Transcribed from the 1908 Whitehead Bros. edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org
[COPYRIGHT]
THE
ANNALS OF WILLENHALL
--BY--
FREDERICK WM. HACKWOOD
AUTHOR OF
"The Chronicles of Cannock Chase," "Wednesbury Ancient and Modern,"
"The Story of the Black Country," "Staffordshire Stories,"
&c., &c.
* * * * *
"I cannot tell by what charm our native soil captivates us,
and does not allow us to be forgetful of it."
--_Ovid_.
[Picture: Seal of Willenhall Local Authority]
Wolverhampton:
WHITEHEAD BROS.,
St. John's Square and King Street.
* * * * *
1908.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. PAGE.
I.--Willenhall--Its Name and Antiquity 1
II.--The Battle of Wednesfield 5
III.--The Saxon Settlement 11
IV.--The Founding of Wulfruna's Church, A.D. 996 17
V.--The Collegiate Establishment 22
VI.--Willenhall at the Norman Conquest (1066-1086) 27
VII.--A Chapel and a Chantry at Willenhall 32
VIII.--Willenhall in the Middle Ages 37
IX.--The Levesons and other Old Willenhall Families 41
X.--Willenhall Endowments at the Reformation 48
XI.--How the Reformation Affected Willenhall 52
XII.--Before the Reformation--and After 57
XIII.--A Century of Wars, Incursions, and Alarms 65
(1640-1745)
XIV.--Litigation Concerning the Willenhall Prebend 72
(1615-1702)
XV.--Willenhall Struggling to be a Free Parish 77
XVI.--Dr. Richard Wilkes, of Willenhall (1690-1760) 82
XVII.--Willenhall "Spaw" 90
XVIII.--The Benefice 95
XIX.--How a Flock Chose its own Shepherd 103
XX.--The Election of 1894, and Since 110
XXI.--Willenhall Church Endowments 116
XXII.--The Church Charities: the Daughter Churches 129
XXIII.--The Fabric of the Church 135
XXIV.--Dissent, Nonconformity, and Philanthrophy 143
XXV.--Manorial Government 148
XXVI.--Modern Self-Government 153
XXVII.--The Town of Locks and Keys 158
XXVIII.--Willenhall in Fiction 167
XXIX.--Bibliography 175
XXX.--Topography 179
XXXI.--Old Families and Names of Note 184
XXXII.--Manners and Customs 187
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Seal of Local Authority Title Page.
St. Giles' Church v
Rev. Wm. Moreton v
Rev. G. H. Fisher, M.A. v
Dr. Richard Wilkes v
Moseley Hall 65
Boscobel 65
Bentley Hall 137
Willenhall Trade Token (farthing) 166
Borrow, George 169
Borrow's Birthplace 169
Neptune Inn 177
Bell Inn 177
Old Bull's Head 177
The Plough 177
Tildesley, James 185
Tildesley, Josiah 185
Pearce, George Ley 185
Hartill, Jeremiah 185
Austin, John 185
[Picture: St. Giles' Church (before Restoration). 1755 to 1871]
[Picture: The Rev. Wm. Moreton (Incumbent of St. Giles' Church,
1788-1834)]
[Picture: Rev. G. Hutchinson Fisher, M.A. (Incumbent of St. Giles'
Church, 1834-1894)]
[Picture: Dr. Richard Wilkes]
I.--Its Name and Its Antiquity
Willenhall, vulgo Willnal, is undoubtedly a place of great antiquity; on
the evidence of its name it manifestly had its foundation in an early
Saxon settlement. The Anglo-Saxon form of the name Willanhale may be
interpreted as "the meadow land of Willa"--Willa being a personal name,
probably that of the tribal leader, the head of a Teutonic family, who
settled here. In the Domesday Book the name appears as Winehala, but by
the twelfth century had approached as near to its modern form as
Willenhal and Willenhale.
Dr. Oliver, in his History of Wolverhampton, derives the name from Velen,
the Sun-god, and the Rev. H. Barber, of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, who tries to
find a Danish origin for nearly all our old Midland place-names, suggests
the Norse form Vil-hjalmr; or perhaps a connection with Scandinavian
family names such as Willing and Wlmer.
Dr. Barber fortifies himself by quoting Scott:--
Beneath the shade the Northmen came,
Fixed on each vale a Runic name.
Rokeby, Canto, IV.
Here it may not be out of place to mention that Scandinavian influences
are occasionally traceable throughout the entire basin of the Trent, even
as far as this upper valley of its feeder, the Tame. The place-name
Bustleholme (containing the unmistakable Norse root, "holme," indicating
a river island) is the appellation of an ancient mill on this stream,
just below Wednesbury. In this connection it is interesting to recall
Carlyle's words. In his "Hero Worship," the sage informs us of a mode of
speech still used by the barge men of the Trent when the river is in a
highly flooded state, and running swiftly with a dangerous eddying swirl.
The boatmen at such times will call out to each other, "Have a care!
there is the Eager coming!" This, says Carlyle, is a relic of Norse
mythology, coming down to us from the time when pagan boatmen on the
Trent believed in that Northern deity, Aegir, the God of the Sea Tempest,
whose name (as he picturesquely puts it) "survives like the peak of a
submerged world." This by the way.
Willenhall, however, was situated outside the Danelagh, the western
boundary of which was the Watling Street; indeed, the place nomenclature
of this locality affords very few examples which are really traceable to
the Danish occupation--an almost solitary specimen being the
aforementioned name of Bustleholme, near the Delves.
