Chapter VII: Part 7

Wodgate, or Wogate, as it was called on the map, was a district that
in old days had been consecrated to Woden, and which appeared
destined through successive ages to retain its heathen character.

At the beginning of the revolutionary war Wodgate was a sort of
squatting district of the great mining region to which it was
contiguous, a place where adventurers in the industry which was
rapidly developed settled themselves; for though the great veins of
coal and ironstone cropped up, as they phrase it, before they reached
this bare and barren land, and it was thus deficient in those mineral
and metallic treasures which had enriched its neighbourhood, Wodgate
had advantages of its own, and of a kind which touch the fancy of the
lawless.

It was land without an owner; no one claimed any manorial right over
it; they could build cottages without paying rent. It was a district
recognised by no parish; so there were no tithes and no meddlesome
supervision. It abounded in fuel which cost nothing, for though the
veins were not worth working as a source of mining profit, the soil
of Wodgate was similar in its superficial character to that of the
country around.

So a population gathered, and rapidly increased in the ugliest spot
in England, to which neither Nature nor art had contributed a single
charm; where a tree could not be seen, a flower was unknown, where
there was neither belfry nor steeple, nor a single sight or sound
that could soften the heart or humanize the mind.

Whatever may have been the cause, whether, as not unlikely, the
original squatters brought with them some traditionary skill, or
whether their isolated and unchequered existence concentrated their
energies on their craft, the fact is certain, that the inhabitants of
Wodgate early acquired a celebrity as skilful workmen.

This reputation so much increased, and in time spread so far, that,
for more than a quarter of a century, both in their skill and the
economy of their labour, they have been unmatched throughout the
country.

As manufacturers of ironmongery they carry the palm from the whole
district; as founders of brass and workers of steel they fear none;
while as nailers and locksmiths, their fame has spread even to the
European markets whither their most skilful workmen have frequently
been invited.

Invited in vain! No wages can tempt the Wodgate man from his native
home, that squatters' seat which soon assumed the form of a large
village, and then in turn soon expanded into a town, and at the
present moment numbers its population by swarming thousands, lodged
in the most miserable tenements, in the most hideous burgh, in the
ugliest country in the world.

But it has its enduring spell. Notwithstanding the spread of its
civic prosperity, it has lost none of the characteristics of its
original society; on the contrary, it has zealously preserved them.
There are no landlords, head-lessees, main-masters, or butties in
Wodgate.

[Picture: George Borrow]

No church there has yet raised its spire; and, as if the jealous
spirit of Woden still haunted his ancient temple, even the
conventicle scarcely dare show his humble front in some obscure
corner. There is no municipality, no magistrate; there are no local
acts, no vestries, no schools of any kind. The streets are never
cleaned; every man lights his own house; nor does any one know
anything except his business.

[Picture: Borrow's Birthplace]

More than this, at Wodgate, a factory or large establishment of any
kind is unknown. Here Labour reigns supreme. Its division, indeed,
is favoured by their manners, but the interference or influence of
mere capital is instantly resisted.

The business of Wodgate is carried on by master workmen in their own
houses, each of whom possess an unlimited number of what they call
apprentices, by whom their affairs are principally conducted, and
whom they treat as the Mamlouks treated the Egyptians.

These master workmen indeed form a powerful aristocracy, nor is it
possible to conceive one apparently more oppressive. They are
ruthless tyrants; they habitually inflict upon their subjects
punishments more grievous than the slave population of our colonies
were ever visited with; not content with beating them with sticks, or
flogging them with knotted ropes, they are in the habit of felling
them with, or cutting their heads open with a file or lock.

The most usual punishment, however, or rather stimulus to increase
exertion, is to pull an apprentice's ears till they run with blood.
These youths, too, are worked for sixteen or even twenty hours a day;
they are often sold by one master to another; they are fed on
carrion, and they sleep in lofts or cellars.

Yet, whether it be that they are hardened by brutality, and really
unconscious of their degradation and unusual sufferings, or whether
they are supported by the belief that their day to be masters and
oppressors will surely arrive, the aristocracy of Wodgate is by no
means so unpopular as the aristocracy of most other places.

