CLENT, two hamlets and a parish in Bromsgrove district, Worcester. The hamlets are Lower and Upper Clent; they jointly comprise all the parish; and the former lies on the verge of the county, near the West Midland railway, 3½ miles SSW of Stourbridge, and has a post office under Stourbridge. Acres of the parish, 2, 365. Real property, £6, 934. Pop., 966. Houses, 227. The property is divided among a few. Clent Hall is the seat of the Amphletts; and Hagley Park is the seat of Lord Lyttleton. The Clent Hills have broad slopes and pleasant hollows; and form a fine foil to the Black Country of Warwick. Kenelm, king of Mercia, was murdered here, at Cowdale, in 819, by his sister Quendrida. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester. Value, £417.* Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is old but good; and there are Baptist and Methodist chapels, and charities £132.

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