Kinver in 1817

Description from A Topographical History of Staffordshire by William Pitt (1817)

KINVER.

Kinfare or Kinver is a pleasant village on the west bank of the Stour, and chiefly consists of one spacious and well-paved street, containing many handsome and well-built houses. Kinver stands at the foot of an high hill or mountain called Kinfare-edge, and was formerly a market town of some importance: there is still a market-house or town-hall, though the market is now discontinued. Two fairs are annually held here on the 1st of May and 15th of December.

The parish is situated near the south edge of the county, and adjoins Worcestershire: the Stour, and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal, pass through it. The soil is generally light, sandy, or gravelly, with a range of meadows on the Stour. The Foleys, of Prestwood, are lords of the manor. Here is a Well-endowed free school, but the name of the founder is unknown.

On the south of Kinfare-edge is a small plain covered with sand, where are the remains of a camp of an oblong form, 300 yards long and 200 wide, with a single graff or ditch: tradition attributes it to the Danes. Mr. Shaw thinks it the work of Wulfer King of Mercia (659 to 675), on account of its position with respect to the adjoining country, the ditch securing it from any attack on the south, and the north side being naturally inaccessible: the glacis from the camp to the village, about a mile, forms an easy and regular descent.

Bishop Lyttelton says, "the camp on Kinver-edge, which Dr. Plot imagines a work of the Danes, I make no doubt was British. The name Kin and Vaur signifies the great edge or ridge in the old Welsh or Irish. Just below the camp, on the east side, is a tumulus or barrow, environed with a little ditch: the tradition here is that this was the burial-place of an eminent commander." Dr. Stukeley describes a tumulus on Salisbury plain very similar to this, which he supposed to be Celtic. Near it, is also a large stone of a square figure, and tapering towards the top, about two yards in height, and four in circumference, having two notches on the summit: this stone is called Bastone or Boltstone. On the north side of this hill is a remarkable cavern, called Meg-o-fox-hole.

The church is an ancient fabric, dedicated to St. Peter, and contains some good monuments to the families of Grey, Hampton, Hodgetts, Foley, Talbot, etc: it is a perpetual curacy, the presentation being vested in trustees. From the form of a window on the north side, Bishop Lyttelton thinks that part of the edifice was erected prior to the conquest: the chapel adjoining the chancel he refers to the time of Henry the Third, when the Hamptons were lords here, and to whom the building is ascribed.

The woollen manufacture is here carried on pretty briskly in narrow cloths, both coarse and fine, the latter of which are but little inferior in goodness to the western broads.

There are five other villages or hamlets in this parish, viz. Compton, Stourton, Hastcote, Dunsley, and Whittington.

About a mile above Kinver (says Dr. Wilkes) is a place called the Hyde, where was the first mill for rolling or slitting iron that was erected in England. One Brindley, whose posterity long enjoyed it, went into Germany, and there acted the part of a fool, and by this means obtained this excellent machine, which has been so serviceable, and brought so much money into this country.

At Stourton is one of these rod-mills: the village stands on an eminence, having Stourton Castle to the south-east. Stourton Castle was anciently the property of the Hamptons, lords of Stourton, one of whom died possessed of it in 1472. The celebrated Cardinal Pole was born in this castle in 1500. His descent was illustrious, being a younger son of Richard Pole, Lord Montague, cousin-german to Henry the Seventh. His mother was Margaret, daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward the Fourth. The early part of this prelate's education was conducted by a private tutor, from whose charge he was removed, at a proper age, to Magdalen College, Oxford. Having finished his studies here, he went into orders, and soon after proceeded abroad to attend the foreign universities; during which time he was allowed a very handsome pension from Henry the Eighth, who likewise conferred upon him several benefices in commendam. In 1525 he returned to England, and was received by the king with distinguished marks of favour. His court influence, however, was but of short duration; for having vigorously opposed the divorce of Catharine of Arragon, he became so obnoxious to Henry, that he was compelled to seek shelter in Italy, where he wrote his celebrated piece, intituled "De Unitate Ecclesiastica."

This work exasperated the English monarch so highly, that he not only deprived him of all his preferments, but even caused an act of attainder to be passed against him. He did not however sustain very material loss by this harsh conduct of his kinsman; for the court of Rome immediately preferred him to several benefices in Italy, and raised him to the dignity of a cardinal. Upon the death of Pope Paul the Third he was twice elected to the vacant throne, but declined the honour, because one election was too hasty, and the other made in the night-time. This truly commendable delicacy so much disobliged his friends, that they no longer afforded him their support, and in consequence the bishop of Paletrina obtained the papal see. Immediately after the bigotted Mary had ascended the throne of England, the attainder against the cardinal was repealed, and he returned with distinguished honour to his native country. His first act, upon his arrival, was to absolve the kingdom from the papal inderdict, under which it laboured on account of the apostacy of Henry the Eighth. He was now advanced to the archbishoprick of Canterbury; but enjoyed this dignified station only a few months, having died on the 17th of November 1558, the same day on which the Queen herself expired.''

Stourton Castle was garrisoned during the Civil Wars, and surrendered to the King in 1644: it is now tenanted. 'The manor and castle of Stourton, with the hamlets of Compton and Dunsley, belong to the Foley family, of Prcstwood. At Whittington, an ancient hamlet in this parish, is an old mansion and a grove of fine elms.