In the first place, it is a real aristocracy; it is privileged, but
it does something for its privileges. It is distinguished from the
main body, not merely by name. It is the most knowing class at
Wodgate; it possesses, in deed, in its way, complete knowledge; and
it imparts in its manner a certain quantity of it to those whom it
guides.

Thus it is an aristocracy that leads, and therefore a fact.
Moreover, the social system of Wodgate is not an unvarying course of
infinite toil. Their plan is to work hard, but not always. They
seldom exceed four days of labour in the week. On Sunday the masters
begin to drink; for the apprentices there is dog-fighting without any
stint.

On Monday and Tuesday the whole population of Wodgate is drunk; of
all stations, ages, and sexes, even babes who should be at the
breast, for they are drammed with Godfrey's cordial. Here is
relaxation, excitement; if less vice otherwise than might be at first
anticipated, we must remember that excesses are checked by poverty of
blood and constant exhaustion. Scanty food and hard labour are in
their way, if not exactly moralists, a tolerably good police.

There are no others at Wodgate to preach or to control. It is not
that the people are immoral, for immorality implies some forethought;
or ignorant, for ignorance is relative; but they are animals,
unconscious, their minds a blank, and their worst actions only the
impulse of a gross or savage instinct. There are many in this town
who are ignorant of their very names; very few who can spell them.

It is rare that you meet with a young person who knows his own age;
rarer to find the boy who has seen a book, or the girl who has seen a
flower. Ask them the name of their Sovereign, and they will give you
an unmeaning stare; ask them the name of their religion, and they
will laugh; who rules them on earth, or who can save them in Heaven,
are alike mysteries to them.

Such was the population with whom Morley was about to mingle.
Wodgate had the appearance of a vast squalid suburb. As you
advanced, leaving behind you long lines of little dingy tenements,
with infants lying about the road, you expected every moment to
emerge into some streets, and encounter buildings bearing some
correspondence, in their size and comfort, to the considerable
population swarming and busied around you.

Nothing of the kind. There were no public buildings of any sort; no
churches, chapels, town hall, institute, theatre; and the principal
streets in the heart of the town in which were situate the coarse and
grimy shops, though formed by houses of a greater elevation than the
preceding, were equally narrow, and, if possible, more dirty.

At every fourth or fifth house, alleys, seldom above a yard wide, and
streaming with filth, opened out of the street. These were crowded
with dwellings of various size, while from the principal court often
branched out a number of smaller alleys, or rather narrow passages,
than which nothing can be conceived more close and squalid and
obscure.

Here, during the days of business, the sound of the hammer and the
file never ceased, amid gutters of abomination, and piles of
foulness; and stagnant pools of filth, reservoirs of leprosy and
plague, whose exhalations were sufficient to taint the atmosphere of
the whole kingdom, and fill the country with fever and pestilence.

Such were the conditions of life in Willenhall, at least from the industrial side; for Willenhall and Wednesfield were at that time almost identical in their industrial, social, and municipal economics. The novelist is, of course, incorrect in saying Wednesfield had no church; as we have seen in Chapter XXIII. it had possessed a small church or chapel since 1746.

Another novelist who has dealt with the same theme is Louis Becke. The hero of his tale, entitled "Old Convict Days" (published by T. Fisher Unwin), is a runaway apprentice from Darlaston; and Willenhall is alluded to in this work as "Wilnon." Spirited descriptions are given of regular set fights between the apprentices of the two towns, which took place on the canal bridge that divided their respective territories near Bug Hole, and in the course of which drownings have not been unknown to occur. Allusions are also made to the dog-fighting, human rat worrying, and other brutal sports with which the populace of these two places were wont to amuse themselves; and particularly to the haunted Red Barn in which a murder had been committed.

Willenhall can lay a further claim to classic ground in the realm of fiction, though the exact spot has not yet been satisfactorily identified. It is the place called Mumper's Dingle, in the works of George Borrow, the gipsy traveller and linguist, or as he calls himself in the Romany dialect, Lavengro, the "Word-Master."

