History of the parish

History of the parish

Featherstone A Short History

Early History

The name of the village is the main indicator of the length of time that people have been active in the area. The name Featherstone is of Anglo-Saxon origin, but it describes something of much greater antiquity.

The modern name derives from Feotherestan. Feother meaning ‘four’ and stan meaning ‘stone’. The four stones in question were most probably a ‘Dolmen’.  Three upright stones with the fourth forming a roof, a large version of a three-legged-stool. The body of an important person was placed inside and the whole construction was often covered with earth. Sadly, all traces of this structure have long vanished, although in 1971 a Stone-age axe-head was found at Brookhouse Farm and dated to about 3,000BC.

The boundaries of Hatherton, Water Baton, Hilton, and Featherstone are described in the Charter of Wulfrun to the Monastery at Wolverhampton in 994. For centuries the parish belonged to the Deans of Windsor and Wolverhampton. In this charter, Brenesford, modern Brinsford, is mentioned. Sparsely populated until the 20th century, Featherstone’s most celebrated resident was the antiquary, John Huntbach, (1639–1705).

By the time of the Doomsday Book, 1086, it was referred to as Ferdestan, and had been owned by the Clergy of Wolverhampton since 994. It is described as ‘waste’ meaning that it had probably been abandoned.

The next 800 years are not times of great growth for Featherstone, in the census of 1801 the population was 48, by 1901 it had risen to 51, in 1911 it was just 39.

From the 1920’s

There was little urban development in the area until the sinking of the Hilton Main Colliery, which brought in miners from widely separated coalfields. In 1921, the population was still only 39, an increase of just 4 over 1851, but by the late 1950s it had risen to 1,500. To the original colliery estate has been added a larger number of council houses.

In 1924 Hilton Main was opened and the pit owners built some housing for the miner’s, others were built by Cannock Rural District Council. The Methodist Chapel opened in 1929 and a community centre was built in The Avenue in the Second World War.

Under the Staffordshire Review Order, 1934, part of Bushbury, including Moseley Old Hall, was added to Featherstone.

1934 was also the year the Featherstone Parish Council was created, the first Chairman was Councillor L Lowe

From World War II

When the original Community Centre was erected during the last war it had a full-time warden. The Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation provided a Social Club, with extensive playing fields, on the Wolverhampton Road, these have all now gone.

Also, during in the war, the Royal Ordinance Filling Factory No 15 (ROF Featherstone) was constructed, this provided a large number of new jobs, many of them filled by women from the locality and further afield. All signs of the factory have now been demolished and is soon to be replaced with large warehousing units.

A camp was built to house those workers who were not local. It was known as Brinsford Lodge (though it was in Featherstone). There were dormitory units, cookhouse, canteen and recreational buildings. In 1955 the complex became a teacher training college for Malayan students, the last ones left in 1964 it then became a student campus for Wolverhampton Polytechnic. After the Polytechnic/university built new student accommodation near to its main site the buildings were demolished and the site was abandoned, just the large concrete bases of the buildings remained.

In 2014 the part of East Road that runs in front of the Lodge was renamed Malayan Way to remember those visitors.

In 2021-2022 the whole area was cleared and Harvest Grove housing development now occupies the site.

Opened in 1924, Hilton Main colliery was the largest employer in the area for almost half a century and considerable hardship was caused when it closed on 31st January 1969.

At the time of the pit closure the population of Featherstone was around 2,000, with the building of the ‘new’ houses to the west of the old centre the population is now around 6,000.

At present Featherstone has a school, a chapel, a petrol station, a couple of restaurants, a variety of shops, a Health Centre, an opticians and a Community Centre. The local pub, The Red. White and Blue closed after the Covid lockdowns.

What would the 39 people from 1921 think of it now?

 

Brinsford, A Short History.

As already mentioned, Brenesford (Brinsford) is mentioned in the charter of 994. This though is not the Brinsford that is in the parish. From old maps it can be seen that the original Brinsford lay a little to the west of the present Parish, in the area around Brinsford Lane, Coven, roughly between what is now the A449 and the railway line.

What we now know as Brinsford is a greenfield development built mainly in the 1970s, around the same time that the first Prison, HMP Featherstone, was built.