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HANLEY CASTLE.

parish were enclosed in 1796, all but about ninety-eight acres being waste land, but which was afterwards divided and enclosed about 1816,

The parsonage of Hanley belonged to the abbey of Lyra, in France, who made it over to the convent of Little Malvern; but Edward III seized it as belonging to an alien house, and Queen Elizabeth gave it to the Bishop of Worcester, in exchange. Sir Edmund Lechmere is now the patron; value of living, £650; Rev. A. B. Lechmere vicar; church accommodation 417, all free seats. The church has some peculiarities, including two chancels, or chapels, one being a mortuary for the Hornyolds and the other for the Lechmeres. There is a central tower, which, with the chancels, is constructed of brick (date 1674), and the nave is divided longitudinally into two aisles by obtuse arches, resting on circular and octagonal piers. Date of the nave, fourteenth century, except a Norman doorway in the south wall. The church was restored in 1858, at a cost of about £2,000, by Sir Edmund Lechmere, and was reopened when the hon. baronet brought home his bride. The east and west windows are memorials - the first to the late Sir E. Hungerford Lechmere, and the latter to Sir Anthony, a " fine old English gentleman," who will not be forgotten for many years to come by the elderly generation of Worcestershire folk, especially in the agricultural interest.

A school-church has been erected midway between the churches of Hanley, Upton, Welland, and Malvern, and the district churches of Malvern Wells and Barnard's Green, in a locality which has a rapidly increasing population. The Vicar gave the site and a handsome subscription. It has succeeded beyond expectation, being well filled on Sundays, and occupied by sixty children in the week. Besides these there are 135 children in the National Schools. Sir Edmund has a beautiful chapel at The Rhydd, for domestic worship, which is open every Sunday evening to the adjacent residents. With this amplitude of church accommodation I need hardly say there is no Dissent at Hanley; yet it has for a long