PILLERTON-PRIORS - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"PILLERTON-PRIORS, a parish in the Brailes division of Kington hundred, county Warwick, 4 miles W. by S. of Kington. It was formerly a separate parish, but is now in conjunction with that of Pillerton-Hersey, from which it is distant about 1 mile to the S. The road from Banbury to Stratford-on-Avon and also the Roman Fosse Way traverse the parish. The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in agriculture. Pillerton-Priors formerly belonged to Kenilworth Priory, from which circumstance it received the adjunct to its name.

The living is a curacy annexed to the vicarage* of Pillerton-Hersey, in the diocese of Worcester. The church of St. Mary Magdalene was destroyed by fire in 1666, since which time the inhabitants frequent the church of Pillerton-Hersey. The churchyard contains many tombstones of great antiquity, among which are several to the Gardner family. The parochial charities consist in the interest of £30, the bequest of Thomas Gardner, which is expended in coals for the poor on New Year's Day. The North Warwickshire hounds meet here."

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