Trysull is a rural village in the county of
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
, England approximately five miles south-west of
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...
. With the adjacent village of
Seisdon
Seisdon is a rural village in the parish of Trysull and Seisdon, Staffordshire approximately six miles west of Wolverhampton and the name of one of the five Hundred (county division), hundreds of Staffordshire. The population recorded at the Unit ...
, it forms the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
of
Trysull and Seisdon
Trysull and Seisdon is a conjoined Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the South Staffordshire non-metropolitan district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. The population of the civil parish taken at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 20 ...
, within the
South Staffordshire
South Staffordshire is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. The district lies to the north and west of the West Midlands county, bordering Shropshire to the west and Worcestershire to the south. It contains notable settlements ...
non-metropolitan district
Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''shire counties'') in a two-tier arrangement. Non-m ...
. Until 1974 it formed part of
Seisdon Rural District
Seisdon was a rural district in Staffordshire, England from 1894 to 1974. It lays west of Wolverhampton and was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 based on the Seisdon rural sanitary district.
Villages in the district included Kinver, W ...
. The
2011 census recorded a
usually resident population for the parish of Trysull & Seisdon of 1,150 persons in 455 households.
The village has not been greatly affected by over-modern development and still retains many of the old country cottages, houses and a manor house.
Toponymy
In 1086 the village name appears in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
as ''Treslei''. One of the families who subsequently occupied the estate were styled ''de Tressell''.
The name appears to mean "the settlement in the clearing", deriving from the
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
prefix ''tre'' settlement and the suffix ''leah'' a woodland clearing. The next significant placename to the north is Trescott, where the suffix ''cott'' means small building or cottage.
Ogilby's strip road map c1675 shows the spelling ''Tressell''.
Yates' map of Staffordshire, from 1775, shows the spelling ''Treosle''.
Topography and geology
The village of Trysull lies almost entirely within the shallow valley of the
Smestow Brook
The Smestow Brook, sometimes called the River Smestow, is a small river that plays an important part in the drainage of Wolverhampton, South Staffordshire, and parts of Dudley in the United Kingdom, and has contributed to the industrial developm ...
,
flanked either side by low sandstone ridges running north-south.
The Smestow itself created neither of these features: it simply flows through a landscape opened up by glaciation in the last
Ice Age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...
. A thin mantle of
glacial drift
In geology, drift is a name for all sediment (clay, silt, sand, gravel, boulders) transported by a glacier and deposited directly by or from the ice, or by glacial meltwater. Drift is often subdivided into (unsorted and) unstratified drift (glaci ...
covers the
bedrock
In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet.
Definition
Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...
and consists of patches of
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
,
silt
Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...
and
pebble
A pebble is a clast of rock with a particle size of based on the Udden-Wentworth scale of sedimentology. Pebbles are generally considered larger than granules ( in diameter) and smaller than cobbles ( in diameter). A rock made predominant ...
beds. Also present are scattered
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
boulders originating either in Southern Scotland or North Wales.
File:Towards Smestow Brook, Trysull - geograph.org.uk - 368784.jpg, Towards Smestow Brook, flood plain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
File:Sandstone Quarry - geograph.org.uk - 366745.jpg, "Turbulent" Bunter sandstone
The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Buntsands ...
face at quarry on ridge north of village
File:Smestow Brook, near Trysull, Staffordshire - geograph.org.uk - 363155.jpg, Smestow Brook
File:Grazing Land near Trysull, Staffordshire - geograph.org.uk - 365988.jpg, Grazing land after winter
File:Gorse Lane - geograph.org.uk - 687523.jpg, Gorse Lane
History
Early history
No archaeological evidence of pre-Saxon permanent occupation has been discovered although remains of
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
origin are found only 3 miles downstrean at
Greensforge
Greensforge is a scattered hamlet on the boundary of Kinver and Swindon parishes, in South Staffordshire, England. It is noted for its Roman associations and its industrial heritage.
