Blore, Staffordshire

Description
Blore, a township and a parish in Staffordshire. The township bears the name of Blore-with-Swinscoe, and lies on the river Dove, 4 miles NW of Ashborne, which is the post town. Acreage of the parish, 1885; population, 178; of the ecclesiastical parish (which is called Blore Ray and includes Calton-in-Blore), 252. Blore Hall, formerly the seat of the Basset family, is now a farmhouse. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lichfield ; net value, £125 with residence. The church dates from Norman times, as the pillars of its old doorway (now blocked up) clearly show. Its oldest windows are Early English. It was partly pulled down and restored in Tudor times. Since then its outward structure has undergone no change. Inside is a loth century brass and other monuments to the Basset family, also an ancient screen, and a bit of old stained glass, pronounced to be the most beautiful in the diocese. The old oak in the church is all cloven, not sawn. The church was repaired in 1845, and again in 1877. In the parish of Blore and Swinscoe there are no less than eight or nine "Lows," or prehistoric burial mounds. There is a Primitive Methodist chapel in the hamlet of Swinscoe.