Castle-Morton (St. Gregory)

CASTLE-MORTON (St. Gregory), a parish, in the union of Upton-upon-Severn, Lower division of the hundred of Pershore, Upton and W. divisions of the county of Worcester, 5 miles (W. S. W.) from Upton; containing 855 inhabitants. The parish comprises 3656 acres, of which 677 are common or waste. The living is a discharged perpetual curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Longdon, and valued in the king's books at £5. 8. 6½. The great tithes are appropriate to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, and have been commuted for £350, and the small tithes for £155; the glebe consists of 3 acres. The church stands at the south end of the village, and is a very ancient structure, with a fine old steeple: opposite to it is an artificial mound fifty feet high, surrounded by a moat, and supposed by some to have been thrown up to protect the church during the civil war in the reign of Charles I. There are charitable bequests for the poor, amounting to £30 per annum.