I’m convinced that the white house here, and the narrow, unnamed lane behind it are probably one of the oldest continually settled places in Brownhills or Walsall Wood. I think it was a farm, and a small community clearly grew around it as the area developed economically. Imagery from Bing! Maps.
For those who don’t follow the comments here, there was an interesting discussion last week after I featured a section of the Teasdale 1842 map from Clive Roberts’ new history site: The discussion that sprang up was about the nature and purpose of Friezland Lane in Shire Oak, and amongst the discussion was rom rather wild speculation by myself about the way the Parish borders run between Brownhills and Walsall Wood.
You can read the thread here.
I’ve had a great email from Hilary Little who has previously done so much for the blog; not only was she behind the David Evans exploration of the Royal Oak and Bullings Heath, but she’s done a huge amount on the Walsall Wood Inclosure Award – much of which I have yet to publish, but there’s a remarkable gallery of images of the document, all taken by Hillary here.
This is a wonderful explanation of how some of the roads in Walsall Wood and Shire Oak came to exist, and I thank Hillary for it. Fantastic stuff, as ever, which I’m honoured to share. Cheers.
If you have anything to add, please do: comment here BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com.
Teesdale 1842 map of Shire Oak: this sparked a fair old discussion last week. Click for a larger version. Image courtesy Clive Roberts.
Hillary wrote:
Hi Bob
I don’t know if this is interesting or not but The Inclosure award of 1871 for Walsall Wood does set out and describe the roads and footways of the area at the time. You will need to look at the maps to make any sense of this. [I’ve placed them in the text – Bob]
At this time, Lindon Road and Coppice Road together actually formed one Public Carriage Road or Highway named in the Inclosure act as Walsall Wood and Catshill Road and was described thus in the extract from the award documentation shown below:
Image courtesy Hilary Little. Click for a larger version.
And I do hereby declare that I have set out and appointed and do hereby set out and appoint the following Public Carriage Roads or Highways that is to say
Map image 5542: Image courtesy Hilary Little. Click for a larger version.
One other Public Carriage Road or Highway, of the width of 30 feet to be called the Walsall Wood and Catshill Road commencing by a junction with the before mentioned Turnpike Road leading from Walsall to Lichfield at the before described point marked M on the said Map and extending thence in a northwesterly direction by the point marked P to the point marked Q and thence in a northerly direction by the points marked R, S, T and U to and terminating at a point marked V by a junction with an existing Public Carriage Road or Highway leading to Catshill at the Boundary between the Said Parish of Walsall and the said Parish of Shenstone.
Map image 5545: Image courtesy Hilary Little. Click for a larger version.
(M is the old co-op corner in Walsall Wood and V is just short of Anchor Bridge where it meets the parish Boundary. )
The bottom half of Friezland Lane is also set out here and it runs up to the point where the current Commonside crosses over it at W and is called Catshill Lane Road…you can see the ‘existing road leading to Catshill’ on the map and it now forms the top half of Friezland Lane. This is the road from Chester Road to that Farmhouse we were discussing last week.
One other Public Carriage Road or Highway of the width of 30 feet to be called the Catshill Lane Road commencing by a junction with the last described Public Carriage Road or Highway called the Walsall Wood and Catshill Road at the before mentioned point marked S on the said map and extending thence in a northeasterly direction to and terminating at a point marked W by a junction with an existing Public Carriage Road or Highway leading to Catshill
Also the roads now known as Commonside and Occupation Road are set out a bit further on in the documentation which gives details of these and 29 other Private Carriage and Occupation Roads.
The Private Carriageway numbered xvi on the map encompasses what is now Occupation Road and the southern half of Commonside whereas the one numbered xvii is the Northern section of today’s Commonside.
You will notice from the text and the map that the Westerly edge of today’s Commonside has allotment numbers relating to the Walsall Wood inclosure marked in red in the following extracts and the Easterly sides the numbers A7, A14, A15, A21, A22, A24 and A28 relate to the Tithe Map of Shenstone.
And I further declare that I have set out and appointed and hereby set out and appoint the following Private Carriage and Occupation Roads that is to say….
Image courtesy Hilary Little. Click for a larger version.
One other Private Carriage and Occupation Road of the width of eighteen feet and numbered xvi on the said map commencing at the said point marked X in the before described Public Carriage Road or Highway called the Aldridge and Clayhanger Road (Now known as Brownhills Road) and extending thence in a northeasterly direction to the point marked Aw (now known as Occupation Road) and thence in a northerly direction to and terminating at the said point marked W on the before described Public Carriage Road or Highway called the Catshill Lane Road (now the bottom end of Friezland Lane) which said road is set out for the use of the owners and proprietors of the allotments numbered 88, 89, 87, 86, and the old Inclosures situate in the said Parish of Shenstone numbered A 24, A28, A22 and A21.
Image courtesy Hilary Little. Click for a larger version.
One other Private Carriage and Occupation Road of the width of twenty feet and numbered xvii on the said map commencing at the said point marked W in the before described Public Carriage Road or Highway called the Catshill Lane Road (Now known as Friezland Lane) and extending thence in a northerly direction to the point marked Ah and terminating at the said point marked V on the before described Public Carriage Road or Highway called the Walsall Wood and Catshill Road (now Lindon Road) which said road is set out for the use of the persons interested for the time being in the Allotments numbered 78, 77, 76, 75, 74,73,72, 71, and the old Inclosures situate in the said Parish of Shenstone numbered A15, A14 and A7.
Of course, all of this does not prove which came first the Parish Boundary or the road but it does show that they ran along the same course at this point.