A SHORT HISTORY OF TETTENHALL

7.  The eighteenth century

In the eighteenth century Tettenhall remained an agricultural village but this was an age of expansion and Tettenhall expanded and developed too.

In 1707 the Creswell almshouses were opened in Lower Street and in 1714 Brych House in Wrotteseley Road was bought and turned into the village workhouse.

In 1776 there was a school in the village and there may have been one earlier than that.

This old postcard shows the view from "Glenn Tower", Avenue Road, Wolverhampton, looking towards Tettenhall. Even at the beginning of the 20th century there were fields nearly all the way to Chapel Ash. But by the standards of earlier times it would not have been a long walk from Tettenhall into Wolverhampton, whether for work or shopping or entertainment.

Some villagers were looking beyond agriculture and the parish records show, in addition to farmers, husbandmen, yeomen, farm labourers, woodcutters and millers, a selection of more industrial workers: locksmiths, buckle makers, cordwainers, hinge makers, weavers, coal carriers, brush makers, watch chain makers, nailers, tile makers and screw filers. How many of these men worked locally and how many walked into Wolverhampton each day, one cannot say.

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