Etymology
The hamlet takes its name from a finery forge estab ...
and
Ashwood.
The feudal estates of Trysull and the nearby village of
Seisdon
Seisdon is a rural village in the parish of Trysull and Seisdon, Staffordshire approximately six miles west of Wolverhampton and the name of one of the five Hundred (county division), hundreds of Staffordshire. The population recorded at the Unit ...
are
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
in origin and lay within the Seisdon
Hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...
. This administrative body met in the open, probably in the fields known as the "Musters".
The estates were held by the
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
Turgot immediately prior to the
Conquest
Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms.
Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...
. For much of its history, as today, Trysull and Seisdon jointly formed a parish.
The earliest recorded evidence for Trysull is an entry in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
of 1086. A contemporary reworking of the original text
records that:
William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
holds 2 hides (about 240 acres) in Trysull and Baldwin holds it from him. Tirgot held it, with full jurisdiction, he was a freeman. Land for 3 ploughs. In the estate 2 ploughs, 5 slaves, 4 villagers and 1 small holder with 2 ploughs. A mill valued at 4 shillings and 4 acres of meadow. The value was and is now 30 shillings.
Following the
Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...
the two estates were held "in captive" by
William Fitz Ansculf and subsequently tenanted by local families. Sub-tenants were at first styled Frankley or Bradley, and later Tressell, from the name of the village. A fair and a market were granted by
Henry III in 1251 to Thomas de Tressell. By 1396 the manor had passed to the Lowes, lords of Whittington (
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
). By 1557 it had passed to Thomas Grey of
Enville, who bought the neighbouring village of Seisdon in that year. The estate was bought by Sir Hugh Wrottesley in 1633, the ownership passed slowly into other hands, the last portion being sold in 1929.
Various
mediaeval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
routes can still be seen in the village. Both the track, Church Lane, from Trysull to Seisdon, and the green lane track, which backs on to various properties in the village centre, have evidence of long term use. Others, like Trysull
Holloway A hollow way is a sunken lane. Holloway may refer to:
People
*Holloway (surname)
*Holloway Halstead Frost (1889–1935), American World War I Navy officer
Place names
;United Kingdom
*Holloway, London, inner-city district in the London Borough of ...
, have been built over and are in modern-day use, but both their curving routes and some historic (possibly mediaeval) stone walling systems indicate ancient origins. The indirect routes taken suggest the need to bypass long-demolished mediaeval buildings no longer visible above ground.
The
open field system
The open-field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe during the Middle Ages and lasted into the 20th century in Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Each manor or village had two or three large fields, usually several hundred acre ...
of farming ended in Trysull by mid-17th century following private
enclosure acts
The Inclosure Acts, which use an archaic spelling of the word now usually spelt "enclosure", cover enclosure of open fields and common land in England and Wales, creating legal property rights to land previously held in common. Between 1604 and 1 ...
and the exchange of
common pasture with the Vicar of
Wombourne
Wombourne is a large village and civil parish located in the district of South Staffordshire, in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is 4 miles (6 km) south-west of Wolverhampton and just outside the county and conurbation of the W ...
in lieu of
hay tithe.
Turnpike
The road along the southern boundary of the village was operated by the Dudley and New Inn
Turnpike Trust
Turnpike trusts were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road toll road, tolls for maintaining the principal roads in Kingdom of Great Britain, Britain from the 17th b ...
from 1790. There was a
toll house
A tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road, canal, or toll bridge.
History
Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and ...
, toll gate and a turnpike gatekeeper at Smestow Gate, with a side-bar to Trysull and Seisdon. The turnpike ran from
Dudley
Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...
, Worcestershire to
New Inn
New Inn - ( cy, Y Dafarn Newydd) - is a village and community directly south east of Pontypool, within the County Borough of Torfaen in Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It had a population of 5,986 at the 2011 Census.
L ...
,
Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...
. The
Local Government Act 1888
Local may refer to:
Geography and transportation
* Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand
* Local, Missouri, a community in the United States
* Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...
gave responsibility for maintaining main roads to the
Staffordshire County Council
Staffordshire County Council is the top-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshir ...
