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Tettenhall in 1817

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Description from A Topographical History of Staffordshire by William Pitt (1817)

TETTENHALL.

Tettenhall lies about two miles west of Wolverhampton: Camden says this place before the Conquest was called Theotenhall, ie the House of the Pagans. A great battle is said to have been fought between Tettenhall and the Wergs, where, in a field called Lowhill-field, a large tumulus is still to be seen. In 911, Edward the Elder defeated the Danes at Tettenhall: Plot notices some extensive remains of a Danish encampment in Wrottesley-park.

The Church, dedicated to St. Michael, is a Royal free chapel, and enjoys all the privileges of such peculiar: it contains several monuments of the Wrottesley and other families. Sir John Wrottesley, Bart. is patron, and the Rev. Charles Wrottesley, his brother, the present officiating minister. In the steeple is a peal of five bells.

The following is an accurate account of the civil state of Tettenhall parish in 1780. Tettenhall is divided into four prebends:
1. Tettenhall prebend; containing the village, with Tettenhall-wood, Compton South, and Autherley East.
2. Pirton prebend; containing Pirton, Trescote, and Wightwick.
3. Wrottesley prebend; containing Wrottesley, the Wergs, Diplon's Farm, and Kingswood.
4, Pendeford prebend; including Bilbrook, Lane-green, Barnhurst, Cronk-hall, Palmer's-cross, and part of the Birches.

The whole parish is now inclosed, and contains about 8000 acres of inclosed land, with upwards of 200 of woodland. The number of houses was then 332, and of inhabitants about 2000, which may be increased from 5 to 13 per cent. The register commenced in 1602: in the first ten years there were 226 births and 169 burials, and in the ten years ended 1804, 526 births and 425 burials, the increase in that time being as 2 to 5.

The population principally consists of persons employed in agriculture, with a few locksmiths: there is a good resident gentry. Tettenhall may be considered extremely healthy, the births to the desths being as 5 to 4: here are no dissenters or Roman Catholics.

There are two rivulets or small rivers. The Penk rises in Penkridge-well meadows, and then through Wrottesley and the Wergs to the Dam-mill and Pendeford, near which it meets a stream from Chillington: these streams form a pool to Pendeford-mill, and pass through the Pendeford estate to Breewood parish. The Smestall comes from the Culwell, Wolverhampton, and the Showell moat at Byshbury, takes a southwest direction through Tettenhall and Compton, where it works a mill, and another at Wightwick, and then passes on for the Severn. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal summit is north of Compton, where the lockage begins with a fall of about 350 feet to the Severn.

The face of the country is generally nearly level, with gentle eminences and easy valleys, excepting a cliff or precipice, which runs through the village and along Tettenhall-wood to Wightwick; the land to the west keeping the level of its summit, and that to the east being the valley of the Smestall and of the Canal, whence it rises gradually to Wolverhampton.

The perspective from Tettenhall-wood is extremely picturesque: the ridge of the cliff above Tettenhall church-yard commands a bold and extensive view of Wolverhampton, and the surrounding country. The prospect from the newly-erected mansion of Joseph Pearson, Esq. Barrister-at-Law, is diversified and beautiful; and the seats of Francis Holyoake and P. T. Hinckes, Esqs. are not inferior in point of situation, or the extent of charming scenery which they embrace.

The upland of this parish is generally a sound gravelly loam, more or less strong, with an admixture of pebbles, and an understratum of clay, sand, gravel, or rock: the lowlands generally a four-foot stratum of peat upon gravel, but drained into meadow-land. There is a fine square grove of 80 elms upon Tettenhall-green, of 90 years' growth, some of which contain upwards of 100 feet of timber: the Wrottesley estate has some good coppices of oak.

Compton is a small village to the east of Tettenhall-wood, containing several farm and other houses, with a wharf and some warehouses on the Canal. The mansion and demesne of Wightwick, to the south-west, have been purchased by P. T. Hinckes, Esq. of Tettenhall-wood. Aldersley consists of two farms, also the property of this gentleman. Here the Birmingham Canal communicates with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire, forming what is called the Aldersley junction.

Pendeford is situated upon the Peak, and consists of the mansion of Thomas Fowler, Esq. three farm-houses, a few tenements and about 1000 acres of land: the estate is well timbered and contains free-stone.

Wrottesley, about two miles west of Tettenhall, is the seat of the Wrottesleys, whose ancestors have possessed it for many centuries. The house stands upon a rising ground, and was erected about 1696 by Sir Walter Wrottesley: it is a large and magnificent structure. This family trace their descent from Sir Hugo de Wrottesley, Knt. (1 Henry III.) to the present Sir John Wrottesley, Bart. MP for the city of Lichfield in 1799. He married, in 1795, Caroline, eldest daughter of the Earl of Tankerville, by whom he has issue.

Nurton and Perton are small hamlets belonging to the Wrottesley family: Trescote contains nothing remarkable. A dreadful thunder-storm, with hail, happened in this neighbourhood, on the 18th August, 1742, which completely threshed-out the growing corn, and occasioned much damage: the hail-stones remained under the roofs of buildings for several days. On Thursday, December 27, 1799, at Tettenhall-wood, Fahrenheit's thermometer stood 8° above zero, or 24° below the freezing point: the cold was equally intense in January, 1814.