The etymological derivation which has found most favour in times past is
that based on the erroneous Domesday form, Winehala. Perhaps Stebbing
Shaw is responsible for this, as in his history of the county, written
1798, he says:--"As Wednesbury is but two miles, and Wednesfield but one
mile from hence, it is probable that this name might be changed for that
of Winehale, from the Saxon word for victory, when that great battle was
fought hereabout in 911."
Of this battle, and the victory or "win" which the founding of Willenhall
was supposed to commemorate, some account will be given in the next
chapter. But the hypothesis of Shaw, and those who adopted his view,
apparently involved the supposition that the earliest mention of
Willenhall was of a date subsequent to 911 A.D.; but thanks to the recent
researches of our eminent local historiographer, Mr. W. H. Duignan,
F.S.A. (of Walsall), that position is no longer tenable.
There is in existence a couple of charters dated A.D. 732 (or 733;
certainly before the year 734) which were executed by Ethelbald, King of
Mercia, at a place named therein as "Willanhalch."
Mr. Duignan says the Mercian kings frequently reside in this part of
their dominions, as at Kingsbury, Tamworth, and Penkridge; probably for
the convenience of hunting in Cannock Forest, within the boundaries of
which Willenhall was anciently located.
Virtually the two charters are one, the same transaction being recorded
by careful and punctilious scribes in duplicate; and their purport was to
benefit Mildrith, now commonly called St. Mildreda, one of the
grand-daughters of King Penda, and probably one of the few canonised
worthies who can be claimed as natives of this county-area. She was the
Abbess of Minstrey, in the Isle of Thanet, and "sinful Ethelbald," as he
humbly styles himself, remits certain taxes and makes certain grants to
her newly-founded abbey, all for the good of his soul. These duplicated
documents were published in the original Latin in Kemble's "Codex
Diplomaticus" in 1843, by Thorpe in his "Diplomatarium Anglicum" in 1865,
and again in Birch's "Chartularium Saxonicum" in 1885.
The internal evidence contained in them is to this effect:--"This was
executed on the 4th day of the Kalends of November, in the 22nd year of
my reign, being the fifteenth decree made in that place which is called
Willanhalch." Not one of these three authorities, although in the habit
of doing so wherever they can offer an opinion with any reasonable degree
of certainty, has ventured to suggest the modern name and identity of the
"place called Willanhalch." But Mr. Duignan, with the ripe knowledge and
almost unerring judgment he possesses in such matters, has no hesitation
whatever in identifying the place as Willenhall. As he says, there is no
other place-name in Mercia, or even in England, which could possibly be
represented by Willanhalch.
Undoubtedly there is another Willenhall. It is a hamlet in the parish of
Holy Trinity, Coventry, and its name was anciently spelt Wylnhale. But
the history of the place is naturally involved in that of the city of
Coventry, as the hamlet never had any separate and independent existence
like that of our Staffordshire township. Any charter emanating from this
place would indubitably be dated "Coventry."
The suggestion of Shaw that the name was changed cannot be entertained
for one moment; the Anglo-Saxons were not in the habit of changing
place-names, but they were very much addicted to the practice of "calling
their lands after their own names." Dr. Willmore, in his "History of
Walsall" (p. 30) adopts the now discarded derivation of the name of
Willenhall. He says "After the defeat a great feast of rejoicing was
held by the Saxons at Winehala, the Hall of Victory, and the event was
long celebrated by the national poets."
To identify the "Hall of Victory" with Willenhall the Walsall historian
proceeds:--"At Lowhill may still be seen the remains of a large tumulus,
while in Wrottesley Park are the vestiges of a large encampment, believed
by some authorities to be of Danish construction, and to have been
occupied by them about the time of these engagements."
Yet in the next paragraph it is admitted that the Danes never gained a
permanent footing in this locality, and that there is scarce a name of
purely Danish origin in the neighbourhood.
"Willenhalch," then, may be accepted as signifying in Anglo-Saxon "the
meadowland of Willan," Willan (not Willen) being a personal name, and
halch being a form of healh, signifying "enclosed land on the banks of a
stream," as, for instance, on the Willenhall Brook.
Any ancient place-name terminating in "halch" would, in the course of
time, terminate in "hall," a termination now commonly construed as
"hall," or "mansion." There is nothing inherently improbable in
Willenhall having been a temporary royal residence. King John in much
later times had his hunting lodge at Brewood. Bushbury, originally
Bishopsbury, was so called because one of the early Mercian bishops is
said to have made this place his episcopal residence. Attention has been
called to the fact that in this vicinity a number of place-names end in
"hall," as Willenhall, Tettenhall, Walsall, Pelsall, and Rushall. The
inference drawn is that each of these places marks the settlement of some
pioneer Anglican chieftain, or, as Dr. Oliver puts it, the mansion and
estate of some Saxon thane.
II.--The Battle of Wednesfield.
Although it cannot be admitted that the Battle of Wednesfield, or the
great national victory gained on that occasion, provided Willenhall with
its name, the event itself may certainly be regarded as the chief
historical episode which has occurred in this immediate vicinity. This
was "far back in the olden time" when, says the local poetess--
The Danes lay camped on Woden's field.
Dr. Willmore, in his "History of Walsall" (p. 30), quotes an authority to
the effect that the battle fought at Wednesfield in the year 911 "had the
important consequence of freeing England from the attacks of these
formidable invaders."
