Stourport in 1843
Stourport, 10 miles north of Worcester, is a handsome and well-built market-town, in the chapelry of Lower Milton, in the parish of Kidderminster and lower division of Halfshire hundred. It has become a thriving place within the last eighty years, before which period it was a small and insignificant hamlet. Its prosperity is entirely owing to local improvements in inland navigation. It is situated near the confluence of the Stour and Severn ; and the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal, which communicates with Dudley, Stourbridge, and Kidderminster, enters the Severn at Stourport. There is an extensive basin, opened in 1771, with wharfs and warehouses for the accommodation and as a general depot of the trade between the west and central portions of the kingdom. Stourport is a great mart for hops, corn, and apples. The market-day is Wednesday ; and there are several fairs in the course of the year for horned cattle, hops, &c. The houses are chiefly built of brick, and the general appearance of the town is neat and thriving. The iron bridge over the Severn consists of a single arch, of 150 feet span, and fifty feet above the surface of the river. The inhabitants of Stourport attend divine service at Milton ; the living of which place is a perpetual curacy held with Kidderminster. The population of Milton chapelry was 3,012 in 1841. Stourport is a polling-place for the county. |