The word "mumper" signifies a tramp or roving beggar; but its slight likeness to the name Monmer has led certain local enthusiasts to identify Mumpers' Dingle with Monmer Lane. Wherever this particular gipsies' dingle may have been, it was certainly on the Essington side of Willenhall, though scarcely five miles out; in fact, the public-house mentioned in the narrative ("Lavengro," chapter 89) is generally understood to be the Bull's Head Inn, Wolverhampton Street, which is definitely stated to be two miles from Mumpers' Dingle. It must have been a secluded and romantic spot about the year 1820, and quite a fitting scene for that interesting episode of the gipsy life described as being led there by the unconventional Lavengro, in Platonic association with a strapping Gitano wench named Isopel Berners.

Since George Borrow has come to be recognised as a writer fitting to rank among our standard English authors, quite a Borrovian cult has grown up, which has naturally enough fortified itself by a literature of its own.

Our first extracts are the great writer's own description of the place. ("Isopel Berners," by George Borrow.)

The Dingle is a deep, wooded, and, consequently, somewhat gloomy
hollow in the middle of a very large, desolate field. The shelving
sides of the hollow are overgrown with trees and bushes. A belt of
sallows crowns the circular edge of the small crater. At the lowest
part of the Dingle are discovered a stone and a fire of charcoal,
from which spot a winding path ascends to "the plain." On either
side of the fire is a small encampment. One consists of a small pony
cart and a small hut-shaped tent, occupied by the Word-Master, on the
other side is erected a kind of tent, consisting of large hoops
covered over with tarpaulin, quite impenetrable to rain; hard by
stands a small donkey cart. This is "the tabernacle" of Isopel
Berners. A short distance off, near a spring of clear water, is the
encampment of the Romany chals and chies--the Petulengres and their
small clan.

The place is above five miles from Willenhall, in Staffordshire.

The time is July, 1825.

Our concluding quotation is taken from the "Life, Writings, and Correspondence of George Borrow," by William J. Knapp (published in 1899).

1825.

On the 21st, he departs with his itinerant hosts towards the old
Welsh border--Montgomery. Turns back with Ambrose Petulengro.
Settles in Mumber Lane, Staffordshire, near Willenhall. My informant
of Dudley caused it to be found, and wrote as follows:--

"'Mumpers' Dingle' still exists in the neighbourhood of Willenhall,
though it does not seem to be well known, as a native had to make
inquiries about it. Willenhall itself is one of the most
forlorn-looking places in the Black Country, ranking second to
Darlaston, I should think."

[Picture: Decorative design]

XXIX.--Bibliography.

From the merely allusive in literature, we proceed to the bibliography of Willenhall, which, though not extensive, is of fair average interest.

Recently (June, 1907) was put up for auction in London a First Folio Shakespeare of some local interest. It was the property of Mr. Abel Buckley, Ryecroft Hall, near Manchester. This folio appears to have been purchased about 1660 by Colonel John Lane, of Bentley Hall, Staffs, the protector of Charles II. after the Battle of Worcester. It remained in the possession of the family till 1856, when, at the dispersal of the library of Colonel John Lane, of King's Bromley, whose book-plate, designed by Hogarth, is inserted, it was bought by the third Earl of Gosford for 157 guineas.

The son of the third Earl of Gosford disposed of it to James Toovey, the famous London bookseller, for 470 pounds in 1884; and soon afterwards Mr. Buckley obtained the folio. It measures 12.875in. by 8.25in., is throughout clean, but the fly-leaf and title are mounted and two leaves repaired. This is the volume's interesting history, according to Mr. Sidney Lee.

In 1795, Stephen Chatterton, a Willenhall schoolmaster, published a book of poems of a humorous cast. One is "An epistle to my friend Mr. Thomas S--, who was married in July, 1783, to his third wife, on his fiftieth birthday."

The bibliography of the Rev. Samuel Cozens, at one time minister of the Peculiar Baptists' Chapel at Little London, Willenhall, is rather extensive if not very interesting. A full list of his pamphlets and other works will be found in G. T. Lawley's "Bibliography of Wolverhampton," and also in Simms' "Bibliotheca Staffordiensis." His first work, which appeared in the "Gospel Standard," 1844, was "A short account of the Lord's Gracious Dealings with One of the Elect Vessels of Mercy," and is autobiographical.

