Completed - Walsall Foreign

[snoopysue]

Does anybody know why it was called Walsall "Foreign"? I have someone in my tree who lived in Little London, Walsall Foreign - he was from Essex. Is it because it was were newcomers to the area settled?

[Jimmy]

That happens here in Kidderminster in the census's, I think it is because it is not in the town centre area, or they in the outer area's of the town.

[snoopysue]

Thanks Jimmy

[MRoebuck]

On the Bloxwich in history web page http://www.walsall.gov.uk/index/bloxwich_in_history.htm
It states
'Bloc's Village' goes right back to before the Norman Conquest. When the Romans left, Britain was invaded by the Anglo-Saxons and the Midlands became the Kingdom of Mercia. Mercian families established many small communities in the area and the family of Bloc settled in Bloxwich (Blocheswic in Domesday Book, meaning Bloc's Village). In 1162 the Manor of Walsall was granted to Herbert Ruffus by William II. Bloxwich was included in the grant as part of the 'Foreign of Walsall' and was known as such until 1835.

[mikleed]

Little London is an area in Willenhall.......not Walsall !

Mike.

[snoopysue]

It definately says Little London, Walsall Foreign, town and borough of Walsall; I've just double checked!

[mikleed]

Sue......Check on Willenhall website ! all to do with the Lock trade.

Mike

[snoopysue]

There are two!

Just done a search on google maps, there's one smack bang in the middle of walsall,

http://maps.google.dk/maps?hl=da&biw=19 ... a=N&tab=wl

and the other doesn't seem to be a road, in Willenhall:

http://maps.google.dk/maps?hl=da&biw=19 ... a=N&tab=wl

[mikleed]

Sue it;s an area in Willenhall mainly consisting of Victorian houses and Little London school. Type in Little London Willenhall on Google

Mike

[snoopysue]

I'm not contesting that there is a Little London in Willenhall, but the one I'm interested in is the one, one of my ancestors lived in in 1851! Not less than 3 times is Walsall written on the original image!

Little London at the southern end of Sandwell Street was an inhabited area by the later 17th century. (fn. 20) There were 102 recipients of Mollesley's Dole in Caldmore in 1619 and 219 in 1661; the second figure, however, and probably the first also, included Pleck. (fn. 21)
There was development in patches throughout the area by the 18th century. At Little London there was spur-making by the earlier 18th century. (fn. 22) By the 1760s an industrial suburb of metal-workers had developed along Fieldgate and in Windmill Street between Sandwell and Bath Streets, and there were also metal-workers at Caldmore itself. Doveridge along West Bromwich Street south-east of Caldmore included four metal-workers in 1770 as well as two farmers.

From: 'Walsall: The growth of the town', A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 17: Offlow hundred (part) (1976), pp. 146-165. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report ... mpid=36189 Date accessed: 08 March 2011.

On the same site I've found the answer to my original question, agrees with what Jimmy said!

For parochial purposes the area was a detached part of the township of Walsall foreign until the 19th century. It formed one of the highway districts into which the foreign was divided by 1768. (fn. 20) It was not, however, included with the rest of the foreign in the new borough of Walsall in 1835. Its exclusion led to problems in the administration of the poor law, and the Walsall Improvement and Market Act of 1848 extended the powers of the borough justices to the area for poor-law purposes. (fn. 21) In 1894 it became part of the urban district of Brownhills. (fn. 22)

From: 'Walsall Wood: Local government and public services', A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 17: Offlow hundred (part) (1976), pp. 281. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report ... ry=walsall foreign Date accessed: 08 March 2011.

[Antie Em]

Probably a bit the same as where I live in Warley. I've lived in the same place for the last 45 years, sometime in Birmingham, sometime in Worcestershire, on the border of Staffordshire and now in the West Midlands. In the 1840's it was even in Shropshire. A couple miles from where I live is Three Shires Oak Road in Bearwood, which really was on the border of three shires. Heaven save us from local authority meddling

[mikleed]

Ok Sue......Will agree with you, I have never heard of Little London Walsall, I have lived here 70 yrs. the only one we know here is Little London Willenhall.
Mike.