Place:Kinver, Staffordshire, England

Watchers
NameKinver
Alt namesKinfaresource: Family History Library Catalog
TypeVillage, Civil parish
Coordinates52.45°N 2.233°W
Located inStaffordshire, England
See alsoSouth Seisdon Hundred, Staffordshire, Englandhundred of which the parish was a part
Seisdon Rural, Staffordshire, Englandrural parish of which it was part 1894-1974
South Staffordshire (district), Staffordshire, Englandnon-metropolitan district in which it has been located since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Kinver is a large village and civil parish in South Staffordshire District in Staffordshire, England. It is in the far south-west of the county, at the end of the narrow finger of land surrounded by the counties of Shropshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands. The nearest towns are Stourbridge in the West Midlands, and Kidderminster in Worcestershire. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal passes through, running close to the course of the meandering River Stour. According to the 2001 UK census Kinver had a population of 6,805.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Kinver has, at various times in the past, been spelt on maps and documents as: Kinfare, Kynfare, Chenfare, Chenevare, Chenefare (as listed in the Domesday Book) and Cynefare. The earliest form of the name is Cynibre, in a charter of 736 AD. The first element may be assimilated to cyne 'royal', but may come from a Celtic root cuno- 'dog'. The second element -bre refers to a steep hill, probably Kinver Edge. The ancient Hill Fort atop the Edge is of possible Bronze-age and certainly Iron Age origin. A Roman presence at nearby Greensforge Fort dates from around 47 AD.

The hilltop church is on a very ancient site, and the current church, dedicated to St. Peter dates from the 12th century. The village High Street was laid out as the burgages of a new town by the lord of the manor in the late 13th century and was administered by a borough court, separate for the manorial court for the rest of the manor of Kinver and Stourton (known as Kinfare Foreign).

The main pub, The White Hart, dates from the 14th century, and the Anchor Hotel (now developed as housing) from the 15th century. The grammar school opened in 1511, the first teacher being a priest paid by local men, and functioned as a school until closure in 1916. School accounts from the 1700s are held at the University of Birmingham.

Kinver was known for making sturdy woollen cloth, using the flow of the Stour for fulling mills and dyeing. The village also profited from being a stop on the great "Irish Road" from Bristol to Chester (until the 19th century, the port of embarkation for Ireland), the 'White Hart' being the oldest and largest inn.

There was a brief cavalry melee on the Heath during the English Civil War between "Tinker Fox" the local Parliamentary commander and local Royalist forces. Fox retired to Stourton Castle which was briefly invested by the Royalists. During his flight from the Battle of Worcester King Charles II made his way over Whittington Heath into nearby Stourbridge.

Later, the river was used to power finery forges and from 1628 slitting mills, including Hyde Mill which has been claimed (incorrectly) as the earliest in England, though it certainly was among the earliest. There were five slitting mills in the parish by the late 18th century, more than any other parish in Great Britain. These slit bars of iron into rods to be made into nails in the nearby Black Country.

Stourton Castle figured notably in the history of the English Civil Wars. It was the birthplace of cardinal Reginald Pole, last catholic archbishop of Canterbury, who came within a whisker of the papacy.

In 1771 the area was opened up to trade by the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, built by James Brindley.

In Victorian and Edwardian times it was a popular Sunday day out for people from Birmingham and the Black Country, via a 1901 pole & wires tram extension that ran across the fields, the "Kinver Light Railway".

The nailshops and forges ceased work around 1892, and local ironworks are thought to have all closed in about 1912 or 1913.

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