Coston-Hacket, or Cofton (St. Michael)

COSTON-HACKET, or Cofton (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Bromsgrove, Upper division of the hundred of Halfshire, Northfield and E. divisions of the county of Worcester, 6 miles (N. E.) from Bromsgrove, and 7 (S. W.) from Birmingham; containing 211 inhabitants. The parish comprises 1251a. 3r. 19p. of land, of which 600 acres are arable, 460 pasture, 170 woodland, and 21 water. Part of it extends over the range of hills called Bromsgrove Lickey, commanding extensive views of the surrounding counties, and in several places it is ornamented with large quantities of oak and fir. The population is chiefly employed in agriculture. The Birmingham and Gloucester railway passes through. The living is annexed to the rectory of Northfield: the tithes have been commuted for £244, and the glebe consists of 56 acres. The church is a small edifice with a bell gable, having some decorated portions in the later English style. There is an excellent Sunday school in connexion with it. On three succeeding Sundays after Midsummer, a wake is kept, called Bilberry wake, from a fruit which grows very luxuriantly on Cofton hill. Partly here, and partly in the parish of King's-Norton, is Groveley, the residence, beautifully situated, of John Merry, Esq. Charles I. slept at Cofton Hall, now a farmhouse, on the 14th of May, 1645, the day when Hawksley House was taken.