Furnaces) wrote the Guide to the Fine Arts Section of the South
Staffordshire Exhibition, held at Molineux House, Wolverhampton, in 1869.
The writer was himself an artist, and he afterwards produced some
valuable Memoirs of David Cox (1873), and of the Bristol painter, William
James Muller (1875).
The most eminent litterateur Willenhall has produced is Mr. James
Carpenter Tildesley, a lock manufacturer, as we have seen, and a
life-long public man in the town. Reference has already been made to his
writings on industrial subjects, and also to his works on the history of
local Methodism. As a public man, he is a Justice of the Peace for the
County, a chairman of Willenhall Petty Sessional Division, has been
president of the Wolverhampton Chamber of Commerce, chairman of the
Willenhall Local Board, and chairman of the Willenhall Liberal
Association. Since his retirement to Penkridge he has written a history
of that parish, which was published by Steen and Co., of Wolverhampton,
in 1886.
Mr. J. C. Tildesley was sub-editor of the "Birmingham Morning News" under
the famous George Dawson, and has been a most diligent contributor to the
Press for the last forty years. It was mainly by his efforts that the
Willenhall Literary Institute was founded, that what is now the Public
Hall was built, and that the Free Library was established.
In recognition of his work in connection with the Literary Institute, a
public presentation was made to him, the inscription upon which bore this
eloquent testimony--"Not to requite but to record services of great value
to Willenhall . . . January 4th, 1869." That Mr. J. C. Tildesley is now
permanently invalided is a matter of regret not only to Willenhall, but
to a wide circle of readers and admirers outside the township.
XXX.--Topography.
There is often a wealth of history to be unearthed from place-names.
Localities often preserve the names of dead and gone personages,
half-forgotten incidents, and matters of past history well worth
recalling for their interest. Besides the pleasure to be derived from
the right interpretation of place-names and old street names, great
interest often centres around the social associations of old inns and
taverns. Let us consider a few of the old-time inns and localities of
Willenhall.
The site of the mediaeval Holy Well, which in the later fashion of the
18th century blossomed forth as a Spa, was situated between the church
and the present Manor House. In the remoter age we may imagine it as the
haunt of the lame, the halt, and the blind (possibly the church was
dedicated to St. Giles, the patron of cripples, on this account), and in
the more recent period as the resort of fashionable invalids and wealthy
valetudinarians.
In the Private Act of Parliament, dated 6th August, 1844, for disposing
of the Willenhall Endowment properties, a number of field-names occur in
the schedule which are pregnant with local history. Welch End is a name
which seems to mark the locality where resided the family of Welch, who
founded the church dole; the Doctor's Piece was perhaps part of the
estate of the celebrated Dr. Wilkes; the Clothers and the Little
Clothiers are names which are said to indicate certain lands once
belonging to the Cloth-workers' Company of the City of London; Somerford
Bridge Piece and the Hither Bathing were presumably located near the
brook; while the Poor's Piece, the Constable's Dole, and the Dole's Butty
(query: does the last-named, interpreted in the dialect of the district,
signify "the companion piece to the Dole?"), are names which suggest the
identity of charity lands.
There is mention of a High Causeway, which manifestly indicates the
position of some old paved road; and the Butts, doubtless, named the
field where in ancient times archery was practised by the men of
Willenhall, as the men of Darlaston did at the Butcroft in their parish.
Reverting to the schedule, there are some names for which no explanation
can be offered; as Ell Park, Berry Stile, the Stringes, and the Farther
Stringes. Many of the properties named in the list are declared to be
"uninclosed lands that lie dispersedly in the Common Fields there,
intermixed with other lands." How much, or rather, how little, common
land is there in Willenhall to-day?
And yet the amount of "waste" land in and around Willenhall was once
excessive, as the writings of George Borrow cannot fail to convey (Chap.
XXVIII.). In Chap. XXII. we read of Canne Byrch, situated in "Willenhall
Field," lying in the highway towards Darlaston, where perhaps the village
community of ancient times tilled their lands in common; and more
directly of the "waste or common land" called Shepwell Green; a wide
stretch of open land once apparently stretching away towards the
wilderness and solitudes of that gipsy-land immortalised by George
Borrow.
