177
The Plough 177
Tildesley, James 185
Tildesley, Josiah 185
Pearce, George Ley 185
Hartill, Jeremiah 185
Austin, John 185

[Picture: St. Giles' Church (before Restoration). 1755 to 1871]

[Picture: The Rev. Wm. Moreton (Incumbent of St. Giles' Church,
1788-1834)]

[Picture: Rev. G. Hutchinson Fisher, M.A. (Incumbent of St. Giles'
Church, 1834-1894)]

[Picture: Dr. Richard Wilkes]

I.--Its Name and Its Antiquity

Willenhall, vulgo Willnal, is undoubtedly a place of great antiquity; on
the evidence of its name it manifestly had its foundation in an early
Saxon settlement. The Anglo-Saxon form of the name Willanhale may be
interpreted as "the meadow land of Willa"--Willa being a personal name,
probably that of the tribal leader, the head of a Teutonic family, who
settled here. In the Domesday Book the name appears as Winehala, but by
the twelfth century had approached as near to its modern form as
Willenhal and Willenhale.

Dr. Oliver, in his History of Wolverhampton, derives the name from Velen,
the Sun-god, and the Rev. H. Barber, of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, who tries to
find a Danish origin for nearly all our old Midland place-names, suggests
the Norse form Vil-hjalmr; or perhaps a connection with Scandinavian
family names such as Willing and Wlmer.

Dr. Barber fortifies himself by quoting Scott:--

Beneath the shade the Northmen came,
Fixed on each vale a Runic name.

Rokeby, Canto, IV.

Here it may not be out of place to mention that Scandinavian influences
are occasionally traceable throughout the entire basin of the Trent, even
as far as this upper valley of its feeder, the Tame. The place-name
Bustleholme (containing the unmistakable Norse root, "holme," indicating
a river island) is the appellation of an ancient mill on this stream,
just below Wednesbury. In this connection it is interesting to recall
Carlyle's words. In his "Hero Worship," the sage informs us of a mode of
speech still used by the barge men of the Trent when the river is in a
highly flooded state, and running swiftly with a dangerous eddying swirl.
Th