From this title, and that of the second part of his life, which appeared in 1857, "Reminiscences: or Footsteps of Providence," the attitude of mind assumed by the writer may be easily guessed. His was a dogmatic creed, of stern unyielding Calvinism, which left him always self-satisfied, and often made him aggressive. He moved from Wolverhampton to Willenhall in 1848, where his first book was written, a scholarly volume in the form of "A Biblical Lexicon."

Presently his combative nature found expression in a controversial pamphlet attacking the Primitive Methodists, "John Wesley, the Papa of British Rome, and Philip Pugh, the modern Pelagius, weighed in the Balance of Eternal Truth and found wanting" (Willenhall, printed and published by W. H. Hughes, 1852). The Rev. Philip Pugh was located at Darlaston, and made a gallant defence on behalf of his co-religionists; the Primitive Methodists of Willenhall acknowledging these services by presenting him with a handsome testimonial. The pamphlets containing his rejoinders bear the imprint of Stephen Hackett, Willenhall. Mr. Cozens died in Tasmania some years later.

The "Memoirs of G. B. Thorneycroft," written by the Rev. J. B. Owen, and published (Wolverhampton: T. Simpson) in 1856, contain local allusions of minor interest. The subject of the memoir was the well-known South Staffordshire ironmaster, who in the earlier part of his commercial career had some works near the Waterglade, on the Bilston Road.

George Benjamin Thorneycroft, was born August 20th, 1791, at Tipton, where his grandfather kept the Three Furnaces Inn. His biographer claims his descent from the Thornicrofts of Cheshire. In his youth he was employed at Kirkstall Forge, near Leeds, returning to Staffordshire in 1809 to work at the Moorcroft Ironworks at Bradley, near Bilston, where, by his skill and industry he ultimately rose to the management.

It was in 1817 he founded a small ironwork at Willenhall, and seven years later joined his twin brother, Edward Thorneycroft, in establishing the Shrubbery Ironworks at Wolverhampton. The rise of the railways at that period, and the consequent larger demands for iron and steel, were among the causes which led to his great prosperity as an ironmaster.

His Willenhall residence was on the site now occupied by the Metropolitan Bank, in the Market Place: while his works, this first this iron magnate owned, were located near what is now known as Forge Yard, Waterglade Street. It was in this house his son, Colonel Thorneycroft, of Tettenhall Towers, was born.

[Picture: Neptune Inn]

His prominence as a public man may be estimated by the fact that when Wolverhampton was incorporated in 1848, Mr. Thorneycroft was selected for the honour of being first Mayor of the new borough. He was at all times a generous supporter of every local charity and benevolent institution, till the old quotation came to be fitted to him:--

There was a man--the neighbours thought him mad--
The more he gave away, the more he had.

In the Town Hall of Wolverhampton a statue has been set up to commemorate the public work of this estimable character.

[Picture: Bell Inn]

Although during the greater portion of his career a great supporter of the State Church, in earlier life Mr. G. B. Thorneycroft had been an ardent Wesleyan; and in his memoirs (p. 134) it is recorded how he liquidated the burden of debt on the Willenhall Chapel belonging to that denomination. On his death, in 1851, among those who testified to his public usefulness, and the estimation in which he was held, was the Rev. G. H. Fisher, of Willenhall (memoirs pp. 263-5).

[Picture: Old Bull's Head]

"The Willenhall Magazine" was the name of a monthly periodical launched in 1862, "published for the proprietors by J. Loxton, Market Place, Willenhall," and having Messrs. J. C. and Jesse Tildesley as its chief contributors. The first number appeared in March, and twelve months afterwards this praiseworthy attempt to establish a local magazine in Willenhall had completely failed.

[Picture: The Plough]

In 1866 appeared a religious novel written by a Primitive Methodist preacher of this town, and published by Elliot Stock, London. It: was entitled "Nest: A Tale of the Early British Christians," by the Rev. J. Boxer, Willenhall. Mr. G. T. Lawley describes it as a well-written story dealing with the pagan persecution of the early British Christians by their Saxon conquerors.

