PERSHORE  , a

market town in the Evesham parliamentary division of Worcestershire, England, 113 m . W.N.W.of London and 7 S.E. of Worcester by the Great Western railway . Pop . (1901), 3348 . The station is 12 in. from the town . Market gardening and fruit-growing (especially plums) are carried on and agricultural implements are manufactured . The churches of the two parishes of Holy Cross and St Andrew face one another across a road . Holy Cross is a remnant of a mitred abbey of Benedictines, said to have been founded about 970 by King Edgar, on the site of a Mercian religious settlement . There remain only the fine Early English choir, with Decorated additions, the Norman south transept and the majestic Decorated tower; while slight fragments of a Norman nave are seen .