"Willenhall Green" is named by Dr. Plot, writing in 1686, as a place
where yellow ochre was found a yard below the surface, and which after
being beaten up was made into oval cakes to be sold at fourpence a dozen
to glovers, who used it in combination with cakes of "blew clay," found
at Darlaston and Wednesbury, "for giving their wares an ash colour."
The old highway between Walsall and Wolverhampton lay along Walsall
Street, through Cross Street, and the Market Place; the new coach route,
or the New Road, as it was called, was made in the early part of the
nineteenth century.
New Invention is a place-name which originated not from any connection
with the local industries, as one might be led to expect, but from
nothing more serious than a nickname of derision. The tradition is that
many years ago an inhabitant from the centre of the town was strolling
out that way, when he was thus accosted by an acquaintance living in one
of the few cottages which then comprised the neighbourhood, and who was
standing on his own doorstep to enjoy the cool of the evening: "I say,
Bill, hast seen my new invention?" "No, lad; what is it?" "That's it!"
said the self-satisfied householder, pointing up to a hawthorn bush which
was pushed out of the top of his chimney. "That's it! It's stopped our
o'd chimdy smokin', I can tell thee!" And ever after that the locality
which this worthy honoured with his ingenious presence was slyly dubbed
by his amused neighbours the "New Invention," by which name it afterwards
became generally known.
Portobello, on the outskirts of Willenhall, is said to have borrowed its
name from that second-hand Portobello near Leith, which was named after
Admiral Vernon's famous victory of 1739. At the Scottish suburb a bed of
rich clay, discovered in 1765, led to the development of the place
through the establishment of brick and tile works; a similar discovery of
a thick bed of clay outside Willenhall, and its subsequent industrial
development on parallel lines led to the copying of that patriotic name,
more particularly because a neighbouring coal-pit was already rejoicing
in the name of Bunker's Hill, conferred upon it by local patriots after
the American victory of 1775. The Willenhall wags, however, have given
quite another derivation. A man once passing a solitary farmhouse in
that locality, say they, called and inquired if the farmer had any beer
on tap. The reply was, as the man pointed cellarwards, "No--only porter
below!"
Little London seems to be a locality which attempts to shine by the
reflected glory of the capital's borrowed name, and is appropriately
approached by a thoroughfare called Temple Bar; but which of these
metropolitan names suggested the other, the oldest inhabitant fails to
recollect.
Among the old inns and taverns of the town the chief were the Neptune
Inn, Walsall Street; the Bull's Head, Wolverhampton Street; the Hope and
Anchor, Little London; the Bell Inn, Market Place; and the Waterglade
Tavern, Waterglade. The Neptune, situated on the main road between
Wolverhampton and Walsall, and almost opposite the church, was formerly a
posting-house kept in the 18th and early part of the 19th century by
Isaac Hartill, one of those typical hosts of the coaching period; active,
genial, and obliging, a man of good conversational powers, and one who
instantly made his guests feel at home, and was extremely popular with
all the local gentry and regular travellers along the road. With the
advent of the railway the character of the Neptune Inn gradually
altered--the railway, by the way, was cut through the crescent,
overlooking Bentley Hall, a property which had belonged to and had been
the residence of the Hartill family since 1704, and part of which is now
The Robin Hood Grounds, used for sports and recreations and other
out-door assemblies.
It was from the balcony above the entry of the Neptune Inn, over which
was then the public drawing-room, that the Right Hon. Charles P. Villiers
first addressed the electors of the newly-enfranchised borough of
Wolverhampton in 1835, and subsequently made many of his fervent Free
Trade speeches; and in fact, from this place all public announcements
were wont to be made. The room behind the balcony was formerly used as a
Court Room, in which the magistrates administered justice; here too, the
Willenhall Court Leet was held, and to this day Lord Barnard's agents
receive the tithes there.
The Neptune once served all the purposes of a lending inn as an
acknowledged place of public rendezvous; and when the Stowheath farmers
were accustomed to ride or drive in to attend church, its spacious
stableyard was a scene of animation, even on Sundays.
The Bell Inn, in the Market Place, is perhaps the oldest in the market
taverns, though the date 1660 painted upon its sign can scarcely refer to
the projecting wing which bears it. The back portion of the house is
unquestionably old; in fact, the family of Wakelam who kept the inn 25
years ago, were identified with this house and the Bull's Head Inn for
upwards of two centuries.