. This section of the road is now the B4176.
Railway
Large-scale Victorian industrial development largely by-passed the village. The
Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal passed about a quarter of a mile to the east of the parish boundary. However, it could have been very different if plans by the Welch and Midland Counties Junction Railways had come to fruition. In
The London Gazette
''The London Gazette'' is one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are ...
of 25 November 1862 a notice appeared announcing the intention to apply for an Act of Parliament to build and maintain a railway between the
Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway
The Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway was an English railway company that built a standard gauge line between those places. It opened its main line in 1853.
Its natural ally seemed to be the Great Western Railway. With other lines it formed a rou ...
at
Craven Arms
Craven Arms is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, on the A49 road and the Welsh Marches railway line, which link it north and south to the larger towns of Shrewsbury and Ludlow respectively. The Heart of Wales railway line ...
, the West Midland and South Staffordshire Railways at Dudley and Wolverhampton. Three sections of the line would have been:
No. 2. A railway, commencing in the said parish of Oldbury, from and out of the intended railway No. 1, at or near the termination of that railway, as before described, and terminating in the parish of Trysull, in the county of Stafford, at a point in the centre of the public highway leading from the Dudley and New Inn turnpike road at Smestow toll gate to Seisdon, situate 135 yards or thereabouts from the tollhouse at the said tollgate, measuring in a northerly direction along the said highway.
No. 3. A railway, commencing in the said parish of Trysull, from and out of the said intended Railway No. 2, at or near the termination of that railway as before described, and terminating in the parish of Dudley, in the county of Worcester, at or near Scot's-green, at a point in the centre of the Dudley and Brettell-lane turnpike-road, situate 33 yards or thereabouts from the weighing machine in the said road belonging to the Right Honourable the Earl of Dudley
Earl of Dudley, of Dudley Castle in the County of Stafford (now the West Midlands), is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, both times for members of the Ward family.
History
Dudley was first used for a pe ...
, and occupied by his lordship.
No. 7. A railway, commencing in the parish of Trysull, in the. county of Stafford, from and out of the said intended Railway No. 2, at or near the termination of that railway and the commencement of the said intended Railway No. 3, as before respectively described, and terminating in the parish of Sedgley, in the same county, by a junction with the Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Stour Valley Railway, about 10 yards to the south-east of the point where such last-mentioned railway is carried over the turnpike-road leading from Goldthorn-hill to Bilston
Bilston is a market town, ward, and civil parish located in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. It is close to the borders of Sandwell and Walsall. The nearest towns are Darlaston, Wednesbury, and Willenhall. Historically in Staffordshi ...
, and near to Ettingshall-road and
Bilston Station, on such last-mentioned railway.
Similarly, the Central Wales and Staffordshire Junction Railway (1864) and the Bridgnorth, Wolverhampton and Staffordshire Railway (1865) also planned to link main line
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
and
Black Country
The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands county, England covering most of the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall. Dudley and Tipton are generally considered to be the centre. It became industrialised during its ro ...
networks via the Smestow Valley at Trysull.
Mander family
The architectural character of the historic centre of the village was significantly influenced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the activities and benefaction of Benjamin Howard Mander, who bought the Manor House in 1894 and lived there until his death in 1912. His widow Lilian continued to reside in Trysull until her own death in 1952.
[Varnished Leaves: a biography of the Mander Family of Wolverhampton 1750-1950, Nicholas Mander, published: Owlpen Press, 2004]
![TheManorHouse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/TheManorHouse.jpg)
The considerable wealth of the
Mander family
The Mander family has held for over 200 years a prominent position in the Midland counties of England, both in the family business and public life.
