NORTON AND LENCHWICK 285

about 400, employed in agriculture and gloving; has an acreage of 2,636, and chiefly produces wheat. The Duke d'Aumale (whose mansion is at Wood Norton) owns the entire parish, except the vicar's glebe and some small cottage freeholds. Lenchwick is a hamlet, and had a chapel dedicated to St. Michael, but the very site is now forgotten.

The living is in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Worcester; value, £188; vicar, Rev. N. G. Batt. The church, which has 210 sittings, 150 being free, contains some Decorated and Perpendicular work, has splendid monuments of the Byggs and Craven families, and a good peal of bells. It is an ancient custom here to ring a muffled peal on the 28th December (Innocents' Day), in token of sorrow for the slaughter of the hapless "babes of Bethlehem," and immediately after, an unmuffled peal, in manifestation of joy for the deliverance and escape of the infant Saviour. Much has been recently done to the church. The vicar has erected a reredos, an organ by Nicholson has been put up, the chancel fitted with stalls, a handsome east window by Clayton and Bell erected in memory of the late F. Thompson, Esq., and an ancient stone lectern, originally made for the abbey church of Evesham about A.D. 1220, and discovered some time since in the ruins of the abbey, has been set up on a suitable base and shaft by Forsyth, of Worcester. This was given by Mrs. Colmore and Miss Blayney, as a memorial of their parents.

The ancient names of places in Norton include Asken Corner, Upper Sytch, Long Dragon's Piece, and Swatman's Ground.