The Plough Inn, Stafford Street, is less old than the others, and of more
doubtful interest. It has been completely altered within recent years;
in the old days when prisoners consigned to Stafford Gaol had to walk, it
was the place of the final drink before starting, and marked the limits
of the town till Little London began.
The Bull's head Inn, Wolverhampton Street, is supposed to be the alehouse
referred to in Borrow's romantic tale of Romany life, "Lavengro."
The Waterglade Tavern marked the spot on the road between the two
old-world villages of Willenhall and Bilston, where it dipped to the bed
of the stream.
The Woolpack Inn, at Short Heath, is one of the oldest licensed houses in
that locality.
The First and Last Inn, New Invention, was so dubbed because at one time
it was the first licensed house when approaching from Wednesfield, and
the last when going the other way out.
The sign rhymes of Willenhall belong to the hackneyed type. The Gate
Inn, New Invention, has the well-known couplet:--
This Gate hangs well and hinders none:
Refresh and pay and travel on.
The Lame Dog Inn, at Short Heath, is not very original with:--
Step in, my friends, and stop a while,
To help a lame dog over the stile.
Enough has been said on the subject to arouse the interest of patriotic
Willenhaleans. One reflection in conclusion--in the old days licensed
houses were invariably kept by families of position and substance, and it
is remarkable to discover the great number of professional and well-to-do
men of the present day who were born in public-houses. It is so with
regard to Wednesbury and Darlaston, and even more so with regard to
Willenhall.
[Picture: Decorative design]
XXXI.--Old Families and Names of Note.
To not a few of the old names of those who have lived their lives in
Willenhall, and left their mark indelibly fixed upon its annals,
attention has already been paid in treating of the various matters with
which their respective life-work was associated. It remains here only to
add a few more names to our list of Willenhall worthies, and to
supplement a few biographical details to those already mentioned.
The index to the names of landowners would be incomplete without that of
Offley. In the year 1555 Alderman Offley, a citizen of London, acquired
lands in "Willenhall, otherwise Wilnall." About the same date this
opulent merchant became lord of the manor of Darlaston. (See History of
Darlaston, pp. 39-40.)
An important old Willenhall family, as may have been gathered in the
course of these Annals, was that of Hincks. Their family residence still
stands in Bilston Street, near to the Market Place; a descendant, and
apparently the only representative of the Hincks family surviving is Mrs.
Samuel Walker, of Bentley Hall.
Of Carpenter, Willenhall's most famous inventor, a few more items of
local and biographical interest are forthcoming. In early life James
Carpenter was a Churchman, but, as many other Willenhall folk did, became
a Wesleyan in consequence of the scandals caused by the Rev. Mr.
Moreton's mode of life. His remains lie in a vault on the east side of
the Wesleyan Chapel in Union Street. He was a keen supporter of the
Right Hon. C. P. Villiers when he first became a Parliamentary candidate
for Wolverhampton.
John Austin, the tradesman, who first issued the "Willenhall farthings,"
mentioned in Chapter XXVII., was an enterprising tradesman, a man of
handsome presence and of an alert mind. On leaving Willenhall he went to
live at Manor House, Allscott, near Wellington, at which town he
established artificial manure works, and where he manufactured sulphuric
acid very extensively.
The issue of the Willenhall trade farthings was continued by Rushbrooke,
his successor in the business (1853), though the original date, "1844"
was always retained upon them. They were sold to shopkeepers and traders
all round the district at the rate of 5s. nominal for 4s. 9d. cash. When
the new national bronze coinage came into circulation in 1860, large
quantities of these copper farthing tokens were returned on to Mr
Rushbrooke's hands, but he melted them down without sustaining the least
loss.
[Picture: Josiah Tildesley, Senr. Prominent Wesleyan and Highly Esteemed
Townsman]
The Hartill family has long been settled in Willenhall. George Hartill
married Isabel Cross, at St. Peter's Church, Wolverhampton, in 1662. All
their nine children were baptised at St. Giles's Church, Willenhall. The
present Dr. J. T. Hartill is descended directly from Richard, fifth son
of the above, and his grandfather, Isaac Hartill, inter-married with Ann
Hartill, a descendant of the said George Hartill's second son.
