Brownhills West as it was mapped by the Ordnance Survey in the mid 1880s – but where was The Willum? Click for a larger version. Image from National Library of Scotland Archive.
Apologies for the lack of posts this weekend: A great ride on Saturday, and yesterday I was wiped out, frankly. Back to normal today. Normal service is resumed!
A quick appeal for a little historical assistance comes in from David Evans, who’s reading some accounts of religious meetings on and around Brownhills Common and Brownhills West around 1900.
David has found reference to one such meeting being near ‘The Willum’, and he’s wondering what this is, and where it could be found? It could be a place, a building, a pit… anything at all.
We’re convinced this is not a mix-up or conflation with The Wilkin, but possibly it was in Brownhills West. Like Frog Hall mentioned on a map of an earlier period, The Willum seems elusive.
Frog Hall has baffled a few of us for years, shown here on a map found by Sir Gerald of Reece, and published in his book ‘Brownhills: A Walk Into History with Gerald Reece’. Click for a larger version.
We’re aware also that The Wilkin Pit was known as ‘The Monkey’ as was periodically, the pub itself.
On a related note, where does the name ‘Wilkin’ actually come from? Does anyone know?
If you can help, please do: Comment here or mail me on BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers.
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In my family history research I have encountered the “kin” part of names many times and it usually means the kin of someone, or simply a pet name. So Wilkin could be kin of Will / William, or from a pet name such as “Williekins” (note the old music hall song Villikins and his Dinah is apparently from an older ballad William and Dinah. If that is the derivation of The Wilkin then Willum could be the same place? Of course, there could be a quite distinct derivation in this case.
Andy