SWINFORD (Old), a parish in Stourbridge district; comprising Stourbridge, Lye, Wollaston, Wollescott, and Upper Swinford townships in Worcestershire, and Amblecoat hamlet in Staffordshire. Old S. proper adjoins the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton railway, 1 mile SSE of Stourbridge; and has a post-office under Stourbridge. Acres of the parish, 3,315. Real property, £48,270; of which £550 are in mines. Pop. in 1851, 20,238; in 1861, 22,958. houses, 4,676. Useful minerals abound; manufactures of iron, glass, and fire-clay utensils are carried on; and ample communications, by the river Stour, by canals, and by railways, exist. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Worcester. Value, £781.* Patron, the Earl of Dudley. The church is good. The p. curacies of Stourbridge-St. John, Stourbridge-St. Thomas, Lye, Wollaston, and Amble-coat are separate benefices. There are numerous dissenting chapels, several endowed schools with aggregately £3,029 a year, and charities £130.

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