Stoke Prior, Worcestershire

Description
Stoke Prior, a village and a parish in Worcestershire, on the Birmingham and Worcester Canal, 2 miles SSW of Bromsgrove, with a station, called Stoke Works, on the M.R., and a post office under Bromsgrove; money order office, Stoke Works; telegraph office, Stoke Works railway station. Acreage, 3835; population of the civil parish, 2795; of the ecclesiastical, 1410. Finstall forms a separate ecclesiastical parish constituted in 1868. Population, 1385. There is a parish council consisting of fourteen members, seven being elected by each of the two wards into which the parish is divided. Finstall Park, Rigby Hall, and the Grange are chief residences. The Stoke Prior Saltworks cover about 30 acres, and comprise four borings. There are flour mills, a stone quarry, and the M.R. waggon works. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester; net value, £243 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Worcester. The church ranges from Norman to Perpendicular, and has a fine Early English tower. It was restored in 1895 at a cost of about £5000. There is a reformatory for boys.