its limits, and though no external symptoms of minerals are visible, it is supposed that coal and stone, if sought for at a sufficient depth, would be found: a large portion of the district was anciently covered with forests. The manufacture of needles and fish-hooks, for which Studley is celebrated, is carried on extensively; the works, among others, of James Pardow, Esq., were established in 1800, at the cost of many thousand pounds, and employ about 250 hands. In the parish are the two manors of Skilts and Gattax, the property of the family of Moilliet, and which anciently belonged to the Sheldon family. The Upper Skilts House, situated on high ground, with its farm of 215 acres of good land, commands a magnificent view of a rich and fertile country, with the Malvern, Abberley, and Gloucestershire hills in the distance, and is surrounded by woods which add greatly to the beauty of the scenery. The Lower Skilts House, an old building of large dimensions, now occupied, with about 190 acres of wheat and bean land, by Josiah Rock, Esq., was in former times the grange to a priory at Studley: of two large fish-ponds below the mansion, such as were usually attached to religious houses, one has been drained, and converted into productive soil. Studley Castle, the beautiful seat of Sir Francis L. H. Goodricke, Bart., seated on on eminence, and commanding a fine view of the adjacent lands, was completed in 1836, and is a combination of different styles of architecture; the towers have much of the appearance of the towers near the boundaries of England and Scotland, and the park, which is surpassed by few in the county, contains an artificial lake of considerable extent. A fair for sheep and cattle, which is also a large statute-fair, is held on the 28th of September. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8; net income, £87, with a glebe of 10 acres; patron, R. Knight, Esq. The church is an ancient structure in the early and later English styles, with a beautiful Norman arch at the north entrance, now closed up. The Wesleyans have a place of worship. Six children are taught free, and two are annually clothed, from bequests; the school-house was built in 1810. There are considerable remains of the priory, which was founded in honour of St. Mary, early in the reign of Henry II., by Peter de Studley, who translated hither a society of Augustine canons whom he had previously established at Wicton, in Worcestershire. The house, at the Dissolution, had a revenue of £181. 3. 6. William de Cantilupe erected an hospital at its gate for the reception of infirm poor.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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