SALFORD, a parish in the Stratford division of
the hundred of BARLICHWAY, county of WARWICK,
5 miles (S. by W.) from Alcester, containing 813 inhabitants.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of Worcester, rated in the king's books at
£9, endowed with £800 parliamentary grant, and in
the patronage of Lady Skipwith. The church is dedicated
to St. Matthew. The river Avon and its tributary
stream, the Arrow, run through the parish. William
Perkins, in 1656, gave £232 for the support of a free
grammar school; the annual income, now upwards of
£40, is applied to instructing, in English, the children
of parishioners; the classics were formerly taught, but
they have of late years been discontinued. An ancient
mansion, the property of Mr. Berkeley, is now occupied
as a nunnery, the society consisting of an abbess, sixteen
professed nuns, and a school for young ladies,
noviciates.