A story of direct local interest was Mr. G. T. Lawley's work "The Locksmith's Apprentice; a Tale of Old Willenhall," published serially some years ago in the columns of a Wolverhampton weekly newspaper.

Mr N. Neal Solly (of the firm of Fletcher, Solly, and Urwick, Willenhall 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.

With the advance of science and art and the spread of popular education, the future prosperity of an ingenious community, like that of the skilled mechanics and deft craftsmen of this township, is assured. Impressed with such certitude it is all but a work of supererogation to echo the patriotic sentiment of the old-time townsfolk--

"LET WILLENHALL FLOURISH!"

* * * * *

THE END.

INDEX

Ablow Field 7, 10

Agmund 8

Aldhelm 18

Ames 75, 77, 137

Anlaf 8

Annes, St. 110-2, 134

Anson (Lichfield) 128, 139, 152

Arley 14, 18, 27-8

Aston 34

Austin 165, 184

Badland 62-4, 95-6

Baker 106, 149

Barnard 128

Barr 114

Bate 132

Beating Bounds 24-6, 187

Beaumont 46, 58-9, 60-1

Beneting 8

Bentley 17, 25, 27-8, 31, 39, 44, 65, 67, 70, 72, 77, 81-82, 109, 110, 120-1, 125, 127-8, 126, 140, 143, 151-2, 175, 182, 184

Beogitha's Stream 29

Bescot 17

Bilbrook 28, 93

Bilston 12, 14, 18, 26-8, 34, 37, 40, 51, 56, 66, 77-81, 85, 93, 135, 137-8, 156, 161

Blakenhall 14

Bloxwich 14, 17-8, 25, 30, 39, 134, 189

Booth 137

Boscobel 69-70

Bradford 74

Bradley 26, 175

Brewood 4, 93, 162

Brideoak 73

Bromehall 51, 95

Browning 34, 95

Burnell 40

Burton 21

Bushbury 4, 9, 14, 24, 27, 38, 46, 56, 66, 68-9, 71, 98, 113

Callendine 74

Canals 127, 133, 155, 157

Cannock 2, 19, 24-5, 38-9, 41, 45, 135, 148, 151

Carpenter 144, 147, 158, 161-3, 165, 178, 184

Carter 96, 164

Catchem's Corner 26

Chartley 83

Chatterton 175

Chillington 14, 84, 121, 149

Chubb 160

Churchwardens 26, 79, 105, 112, 129, 130, 132, 153

Clarke 114

Clement 42, 72

Clemson 139, 186

Clent 37, 64

Cleveland 107, 128

Codsall 14, 30, 56, 93-4, 137

Coseley 145

Cote 28

Courts (Leet, &c.) 23, 148-153, 156, 182

Coven 38

Cozens 175

Cuddlestone 27-8

Darlaston 14, 38, 40, 45, 65, 82, 92, 98, 103, 106, 137, 143-4, 156, 164, 172, 174-5, 180, 184

