STOKE PRIOR

Descriptive Notes:
Salt had been mined in the Droitwich area since before the Romans came to England, but in the mid-1880s John Corbett transformed what was basically a cottage industry into a major industrial business at Stoke Prior.
The fascinating Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings, based at Stoke Heath, is well worth a visit.

Directories:
STOKE-PRIOR, a parish in the middle division of the hundred of OSWALDSLOW, county of WORCESTER, 1¾ mile (S.) from Bromsgrove, containing 900 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Worcester, rated in the king's books at £ 12, and in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Worcester. The church is dedicated to St. Michael. The Birmingham and Worcester canal passes through the parish. In the great civil war, the court-house was almost destroyed by the royalists. [Topographical Dictionary of England 1831 by Samuel Lewis]

"This place is the principal centre of the salt manufacture: "The Stoke Prior Salt Works", belonging to John Corbett Esq., M.P., cover an extent of about 30 acres, and have been erected at a cost of about half a million sterling; the great chimney, 312 feet high, serves as a landmark: the brine is pumped up from the salt springs (the source of which lies at a depth of many hundred feet below the surface) and deposited in reservoirs, to which heat is applied to evaporate the water, when the salt rises in crystals to the surface, and is thence collected and pressed into moulds, or dries in bulk: ..... the works comprise four pits ..... yielding 4,000 tons of salt per week.." (Kelly's Directory (1884))

Status:
Ancient Parish [25]

Location:
O.S. Ref: SO949677
2½ miles South of Bromsgrove & 4½ miles N.E. of Droitwich
Finstall, formerly a district of this parish, is now a separate ecclesiastical parish. [57]

Parish Church:
St. Michael

Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction:
Archdeaconry & Diocese of Worcester until 1921, Archdeaconry of Dudley & Diocese of Worcester (1921 - *) [25]

Hundred:
Middle Oswaldslow [15] [11] [25] [28]

Poor Law Union:
Bromsgrove [3] [25]

Adjoining Parishes:
Bromsgrove; Tardebigge; Hanbury; Dodderhill; Upton Warren; Grafton Manor [1]

Parish Registers:

		Coverage	Source
Microform at WLHC	Christenings	1564-1944	[5]
	Marriages	1574-1953	[5]
	Burials	1557-1929	[5]
	Banns	1754-92, 1851-79, 1896-1927	[5]
Originals at WRO	Christenings	1564-1976	[12]
	Marriages	1574-1973	[12]
	Banns	1900-36, 1928-[46]	[12]

Bishops' Transcripts:
Begin 1615 Worcestershire Library and History Centre [22]

International Genealogical Index (IGI):
[19]

		Coverage
Parish Registers	Births / Christenings	1564-1710; 1813-1875
	Marriages	1574-1710; 1755-1882

Monumental Inscriptions and Associated Documents:
St.Michael BMSGH microfiche [53]
St.Michael Worcestershire Library and History Centre [51]
St. Michael: Worcestershire monumental inscriptions, vol. 2 [Typescript.] - Published Birmingham : Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy & Heraldry, 1982 - Author: Hepworth, V (trans.) Society of Genealogists [59]

Census Records:
Access to all the censuses between 1841 and 1901 is now widely available on the library edition of Ancestry.co.uk at most record offices. You are strongly advised to book time on their computers before making a visit.
Many commercial organisations have issued CDs and DVDs covering all the censuses from 1841 to 1901.

Some repositories offer census details on microfiche as listed below:
1841-1901 at Worcestershire Library and History Centre [14]

1851 Census Worcestershire, vol. 10 Bromsgrove transcript & surname index : part 1 Stoke Prior & Bromsgrove (part); part 2 Belbroughton, Clent, Hagley, Pedmore, Frankley, Hunnington, Romsley, Tutnall & Cobley, Bromsgrove (part); part 3 Tardebigg, Tutnal & Cobley, Bentley Pauncefoot, Webheath, Redditch & Alvechurch - Published Birmingham : Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy & Heraldry, 1993-5 - Author Friend, A F (trans.) Society of Genealogists

Search Services (Fee paying) - BMSGH and Independent:
Burial 1660-1840 Worcestershire Burial Index
Marriage see Worcestershire Marriage Index

Manorial Records:
Worcestershire Record Office [50]
Court books 1669-89, 1694-1832, 1869-41

Parish Records on microform at Worcestershire Library and History Centre [13]
Transcript of Parish Registers with Index 1574-1710

Schools Records:
The following school records are original documents. Note reference number and contact staff at Worcestershire Record Office:
Stoke Prior Council School
Mixed School. Log book - 1922 - 70 - Ref: BA 9051/2 (ii)
Note this school was subsequently known as Stoke Prior C P School and then Stoke Prior First School
Stoke Works Council Schools
Log books Note - These schools were also known as Stoke Works Infants' School and Stoke Works Junior School and subsequently as Stoke Works C P School. In 1961 - 62 it was amalgamated with 

Stoke Prior C P School - 1873 - 1961 - Ref: BA 9051/1 - 2 (i)
A handlist of other records of schools and of other educational establishments held by Worcestershire Record Office for this parish can be found here.

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© Arthur Lewis and contributors 2008
Comments, additions, corrections etc to Arthur Lewis
Last updated on 15th February 2008

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