In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Cleobury Mortimer like this:
CLEOBURY-MORTIMER, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district in Salop. The town stands on the river Rea, near the boundary with Worcester, Wire forest, and the Clee hills, 7½ miles NE by E of Tenbury, and 12 E of Ludlow; and it has a railway station of its own name, 1 ½ mile distant from it, on the Woofferton, Tenbury, and Bewdley railway. ...
A strong castle of the Mortimers stood here, and was reduced by Henry II.; but no traces of it now exist. The parish church is early English; and was attached to a religious house of the character of a mitred abbey. A free school, on the north side of the church, was founded by Sir L. W. Childe; and has an endowed income of £472. The town comprises one long street; has a post office‡ under Bewdley, three dissenting chapels, a chief inn, and a work-house; and is a polling-place. A weekly market is held on Wednesday; fairs are held on 21 April, 2 May, Trinity-Monday, and 27 Oct.; and some trade is carried on in connexion with the mineral produce of the Clee Hills. The parish includes also the liberties of Doddington and East and West Foreign. Acres, 7, 077. Real property, £8, 757. Pop., 1, 619. Houses, 347. The property is subdivided. Kinlet Hall is the seat of W. L. Childe, Esq.; and Mawley, the seat of Sir Edward Blount, Bart. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Hereford. Value, £553.* Patron, W. L. Childe, Esq. The chapelry of St. John, a vicarage, is a separate benefice. Value, £50. Patron, R. Botfield, Esq. Robert Langland, author of "Pierce Plowman's Visions, " and friend of Wickliffe, was a native.—The sub-district contains the parishes of Cleobury-Mortimer, Hopton-Wafers, Corely, Milson, Neen-Sollars, Neen-Savage, Mamble, Rock, and Bayton, -the three last electorally in Worcester. Acres, 29, 817. Pop., 5, 514. Houses, 1, 190. The district comprehends also the sub-district of Stottesden, containing the parishes of Stottesden, Silvington, Wheathill, Aston-Bottercll, Kinlet, and Highley, and the chapelry of Loughton. Acres, 54, 640. Poor-rates, in 1862, £4, 614. Pop., in 1841, 8, 708; in 1861, 8, 304. Houses, 1, 743. Marriages, in 1860, 44; births, 246, -of which 19 were illegitimate; deaths, 145, -of which 43 were at ages under 5 years, and 2 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 433; births, 2, 216; deaths, 1, 539. The places of worship in 1851 were 19 of the Church of England, with 4, 197 sittings; 1 of Independents, s. not reported; 1 of Baptists, with 70 s.; 6 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 385 s.; 4 of Primitive Methodists, with 128 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 140 s. The schools were 9 public day schools, with 529 scholars; 15 private day schools, with 171 s.; and 10 Sunday schools, with 634 s.
Cleobury Mortimer through time
Cleobury Mortimer is now part of South Shropshire district. Click here for graphs and data of how South Shropshire has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Cleobury Mortimer itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Cleobury Mortimer in South Shropshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/10205
Date accessed: 05th November 2024
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