Bretforton (St. Leonard)

BRETFORTON (St. Leonard), a parish, in the union of Evesham, Upper division of the hundred of Blackenhurst, Pershore and E. divisions of the county of Worcester, 3¾ miles (E.) from Evesham; containing 511 inhabitants. The lands belonged to the abbey of Evesham even before the Conquest. The parish is situated on the border of Gloucestershire, which bounds it on the east and south; it is intersected by the road from Evesham to Campden, and comprises 1632 acres. The soil is various, but the greater part is stiff clay; and the surface is flat. The village is of neat and respectable appearance. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £6. 5.; net income, £82; patron, Admiral Morris; impropriators, the landowners. Land and a money payment were assigned to the vicar, in lieu of all tithes, in 1765; the glebe consists of 90 acres. The church is spacious and airy, with a well-built tower at the west end; a chapel juts out on the north and south, and the building is thus rendered cruciform.