HAGLEY, a village and a parish in Bromsgrove district, Worcester. The village stands near the West Midland railway, and near the boundary with Stafford, 2½ miles SSE of Stourbridge; and has a station on the railway, and a post office‡ under Stourbridge. The parish contains also the hamlets of Stakenbridge and Blakedown. Acres, 2, 363. Real property, £6, 221. Pop., 963. Houses, 218. The property is much subdivided. The manor, with Hagley Hall, belongs to Lord Lyttelton. Hagley Hall was built by the first Lord Lyttelton, the historian; is beautifully situated, on an undulating lawn; was frequently visited by Pope, Shenstone, Thomson, Addison, and other persons of genius and literary talent; contains many interesting paintings, and other objects of art; and stands amid grounds replete with both natural and artificial attractions. Other elegant seats are in the neighbourhood. A large Roman camp is on Wychbury hill. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Worcester. Value, £584. * Patron, Lord Lyttelton. The church was built in 1200; was repaired and enlarged by the first Lord Lyttelton; was restored in 1 838; and contains monuments of the Lytteltons. There are a chapel of ease at Blakedown, a national school, and charities £25.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))