Stoke-Prior (St. Michael)

STOKE-PRIOR (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Bromsgrove, Middle division of the hundred of Oswaldslow, Droitwich, and E. divisions of the county of Worcester, 2 miles (S.) from Bromsgrove; containing 1576 inhabitants. The parish comprises 3808a. 3r. 24p. of very good land, mostly arable, and of undulated surface. It is situated near the road from Birmingham to Worcester, and traversed by that from Bromsgrove to Stratford-on-Avon, by way of Hanbury, Feckenham, and Alcester. A good sandstone is obtained, which has been much used for railway-bridges. On the bank of the Worcester and Birmingham canal here, are works belonging to the British Alkali Company, commenced in 1828: in 1830, a dry rock-salt shaft, from 10 to 40 feet in thickness, was reached, at a distance varying from 120 to 150 yards below the surface; and subsequently, a spring of saturated brine broke into the mine, since which the supply has appeared inexhaustible. Salt, akali, soap, and soda, with a variety of other chemical productions, are manufactured at these works, which occupy nearly nine acres of ground, consume about 500 tons of coal per week, and employ several hundred hands. Among the buildings is a chimney which, for gigantic dimensions and beautiful proportions, is perhaps unequalled in England. On the other side of the canal is a similar concern, carried on by the Imperial Alkali Company; and there are two manufactories for needles in the parish. The Birmingham and Gloucester railway has here the Bromsgrove and the Stoke-works stations. An act was passed in 1845, authorising the Great Western Company to make a line of four miles from Stoke to their Oxford and Wolverhampton line at Droitwich. The living is a discharged vicarage, with St. Godwald's chapel at Finstal, in the parish, united, valued in the king's books at £12; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Chapter of Worcester. The great tithes for the inclosures, and all the small tithes, were commuted for land in 1772; there is a glebe-house, with 150 acres of glebe land valued at £300 per annum. The church is a handsome structure in the Norman and early English styles, with a good tower, and contains a very ancient and beautiful font. A national school is supported by subscription, aided by £18 per annum from land bequeathed by Henry Smith, of London, in 1606. In excavating for the Birmingham railway, some Romanized-British remains were discovered.