HAGLEY. 177

trustees of the late T. Bate, J. B, Cardule, W. C. Firmstone, and the trustees of Sir F. E. Scott, Bart. The inhabitants generally are occupied in agriculture, though there are two or three forges just outside the parish boundary. Wheat, barley, clover, turnips, mangold wurzels and potatoes, are the chief products; there is also a moderate extent of meadow and pasture land. The parish is long and narrow, extending from N.E. to S.W.; its length being about five miles. The north-eastern end is situated upon the South Staffordshire and East Worcestershire coal field, and is much more elevated than the other. The prevailing soil is a strong clay, and oats are grown in this part of the parish. The remainder of the parish is situated upon the new red sandstone, and the soil is what is known as a turnip or barley soil, varying from a rich loam at Hagley village to a light sand at the sonth-western extremity of the parish, where rye is occasionally grown. The acreage of the parish is 2,384. The commons at Harberrow, Blakedown, and the Brake and Warren Lands, were enclosed in 1831. There were nineteen families here in the time of Elizabeth, and in 1861 the population numbered 963.

The rectory is valued at £584; patron, Lord Lyttelton; incumbent, his Lordship's brother, the Hon. and Rev. W. H. Lyttelton. A chapel of ease at Blakedown, four miles from the parish church, was consecrated in 1860, Sir F. Scott having given the site. There is but little Dissent at Hagley, but the Primitive Methodists have bought a piece of land near the railway station, and have lately built a chapel there.

Among the institutions of the parish are a famous inn (the Lyttelton Arms), a railway station, a working men's club, a clothing club, a loan club kept at the Hall by Lord Lyttelton's family, a school clothing club for the children, a penny bank kept at the rectory, a parochial magazine ably managed by the rector, an infant school in the village, and another opened recently at Blakedown, and the National School, chiefly sup-