This engagement was one of the many which took place between the Saxon
and the Dane for dynastic supremacy. Even the mighty prowess of Alfred
the Great had failed to give the quietus to Danish pretensions, and his
son, Edward the Elder, was engaged in a life-long struggle with the
Danes, in the course of which the Princess Ethelfleda, who was Edward's
sister, and Great Alfred's daughter, erected castles at Bridgnorth,
Stafford, Warwick, Tamworth, and Wednesbury. Edward the Elder had to
combat Welsh invasions as well as Danish aggressiveness, and hence the
erection of these castles in Mercia, where most of the minor fighting in
that disturbed period occurred. For nine years Ethelfleda fought side by
side with her husband Ethelred, Earl of Mercia, in the pitiless struggle;
and upon his death, continuing as her brother's viceroy, she proved
herself one of the ablest women warriors this country has ever known.
In 910 (the Saxon Chronicle informs us) a battle of more than ordinary
moment was fought at Tettenhall. The Danes were returning from a raid,
laden with rich spoils, when they were overtaken at this spot by the
Angles, on the 5th day of August, and there signally defeated. It was to
avenge this disaster that the Danes swooped down the following summer
from the north, and met their antagonists exactly on the same day of the
year, and almost on the same ground. The latter fact may possibly
indicate that there was some strategic importance in the locality.
Wednesfield being almost within hail of Tettenhall; though the better
informed writers, including Mr. James P. Jones, the historian of
Tettenhall, have been led to consider the two battles as one engagement.
As a matter of fact, the exact site of the Tettenhall engagement is not
known, yet one historian has not hesitated to represent the nature of the
conflict as being "so terrible that it could not be described by the most
exquisite pen." It seems to have been an engagement of that old-time
ferocity which is so exultantly proclaimed in the ancient war song:--
We there, in strife bewild'ring,
Spilt blood enough to swim in:
We orphaned many children,
We widowed many women.
The eagles and the ravens
We glutted with our foemen:
The heroes and the cravens,
The spearmen and the bowmen.
According to Fabius Ethelwerd it was a national and a most memorable
fight which occurred at Wednesfield, where three Danish chieftains fell
in the conflict; in support of which statement it is mentioned that the
Lows, or monumental burial grounds, of the mighty dead are to be found at
Wednesfield and Wrottesley. But Wrottesley is nearer to Tettenhall than
to Wednesfield. The number of tumuli which once lay scattered over the
entire range of this district may perhaps be accountable for the
variations in the mediaeval chronicles. As we shall see, while it is
well agreed that the country lying between Tettenhall and Wombourn on the
one hand, and Wednesfield and Willenhall on the other, was the scene of a
great struggle, the details of the conflict vary very materially at the
hands of different chroniclers. A valuable collection of old records and
historical documents relating to this locality was made by John Huntbach,
of Featherstone and Seawall, near Wolverhampton, nephew and pupil to that
noted antiquary, Sir William Dugdale. The Huntbach MSS. related more
directly to Seisdon; and it was this collection which inspired similar
efforts on the part of the Willenhall Antiquary, Dr. Richard Wilkes, and
ultimately led to the writing of the Rev. Stebbing Shaw's "History of
Staffordshire" (1798-1801).
Speaking of the treatment of the battles of Tettenhall and Wednesfield by
the old monkish historians, Huntbach says:--"There is very great reason
to confirm their testimony who say the battle was here fought; for there
are many tumuli or lows there, that shew some great engagement
hereabouts, viz., the North Lowe, the South Lowe, Little Lowe, Horslowe,
and Thrombelow.
"The first four being yet visible, the North Lowe, near in lands to
croft-lodge, the South Lowe near Mr. Hope's windmill, the great and
little lowe in the heath grounds; but Horslowe is not discernible by
reason of the coal-works that have been here, only it giveth name to the
Horselowe Field, since called Horsehull Field, now Horseley Field.
"And there are not only these, but several others, partly in the way
betwixt this place and Tottenhall, as at Low Hill, near Seawall, a very
large one, and at Hampton Town; and another which giveth name to a field
called Ablow Field, upon which stands a bush now called Isley Cross."
Ablow Field covered 40 acres of unenclosed ground near Graiseley Brook,
and the tumulus once occupied the site now covered by St. Paul's Church.
Dr. Plot believes the ancient remains in Wrottesley Park to be "those of
the old Tettenhall of the Danes, who, having resided there for some time,
built themselves this city, or place of habitation, which, in the year
907, was finally demolished by Edward the Elder in a most signal and
destructive victory. To revenge this fatal quarrel, another army of
Danes collected in Northumbria, and invaded Mercia in the same year, when
King Edward, with a powerful force of West Saxons and Mercians overtook
them at the village of Wednesfield, near Theotenhall (Tettenhall), and
vanquished them again, with much slaughter."
Another account, given by the aforementioned Dr. Wilkes, Willenhall's
most eminent son, and no mean authority on such matters, says that:--"In
the year 895, King Alfred having by a stratagem forced them to leave
Hereford on the Wye, they came up to the River Severn as far as
Bridgnorth, then called Quat, Quatbridge, or Quatford, committing great
enormities, and destroying all before them. We hear no more of them
hereabout for thirteen years, but then they raised a great army and
fought two bloody battles with King Edward."