In the early industrial revolution, the Mander family entered the vanguard of the expansion of ...
began to grow following the migration of Thomas Mander from the family’s farmland on the Warwickshire-Worcestershire border to the market town of Wolverhampton in the mid-1700s. By 1845,
Mander Brothers
Mander Brothers was a major employer in the city of Wolverhampton, in the English Midlands, a progressive company founded in 1773. In the 19th century the firm became the number one manufacturers of varnishes, paints and later printing inks in th ...
had become a formidable industrial force in the area with a range of chemical and industrial businesses. The success of their paint and varnish business in the second half of the 19th century earned them a national reputation. The family were noted non-conformists, major philanthropists and local benefactors, and were regarded by their contemporaries as being progressive and public spirited.
The Mander family, including Howard, were strongly influenced by the
Arts and Crafts movement. They were responsible for building two great Arts and Crafts houses in the area,
Wightwick Manor
The legacy of a family's passion for Victorian art and design, Wightwick Manor (pronounced "Wittick") is a Victorian manor house located on Wightwick Bank, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. Owned by the National Trust since 1937, the Manor ...
of 1889–93 on the western edge of Wolverhampton for Theodore Mander and The Mount at Tettenhall Wood in 1891 and 1908 for
Sir Charles Tertius Mander. Immediately after his purchase of Trysull Manor House in 1894, Howard Mander commenced its remodelling, transforming it into an exemplar for the Arts and Crafts movement. By 1900, or soon after, he had endowed the village with an institute (now The Thatchers) complete with a billiards room and library. It was lost to the people of the village when the deed of gift was lost or misplaced. He also built neighbouring housing along Trysull Holloway and the fine Manor Farm. He influenced the design of the new school building in 1896, although he was not its principal benefactor.
20th century
The two 11th-century hamlets grew slowly; until prior to 1914 the parish was self-contained with a parish church, church hall, public houses, shops, a bakery, two post offices, two corn mills, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, boot and shoe makers, friendly societies, a sprinkling of professional people and a few "gentry".
There were several small charities for the relief of the poor, now merged into the Thomas Rudge Educational Trust and the Parish Charity.
The historic centre of Trysull was designated a Conservation Area in December 1969 by Staffordshire County Council. A more comprehensive study was made in December 2003 and January 2004 for
South Staffordshire Council
South Staffordshire is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. The district lies to the north and west of the West Midlands county, bordering Shropshire to the west and Worcestershire to the south. It contains notable settlements ...
. This was published in an appraisal of the existing Conservation Area with recommendations for the future, in March 2004. After consideration and consultation a revised village Conservation Area, with its own detailed Management Plan and Appraisal was published. This was designated on 11 November 2010 and the changed boundary and Management Plan came into immediate effect. It was also felt appropriate to conjoin portions of Seisdon to the revised original areas. Both hamlets have strong historic and administrative links with their neighbour and are joined to them by a specially designated Buffer Zone.
Parish Church
The Parish Church, All Saints, is a small ancient edifice. It is known that a church has stood on the present site for over 1000 years.
![All Saints, Trysull - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/All_Saints%2C_Trysull_-_geograph.org.uk_-_120185.jpg)
The Tower is one of the oldest parts of the church dating from the 12th century. It was heightened and buttressed in the 15th century. The tower had extensive work undertaken on it in 1897 by specialist builders F.W. Simon of
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
,
to a design by the same architect that designed the school. The works included a new porch. Above the round tower arch at the west end of the
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
area are
The Royal Arms Of
George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
. Following the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
of the English monarchy in 1660 it was made compulsory to display the arms of the reigning monarch in all parish churches. During the 19th century the practice was discontinued.
On the outside of the north wall is an ancient doorhead, now blocked off. It is possible that it is
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
and has been re-sited when the north aisle was widened. It was in use until the late 19th century.
Notable internal features are the 13th-century
font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design.
In mod ...
, the 15th-century
piscina
A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman ...
, the 16th-century
rood screen
The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or ...
and the
Jacobean pulpit
A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...
