The Domesday spelling is Blocheswic, which indicates that the first element is a personal name, originally though to be Blocca. Wich as an element in place-names comes from Old English wic, which denotes a settlement that was already old in Saxon times, therefore dating back at least to the post-Roman Era, and was associated with some specialized production. No pre-Medieval industry is known from Bloxwich, so possibly in this case it was a dairy farm. (Mills, p.43; Poulton-Smith, p.18)
There is no archaeology or recorded history from Bloxwich prior to its being mentioned in the Domesday Book of King William, although the etymology of the place name (see above) would suggest that a Saxon settlement had existed for many years prior to the collation of this Norman administrative document, perhaps as far back as the post-Roman 'Dark Age' or even the late-Roman period.
"The King holds WADNESBERIE (Wednesbury), with its dependencies. 3 hides. Land for 9 ploughs. In lordship 1; 1 slave; 16 villagers and 11 smallholders with 7 ploughs. A mill at 2s; meadow, 1 acre; woodland 2 leagues long and 1 wide. [Value...] BLOCHESWIC (Bloxwich) is a member of this manor. Woodland 3 furlongs long and 1 wide. In SCELFELD (Shelfield) 1 hide, waste, which belongs to this manor." (The Domesday Book, 1086, 1.6)
The Domesday record of early-Norman England contains the first mention of the settlement of Bloxwich which was probably founded in late-Saxon times. We are not told how many people lived in the village or how much land they farmed, only that the village belonged to the King, had a small wood amounting to 30 acres in area within its boundaries and was listed as a dependancy of Wednesbury, along with Shelfield which was uninhabited at the time.
During the late-13th century the village of Blockeswich was owned by the de Morteyn family, but the King had other ideas, for we are told in the 'Staffordshire Forest Pleas' of Michaelmas in the 55th year of Henry III's reign (i.e. 1271); "... William son of Robert de Blockeswich, who is dead, had newly assarted two acres within the fee of William de Morteyn. The land to be taken into the King's hands. ..." It would seem that the king took possession of these newly-cleared fields even though the woodland in which they lay was owned by the de Morteyns; King Henry died the following year and the de Morteyns took advantage of this to claim back the land seized by the Crown at Bloxwich. The de Mortayn family did not own all of Bloctuswych, however, for the 'Plea Rolls for Staffordshire: 30 Edward I' (i.e. 1302), records an attempt at jury-rigging by one Clement de Warlawestcroft against Henry de Teddesleye "respecting tenements in Little Bloctuswych near Walesha'e [sic]"; the jury of twenty-four knights in this case deferred their verdict. The Plea Rolls for the following year (1303) also had mention of Blockeswych, this time recording the default of rents apparently owed to Roger de Mortayn by two of his tenants, 7 shillings by Richard de Northcote and his wife Nichola, and another 7s by John Paynel and his wife Margaret, who each rented "half a virgate of land in Blockeswych". The defendants pleaded, however, that the tenements in Bloxwich "were held in sokemanship of the manor of Walshalle, which is of ancient demesne of the King" and the jury, finding that the landowner was indeed, the King and not de Mortayn, dismissed the case against the two Bloxwich families. (SHC)
About the beginning of the 14th century Roger de Morteyn began to reduce his holdings at Bloxwich; he gave 'a plot of waste in Walsall' to John Wodemon of Bloxwich c.1300, he gave a house and land in Bloxwich to a clerk named John de Bloxwich, he also gave two acres of wasteland to Thomas de Ruycroft of Hilton; all of these land holdings were later passed to the Hillary family. Thomas le Rous, son of Margery le Rous who died c.1303, was another land-owner in Bloxwich who was seemingly giving away land, granting a "piece of waste in Bloxwich called Northwood" to one Walter Marchis whose widow Emme le Marchis and his son Thomas again gave half of this holding to William Hillary c.1316. In 1330 Thomas le Rous granted a tenement in Bloxwich to Robert Hillary, then rector of Sutton Coldfield. By 1377 all of the abovementioned holdings in Bloxwich had passed to Sir Roger Hillary (the younger) of Bescot and after his death in 1400 "the estate descended with the manor of Goscote"; after 1510 the rights to Bloxwich were held by the 'coparceners of Goscote', Lord Berners and Lady Sheffield. (VCHS)
The present Church of All Saints in Bloxwich (SJ 997018) was built c.1791-4 with major alterations and extensions made in 1875-7, although it is possible that an earlier church once existed on the site. The church was originally dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury but was rededicated after the alterations in 1875. An interesting piece of archaeology which lends credence to the supposition of a Medieval predecessor to All Saints' lies in the churchyard just south of the south porch (SJ 9975 0189). A churchyard cross of red sandstone, the stepped base, socket stone and shaft of which is Medieval in date, surmounted by a knop and ball finial which was added in the early-20th century. The first step measures 2.33 metres square, the second 1.64 metres square, both being 0.23 metres in height. The socket stone measures 0.97 metres square and is 0.42 metres high, from which the shaft of the cross rises, its corners chamfered to a tapering octagon, the full height of the cross being some 3 metres. The cross itself is a Grade II Listed Building, also a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Documentary evidence suggests that the church was founded as a Chapel-of-Ease in the diocese of Walsall by Margaret, widow of Sir Roger Hillary of Bescot sometime in the early-15th century, as the inhabitants were granted a licence to worship here for the first time in 1413. Documentary evidence for a 'chapelwarden' at Bloxwich occurs in 1553. (VCHS; AHDS)
