Kinver in 1872

KINFARE, or KINVER, a small town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Wolverhampton district, Stafford. The town stands on the river Stour and the Stafford canal, near the boundary with Worcester, 4 miles NW of Churchill railway station, and 4 WSW of Stourbridge; was anciently a 
place of considerable importance, long a borough and a market-town, noted for the manufacture of woollen cloth; figures now in connexion with the extensive ironworks of Hyde and Whittington, where spades, shovels, and other wares, are largely made; and has a post-office under Stourbridge, a church, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels, a grammar school, a national school, and fairs on the last Tuesday of Feb., the second Tuesday of May, and the third Tuesday of Nov.

The church stands on a lofty site; is ancient, with a tower; was restored in 1836; and contains some ancient monuments. The grammar school has £114 a-year from endowment; and other charities have £128. Pop. of the town in 1861, 2,163. Houses, 449. The parish includes the manor of Whittington, and the hamlet of Compton. Acres, 8,790. Real property, £20,543; of which £5,160 are in iron-works, and £76 in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 2,872; in 1861, 3,551. Houses, 712. The increase of pop. arose from the operations of Freehold Land Societies.

The manors belong to H. Wentworth Foley, Esq., M.P. , and to the Earl of Stamford. A Saxon camp, 900 feet long and 600 feet wide, with a barrow, and with a notched stone 12 feet round and 6 feet high; is on a small plain on the S side of Kinfare-Edge. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £200. Patrons, Trustees. The sub-district contains also two other parishes. Acres, 16,391. Pop., 4,832. Houses, 963. 

COMPTON, a hamlet in Kinfare parish, Stafford; 5 miles W of Stourbridge.

[Description(s) from The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72) - Transcribed by Mike Harbach ©2020]