The contemporary Saxon annals tell us that the Danes were beaten in
Mercia in 911, but do not say where. Doubtless from time to time the
whole plain rang with "the din of battle bray," the shout of exultation,
and the groan of pain; with the clash of steel on steel, and the dull
thud of mighty battleaxe on shields of tough bull hide, all through that
disturbed period. It would appear from a later account that at the
earlier engagement of 910, which by this writer has been confidently
located between Tettenhall and the Wergs, King Edward was himself in
command of the Saxon forces, and that he not only gained a decisive
victory, but pursued the enemy for five weeks, following them up in their
northern fastnesses beyond the Watling Street, from one Danish village to
another, burning and utterly wasting every one of them as they had been
mere hornets' nests.
At the encounter of the following year (A.D. 911) the Danes, after a
great pillaging expedition, having strongly posted themselves at
Wednesfield, little advantage was gained by either side after many hours
of hard fighting, till at last the Saxons were reinforced by Earl
Kenwolf. Victory then fell to the Saxons.
This Kenwolf, who is said to have been the greatest notable of the
locality, and seated on a good estate at Stowe Heath, was mortally
wounded in the fray; and on the opposite side there fell Healfden and
Ecwills, two Danish kings; Ohter and Scurfar, two of their Earls; a
number of other great noblemen and generals, among them Othulf, Beneting,
Therferth, Guthferth, Agmund, Anlaf the Black, and Osferth the
tax-gatherer, and a host of men. The name of a third slaughtered king,
Fuver, is given by another old chronicler. It is to the quality rather
than to the quantity of the slain that the locality is indebted for the
number of tumuli on which so much of this superstructure of quasi-history
seems to be raised.
The historians who restrict themselves to "two" kings specify the North
Lowe at Wednesfield as the sepulchral monument of one, and the South Lowe
of the other. "There was," says Shaw, the county historian, "a little to
the south of the Walsall Road, half a mile south-west of the village of
Nechels, a great low called Stowman Hill."
Dr. Plot, writing in 1686, declares "the bank above Nechels, where now is
a stone pit, Stowman Low, now removed to mend the roads, and Northfield,
to be the genuine remains; but the bank where the windmill stood was a
hard rock, several yards below the surface of the earth, and there was
nothing remarkable found upon the removing of Stowman Low, so that all
this is uncertainty."
Although the precise location of the Tettenhall battleground has always
puzzled the antiquaries, there are, says one authority, "three lows on
the common between Wombourn and Swin, placed in a right line that runs
directly east and west, and about half a mile to the north of them is
another, by the country people called Soldiers' Hill. They are all large
and capable of covering a great number of dead bodies.
"There cannot be the least doubt but this place was the scene of action,
for King Edward, to perpetuate the memory of this signal victory, I
presume, here founded a church, called by the name of the place Wonbourn,
now Wombourn; and took this whole parish out of the parish of Tettenhall,
which, before this battle, extended as far as the forest of Kinver." It
may be added, for whatever such support is worth, that in times past a
number of ancient weapons have been dug up at Wombourne.
Coming to the latest and most reliable authority, Mr. W. H. Duignan, of
Walsall, here is what he writes in his admirable work, "Staffordshire
Place Names," under the heading "Low Hill," which is the name of an
ancient estate at Bushbury:--
"Huntbach the antiquary, wrote in the 17th century that there was then a
very large tumulus here. Much, if not the whole of it, has been since
destroyed. The hill is lofty and a place likely to be selected for the
burial of some prehistoric magnate. In 911 a battle was fought between
the Saxons and the Danes, called in the Chronicles the battle of
Tettenhall, but which was really waged on Wednesfield Heath (now Heath
Town).
"The dead were buried as usual under mounds, which in Huntbach's time
still remained, and were known as North Low, South Low, the Little Low,
the Great Low, Horselow, Tromelow, and Ablow (many of these names
survive), besides others which had then disappeared. It is therefore
difficult to say whether the low here was a prehistoric tumulus or a
battle mound."
Dr. Langford, in his "Staffordshire and Warwickshire" (p. 177), writing
less than forty years ago, says that "a large number of tumuli exist near
Wednesfield"; but the utilitarianism of the farmer and the miner would
make it difficult to find many of these grass-crowned records on the
Willenhall side of the battleground now. Dr. Windle, in his able work,
"Remains of the Prehistoric Age in England" (published in 1904) gives a
list of existing Barrows and Burial-mounds in this country, including
some nine or ten in Staffordshire, but makes no mention of Wednesfield,
Wombourne, or Tettenhall.
[Picture: Decorative flower]
II.--The Saxon Settlement
Fourteen or fifteen centuries ago the cluster of places which we now know
as the town of Wolverhampton, and the numerous industrial centres grouped
around it, were then primitive Saxon settlements, each of them peopled by
the few families that claimed kinship with each other.
These embryo townships were dotted about the clearings which had been
made in the thick primeval forest with which the whole face of England
was then covered, save only where the surface was barren hill or
undrained swamp. Does not the terminal "field," in such a place-name as
Wednesfield, literally mean "feld," or the woodland clearing from which
the timbers had been "felled"? Each settlement, whether called a "ham"
(that is, a home), or a "tun" (otherwise a town), was a
farmer-commonwealth, cultivating the village fields in common; each was
surrounded by a "mark," or belt of waste land, which no man might
appropriate, and no stranger advance across without first blowing his
horn to give timely notice of his approach. Remnants of these open
unappropriated lands may be traced by such place-names as Wednesfield
"Heath," and Monmore "Green."
At the outset each settlement at its foundation was independent of, and
co-equal with, the others; Saxon society being founded on a system of
family groupings, and a government of the ancient patriarchal type.
