A Brief History of Dudley Town and Castle

 

The earliest evidence of occupation of the place we now call Dudley Town was a tiny piece of Bronze Age Pottery found near St. Thomas's Church. Other than this nothing is known of these early people who lived in the area.

 

The centre that we can recognise today began life as an Anglo-Saxon village. The name of the settlement was probably Overton in direct contrast to nearby Netherton. The two names mean upper and lower farm. The estate that the two farms lay in may have had a number of different names but eventually Duddan Leah - the woodland estate of a person called Dudda, was settled on.

 

During the 10th century England was invaded by Danes and East Anglia was occupied. Many of the residents came into central England to live. St. Edmund's (bottom church) is dedicated to one of their kings murdered by the Danes. It is possible that an East Anglian was given the estate and built a church here dedicating it to his murdered king! His home may have been close by, preserved in the name Hall Street.

 

Life in Dudley moved up a gear after 1070 when a Norman Lord, Ansculf of Picquigny, built the castle and was given a wide swathe of the West Midlands to govern. The castle was virtually impregnable and when King Stephen laid siege to it in 1153 he could not get in, so he burnt the village down and stole the people's cattle instead.

 

After the war Gervase Paganel, the 5th Baron of Dudley, decided to build a borough (a town), out of the village. He divided the old field strips into the house platforms known as Burgage Plots. He also founded the priory for his soul's sake and built a chapel (top church) at the other end of the town. The chapel was dedicated to St. Thomas a Beckett - the murdered Archbishop of Canterbury. He eventually retired to the Home Counties and left the running of the town to the Prior and his monks.

 

Dudley grew in importance during the Middle Ages and in 1295 was large enough to send two Members of Parliament to represent the townsmen. By that day the market was a regular occurrence with special Fair Days. The most important Fair was on the 2nd July, (St. James Day, patron saint of the Priory). A High Cross was built at the head of the Market Place near Smythe Lane (Wolverhampton St) but not all people who frequented the place were law abiding and there was a pillory erected close by to incarcerate them.

Iron seems to have been a very important commodity in Dudley. One of the earliest references to its uses is in the Domesday Book of 1086 where a smith is recorded. By the 13th century even the baron had iron works and coal mines. From then on the trade increased. Nails were the main items that were worked, but when needed weapons of war were made.

 

By the 17th century another civil war occurred in England and Dudley Castle was held by the Royalists. Twice the Parliamentary forces tried to get in and only when the Royalist cause began to fail did the castle garrison surrender. The defensive parts of the castle were demolished by order of the Government.

At the end of the war, trade began to dramatically increase. The rich coal, iron ore and limestone sources that lay beneath the open fields and around the town were excavated. Huge numbers of collieries and quarries appeared and the minerals were worked in foundries and forges on the surface. Dudley iron went all over the world.

 

The work attracted a large quantity of people and for a while the town was jam-packed making living conditions dire. This led to regular epidemics. A Public Health official stated in 1867 that the death rate of Dudley was the worst in the kingdom - he considered that the average age of death was 16.7 years of age! Eventually, clean water and sewage systems were installed and as the mineral resources were worked out, dwellings could be erected in the outer areas giving the old town a little breathing space.

 

Today the many phases of the town's history can be viewed by anyone walking around its streets; from the Norman Motte, through the medieval street pattern to the post medieval buildings that still stand proud of their tradition.

 

John Hemingway, Archaeological Officer.