ssure on his exchequer by
appropriating the possessions of the Priory, and handing part of them
to his royal College at Eton, and part (in 1422) to the already rich
Abbey at Tewkesbury. Much litigation followed with Eton, and in 1469
the Priory was united and annexed by Carpenter, Bishop of Worcester,
to the monastery at Tewkesbury, with the stipulation that the "Abbot
of Tewkesbury was to find and maintain there one monk in priest's
orders, to be called Prior or Warden, four other monks, and one
secular priest daily to perform divine service in that priory."

The independence of Deerhurst was now at an end, and little is heard
of it again. At the Dissolution, like many of the Tewkesbury
possessions, it became private property, the site, the buildings and
the tithes being conveyed to George Throgmorton, a local personage,
who became the lay impropriator. The tithes passed later into the
hands of the family of Cassey, of Wightfield Court; but the lands
became the property of the Coventry family, and at the end of the
seventeenth century gave the title to Viscount Deerhurst, the fifth
Baron. At the Dissolution Deerhurst became a curacy, and remained so
till 1682, the advowson then being transferred from lay hands to those
of the Bishop of Worcester.

EXTERIOR.

Of the exterior of the church there is not much to be said. The chief
feature is the =Tower=. It has been reduced in height, probably at the
time that the steeple was blown down in 1666, but no churchwardens'
accounts of that date remain. It is 70 feet high, 21 feet 8 inches
from east to west, and 14 feet 4 inches from north to south, with a
slight batter to the walls, which at the base are 32 inches in
thickness. For about 35 feet or so the masonry is Saxon work, but has
been subsequently severely handled, especially on the west side. The
east side contains a wall-plate of early date, and more of the
interesting early work. The upper part is later work, having ashlar
quoins at the four angles.

The entrance door is a Pointed arch of the fourteenth century date
inserted within the earlier round-headed arch, of which the outer
edges have considerably crumbled away. Above the arch is a piece of
stonework, similar to one above the long, narrow window, considered by
some to be a mutilated carved head, but with more real likeness to a
broken mechanical contrivance for hoisting up weighty goods into the
upper part of the tower. On the right of the entrance door is