[Picture: James Tildesley. Large Employer of Labour, Proprietor of
Summerford Works]
The social rank of the Hartills since their residence in Willenhall has
been that of tradesmen or professional men, manufacturers, or small
property owners, but always educated up to the standard of the period in
which they lived. In 1826 Jeremiah Hartill established himself in
medical practice, joined in 1861 by his nephew, William Henry Hartill,
and in 1869 by the latter's brother, Dr. J. T. Hartill. The arms and
crest borne by the last-named were formally granted him in 1896; but the
same coat without the crest had always been used by his uncle Jeremiah,
and that on a claim of inheritance from the ancient lords of the manor of
Hartill, in Cheshire, to whom it had been granted by King John. These
particular arms have not been officially recorded at the College of
Heralds since 1580, but a very similar coat was used by a member of this
family in 1703.
[Picture: Jeremiah Hartill, Surgeon. Agitated for Easier Enfranchisement
of Copyholds]
The Willenhall Hartills migrated here from the neighbourhood of Kinver,
Wolverley, and Kidderminster. There are still Hartills of the old stock
resident in the Kinver district, and from them are descended Mrs.
Shakespeare, wife of the well-known Birmingham solicitor; and Mrs.
Showell, wife of the late Walter Showell, the founder of the eminent firm
of Black Country brewers, who was once a Parliamentary candidate for one
of the divisions of Birmingham. The Hartills of Kinver are related to
the Hartills of Kingsbury, and there has always been a great similarity
in the Christian names borne by the old Kingsbury, Kinver, and Willenhall
Hartills. The steeple of Polesworth church was built by the last Sir
Richard Hartill, 1377-1379, and below the tower battlements is carved
upon a large shield the arms of this benefactor, which are identical with
those of the late Dr. Jeremiah Hartill of Willenhall.
[Picture: John Austin of the Albion Mill, who issued the Farthing Tokens]
Mr. Henry Vaughan, the founder of the largest business concern in the
town, has done a large amount of public work in various capacities, but
chiefly as a magistrate, a member of the defunct School Board, and more
recently as a County Councillor.
[Picture: George Ley Pearce. Prominent Wesleyan and Philanthropic
Worker]
Among the justices who have sat on the Willenhall Bench and possessed
other connections with the place may be mentioned the late N. Neal Solly,
ironmaster, two water-colour drawings by whom hang on the walls of the
Free Library; the late Rev. G. H. Fisher, who was chairman; R. D. Gough,
a brother of the late Colonel Foster Gough, and who married the rich and
benevolent Mary Clemson, daughter of John Clemson, a corn miller, of this
township; while among the most recent appointments are Clement Tildesley,
Thomas Vaughan, and Thomas Kidson. The present Clerk to the Willenhall
Bench is Samuel Mills Slater, in succession to his father, the late James
Slater, of Bescot Hall.
A memorial tablet to the local men who fell in the Boer War has been
erected at the gateway to the Old Cemetery.
[Picture: Decorative design]
XXXII.--Manners and Customs.
The Manners and Customs of the people of Willenhall have been those held
in common with the populace of the surrounding parishes, and which have
been dealt with too fully in the published writings of Mr. G. T. Lawley
to need more than a brief review here.
The seasonal custom of Well Dressing has been alluded to in Chapter
XVII., and of Beating the Bounds in Chapter V. Other ancient customs of
minor import existed, but space cannot be found to treat them in a
general history.
The social calibre of the people a century or so ago may be gauged by a
local illustration of the custom of Wife Selling.
This practice was once common enough everywhere, and amongst the ignorant
and illiterate in some parts it is still held to be a perfectly
legitimate transaction. From the "Annual Register" this local instance
has been clipped:--
"Three men and three women went to the Bell Inn, Edgbaston Street,
Birmingham, and made the following singular entry in the toll book
which is kept there: August 31, 1773, Samuel Whitehouse, of the
Parish of Willenhall, in the county of Stafford, this day sold his
wife, Mary Whitehouse, in open market, to Thomas Griffiths, of
Birmingham, value one shilling. To take her with all her faults.
(Signed) Samuel Whitehouse.
Mary Whitehouse.
Voucher, Thomas Buckley, of Birmingham."
The parties were all exceedingly well pleased, and the money paid down
for the toll as for a regular purchase.
