Clent

Clent
Worcestershire, Staffordshire
The village green next to the parish church
Location
Location:	52°24’55"N, 2°6’50"W
Data
Population:	2,600
Post town:	Stourbridge
Postcode:	DY9
Dialling code:	01562
Local Government
Council:	Bromsgrove
Parliamentary constituency:	Bromsgrove

Clent is a village and parish forming a detached part of Staffordshire in Worcestershire, south-west of Birmingham and close to the edge of the Birmingham and Black Country conurbation. At the 2001 census it had a population of 2,600.

The four stones or "Ossian's Tomb" on the top of the Clent Hills were follies erected by George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton

Geography

Because of the hilly topography of the parish the village consists of several distinct hamlets. These are Upper Clent (Clatterbach and the area around the parish church of St Leonard), Lower Clent, Holy Cross, Adams Hill and Walton Pool. The Civil Parish of Clent also included part of the village of West Hagley, the population of which is about half that of the whole parish. On the first of April 2016, this part of the parish was transferred to the civil parish of Hagley. Though in the ancient parish of Clent, that area is now part of the Anglican parish of Broome. Part of the parish is an area of agricultural lowland, but to the northwest the ground rises forming the Clent Hills (now owned by the National Trust), which is a popular destination for walkers.

Education

Sunfield Children's Home is located in Clent, a charitable school for children with autism and complex learning needs. There is also a small primary school located in Holy Cross, called Clent Parochial Primary School, with just over 100 pupils ranging from Reception (age 4) to Year 6 (age 11), after which the pupils feed into Haybridge High School, the local secondary school, in the neighbouring village of Hagley.

Notable residents

Notable residents of Clent include -:

• John Amphlet, High Sheriff of Worcestershire in 1805
• Richard Fowler (5 March 1887 – 27 October 1970), cricketer
• James Higgs-Walker (31 July 1892 – 3 September 1979), cricketer
• Alan Todd (3 June 1900 – 14 August 1976), barrister

Further reading

• Clent Parish Council
• Erdeswicke, Sampson; Harwood, Thomas (1820). "St Kenelm, Clent and Broom". A Survey of Staffordshire; Containing the Antiquities of that County. J.B . Nichols and Son. pp. 284–287. https://archive.org/stream/asurveystafford00harwgoog#page/n361/mode/1up.  – Although not published until much later, Erdeswicke's description of Clent was written during the 16th century. The layout is a little confusing because the text and the notes use a similar font, for example the text in the last paragraph on page 287 should be read together with the text in the last paragraph on page 288 as they are part of the same footnote ("... in 1421, by Joan Beauchamp, ... ").

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Clent)

• photos of Clent and surrounding area on geograph