Woodsetton is a township within the manor and parish of Sedgley. It is said to derive from the Anglo-Saxon words Wood, (over half of the township was woodland) and Saeton-the inhabitants of an area. (Most Saeton’s in the west midlands occupy river vallies.)
There were three settlements in Woodsetton. : Flaxhalls, Turls Hill, ParksHall and the woodland area called the Old Park.
Flaxhall
Flaxhall was the chief medieval farmstead of Woodsetton. During the 13th century surnames started to appear and many people were named after the place they lived in The Flaxhall’s held the estate from the Baron of Dudley for the service of being a Rider.
Richard de Flaxhale ought to find a horse three times in the year to go and return where required in one day and that service is worth 12d.
J.S.Roper (1976) History of Coseley, Dudley, P.77.
N.B. Riders were an Anglo-Saxon invention and the service was as the messengers of Royal or important landowners. Holding land as a Rider was an ancient holding by the 13th century. As they are normally only found on the borderlands it is assumed that they were originally set up for military services.
The inhabitants were still expected to pay taxes.
September, 1355.
Wlter de Flaxale paid vs. vid. tallage.
Andrew Barnett , Studies in Sedgley History, P.4.
High Arcal
The name of the farmstead changed in the post-medieval period to High Arcal. (Arcal is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Ercals lowe – which means Hercules’ burial mound.)
During the 17th century William and Henry Hodgetts lived at High Arcal Farm . The Hodgetts were Roman Catholics and when Henry Hodgetts lay on his death bed in 1651 he told the priest that he had the bones of St. Chad which were brought from Lichfield Cathedral in the 1530’s at the Dissolution. After his death Henry’s wife gave Father Peter Turner the relicts and after a long adventure they were transferred to the new cathedral of St. Chad in Birmingham in 1933.
D.Gilbert, (1992) William Hodgetts of Woodsetton, 1570-1649, Midland Catholic History, No.2.
Local legend has it that High Arcal was used as a look out post for the castle garrison during the Civil War. The building was demolished in the 20th century.
Turls Hill
Turls Hill is a small estate that has had a mixed history. The estate was originally within the township of Ettingshall to the north-east, but within the parish and manor of Sedgley. In post medieval times it was incorporated within the township of Woodsetton, that lay on the south-east side of the parish.
The landscape of the surrounding areas was The Brook and a woodland on the north and east side called Hurst Hill, cultivated land on the south side called Flaxhall and one of the open fields of Sedgley on the west side. Most of the land is naturally pasture and meadow and livestock was probably the type of medieval agriculure performed.
The first element of the name Terhull has a Norman sound to it, possibly a personal name, which may indicate why it had ‘s’ added in later forms of the word. Hull is a corruption of the word hill.
The earliest reference we have to Turls Hill is in 1272 when John of Terhull is mentioned in an Inquisition Post Mortem on the death of the Lord of Dudley, Roger de Somery. In the document the services the lord expected off John were: ploughing, haymaking and reaping in the lords demesne. (the lords personal land). As a special boon he was to carry wood from the park (probably Old Park) to Dudley Castle for the lords use at Christmas. All this indicates that John was a free farmer. The fact that the Terhull’s kept up their wood gathering roles is found in an Inquisition of October 1292, in which Roger de Terhull is said to be a vendor of wood in Baggeridge and the Haye.
Also they say that the aforesaid John Adam of Colseleye, and Roger de Terhull vendors of the wood, made charcoal of the underwood in Bagerugge to the value of half a mark. They say on their oath that John Adam of Colseleye and Roger de Terhull sold, in the time of the said William de Mere the subescheator, thirty six small oaks in the woods of Bagerugge and Le Haye for the price of 40s. for the support of the foresters and the other servants of the Castle of Duddelegh, which William de Mere received.
Inquisition Post Mortem, 1292,
Records of Dudley.
The last of the Turlhill’s was Robert who died in the 1500’s. His daughter called Katherine married Thomas Pershouse and they lived at Turls Hill. He was followed by his son Oliver, his son William and his nephew Edward..
In a survey of the Manor in 1614 Edward Persehouse is living at Turls Hill and is described as doing homage as a customary tenement.
Edward’s daughter, called Anna, married Thomas Gibbons in 1662. An undated record suggested that a William White was living at Turls Hill in the 17th or 18th century, but very little is presently known about Turls Hill House from then on till the building was demolished in the 20th century. This brought an end to at least 700 years of occupation.
