CLAINES, a parish in the lower division of the hundred of OSWALDSLOW, county of WORCESTER, 2 miles (N.) from Worcester, containing, with the tything of Whistons, 3853 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Bishop of Worcester, endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £ 900 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of Sir H. Wakeman, Bart. The church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. A chapel is now being erected, by a grant of £3345. 10. 8. from the commissioners under the act passed in the 58th of George III., for building additional churches and chapels, to contain seven hundred and twelve sittings, of which three hundred and fifty-eight will be free. Here is a school with an endowment of £7- 7- per annum. The Birmingham canal passes on the south of this parish; and the Droitwich canal, on the north, passes along the western boundary, where it forms a junction with the Severn. The ancient hospital of St. Oswald was founded here prior to 1268. On the site of the mansion of White Ladies was the Benedictine nunnery of Whitestone, or Whistons, founded by Walter de Cantelupe, Bishop of Worcester, in 1255: to this house Charles II. retired .after the decisive battle of Worcester. In this parish is the island of Bevere, formed by the rivulet Beverhern, remarkable as having twice afforded refuge to the inhabitants of Worcester; first, in 1041, from the fury of King Hardicanute, on account of their refusing to pay the Danegelt, and next, in 1637, from a dreadful pestilence then raging in the city.