The only other places of interest in Bloxwich which may be tentatively dated to the Medieval period are the remains of a succession of buildings beneath the main street through the centre of the town which may be viewed only through the means of archaeological investigations; an example of which is Bloxwich Police Station (SJ9901), where an evaluation conducted in 1998 by the Worcestershire County Council Archaeological Service (WCCAS) in advance of proposed development by the Mason Richards Partnership recorded slight features associated with a large Medieval building which once existed on the site. Continuing development at the Police Station the following year required that archaeologists be present to monitor groundworks, a so-called 'watching brief', which recorded a range of features including cellars, ditches, pits, walls and a well, all dating to the post-Medieval period; details of these findings were published in a WCCAS report written by J.D. Hurst et al. in 2000. (AHDS)
Continuing the policing theme, new stocks were made for the manor of Walsall in 1487-8 which were probably placed at Bloxwich where stocks were recorded in 1567 apparently sited near to the church. Tithe maps of 1617 record a pasture named Gallows Leasow somewhere in the Bloxwich area which is thought to indicate the existence of a gallows here in former times. The accounts of the Mayor of Bloxwich in 1639 contained entries appertaining to the cost of building a 'pinfold', an impound where miscreants and felons could be housed, prior to them being brought before a magistrate; it is thought to have been sited at the south-east end of the village, the only surviving evidence being the street-name Pinfold. Walsall parish formed an "association for the prosecution of felons" in 1771, although the Bloxwich area had to wait until 1814 before forming their own. A 'lock-up' at Bloxwich was assigned to the borough police in 1836; this possibly equates to the 'pinfold' in the accounts of the 17th century mayor of Bloxwich, although there was still an 'impound' recorded at Bloxwich as late as 1849. The site of Bloxwich Police Station has changed over the years as the policing requirements dictated, the first police station was recorded at Short Heath in 1861, moving to Harrison Street in the 1870's, finally to a purpose-built station in 1882-4, part of the Station Street Public Building Complex. The control of the Borough Police Force passed in 1966 to the West Midlands Police Authority in Walsall. (VCHS, Vol.17, 1974)
It is evident from documentary sources that Bloxwich was originally part of the manor of Walsall and it was not mentioned as a separate manor until the late-16th century, when a manor house occupied by one John Baylye is documented in 1564; the holdings of this manor may be identified with the 'wasteland at Bloxwich' granted to the Hillary family during the 14th century. ... (VCHS)
Assessment and recording of industrial buildings in advance of proposed development at the rear of 9-13 Wolverhampton Road, Bloxwich (SJ9902) by Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit in 1997, recorded post-medieval industrial buildings. There is a house dating to the late-16th century at the junction of Elmore Green Road and Leamore Lane (SJ 9964 0195). Bloxwich Railway Station opened at Station Place (SJ 995018) on the Cannock Mineral Railway in 1859 and closed in 1965; the line reopened just recently with stations at Bloxwich (SJ992022) off Croxdene Avenue, and Bloxwich North (SJ988031) near the corner of Broad Lane and Turnberry Road. The Turf Tavern (SJ 9970 0220) was originally a house, built in the mid-19th century of brownish-red brick with a grey tile roof and extended in the late-19th with internal alterations made c.1920. Outside in the courtyard at the rear is the original brewhouse and a shed built in the early-17th century. (AHDS)
"St. Peter's Church in High Street, Bloxwich, was opened in 1869 on land given by Charles Beech. Of brick and Bath stone, it was designed by Bucknall & Donnelly of Birmingham in a Gothic style with apsidal sanctuary and aisled and clerestoried nave. It was extended and renovated between 1952 and 1954, with Jennings, Homer & Lynch of Brierley Hill as architects; the main addition was a westward extension to High Street with a façade of two towers. The presbytery, which was built at the same time as the church, adjoins it on the south-east. (fn. 30) The Roman Catholic population of St. Peter's parish in 1973 was 1,700. (fn. 31) In 1904 the Sisters of Charity of St. Paul of Chartres bought Wallington House and some 20 a.; they opened a secondary school at the convent in 1905 and erected school buildings in 1909. The school was closed in 1964 and the nuns left. (fn. 32)" (VCHS, Vol.17, 1976, pp.239-241)
An impressively bound book within All Saints Church contains the roll of honour of all 316 men of Bloxwich who gave their lives in the 'Great War' of 1914-1918, among them was Harold Parry, a former star pupil of Queen Mary's Grammar School with aspirations to become a teacher who was killed by a German shell in Flanders six months before his 21st birthday in 1917. As well as being the former School Captain, Cricket Captain and Football Captain, Harold also wrote poetry and penned the following verse while serving in the trenches:
The simplest things in life are loveliest: |