CLENT, a parish in the southern division of the
hundred of SEISDON, county of STAFFORD, though
locally in the lower division of the hundred of Halfshire,
county of Worcester, 3 miles (S. S. E.) from
Stourbridge, containing 885 inhabitants. The living is
a vicarage, with the perpetual curacy of Rowley-Regis
annexed, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Worcester,
rated in the king's books at £8. 16. 5£., and in the patronage
of the Crown. The church is dedicated to St.
Leonard. There are places of worship for Baptists and
Wesleyan Methodists. The infant king of Mercia, St.
Kenelm, is supposed to have been murdered here in 819,
by order of his sister Quendrida, but the body, having
been subsequently discovered, was buried in Winchcombe
abbey, which had been founded by his father.
Here is a free school for the children of poor parishioners,
founded by John Amphlett, Esq., in 1704; the ^master,
who instructs thirty children, has a house to reside
in, with a garden attached, and the interest of £200,
A Sunday school was also commenced, in 1788, by
Thomas Waldrou, Esq., who supported it during his
lifetime, and at his death, in 1800, bequeathed £500
for that purpose; eighty children receive instruction.