All questions of government and public interest were settled by the voice
of the people in "moot," or open-air meeting, assembled beneath the
shelter of some convenient tree. Our ancestors were an open-air,
freedom-loving people, who mistrusted walls and contemned fortifications.
In course of time, however, the exigencies of their environment--the
aggressiveness of neighbours and foreigners, the incursions of invaders
and marauders--materially modified their views, and changed their habits
in this respect; and so it came about in the scheme of national defence
that the temple-crowned hill of Woden became Woden's burh (now
Wednesbury), a hill fortified by deep ditch and high stockade.
Presently the family tie gave way to the lordship, as certain chiefs,
under the stress of circumstances, acquired domination over others, and
hence arose the manor or residential lordship, the head of which took
pledges for the fidelity of those below him, and in turn became
responsible for them to the king above him--a system of mutual
inter-dependence from the head of the state downwards. Under these new
conditions Stow Heath became the head of a Saxon manor, in which were
involved Willenhall, Wolverhampton, Bilston, Wednesfield, Eccleshall, and
a number of other village settlements. Some of these, however, were in
the Hundred of Seisdon, and some in the Hundred of Offlow--a "hundred"
being originally the division of a county that contained a hundred
villages.
The unregenerate Teuton was a pirate and a plunderer; the settled Saxon
became an oversea trader and trafficker. The Anglo-Saxon merchant of
later and more settled times, raised by his wealth to the dignity of a
thane, became a landed man, and a lord over his fellows. Herein we have
the transition from a free village community to a Saxon manor.
At Wolverhampton was seated one Wolfric, said to have been an ancestor of
Wolfgeat, and a relation to Wulfruna; his manor house was situated on the
slope of the hill between the present North Street and Waterloo
Road--doubtless a large rambling mansion of low elevation, built of heavy
timbers on a low plinth of boulders and hewn stones.
Here at Hantun he kept his state--such as the luxury of the age permitted
to him. Seated in his great oaken hall, with its heavy roof timbers, at
the close of each day he drank deep draughts with his guests and his
numerous servants, in the flaring light of odorous resin torches stuck in
iron staples along the walls. The smoke from his fire of logs escaped as
lazily as it might through an aperture in the roof. The earthen floor
was strewn with rushes, more or less clean as it was littered by the
refuse of few or more feasts. The only furniture consisted of a long
trestle table, with rude benches of oak on each side; the whole effort at
ornamentation being limited to trophies of war and the chase hanging upon
the walls. Such, in brief, was the home life of a great thane.
It will be observed that Wednesfield and Wednesbury at least were founded
by the Saxons in their pagan days; that is before their acceptance of the
White Christ, which was towards the close of the seventh century.
Tradition hath it that at the Anglian advent into this district, the
worship of Woden was first set up in a grove at Wednesfield. Here was
first fixed the Woden Stone, the sacred altar on which human sacrifices
were offered of that dread Teutonic deity, Woden.
It was carved with Runic figures--for was not Woden the inventor of the
Runic characters? In sacrificing, the priest, at the slaying of the
victim, took care to consecrate the offering by pronouncing always the
solemn formula, "I devote thee to Woden!"
Part of the blood was then sprinkled on the worshippers, part on the
sacred grove; the bodies were then either burnt on the altar or suspended
on trees within this mystic grove. Later, when some advance had been
made by the hierarchy, the Woden Stone was removed from the Wednesfield
grove to be erected within the temple of Woden at Wednesbury.
There are other evidences of pagan practices to be discovered in
Staffordshire place-names. Tutbury is said to derive its name from
Tuisto, the Saxon god who gave the name to Tuesday, as Woden lent his to
Wednesday; and Thursfield from Thor, the deity worshipped on Thursday.
There is also Thor's cave, still so-called, in the north of this county
(see "Staffordshire Curiosities," p. 159), and other similar reminders of
Anglo-Saxon paganism.
It is not outside the bounds of possibility that a third local place-name
is traceable to the personality of Woden. Sedgley may be derived from
Sigge's Lea, and Sigge was the real name of the Teutonic conqueror who,
in overrunning north-west Europe, assumed the name of Woden for the sake
of prestige--he was the founder of Sigtuna, otherwise Sigge's town, in
Sweden. In the science of English place-names it is well-known that
while hills and streams and other natural phenomena were allowed to
retain their old British names (as Barr, "a summit," and Tame, "a flood
water"), towns, villages, and other political divisions were very
generally renamed by the Saxon conquerors, the places in many instances
being called after the personal names of their owners.
Here are some local illustrations of place-names conferred by the Anglian
invaders when they had conquered and appropriated the territory.
Arley, otherwise Earnlege, was "the Eagle's ley."
Bilston signifies "the town of Bil's folk."
Blakenhall was "the hall of Blac."
Bloxwich was "the village of Bloc": as Wightwick was "Wiht's village."
Bushbury was "the Bishop's burg."
Chillington was originally "Cille's town."
Codsall was "Code's hall."
Darlaston was once "Deorlaf's town."
Dunstall, otherwise Tunstall, was "an enclosed farmstead," half a mile
outside the ancient boundary of Cannock Forest.
Essington was "the town of the descendants of Esne."
Ettingshall was "the hall of the Etri family."
Featherstone seems to have been "Feader's stone." According to a charter
of the year 994 there was then a large stone called the "Warstone," to
mark the boundary of this place.
Hatherton, or Hagathornden, signifies "the hill of the hawthorn."
Kinvaston was perhaps "Cyneweald's town." Dr. Olive in his "History of
Wolverhampton Church," says that being originally a place of consequence.
