Beginnings

Prehistoric inhabitants

Sandwell Priory ruins in Sandwell Valley Country Park were excavated by Dr Mike Hodder between 1982 and 1987. His finds include prehistoric artefacts that were made by prehistoric residents. The finds include more than 800 worked flints, that were made from local pebbles found in clay deposits and shaped and sharpened for use as arrowheads, scrapers and piercers, long before metal was used. Post holes were discovered which suggested that temporary or permanent dwellings were there. Burnt mounds were also discovered that were carbon dated to 2,970BC, plus or minus 160 years. They were situated close to streams and could have been used to heat water for cooking or for primitive saunas and suggest that the settlement was a permanent feature.

Roman Britain

Little is known about the Roman occupation of West Bromwich. The excavations at Sandwell Priory revealed some small pieces of Roman pottery, two Roman coins and part of a Roman brooch that dates from 50 to 70AD. There has been much speculation about Roman Roads, which must have been in the area, including the possibility that part of the main Holyhead Road was originally Roman. Traces of a Roman road have been found at Bilston and Roman coins from the first century were found at Wednesbury in 1817, including examples from the reign of Nero, Vespasian, and Trajan. Another Roman coin was found at Wood Green during the excavation of the railway cutting, and a piece of Roman glass came to light in Monway Field, Wednesbury. A Roman brooch was recently found at Aldridge and other Roman coins have been found in Bilston, Perry Barr, Great Barr, Barr Beacon, and at Stonnall, near Walsall Wood.

Anglo Saxons

Most of South Staffordshire and the West Midlands was originally covered by forest, scrub and marsh. Early colonisation started in the 6th century when Anglo-Saxons came from France, The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.

Angles and Saxons first reached our shores during the Roman occupation and were mentioned by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus who considered them as barbarians, along with the Picts and Scots. He mentions raids in 365, and the mid-fifth century, the Gallic Chronicle records a large raid in 410 after the Roman army had departed.

At this time there were frequent raids by continental pirates and many towns employed mercenary soldiers for protection. These soldiers were Angles and Saxons from northern Germany who brought their families with them and were given farmland as payment for their services. Soon the mercenaries realised that they were stronger than their employers and so began to take over the running of many areas. The Anglo-Saxons slowly colonised England, moving northwards and westwards, pushing the native Celts into Cornwall, Wales and Scotland. By 850AD there were three competing kingdoms; Mercia, Northumbria and Wessex.

South Staffordshire was a part of Mercia, which was derived from the old English word “Mierce”, meaning people of the boundaries. The kingdom developed from settlements in the upper Trent valley and was colonised by a band of Angles called the Iclingas. Slowly the area was populated and the kingdoms of the Saxon and Angles in the midlands amalgamated to form the kingdom of Mercia. In 913 Stafford became the capital of Mercia after it had been fortified by Queen Aethelfaed.

In about the 8th century, a tribe called the Anglian Mercens came from the north. Initially they followed the Trent Valley, and began spreading along the valleys of the Tame and its tributaries. They were known as the Tomsaetan (dwellers by the Tame), and would have settled here. There were several natural advantages for them in this area, the ready-made clearings, a good water supply from the local brooks, and a slightly elevated position making the site easily defendable.

Cannock Forest and the River Tame.

Settlers moving into the area would have found or made clearings in the woodland to build their houses, keep their cattle and grow their crops. Evidence for such clearings and settlements can be found in many of the names of local towns. The old English word “leah” means a woodland clearing and can be found in some local place names:

Bentley, Brierley Hill, Coseley, Cradley Heath, Dudley, Sedgley and of course the area in Darlaston known as The Leys.

The old English word “halh” meaning a pocket of land appears in Willenhall and the word “tun” meaning a settlement is found in Bilston, Wolverhampton and Darlaston.

There would have been a tiny settlement in the West Bromwich area by the 8th century. The area was known as ‘Bromwic’ meaning a settlement in the broom. The open heathland in the area must have been covered in broom. It was surrounded by part of Cannock Forest, where the Mercian Kings hunted wild boar, wolves, and possibly deer. Another surviving place name from that time is Lyndon, which means a settlement in a flax field.

