NORTON (KING'S), a parish (formerly a market
town) in the upper division of the hundred of HALFSHIRE,
county of WORCESTER, 6 miles (S. S. W.) from
Birmingham, containing, with Headley, Moseley,
Moundsley, and Rednal, 3651 inhabitants. The living
is a perpetual curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Bromsgrove,
in the archdeaconry and diocese of Worcester.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Nicholas, is spacious,
and principally in the decorated style of English
architecture, with later insertions; the tower and spire
are very fine. A free grammar school .was endowed by
Edward VI. This town received the grant of a market
from James I.; and during the succeeding reign, in the
year l645,Hawkesley house, then belonging to theMiddlemores,
was burnt down by the royalists. The market
is disused; but fairs are held April 25th and September
5th. The Birmingham and Worcester canal, in passing
through this parish, forms a junction with that of Stratford
on Avon, and is conveyed through a tunnel into
the parish of Alvechurch.