CLEEVE PRIOR - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"CLEEVE PRIOR, (or Prior's Cleeve), a parish in the upper division of the hundred of Oswaldslow, in the county of Worcester, 2 miles S.W. of Bidford, in Warwickshire, and 5 N.E. of Evesham. The village is situated on an eminence near the E. bank of the Avon, which frequently inundates the adjacent country. The living is a vicarage* [the asterisk denotes that there is a parsonage and glebe belonging to the living] in the diocese of Worcester, value £225, in the patronage of the dean and chapter. The church, dedicated to St. Andrew, is a Gothic edifice in the early English style, with embattled square tower.

There is a National school. The parish contains blue limestone, and quarries of valuable paving stone. It is supposed to have been the site of a Roman military station, there having been discovered at various times warlike weapons and armour, together with gold and silver coins of the Roman emperors. The Dean and Chapter of Worcester are lords of the manor.

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]