Read about Anglo-Saxon  England

The image of the wounded King Harold on the Bayeux Tapestry.

After the invasion, the Normans quickly gained control of the southern part of the county, but were met with hostility in the north and east. King William initially had control of the old kingdoms of Essex, Kent, Wessex, Sussex and part of Mercia. Edwin Earl of Mercia and his brother Morcar, Earl of Northumbria, were delighted that William had overthrown the Godwin family in Wessex. They believed that he would be satisfied with the territory he had already gained and so would leave them in control of their kingdoms. If they had understood their true situation and attacked William before he became established, they may have been able to overthrow him. Three months after his coronation, King William returned to France and took with him the people who were most likely cause trouble while he was away, including Edwin and Morcar. During his absence, unrest began to grow and there was an attempted invasion by Eustace, Count of Boulogne, who was Edward the Confessor’s brother-in-law. William hastily returned in December 1067 and set about consolidating his hold on the country. He took Exeter after an 18 day siege and began to build castles at important sites. His wife Matilda arrived here in 1068 and was crowned Queen. When he returned to Normandy in 1069, one of his most formidable lieutenants, Robert de Commines, and 500 of his followers were slaughtered after a drunken debauch in Durham. The Norman castle at York was besieged and on the king’s return he put down the rebellion and sacked York. William was hated by many of the English and more resistance to his rule was to follow. William and his army swept through the northern counties from Shropshire to Durham and the Scottish borders on a mass killing spree. Villages were burned, animals slaughtered, crops destroyed and any survivors were left to starve. This led to the deaths of over 100,000 people and effectively ended any further resistance in this part of the country. A Danish fleet arrived off the Northumbrian coast to lend support to the general uprising. This was led by King Swein who had as much claim to the English throne as William, if not more. He was the nephew of King Canute and was joined by Edgar the Atheling who was the main English claimant to the throne. William managed to buy-off the Danes and Edgar fled to Scotland.

An engraving of a silver penny from King William's reign.

The final English revolt took place in the fenlands of East Anglia in 1071. Hereward the Wake led a number of raids on the Normans from the safety of the marshes around Ely. He was joined by Earl Morcar, whose brother Edwin had been murdered by his own men. William sent troops into the marshes and defeated the Saxons. Hereward escaped but Morcar was captured and imprisoned. William felt that he could not trust the Saxons at all and the remaining Saxon landowners had their lands confiscated and given to trusted Normans. After 1066 most of Mercia still belonged to Earl Edwin of Mercia, but after his death the estates were divided amongst William’s followers. Much of local Mercia including Dudley was given to Ansculf of Picuigny who built a motte and bailey castle at Dudley.

When a team of investigators arrived in an area they would meet with the landowner, the local priest and a group of older villagers. The information gathered was as follows: The name of each tenant-in-chief, tenant and under-tenant, the total amount of land, the amount of land under cultivation, the amount of woodland, the number of people, animals and ploughs and any fishponds or mills. The Domesday Book was not completed until after King William’s death on 9th September 1087. Today it is the most important source of information about village life in the Middle Ages.

An engraving of the reverse side of a silver penny from William's reign.

Radolph holds (from William Fitz-Ansculf, Lord of Dudley) 3 hides in Bromwic. There are three carucates of land (arable). In the demesne (the lord's personal territory) is one carucate and ten villeins and three bordars hold three carucates. There is a wood, seven leagues long and half a league wide. It is worth forty shillings. Brictuin used to hold it.

3 hides would be approximately 120 acres, and 4 carucates, an area of land equal to the amount that could be worked by a team of 8 oxen. The villeins were nominally free inhabitants of the village, who worked the King’s land in return for a small piece of land to work themselves. They also paid rent.

Everything on the estate would have been owned and controlled by the manor, or the clergy, including property, money, religion, and even marriage. There were labour services to do on the land, and heavy rents to be paid. The majority of food produced, and animals reared, were consumed by the lord of the manor and his household. Many families lived off a simple vegetable soup called pottage. The average life expectancy at the time was just 25.

From the above information it is possible to get some idea of West Bromwich's importance in the local area by comparing it with some of the neighbouring towns.