. The east window dating from 1340 has undergone some restoration. The saints in the left and right hand sections are predominantly of the original 14th-century glass. Inside the main door is a parish chest, believed to date from the late 12th century, hewn out of one tree trunk and banded with iron. It was padlocked in two places; one key was held by the priest and the other by a
church warden
A churchwarden is a lay official in a parish or congregation of the Anglican Communion or Catholic Church, usually working as a part-time volunteer. In the Anglican tradition, holders of these positions are ''ex officio'' members of the parish b ...
.
The church was enlarged, and restored, in 1844, at a cost of £1,000. It had 400 sittings of which 180 were free.
The churchyard contains two
Commonwealth war graves
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mi ...
, of a
Royal Field Artillery
The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of t ...
soldier of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and a
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
airman of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Woodford Grange
![Track to Woodford Grange, Trysull, Staffordshire - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Track_to_Woodford_Grange%2C_Trysull%2C_Staffordshire_-_geograph.org.uk_-_363167.jpg)
The mediaeval monastic farming centre at Woodford Grange was an
extra-parochial area
In England and Wales, an extra-parochial area, extra-parochial place or extra-parochial district was a geographically defined area considered to be outside any ecclesiastical or civil parish. Anomalies in the parochial system meant they had no chu ...
on the south-eastern edge of the village. It was a farming centre for the
Cluniac priory at Dudley. In a mediaeval context the grange place name normally denotes a monastic farm. It may be that Woodford Grange was central to an estate owned by the priory, and therefore some of the fields around Trysull would have been part of that estate as well. Not much is known about the links between Trysull and Woodford Grange in the medieval period and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. However following the introduction of the
New Poor Law
The ''Poor Law Amendment Act 1834'' (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey. It completely replaced earlier legislation based on the ''Poor Relief ...
, extra-parochial areas were effectively made civil parishes by the Extra-Parochial Places Act 1857 and were eliminated by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1868. In the case of Woodford this would have been achieved by being integrated with the neighbouring parish of Wombourne. A surviving associated feature is Monk's Path. Woodford Grange is currently privately owned.
School
![All Saints CE School - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/All_Saints_CE_School_-_geograph.org.uk_-_687660.jpg)
Trysull children had schooling as early as the 1680s although the first purpose-built schoolroom did not appear until later.
The school was originally opened in 1703 and was situated somewhere opposite the parish church. By the mid-19th century, Trysull School was the building immediately adjacent to the School House. In 1895 a severe gale blew down the main chimney, destroying part of the roof and causing other considerable damage. Using a bequest of nearly £3,000 from Eliza Baker of
Bromsgrove
Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England, about northeast of Worcester and southwest of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 29,237 in 2001 (39,644 in the wider Bromsgrove/Catshill urban area). Bromsgrove is the main town in the ...
(formerly of Seisdon), work was started on the present school building which opened in 1896, a short distance from its predecessor. The building design, commissioned by the Mander family, was carried out by noted
Arts and Crafts style architect
Frank Worthington Simon
Frank Lewis Worthington Simon (31 March 1862 – 19 May 1933) was a British architect working in the Arts and Crafts style. In Scotland, he was sufficiently noteworthy as to be commissioned by Queen Victoria to remodel Balmoral Castle In la ...
. Drawings are held in the
RIBA
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
Archive at the
Victoria & Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
.
The Green
Until the 1840s the village green was known as Bent Green. The Green is situated next to the Village Hall and opposite Woodford House, a residential nursing home.
Workhouse
The original poorhouse for Trysull was built on The Green and was in use by the 1770s but was derelict by the 1840s.
On 10 February 1859 the Birmingham Daily Post reported that ''"On Tuesday last, at the ordinary meeting of the Board of Guardians, Lord Wrottesley in the chair, the contract for the erection of the new workhouse for the Seisdon Union was signed. The site is on an eminence overlooking the village of Trysull. The contractor for the work is Mr. Heveningham, and it will be carried out under the superintendence of Mr. Bidlake."''
The new Seisdon
Poor Law Union workhouse was erected at Awbridge, to the north-east of Trysull, to accommodate 120 inmates, but with enlargement this number rose to 350. The boardroom also served as the Chamber for Seisdon Rural District Council.
