BALSALL, a chapelry in the parish of HAMPTON
in ARDEN, Solihull division of the hundred of HEMLINGFORD,
county of WARWICK, 4§ miles (S. E. by E.)
from Solihull, containing 1056 inhabitants. The living
is a perpetual curacy, within the peculiar jurisdiction
of the  manorial court of Balsall-Temple, and in the
patronage of the Governors of Balsall Hospital. The
chapel, dedicated to St. Mary, formerly belonged to a
Society of Knights Templars, and, about 1823, was repaired
at an expense of £979. Lady Katherine Leveson,
of Trentham, in the county of Stafford, by will
dated in 1670, devised the manor of Temple-Balsall to
twelve trustees, for the erection and endowment of an
hospital for twenty poor women of the chapelry, directing
that £8 per annum should be paid to each of the
alms women, and £20 per annum to a minister, for
reading prayers to them and for teaching twenty poor
boys. By an act passed in the 1st of Queen Anne, for
the better government of this hospital, it was incorporated,
under the name of " The Hospital of the Lady
Katherine Leveson," and eleven trustees were appointed,
with power to enlarge the buildings and increase the
number of inmates, which now amounts to thirty. The
establishment consists of a master, under-master, an
apothecary, a matron, and a nurse. The master, in
addition to his salary, receives from the funds of the
hospital £50 per annum, as perpetual curate of Balsall:
a stipend of £ 50 per annum is also paid to the vicar
of Long Itchington. The annual receipts of the charity
now amount to about £1500.