Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for PERSHORE

PERSHORE, a town, two parishes, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred, in Worcestershire. The town stands in the valley of Evesham, on the river Avon, 1½mile S of the West Midland railway, and 9 S W by W of Worcester; was anciently called Persere, Pearsore, and Perscora; is alleged, by some, to have got its name from the plentifulness of its orchards; owed its origin to thefounding of a monastery at it, by Oswald, nephew of King Ethelred, in 689; suffered devastation by fire, alongwith its monastery, in 1002, 1223, and 1288; sentmembers to parliament in the time of Edward I.; wentthence into decline, and did not revive till the middle oflast century; is now a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling-place; consists of neat, clean, wide, well-paved streets; and has a head post-office, ‡ a railway station, two banking offices, two chief inns, a bridge, apolice station erected in 1865, two churches, a Baptistchapel, national and British schools, a workhouse, and charities £130. Holy Cross church was the church of a Benedictine abbey, built in the 12th and 13th centuries on the site of the ancient monastery; measured originally 250 feet from E to W, and 120 along the transepts; consistsnow of only the choir, the S transept, a chapel, and thetower, with a modern chancel; s variously Norman, early English, and decorated; was well restored in 1863-5, under the direction of Mr. Scott; and contains an altar-tomb of an abbot and an effigies of a knight. St. An-drew's church is an old building, with a low tower. The workhouse was erected in 1836, at a cost of £3,000; and has accommodation for 200 inmates. A weekly marketis held on Tuesday; a market for fat stock is held fourtimes a year; fairs for cattle and horses are held on Easter Tuesday, and on 26 and 27 June; hiring fairs are held on the Wednesday before and the Wednesday after 11 Oct.; and wool-stapling, engineering, and machine-making arecarried on. The town comprises parts of both parishes. Pop. in 1851, 2, 717; in 1861, 2, 905. Houses, 615.

The parishes are Holy Cross and St. Andrew. HolyCross parish includes the hamlets of Walcot-cum-Membris and Wadborough, and comprises 2, 950 acres. Real property, £5,012; of which £80 are in gas-works. Pop.in 1851, 2, 528; in 1861, 2, 578. Houses, 545. St. Andrew parish includes the chapelries of Pinvin, Defford, Besford, Bricklehampton, and Wick, and the hamlet of Pensham; and comprises 9, 960 acres. Real property, £18, 854. Pop. in 1851, 2, 358; in 1861, 2, 483. Houses, 525. The livings are in the diocese of Worcester; and they comprise, first, the vicarage of P. St. Andrew, with the p. curacies of P.-Holy Cross, Pinvin, Bricklehampton, and Broughton, second, the vicarage of Defford-with-Besford, and third, the p. curacy of Wick. Value of P., St. Andrew., £500.* Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. The vicarage of Defford-with-Besford was formerly a double p. curacy, annexed to P., St. Andrew; but is now a separate charge. Value, notreported. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. Wick is separately noticed.—The sub-district contains the parishes of P.-Holy Cross, Pirton, Stoulton, and Norton-by-Kempsey, about half of the parish of P., St. Andrew, the chapelry of Whittington, and part of the parish of Fladbury. Acres, 17, 781. Pop., 6, 507. Houses, 1, 392. The district comprehends also the sub-district of Eckington, containing the chapelries of Defford, Besford, Bricklehampton, and W ck, and the parishes of Eckington, Elmley-Castle, Cropthorne, Strensham, Birlingham, Great Comberton, and Little Comberton; and the sub-district of Upton-Snodsbury, containing the parishes of Upton-Snodsbury, Grafton-Flyford, Naunton-Beauchamp, North Piddle, Flyford-Flavel, Dormston, Kington, Abberton, Bishampton, Peopleton, White-Ladies-Aston, Churchill, Broughton-Hackett, Bredicot, and Spetchley, and the chapelry of Throckmorton. Acres of the district, 52, 269. Poor-rates in 1863, £6, 788. Pop. in 1851, 13, 553; in 1861, 13, 865. Houses, 2, 993. Marriages in 1863, 95; births, 452, of which 35 were illegitimate; deaths, 270, of which 94 were at ages under 5 years, and 13 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 886; births, 4, 140; deaths, 2, 398. The places of worship, in 1851, were 38 of the Church of England, with 7, 429 sittings; 7 of Baptists, with 1,088 s.: 4 of Wesleyans, with 724 s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 100 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 135 s. The schools were 14public day-schools, with 947 scholars; 33 private day-schools, with 441 s.; and 31 Sunday schools, with 1, 785s. The hundred is much more extensive than the district; and is cut into two divisions, lower and upper. The lower div. lies beyond the district; and contains fifteen parishes and part of another. Acres, 51, 297 Pop. in 1851, 18, 102. Houses, 3, 602. The upper div.is mainly identical with the district, but less extensive. Acres, 41, 328. Pop. in 1851, 11, 115. Houses, 2, 349. Pop. of the whole in 1861, 33, 695. Houses, 6, 782.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Pershore CP       Pershore RegD/PLU       Worcestershire AncC
Place names: PEARSORE     |     PERSCORA     |     PERSERE     |     PERSHORE
Place: Pershore

Go to the linked place page for a location map, and for access to other historical writing about the place. Pages for linked administrative units may contain historical statistics and information on boundaries.