4 ABBERTON.

rector, and churchwardens, are trustees of the charity. New schools were erected in 1859. They are built with Abberley stone, in the Early English style. They are under Government, and have a certificated master, a sewing mistress, and pupil teacher. There are at present eighty children on the books. The old school-house is still standing, and belongs as formerly to Walsh's Charity.

A Wesleyan chapel has been established in the parish: it is a hideous structure of brick.

The principal crops grown here are wheat, beans, vetches, oats, swedes, and turnips, but not much barley.

Abberton.

This little parish, lying midway between Alcester and Worcester, has made slow progress in the population returns since the days of Elizabeth, when there were a dozen families located here, which I reckon at sixty individuals, and there are about eighty now. When last I visited this parish the worthy clerk numbered one-fourth of the whole population in his own family, which included nineteen children! Nevertheless there is church accommodation for 120 persons. Rector, Rev. H. J. Knight. Tithes commuted at £174, and there are two and a half acres of glebe. The parish is small, containing but about 1,000 acres, and is only six miles in circumference. This, nevertheless, is a large area for so feW inhabitants; but then nearly one-half the parish is park-land. It formerly belonged to Pershore Abbey, and just before the dissolution it fell into the hands of the Sheldons, who were descended from the ancient Sheldons, of Warwickshire. Mr. Laslett, the Jate member for Worcester, is now the lord of the manor, patron of the living, and owner of the entire parish, as also part of the adjoining parishes of Kington, Flyford, and