After its closure in 1936, some parts of the building were used by the Ministry of Food as an egg packing station from 1942 during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Mr Harris, a Bridgnorth egg wholesaler, bought the building in 1959 for his egg packing station.
The buildings were largely destroyed following a fire in 1964 leaving the ruins of the buildings that are seen today.
The Seisdon Union also opened a children’s home in Vine Cottage on the south side of The
Green in 1918. In 1871 Vine Cottage had been the Vine Inn, although it is not clear how long it operated as an inn. Today, this is the residential nursing home Woodford House.
Mill
![Trysull Mill - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Trysull_Mill_-_geograph.org.uk_-_365825.jpg)
There is an old red-brick water mill close to the bridge over the Smestow Brook. Originally owned by
Lord Wrottesley, it dates from 1854 and was one of the first buildings to feature an
iron frame The term iron frame describes the structural use of either cast iron or wrought iron in the columns and Beam (structure), beams of a building. While popular in the 19th century, the iron frame was displaced by the steel frame in the early 20th centu ...
. It has a cast-iron water wheel with iron axle and paddles by G. and R. Turton of
Kidderminster
Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it had ...
. The site also had a bakery.
The village has had a mill since Saxon times and one was recorded in the Domesday Book however this was probably located further downstream.
Village Hall
![Junction and Village Hall, Trysull, Staffordshire - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Junction_and_Village_Hall%2C_Trysull%2C_Staffordshire_-_geograph.org.uk_-_364228.jpg)
Trysull & Seisdon Village Hall was originally built for the
Women’s Institute in the 1930s. The hall was leased to Trysull & Seisdon Parish Council on 18 October 1977 for a period of 99 years. Trysull & Seisdon Village hall was established as a charity by a Trust Deed dated 5 June 1984. The village hall management committee is responsible for keeping the building in a good state of repair.
By mid-2008 the Village Hall had reached a sorry, dilapidated state both inside and out. Inside it was cold, damp and an environmental nightmare costing a fortune to run. In 2009 the hall was closed for 2 months to carry out energy efficiency improvements and to extensively repair and enhance the building and site. The hall was reopened in September 2009 after repairs and improvements totalling nearly £60,000.
Adjacent to the Village Hall is the little green, a small and characterful grassed triangle formed by the junction of two roads. In the centre is a large oak tree, which as the inscription on a nearby stone attests, was planted to commemorate the coronation of
King Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...
, dated 9 August 1902, Coronation Day.
Playing Fields
The earliest sporting record is a cricket match between Trysull & Seisdon and a
Bridgnorth
Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079.
History
B ...
team in 1858. There has been a cricket field in at least four locations in the parish over the years.
Founded in 1951, the Playing Fields were created to provide permanent facilities for outdoor sport, including cricket and football along with a dedicated children's playground. A cedar wood clad prefabricated pavilion was provided in the mid-1960s, erected by local volunteers. This was destroyed by fire and replaced in 1984 with a brick-built structure still in use today.
The current building was completely refurbished in 2005 and was officially re-opened on 11 June 2005 with a commemorative cricket match between Trysull & Seisdon Cricket Club and Tiverton Cricket Club (of Shropshire).
Industry
![Smestow Bridge - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Smestow_Bridge_-_geograph.org.uk_-_291520.jpg)
Sited on a sandstone ridge, north of Church Lane, lies a quarry, largely screened from the surrounding area.
At the south east boundary of the village, a spun concrete pipe works was established, owned by Norcon Ltd. Following closure this became Smestow Bridge Industrial Estate; several enterprises now operate from the site.
Listed buildings
![Awbridge Bridge (No 49), Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Awbridge_Bridge_%28No_49%29%2C_Staffordshire_and_Worcestershire_Canal_-_geograph.org.uk_-_629154.jpg)
* Bridge - over
Smestow Brook
The Smestow Brook, sometimes called the River Smestow, is a small river that plays an important part in the drainage of Wolverhampton, South Staffordshire, and parts of Dudley in the United Kingdom, and has contributed to the industrial developm ...
