Wellington Town Council A HISTORY OF O UR W ELLINGTON BY ALLAN FROST WELLINGTON THE FIRST 1000 YEARS Erdington was granted possession ellington is an ancient of the manor in 1211. OWN REST T C town in Shropshire, Although it was normal for The crest (above) was designed Wsubsumed into the English manor houses to stand and authorised by the College Telford conurbation since 1968 but close to churches, quite where the of Arms from information and with its own distinctive identity manor at Wellington was located ideas submitted by Wellington and proud history. has never been ascertained. The Urban District Council clerk Various theories have been put ‘manor’ lands originally included John Broad, as well as chairman forward to explain the town’s not only Wellington itself but also Cecil Lowe, in March 1951. humble origins but none can several villages in the area plus The design of the Coat of compete with the accepted five outlying berewicks (estates) at Arms features: wisdom that Wellington is named Apley, Arleston, Aston, Dothill • a castle (a reference to Apley after an Anglo-Saxon settler and Walcot. Castle which was demolished named Weola, Weala or similar With Norman rule came a during the 1950s); who arrived and farmed here at gradual expansion in both the • two fleurs-de-lys (from the some time during the sixth or, population and size of the village. Arms of France which were more likely, seventh century. Located as it was between two Whether or not he was quartered and appeared in the main east-west thoroughfares of descended from mercenaries the day (Watling Street to the Royal Arms of King Charles I, invited to quell native rebellions in south and The Portway linking who made his famous sub-Roman Britain, or was obliged Shrewsbury with Newport to the Declaration to his troops near to relocate after the destruction of north), it was linked to both by Wellington, thus marking the the nearby Roman town at narrow lanes. beginning of the English Civil Wroxeter, is not known. Whatever In time, a by-pass road (now War in 1642); his background, he must have called King Street) enabled • a lion rampant (from the been happy to settle here. travellers to avoid the narrow Arms of the Charlton family Between Weola’s arrival and streets of the village centre. In who owned Apley Castle); the Domesday survey of 1086, the those early days, the main route • a fret (the hashing behind settlement had expanded into that into Wellington was via Church the lion rampant, taken from of a village, complete with a Street from the north, a road along the Arms of the Eyton family at windmill and small Saxon chapel which early dwellings and Eyton-on-the-Wealdmoors and with its own priest. hostelries would have been built the Cluddes of Orleton); After the Conquest of 1066, to catch passing trade. The road • and a bugle horn (from the Edwin, earl of Mercia (who died in was split into two during the Arms of the Lord Forester, 1071) was replaced as owner of Victorian period whereupon the whose ancestors were Wellington manor by a Norman northern section was renamed custodians of part of the ‘tenant in chief’: Roger de Park Street. Wrekin Forest from the Middle Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury. To distinguish it from other Roger was succeeded by his son Ages onwards). Wellingtons in England, the Robert de Belleme who, by all settlement was known for a while The portcullis at the top of accounts, was quite an unpleasant as ‘Welyngton under The Wrekyn’, the crest is an emblem denoting and cruel character. perhaps reflecting the importance the town’s relationship with He forfeited his possessions to and dominant nature of the nearby Apley Castle. the Crown in 1102 and, between prominent hill. The motto Deo Adjuvante then and the early thirteenth In keeping with the increasing translates as century, Wellington and its size and importance of Wellington, ‘With God’s Help’. revenues were passed from one a larger new church replaced the favoured family to another until original Saxon chapel during the county sheriff Thomas de twelfth century. It was in the © Allan Frost, 2017 century. While such charters were often hereditary, they could be (and often were) withdrawn by the Crown and given to some other favoured person. Over the years, Wellington’s markets and (eventually) quarterly fairs were the subject of four charters (1244, 1283, 1514 and 1692) before entitlement to collect tolls was transferred by local church yard that markets, fairs landowner Lord Forester and other community (sometimes called ‘Forster’ or entertainment took place, until ‘Foster’) to Wellington Market King Edward I changed the law by Hall Company in 1856. the Statute of Winchester (1285) It was at about the same time after which such secular and as the first charter that plans were irreligious events were supposed put into effect to develop the The narrow entrance (above) to to find new venues. centre of Wellington. an ancient lane called Ten Tree It was probably then that The The market seems to have Croft still exists between these Green, located next to the church spread along the southern section buildings; the name is derived yard, appeared. Only a small of modern Church Street from The from a corruption of ‘Tenter Croft’, triangle of The Green remains, as Green into what is now Market a smallholding with a field in this 2009 photo shows: Square; the whole of this section which fabrics were stretched on was called Market Place until the wooden frames and held in place early years of the nineteenth using tenter hooks. century and was bounded on one The difference in levels side by the church yard and on the between the road in Church Street other by a succession of new itself and the ground within the buildings from which folk could church yard is probably due to the ply trades and play their part in pounding of feet wearing the developing the local economy. ground down on the one side, and Markets have been the key to Wellington’s commercial success since at least the thirteenth century. They were already popular and attracted folk from far and wide when, in 1244, Giles de Erdington paid King Henry III a suitable inducement to grant him a market charter (the extract from the original vellum roll recording the grant is shown below). Wellington as a township, it should be noted, has never held a market charter in its own right. This charter allowed Giles to raise a toll on animals and products brought into the town for sale. In other words, the Charter was nothing more than a money- spinner for lords of the manor. Wellington’s was just one of 3,300 charters granted during that 2 Visit Wellington History Group at www.wellingtonhistorygroup.wordpress.com centuries of burials raising the soil Thereafter, as the free market level on the other. developed, greater emphasis was Market Square itself was much given to financial considerations larger than it is now and gradually than obligation, and land and bounded on its southern side by other property was able to change rows of wooden stalls which hands more freely, without subsequently became more constraints imposed by class. If permanent until, by 1600, they had anyone had the money, they could developed into the cellared rows use it to advance themselves and of buildings forming Bell, Crown their families. and Duke Streets. This became more obvious as Holyhead Road from about 1480 Three new parallel lanes were time progressed. Interestingly, the and later at Dothill Manor (above) also laid out, which later became basic street layout in the centre of until the late eighteenth century Market Street, Walker Street and Wellington remained pretty much when the family seat moved to Foundry Road, while the western the same from the later medieval Willey Hall near Broseley. As with end of New Street seems to have period until the nineteenth the Charltons, the Foresters been created at the beginning of century. became lords and managed to the fourteenth century, with This is not to say property acquire considerable property and burgess plots (long, narrow development stagnated; in fact, land in and around Wellington. patches of ground with a shop or the contrary was the case. New One of them, John Forester house fronting the edge of the buildings tended to be erected in (sometimes Forster’), was granted road with workshops, warehouses gaps along existing streets; a most unusual concession by and gardens behind) providing eventually, New Street, for King Henry VIII in 1520 when he more permanent dwellings and example, which stretched from was allowed to wear his ‘bonnet’ trade outlets. In time, New Street Market Square to the present in the king’s presence on account extended eastwards. junction where Mill Bank meets of ‘certain diseases and infirmities A few years ago, archaeological King Street, had so many which he has in his head’. This discoveries behind Edgbaston properties by the mid nineteenth concession has apparently been House (below) in Walker Street century that it was split into two, retained by successive Lords indicate that this area was the with the eastern portion renamed Forester to the present day. southern limit of the earlier village High Street. The Old Hall became a school prior to or shortly after the Wellington remained a in the nineteenth century and the creation of Market Place. community whose existence grounds are now a private Something may have happened depended on farming, both housing estate. to halt Wellington’s expansion as pastoral and arable.