Kinvaston was placed at the head of the Wolverhampton prebends.
Moseley was the "mossy or marshy lea": as Bradley the "broad lea"; and
Bentley was the "lea of bent" or reedy grass.
Newbolds, an ancient farm in Wednesfield, is an Anglo-Saxon name, "niwe
bold," and it pointed out "the new house."
Ogley Hay, now called Brownhills, was originally Ocginton, or "Ocga's
town."
Pelsall may be translated "Peol's Hall."
Pendeford was once "Penda's ford."
Scotlands were "the corner-lands," this hamlet being at the corner of a
triangular piece of land, bounded on all sides by ancient roads.
Seisdon was probably "the Saxon's Hill."
Showells, or Sewalls, at Bushbury, on the confines of Cannock Forest, was
the place where "scarecrows" (as the name probably means) were set up or
shown on hedgetops to prevent the deer passing from the Forest on to
enclosed or cultivated land.
Stowe, a name signifying an enclosed or "stockaded" place, was another
seat of a great thane; or it might have been the residential portion of
the large manor or lordship already alluded to.
Tettenhall was possibly Tetta's hall; or, more probably, "Spy hall,"
otherwise a watch tower.
Tromelow, commonly called Rumbelows, a farm on the site of one of the
Wednesfield lows, is a name that may literally mean "the burial mound of
the host." The corruption Rumbelow is probably made out of the phrase
"At Tromelowe."
Wergs (The), through many transformations from Wytheges to Wyrges, is
"the withy hedges."
Wobaston, an estate in Bushbury, was anciently "Wibald's town."
Wombourne was the "bourne (or brook) in the hollow."
Wolverhampton was at first Heantune, or Hamtun, otherwise the "High
town," to which name was prefixed soon after the year 994 that of
Wulfrun, a lady of rank who gave great possessions to the Church; and
hence was evolved the more distinctive name, Wulfrunhamtun, since
modified into its present form.
Although some of these names (as Showells, formerly Sewall) may not date
quite back to the Saxon period, most of them may be accepted as
present-day evidences of the great Teutonic descent upon this Midland
locality. One of the very few Celtic place-names retained from the
previous occupiers is Monmore, which in the tongue of the ancient Britons
signified "the boggy mere."
[Picture: Decorative flower]
IV.--The Founding of Wulfruna's Church, 996, A.D.
After the advent of Christianity, the new religion was gradually advanced
throughout the land by the settlement of priest-missioners in the various
localities. Where the missionary settled on the invitation, or under the
protection of a thane, or "lord," that lordship was formed into a parish.
Thus some parishes doubtless became co-terminous with the old manors.
Owing, however, to the many changes of jurisdiction in the course of
succeeding centuries, it is difficult to find instances of parish and
manor of identical area in this locality. Bescot was a manor within the
parish of Walsall; Bloxwich and Shelfield were anciently members of the
manor of Wednesbury, though now included in Walsall; Bentley, at the
Norman Conquest, was part of the manor of Willenhall, then belonging to
Wolverhampton Church; while Dunstall was a member of the King's manor of
Stow Heath. Tettenhall parish originally included as many as a dozen
manors and townships.
England is made up of some ten thousand parishes, each with its parish
church, around which for a thousand years has revolved the social and
political, as well as the whole religious life of the place. The parish
is our unit of local government, and the history of a town is usually a
history of the parish.
But Willenhall never was a parish. It is merely a member of a parish--of
the extensive, the straggling, and loosely-knit parish of Wolverhampton.
In Wolverhampton, three miles away, was located the mother church, to
which it owed spiritual allegiance, and there was situated the Vestry for
parochial assemblies, and all else that stood for self-government
throughout the centuries. And those were the centuries when Church and
State were indissolubly bound together; when a dominant church claimed,
and was recognised as having an inalienable share in the government of
the people. Hence it will transpire in these pages that for centuries
the story of Willenhall was involved in the ecclesiastical history of
Wolverhampton.
The ancient parish of Wolverhampton lies widely dispersed and very
detached, containing no less than 17 townships and hamlets, all subject
to the collegiate church in matters ecclesiastical, though in many cases
being distinct in matters secular. How broken the area is may be noted
in the case of Pelsall, which is cut off from the mother parish by
Bloxwich, a hamlet in Walsall parish.
Willenhall is one among several other neighbouring places that, from the
earliest period of England's acceptance of Christianity, had its fate
inseparably linked with that of Wolverhampton. In the giving way of
paganism before the steady advances of the new religion, progress in this
immediate part of the kingdom was marked by the founding of Tettenhall
Church (A.D. 966), followed thirty years afterwards by Lady Wulfruna's
further efforts at evangelisation in the setting up at Hampton (or High
Town) of another Christian church.
This was in the reign of Ethelred the Unrede, which was a period sadly
troubled by the aggressions of the Danes; and it is believed that
Wulfruna (or Wulfrun) had designed to found a monastery, though as early
as the time of Edward the Confessor, or within a century of its
institution, her establishment is found to be a Collegiate Church.
With this accession of dignity, and in grateful recognition of the lady's
pious munificence, the town became known as Wulfrun's Hampton, now
modified in Wolverhampton.
Of Wulfruna herself but little is known. Whether she was sister of King
Edgar, as some suppose, or the widow of Aldhelm, Duke of Northumberland,
cannot be decided. It is known, however, that she was a lady of rank,
and was captured when Olaf, in command of a Viking host, took Tamworth by
storm. Hampton did not bear her name until some years after her death.