Davies 114, 125

Dean (of Wolverhampton) 22-4, 28, 30, 34-6, 39, 49, 50-1, 55, 72-9

Delves 2

De Willenhall, John 37, 42

,, Roger 37

Dudley 39, 46, 51-2, 58, 64-6, 69, 90, 137, 172

Duignan 2, 3, 9, 19

Dunstall 14, 17, 21, 39, 93

Ecwills 8

Elfthryth 19

Essington 14, 18, 25, 27, 38, 71, 154, 157

Ettingshall 14

Etymologies 1-5, 9, 11, 13-4

Fairs, Wakes, &c. 57-61, 163, 188, 190

Featherstone, 6, 14, 18, 23-5, 28, 30, 74-6, 80

Fellows 22-3

Fisher 102, 104, 106-111, 125, 127, 134, 139, 186, 189

Fletcher 132-2, 134

Foster 144

Franchises 30

Fytzherbert 52

Garrick 88-9

Gerveyse 32-3, 116

Giffard 30, 52, 69, 71, 97, 112, 121, 123, 139, 149

Giles, St. 36, 57, 103, 105, 110-1, 133, 139, 141, 188

Gilpin 96-7

Goldthorn Hill 20, 26

Goscote 66

Gospelling 25, 26, 93

Gough 46, 66, 137, 139, 140, 147, 186

Gower 30, 47, 97, 139

Graisley 7, 20

Grosvenor 69

Guthferth 8

Halesowen 75

Haling 46-7

Hall 72, 86, 147

Hammerwich 40

Hampton 34, 39, 40, 113

Harper 42, 44, 59, 144, 164, 166

Hartill 102, 107, 111, 114, 125, 133-4, 140-2, 146, 150, 154, 163, 181, 185-6

Hascard 74

Haswic 28

Hatherton 14, 18-9, 23-4, 28, 30, 34, 72, 74-6, 80

Healfden 8

Heath Town 10, 11

Hilton 18-9, 23-4, 28, 30, 38-9, 74-6, 80, 98, 103

Hincks 105, 125, 184

Hind Brook 90

Hinton 74-5

Hobbart 76

Hocintun 28

Holbrooke 97-137

Holyoake 108

Horsley 7-10

Huntbach 6, 7, 10

Industries, Trades 31, 41, 45, 92, 106, 175, 178

Jennings 46

Johnson 88, 101, 114

Kempson 71, 161

Kenwolf 8

Kidson 147, 186

Kinvaston 14, 18, 23-5, 28, 30, 74, 76, 80

Kinver 9, 51, 185-6

Lane, Lone 30, 44, 52, 66-7, 70, 77, 95, 119, 120, 136-7, 139, 152, 175

Lawley 37, 93, 175, 177-8, 187

Leek 37

Lees 114

Leigh 66-7, 119

Leper House 94

Levison 34, 36, 39, 41-52, 55-6, 59, 60-1, 66, 68, 71-4, 97, 121, 123, 149, 150-1

