Noake's Worcestershire Page 241

LEIGH AND BRANSFORD. 241

the railway (Worcester and Bromyard), which passes close to the house; and there is an old tithe-barn, with timbers like those of a man-of-war of former days.

Leigh Church, too, is an edifice in which abundant interest will be found. Its older portions are of the twelfth century, with later work of various dates; has a western tower, nave, chancel, south aisle, and chapel called "Braunsford's Chancel." The greatest feature is a stone sculptured figure of the Saviour, placed in an external recess over the north (Norman) door. There is but one other example in Worcestershire, owing to the iconoclastic fury of the Puritans. A stoup, or holy-water basin, the approach to the rood-loft, Norman font, gorgeous monuments and recumbent statues, and an ancient gallery with something like the rood screen in front of it, are all worth inspecting. The church has been ably restored, the work having been initiated by the late rector, the Rev. H. S. Cocks, and carried on to the present time.

Value of the living, £312; population of the entire parish, 3,330 (a large increase from only forty-five families in the time of Elizabeth); accommodation in the parish church, 400; free, 150. At Bransford chapel of ease, 90 seats; free, 60. The district church of St. Matthias, at Malvern Link, erected some twenty years ago, has a surrounding population of 1,670 ; and the new church at Cowleigh, which is in the district of St. James's, West Malvern, and was recently consecrated, has a population of 429 in that portion of Leigh parish, besides the populous,neighbourhood of North Malvern. A church school was built in the Leigh Sinton district in 1865; it holds 150 and is well attended. Besides these efforts of the Church, the Wesleyans and Lady Huntingdon's connection have chapels at Smith-end Green, Leigh Sinton, the Link, and North Malvern.

The parish was enclosed and the Link (now covered with villas, leading up to Malvern town) ploughed up in 1778. There were vineries here - as in almost all the parishes of Worcestershire - in the thirteenth century. Fine feeding land