212 KEMPSEY.

situation near the Severn, on a gentle elevation, which appears to have been fortified by the Romans, as the remains of a camp are still traced, and fragments of bones, urns, fibulae, coins of Nero, an altar or stone slab (now in Worcester Museum), having a Latin inscription in honour of Constantine, have been found there. In 1863 the church was restored, and is now a large and handsome structure, with portions of Early English, Perpendicular, and much modern work. After a cost of nearly £4,000 it was re-opened in May, 1865, Mrs. Boyds had given £1,000 to the fund, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners restored the chancel in their severely plain but substantial manner. It now consists of chancel, nave, aisles, transepts, vestry, and organ chamber, and accommodates 600 people, out of a population of 1,433, which is a fair proportion, as, taking old and young, it is rarely that more than one in three of any population goes to any place of worship. The Dissenters, however, seem to have thought the parish was not sufficiently cared for, and so the Baptists built a chapel. The free seats in the parish church are but 100, and the allocation of the other sittings there, after the restoration of the church, occasioned much strife, jealousies, and unseemliness.

A fine horse-chesnut tree is growing inside the chancel of the parish church, and among the odd monumental inscriptions is this - "Underneath, the corruptible parts of a vicar, one husband, two helpmates, both wives, and both Anns, a triplicity of persons in two twains, but one flesh, are interred, Rev. G. Boulter, vicar of this parish fifty years, and of Welland thirty-four; aged 81."

Old names in tlie parish: Dane's Close, Quintons, The Noond, Hoberdy Hill, Green Street Meadow, Bootridges, The Portway, Crokenhill, Howborne, Bury Field, &c.

Kempsey is said to have formerly had two chapelries, Norton and Stoulton, but so far as Norton is concerned there seems to be no evidence whatever of this, and at all events both places are now independent parishes.