Lewis 98

Lilleshall 46, 49

Little London 145, 148, 189

Little Low 7, 10

Lowhill 4, 9

Lows 6, 7, 9, 10

Loxton 177

Lutley 30, 75

Manlove 83, 85

Manningham 77

Marshall 59, 60

Matilda 37

Maxey 72

Mercia 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 21, 27, 37

Monmore 11, 16, 23-4, 30, 75-6, 93, 143, 145, 156

Moreton 98, 100-4, 106, 110, 184

Moseley 14, 19, 69, 70-1, 136

Mounsell 55, 95

Mumper's Dingle 172, 174

Nechells 9

Neptune Inn 102, 106, 149, 181-2, 189

Neve 96, 98, 103, 138

Newbolds 14

Newbrigge 38

New Invention 145, 148, 154, 183

Nicholls 114

North Low 7, 9, 10

Oakeswell 67

Ocstele, le 39

Odyes 39, 42-3

Offlow 12, 21, 27-8, 148

Ogley Hay 14, 19

Ohter 8

Oldbury 63

Oliver 1, 24, 50, 76, 89, 93, 96

Osferth 8

Padmore 95

Patent Rolls 32-3, 44

Pearce 144, 146

Pedley 130-1, 133, 144, 147

Pelsall 4, 15, 18, 25, 27, 30, 32, 55, 66, 81

Pendeford 15, 38, 40, 162

Penderel 69

Penkhull 37

Penkridge 2, 178

Penn 56, 82

Pensnett 90

Perry 161

Phillips, Claudius 88-9

Pipe Rolls 37

Pitt 67

Podmore 120-1

Portobello 134, 144-5, 148, 181

Prestwood 34, 40, 71, 113, 120, 129, 132, 151

Prosser 162

Pype 40

Railways 127, 150, 156

Rollason 64, 117, 122

Rosedale 111-2, 114, 134, 140

Rowley 37

Rubery 144

Rushall 4, 66-9

Rushbrooke 166, 185

Ryes 73

Sampson 28

Sandbeds 134, 148, 154

Scotland 15

Sedgley 13, 39, 92, 167

Seisdon 6, 12, 15, 27-8, 148

Sewall, Showells, &c. 6, 15, 93-4

Shakespeare 185

Shenstone 40

Shepwell Green 128, 132, 134

Short Heath 110-2, 133-4, 144-5, 148, 155, 164, 183

Sigeric 20-1

Slater 113, 116, 186

Soldier's Hill 9

Solly 178, 186

South Low 7, 9, 10

Spa, Holy Well, &c. 57, 90-4, 179, 187-8

Spring Vale 92

Stephen's, St. 110, 112, 133-4

Stow Heath 12, 15, 17, 30, 99, 112, 116, 122-4, 139, 148-9, 155, 182

Stowman Hill 9

Stretton 81

Sunday, St. 90-1

Sutherland 47, 112

Swynnerton 38

Symmonds 68

Tame 1, 29, 93

Tettenhall 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, 17-8, 21, 28, 40, 51, 56, 137

Therferth 8

Thorneycroft 107, 165, 176-7

Tildesley 114, 144, 147, 154, 158, 163-6, 177-8, 186

Tipper 164-5

Tipton 65, 136

Tithes 48, 50, 75, 95, 107

Tomkys 44, 121, 131-2, 151, 161

Tonks 146-7, 164

Tramways 156

Trollesbury 32, 95

Tromelow 7, 10, 15

Tumuli 4, 6, 7, 9, 10

Turton 47

Twyford 19

Unett 85-6, 161

Vaughan 114, 147, 164, 166, 186

Vestry 17, 26

Villiers 182, 184, 189, 190

Wakelam 182

Walker 24, 26, 61, 114, 184

Walsall 2, 4, 5, 9, 17-9, 57-9, 60-1, 68, 137, 140

Wednesbury 1, 2, 5, 12-3, 17, 27, 38, 41, 46, 57-61, 65, 67, 137, 152, 167, 180

Wednesfield 2, 5-13, 18, 31, 38-40, 66, 72, 80, 132, 135, 145, 155, 162, l67, 172, 181

Welch 131, 133, 151, 179

Wergs 8, 15

Wesley 57, 143, 145, 152, 175, 177

West Bromwich 113

White 103-4

Whitehouse 105, 107, 144, 187

Whitegreaves 70-1

Willis 89

Wilkes 6, 7, 40, 59, 80, 82-92, 120-1, 138, 141, 144, 160, 164, 179

Willoughby de Broke 75

Windsor 19, 23, 35, 49, 51, 57, 74-5, 99

Wobaston 15, 23, 28, 30, 74-6

Woden Stone 13

Wolfric 12

Wolstanton 37

Wombourn 6, 9, 10, 15, 56

Wren 73

Wrottesley 4, 6, 7, 40, 52, 84,-5

Wulfgeal 19

Wulfruna 12, 17, 22, 92, 94

Wyndefield 39

Young 162

Footnotes:

{88} Claudy Phillips, as he was popularly called, seems to have been a man of considerable genius, though not without some of the eccentricities which sometimes accompany it. He was well known throughout the county, which he used to traverse dressed at one time in laced clothes, at others in garments which betrayed the low state of his exchequer. When drawn to it by stress of financial embarassment, he was not above playing in the evening at inns, and throwing himself upon the generosity of his audiences there. As to his qualities as a musician, it is said his _forte_ was in wild and plaintive melody, dictated by the impulses of his own mind, and subject to none of the ordinary rules of studied compositions; his manipulation of the violin was also distinguished for a rapidity of execution unrivalled in those days. The handsome marble tablet erected to his memory soon after his death, in 1732, by public subscription, shows that he must have been held in considerable estimation by a goodly number of admirers. Indeed, he must have been known to some of the most prominent personages of his time, as the following lines upon him have been variously attributed to Dr. Johnson or to David Garrick:--

Phillips, whose touch harmonious could remove
The pangs of guilty power and hapless love,
Rest here! distrest by poverty no more,
Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before!
Sleep undisturbed within this peaceful shrine,
Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!

(See also Oliver's "Wolverhampton," pp. 98 and 99.)