328 STOKE PRIOR.

brine pits, the deepest in England. The first two of these cost some £30,000 in their completion. There are formidable streams of water passing through them, and the pits are cased with iron cylinders to keep the water from the brine.

Among the excellent arrangements made at these works by the present proprietor was the suppression, in 1859, of the degrading system of female labour - a change which has resulted in benefit to the morals and comfort of the females and their families. This fact is commemorated in a stained glass window in the parish church, as a testimonial to Mr. Corbett. Schools and a clothing club have likewise been founded at the works for the children of the workpeople.

Truck making and brick making are also carried on here, and the extensive works at Bromsgrove Station are in this parish. At Ryefields Farm, in this parish, is a reformatory for boys, established by the late Joseph Sturge. The Birmingham and Worcester Canal runs through Stoke, and the Midland and Great Western Railways have each a station here. Stoke Grange and Rigby Hall - the former the residence of J. Corbett, Esq., and the latter of R. Smallwood, Esq. - as also Finstall House, occupied by Mr. Palmer, are the principal mansions in the parish.

The church was restored in 1858 and 1865, on the latter occasion chiefly through the liberality of Mr. Corbett, at a cost of about £1,000. It is an interesting specimen of Norman, Transitional, and Early English work, with the tower in an unusual position - the east end of the south aisle. There are some curious monuments here. There is an old room over the vestry of the church which is supposed to have been a domus inclusa, or cell for a recluse, in the middle ages. In the Pipe Rolls of the reigns of Henry II, Richard I, and John, mention is made of a yearly payment by the Vice-Comes of 30s. 5d. out of the royal revenues of this county to the "inclusa de Stoke." Or the cell may have been where is now the chapel of St. Godwald, at Finstall, in this parish. The present chapel was erected in 1773, but there must have