The Farming Community

Around the 8th century AD, the area was colonised by a tribe called the Anglian Mercens  who came from the north, following the Trent Valley, the River Tame, and its tributaries. They were known as the Tomsaetan (dwellers by the Tame). The Darlaston name is possibly derived from ‘Deorlaf's Tun’ meaning Deorlaf's town, which could have possibly been the name of the tribal leader. It was originally called Deorlaveston.

When the settlers arrived, the area was wooded with small clearings, and a number of streams on the lower lying land. Although the landscape has changed beyond recognition, some of the original features survived in old place names. The small clearings where the settlers would have lived, and kept their cattle were known by the old English word “leah”, which has survived in many names including Bentley, Brierley Hill, Coseley, Cradley Heath, Dudley, Sedgley and of course the area in Darlaston known as The Leys. The old word for a settlement was ‘tun’ which can be found in Bilston, Wolverhampton and Darlaston itself.

The settlers slowly cleared the trees and began cultivating the land on which to grow crops. The old English word “halh” meaning a pocket of land appears in Willenhall, and Ettingshall. The trees were replaced by open fields, divided into small ploughed strips, each separated by unploughed strips called baulks. The old name for Stafford Road was Baulk Lane. Another old word is ‘hege’ which was probably pronounced as ‘hay’, meaning a hedge, the boundary between the arable and common land. It still survives in the name Rough Hay which refers to a rough or imprecise hedge.


An impression of 8th century Darlaston with woods, the River Tame, and its tributaries.


The sort of landscape that greeted the early settlers.

For several hundred years, Darlaston was home to a small farming community in which almost everyone would have worked on the land, or tended livestock. Because of the lack of good roads, and the difficulty in getting-around, there would have been a small number of service industries supporting local communities, which had to be almost self-sufficient.

One such service industry could be found at Bentley water mill, in James Bridge, to the east of Bentley Mill Way, and just to the north of the River Tame. The mill ground flour from locally produced wheat, and was powered by water diverted from the River Tame into a mill pond.

There would also have been blacksmiths somewhere in the area, producing all kinds of tools, implements, and weapons, from iron produced in a bloomery, where a bloom of iron would be heated and hammered to remove as much slag as possible. Although no early records about Darlaston exist, iron ore and coal were being mined in the vicinity by the thirteenth century.


A medieval plough.

 
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