* Church of All Saints
* The Croft
* Four Ways
* Ketley House
* Manor Farm
* The Old Manor House
* Plough Cottage
* The Plough Inn
* Porthilly & Boddinick
* The Red House
* Rose Cottage
*
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal
The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is a navigable narrow canal in Staffordshire and Worcestershire in the English Midlands. It is long, linking the River Severn at Stourport in Worcestershire with the Trent and Mersey Canal at Haywoo ...
Bridge Number 49 (Awbridge Bridge) and Associated Lock
* Thatchers
* Trysull Manor House and Attached Coach House and Stable Block
* Trysull Mill
* Willow Thatch
Notable persons
*
Sir James Marshall (1829–1889) was curate at Trysull after being ordained as an
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
minister in 1852, later became
Chief Justice of the Gold Coast, now Ghana
*
Benjamin Howard Mander (1862–1912) lived at the ''Manor House''.
*
Ernest Arthur Freeman
Ernest Arthur Freeman (1900–1975) was an English orthopaedic surgeon.
Freeman received his secondary education at Westminster City School. In the last few weeks of WWI, he was conscripted and served as a private in the Queen's Royal Regiment ...
(1900–1975), consultant orthopaedic surgeon at The Royal Hospital in
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...
. With his colleague,
Joseph Harold Sheldon
Joseph Harold Sheldon (1893–1972) was a British physician, surgeon, and gerontologist.
Education and career
After education at Bancroft's, a Drapers’ Company School at Woodford, J. Harold Sheldon went to work at the secretarial department ...
, he described distal arthrogryposis type 2A also called
Freeman–Sheldon syndrome
Freeman–Sheldon syndrome (FSS) is a very rare form of multiple congenital contracture (MCC) syndromes ( arthrogryposes) and is the most severe form of distal arthrogryposis (DA). It was originally described by Ernest Arthur Freeman and Joseph H ...
in 1938. Freeman lived at ''The Croft'' in the village.
* Dr Tom Emmerson (1909–1981), head of
GKN
GKN Ltd is a British multinational automotive and aerospace components business headquartered in Redditch, England. It is a long-running business known for many decades as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds. It can trace its origins back to 1759 an ...
's research laboratories in Wolverhampton, lived at ''Highfields'', as did his son
Simon
Simon may refer to:
People
* Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon
* Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon
* Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...
(born 1950) an
electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music is a genre of popular and Western art music in which composers use technology to manipulate the timbres of acoustic sounds, sometimes by using audio signal processing, such as reverb or harmonizing, on acoustical instrumen ...
composer working mostly with live electronics.
*
Charles Borrett (1916–2000) Rural Dean of Trysull (1958–1971) and
Archdeacon of Stoke-on-Trent (1956–1970).
*
David Tustin
David Tustin was the Bishop of Grimsby, Bishop suffragan of Grimsby from 1979 until 2000.
He was born on 12 January 1935 and educated at Solihull School and Magdalene College, Cambridge. After a period of study at what was then Cuddesdon College ...
(born 1935) Rural Dean of Trysull 1976–1979 and Suffragan
Bishop of Grimsby
The Bishop of Grimsby is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after the town of Grimsby in Lincolnshire; the See was erected ...
(1979–2000).
Local walks
Published local walks include:
*''A Circular walk around Awbridge & Trysull''
*''Discover Winemaking in Trysull''.
Location grid
The above grid is based on exact directions rather than close to.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Trysull and Seisdon
Trysull & Seisdon, Trysull and Seisdon is a civil parish in the district of South Staffordshire, Staffordshire, England. It contains 22 Listed building#England and Wales, listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England ...
References
External links
Trysull District CouncilTrysull & Seisdon Cricket ClubTrysull Tigers Football Club
{{authority control
Villages in Staffordshire
South Staffordshire District