1.  Contents

This history of Wednesfield, written by Frank Sharman, is an outline.  It is not intended to be comprehensive at any point.  There are many areas in which much more information exists or could be found – and I hope someone will do so or, even, that lots of people will do so.

The information in this account of Wednesfield is mostly taken from John Smallshires’s “Wednesfield: the field of Woden” published by the Wolverhampton Branch of the WEA, 1978. There is much detail in that book which does not appear here; and this account is based less on a thematic approach and more on chronological one.  It also contains different interpretations of the evidence. 

Other sources used include Elizabeth Rees and Mary Mills, “Wednesfield and Heath Town”, Alan Sutton, 1992;  Ned Williams, “Cinemas of the Black Country”, Uralia Press, 1982;  David Horovitz, “The Place Names of Staffordshire”, published by the author, 2005.  Thanks also to Mel Pope for information and contacts; and to Jill Loach for providing vital material.  I have not used, or even seen:  Stuart Haddon-Riddoch  “Rural Reflections: a Brief History of Traps, Trapmakers and Gamekeeping in Britain”, Argyll, 2006 which is said to contain over 100 pages of the names of Wednesfield trapmakers.  This work must, surely, settle the history of this important aspect of Wednesfield’s like and work.