In founding her noble church at Wolverhampton, Wulfruna endowed it with
thirteen estates, including lands in Willenhall, Wednesfield, Pelsall,
Essington, Hilton, Walsall, Featherstone, Hatherton, Kinvaston, Bilston,
and Arley. Willenhall being only three miles away from Wolverhampton,
and being also for a long time ecclesiastically incorporated with it, its
history at many points cannot be detached from that of the mother parish.
The wording of the charter by which the gift was made is quaintly
interesting. It sets forth that: "In the year 996, from the Passion of
our said Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ," Sigeric, Archbishop of
Canterbury, "with the Lord's flock of servants unceasingly serving God,"
have granted a privilege "to the noble matron and religious woman
Wulfruna," in "order that she may attain a seat in heaven," and that "for
her mass may be said unceasingly for ever" in the "ancient monastery of
Hamtun."
The Charter (inter alia) grants "ten hides of land for the body of my
husband," and another "ten hides of land" for the offences of her
"Kinsman Wulfgeal" lest he should hear in the judgment the "dreaded"
sentence, "Go away from me," &c. A third "ten hides" of land are granted
on account of "my sole daughter Elfthryth," who "has migrated from the
world to the life-giving airs."
Mr. Duignan, who has made a close study of the Charter, says "the limits
of the parishes and of the townships included in the grant are now
precisely what they were a thousand years ago."
The boundaries of the lands conferred by the noble benefactress are set
forth with much precision, as in the noting of brooks and fords, of parks
and woods, of fields and lanes and lands; and in very few cases has Mr.
Duignan failed to recognise the old names and identify them with the
modern appellations of the places meant, among the latter being
Willenhall, Wednesfield, Pelsall, Hilton, Ogley Hay, Hatherton, Cannock,
Moseley Hole, Twyford, Walsall, &c.
The original Charter has not been heard of since 1646, when it was
supposed to be copied by Sir William Dugdale into his monumental work,
the "Monasticon," assisted by Roger Dodsworth, a joint editor with him.
If it is still in existence Mr. Duignan assumes it is in the possession
of the Dean and Chapter of the Royal Chapel of Windsor, with which the
Deanery of Wolverhampton was united--as will be seen later. The formal
parts of the deed are in Latin, and the descriptions of the properties
are in Anglo-Saxon, which makes it an interesting study of place-names.
Wolverhampton church, dedicated to St. Mary, was a collegiate
establishment, with a dean as president, and a number of prebendaries or
canons who were "secular" priests, and not brethren of any of the regular
"orders of monks."
All the privileges which the College possessed in Lady Wulfruna's
lifetime were afterwards confirmed by Edward the Confessor, and
subsequently by William the Conqueror.
* * * * *
The dedication of Wulfruna's church and its consecration by Sigeric, the
archbishop, have been described in verse by a local poetess. This was
Mrs. Frank P. Fellows, a daughter of the famous Sir Rowland Hill, and
once resident at Goldthorn Hill. Her husband was a native of
Wolverhampton, a distinguished public servant, connected with the
Admiralty, a Knight of St. John of Jerusalem, an antiquarian and a
scientist. In a book of his published poems appear portraits of himself
and his wife.
Mrs. Fellows (whose mother, Lady Hill, was a daughter of Joseph Pearson,
Esq., J.P., of Graiseley), also wrote poems--some of which appeared in
"Punch," some in "Belgravia," and some in other magazines--and published
a small book of verse in 1857.
It is from one long piece, entitled "Fancies by the Fire," in which the
long retrospect of Wolverhampton's ancient history unrolls itself before
the imagination of the poetess, that the following extracts are taken.
After a description of the battle of Wednesfield, we read:--
The Princess Wulfruna heard the deeds,
Told by the fire in her stately hall.
Alas! then said the gentle dame,
It grieves me sore such things should be.
Now, by the Christ that died on tree,
The Christ that died for them and me,
These heathen souls shall all be free
From sin, and pain of Purgat'ry;
In token of our victory,
Where masses shall be sung and said,
And prayers told for the restless dead
That wander still on Woden's Plain--
It shall be raised in Mary's name.
The noble lady with her train, and accompanied by the Archbishop Sigeric,
pays a visit of inspection to the locality she designs thus to honour,
passing beneath the shade of "the forest trees of Theotanhall" on her
way--
And as they passed thro' Dunstall Wood,
And stopped to drink where a streamlet fell,
Then said the lady fair and good
Here will I build a wayside well.
Now Hampton town before them lay.
But first they sought out Woden's plain,
Where lay the bleached bones of the slain.
After the Archbishop had offered up a prayer for the dead--
At length they stood upon the height
That rises over Hampton town;
There, amid knight, and dame, and priest,
The Princess Wulfrune laid the stone,
The first stone on the holy fane.
Then solemnly the pious lady removed from her royal brows the golden
coronet that hitherto had graced it, and put in place of it a crown of
thorns, saying--
It were ill done that I have worn
A golden crown, while Jesus sweet
For my sake wore a crown of thorn;
And here I dedicate my days
To Him until my life be sped.
Thus far the foundation of the mother church--much more of the town's
history follows in like strain.
* * * * * *
Willenhall was slightly connected with another religious foundation. In
the year 1002 Burton Abbey was founded by Wulfric Spott, Earl of Mercia.
This establishment was richly endowed with lands, not only in
Staffordshire, but also with estates in Derbyshire and Warwickshire.