So much for the moral status of the people; now to consider them from the
industrial side.
The older generation of Willenhall men were accustomed, ere factory Acts
and kindred forms of parental legislation had regulated working hours and
otherwise ameliorated the conditions of labour, to slave for many weary
hours in little domiciliary workshops. Boys were then apprenticed at a
tender age, and soon became humpbacked in consequence of throwing in the
weight of their little bodies in the endeavour to eke out the strength of
the feeble thews and bones in their immature arms.
In those days men worked when they liked, and played when it suited them;
they generally played the earlier days of the week, even if at the end
they worked night and day in the attempt to average the weekly earnings.
In this connection it has been suggested that in pre-Reformation times
Willenhall folk duly honoured St. Sunday and well as St. Monday,
consecrating both days to the sacred cause of weekly idleness. Or was
Willenhall's Holy Well dedicated to St. Dominic, and came by grammatical
error to be called St. Sunday? As thus--Sanctus Dominicus abbreviated
first to Sanc. Dominic, and then extended in the wrong gender to Sancta
Dominica, otherwise Saint Sunday? Who shall say? It may have been so.
It is perhaps in their pleasures, more than in their pursuits, that the
character of a people is to be best seen. Allusion has been made to the
obsolete Trinity Fair in Chapter XII.; but the Wake has remained to this
day, less loyally observed perhaps, but rich in traditions of past
glories.
Willenhall Wake falls on the first Sunday after September 11th, the Feast
of St. Giles, to whom the old church is dedicated.
Among the wakes of the Black Country none are richer in reminiscence of
the old time forms of festivity than that of Willenhall. Although in
later times the outward and visible sign of its celebration has dwindled
down to an assemblage of shows and roundabouts, shooting galleries, and
ginger-bread stalls, it was once accompanied by bull-baitings and
cock-fighting, and all the other coarse and brutal sports in which our
forefathers so much delighted.
At Wednesfield at one village wake
The cockers all did meet
At Billy Lane's, the cock-fighter's,
To have a sporting treat.
For Charley Marson's spangled cock
Was matched to fight a red
That came from Will'n'all o'er the fields,
And belonged to "Cheeky Ned."
Two finer birds in any cock-pit
Two never yet was seen.
Though the Wednesfield men declared
Their cock was sure to win.
The cocks fought well, and feathers fled
All round about the pit,
While blood from both of 'em did flow
Yet ne'er un would submit.
At last the spangled Wedgefield bird
Began to show defeat,
When Billy Lane, he up and swore
The bird shouldn't be beat;
For he would fight the biggest mon
That came from Will'n'all town,
When on the word, old "Cheeky Ned"
Got up and knocked him down.
To fight they went like bull-dogs,
As it is very well known,
Till "Cheeky Ned" seized Billy's thumb,
And bit it to the bone.
At this the Wednesfield men begun
Their comrade's part to take,
And never was a fiercer fight
Fought at a village wake.
They beat the men from Will'n'all town
Back to their town again,
And long they will remember
This Wednesfield wake and main.
The site of the Willenhall Bull Ring, it may be added for the information
of future generations, was opposite the Baptist Chapel, Little London,
where Temple Bar joins the Wednesfield and Bloxwich Roads.
Among other Wake observances of the last century were the "Club Walkings"
or processioning of the Friendly Societies, whose members first attended
a brief service in the church, and then spent the rest of the day in
feasting at the Neptune Inn opposite. Tradition hath it that further
back, well into the Georgian era, and certainly before Mr. Fisher's time,
another Wake custom was that of "kissing the parson," a privilege of
which the women were said to be very jealous.
In the year 1857 the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, Member of Parliament for
the Borough of Wolverhampton, of which this township was part,
inaugurated in Willenhall one of the first exhibitions of fine art and
industry ever held in the Black Country. It was opened on the Monday in
the Wake week, and Mr. Villiers alluded to the fact that "they met in the
midst of one of those old-fashioned wakes which it was the humour of
their ancestors to establish and be pleased with," and the right hon.
gentleman proceeded to contrast the present with the past conditions of
Willenhall Wake-time.
A flourishing Free Library--founded like many another in the face of
great local opposition and prejudice--is one of the legacies of that
exhibition, from the date of which may be traced the more rational
observance of Wake-time.