The names of the various places included in this munificent grant afford
a very interesting study in Saxon nomenclature. For instance, in the
Second Indorsement of the Charter conferring the noble gift, we may be
interested to discover that "2 hides of land in Wilinhale," lying in
"Offalawe Hundred" are among the properties donated to this great
Staffordshire Monastery.
V.--The Collegiate Establishment
We cannot be too insistent on the close connection long subsisting
between Willenhall and Wolverhampton owing to the fact of the former
being a part of Wulfruna's endowment of her collegiate church.
Wulfruna's foundation consisted of a dean, eight prebendaries or canons,
and a sacrist. The dean was the president of this chapter, or
congregation of clergy, whose duly was to chant the daily service. The
sacrist was also a cleric, but his duties were more generally concerned
with the college establishment.
A prebendary, it may be explained, is one who enjoys a prebend or
canonical portion; that is, who receives in right of his place, a share
out of the common stock of the church for his maintenance. Each prebend
of Wolverhampton church was endowed with the income arising from the
lands from which it took its name; as, the prebend of Willenhall. In the
course of time the tithes derivable from these lands became alienated.
Sampson Erdeswick, whose history of this county was commenced in 1593,
says the foundation was effectuated in 970 by King Edgar, at the request
of his dying sister, Wulfruna.
"She founded a chapel of eight portionaries (is the way Erdeswick puts
it) whom, by incorporation, she made rector of that parish
(Wolverhampton) to receive the tithes in common, but devisable by a
yearly lot. The head or chief of these she made patron to them all, and
sole ordinary of that whole parish."
The foundation was designated the "royal free church of Wolverhampton,"
the term "free" signifying that it was free of the ordinary supervision
of the ecclesiastical authorities, being exempt from both episcopal
jurisdiction and the papal supremacy. Indeed, it had been better for the
church had it been less free, for in the time of King John the
debaucheries and gross immoralities of these undisciplined parochial
clergy brought much discredit upon the priestly college.
The dean and the prebends had special seats or stalls in the choir of the
church; the sacrist had no stall, neither had he any voice in the
chapter. In modern times (1811) the sacrist has become the perpetual
curate of the parish.
It will be noted that the head of this college of seculars was styled the
"sole ordinary" of the parish, which is equivalent to saying he was
invested with judicial powers therein like a bishop in a diocese. He had
authority cum omnimoda jurisdictione, and was exempt not only from the
episcopal over-lordship of Coventry and Lichfield by express composition,
but also by papal bull from the legates and delegates of Rome for ever.
In fact, so independent was the foundation made at the outset, it
remained for centuries subject only to the royal authority of the Majesty
of England, and under it to the perpetual visitation of the Keepers of
the Great Seal for the time being.
In the year 1338, Edward III. confirmed the charter of the church as a
royal free chapter, giving the Dean the jurisdiction of a Court Leet, and
a copyhold Court Baron, to be called the Deanery Court of Wolverhampton.
About this time, too, the church was rebuilt on more spacious and
magnificent lines. Mrs. Fellows, in her topographical rhyme, previously
quoted, sings of the erection of the tower
In the third Edward's time.
The college then consisted of the ten members of the foundation just
mentioned, augmented by other ministers and officers necessary for
conducting so large an establishment, the prebendaries being officially
mentioned in this order:--(1) Wolverhampton; (2) Kinvaston; (3)
Featherstone; (4) Hilton; (5) Willenhall; (6) Monmore; (7) Wobaston; (8)
Hatherton.
By the fifteenth century Chantries had been founded, and chapels erected
therefor, at Willenhall, Bilston, Pelsall, and at Hatherton; and in
further depreciation of the mother church, King Edward IV., about 1465,
with a desire to enrich the Collegiate Church of St. George, at Windsor,
annexed Wolverhampton to that chapel royal.
In Protestant times the daily services were performed by the sacrist and
the readers, the prebendaries officiating on Sundays in rotation,
according to a set cycle. The time set out for the prebendary of
Willenhall commenced on the Sunday after Ash Wednesday; till eventually
exemption was purchased by the payment of a small fee to the Perpetual
Curate.
In olden times it was a common practice to carve the choir seats. The
prebendal stalls in Wolverhampton church were marked with heraldic
shields charged with simple ordinaries, in the following manner:--the
following manner:--
ON THE SOUTH SIDE.
1. The Dean. On a fess, three roundels.
2. Prebendary of Featherstone. A pale cotised.
3. Prebendary of Willenhall. A Chevron.
4. Prebendary of Wobaston. A Chevron.
5. Prebendary of Hatherton. A pale cotised.
ON THE NORTH SIDE.
6. Prebendary of Kinvaston. (Stall removed.)
7. Prebendary of Hilton. A Chevron renverse.
8. Prebendary of Monmore. A Chevron.
To assist in the identification of the various estates chargeable with
the provisions of the prebends, or canonical portions, it may be useful
to give here a brief account of a perambulation of the Wolverhampton
parish boundaries made in 1824.
It was a regular Rogation ceremony of "beating the bounds" and occupied
three whole days, so widely scattered is this extensive, far-reaching
parish. It will be observed that the Hatherton here dealt with is not
the Staffordshire village of that name, two miles north-west of Cannock.
Wobaston, it will be remembered, has previously been mentioned as
situated in Bushbury; while Monmore Green is still a well-known
place-name. The other names occur in self-explanatory context. The
detailed account of this perambulation, of which the following is but a
summary, will be found in the appendix to Dr. Oliver's "History":--