COMMUNITY MAGAZINES
Village Voice
PRESERVING THE COMMUNITY
SPIRIT IN THE WEST MIDLANDS
KINGSWINFORD, WALL HEATH & WORDSLEY -
DID YOU KNOW?
The Hillcrest pub in Kingswinford once incorporated an Edwardian-
It may seem that the pub business today is in the doldrums with lots of pubs up for sale but the worst period for the sector was probably the early 1870s where it was estimated that at least 3000 pubs in the West Midlands alone were either put up for sale or closed. In one week alone in 1870 six local pubs were offered for sale at prices that started from just £200. Those included the ‘Rose & Crown’ in Wordsley, the ‘Waterloo Inn’ in Brierley Hill, ‘The White Horse’ in Brettell Lane and ‘The Fiddlers Arms’ in Lower Gornal.
In 1880 William Fletcher of Lawnswood House, Wordsley and Henry Smith of Summerhill, Kingswinford were both appointed as visitors of houses licensed for the reception of lunatics. Both of the gentlemen were also local Justices of the Peace.
In 1791 the good people of Kingswinford were saved from the activities of a serial bodysnatcher and murderer thanks to an argument over a broken needle.
William Hawkeswood was born in Pedmore where his father was an undertaker. After receiving some schooling William obtained a job as ’dispenser to Surgeon Fox’ in Kingswinford but after he accused the good Mr Fox of using broken needles when sewing up his patients Hawkeswood returned to live with his parents.
The next year, however he was caught “secretly stealing sundry skulls and bones from an open charnel grave at Rowley Church in the borough of Rowley Regis”. Worse still was that he was found to have constructed a complete skeleton from the stolen bones.
As a result the business of Hawkeswood’s father suffered and the family moved to Swindon, near Wombourne. William managed to get employment with a Mr Parker of Chasepool Lodge as a coachman.
However, bodysnatchers became active in the area and—not surprisingly—William Hawkeswood was amongst the first to be interviewed. This caused a row between him and his employer who was found dead the following day having been poisoned.
William ran off to Worcester but was captured and brought to trial on 4th April 1808. He was found guilty and executed on 6th April.
Afterwards the body was cut down and delivered to surgeons (including Surgeon Fox) for dissection. The unwanted parts of the body were then buried at Trysull crossroads.
CLOSE CALL FOR LOCAL FOLK
CLERGY IN THE DOCK
Between the 12th and 16th centuries a surprising number of Kingswinford’s vicars proved to be somewhat prone to falling foul of the law.
Indeed, the only official information about the village’s first vicar—William—that
exists concerns the County Sheriff taking action to repossess the clergyman’s goods
(which were worth just 14d) as he was a “fugitivus” (outlaw). This was in 1186 and
some 150 years later another vicar called William was sued over the rent for a house
in the village. He, however, did not appear in court and the Sheriff was sent to
arrest him for contempt. In 1357 the then vicar of Kingswinford, Nicholas Jobynel,
found himself in court on even more serious charges. He was accused of robbery and
assault against the Prior of Dudley. In this case there was also a co-
There was another link between the most prominent citizen of Dudley and the leading churchman in Kingswinford some 70 years later. John Bredhill and John Dudley were childhood friends but then in later life they were destined to become firm rivals. When his father—also John—died, John Dudley became Lord Dudley at a very young age although it was his mother, Lady Constance, who ran the estate. Bredhill had become a priest and it was Lady Constance who acted as his patron, enabling him to take the living at Kingswinford. This enraged John Dudley, especially when Bredhill started acting on behalf of his mother at the King’s court.
Eventually things came to a head and Bredhill one day found that all his goods had been stolen leaving his house absolutely bare. This seemed to destroy all sense of reason in him and shortly after he found himself in court charged with assault on two women, robbery, poaching and rape. Whilst he was stripped of the priesthood he was given a King’s pardon.
DID YOU
KNOW?
Over the last five years over 180 editions of VILLAGE VOICE have been published. This represents some 360,000 copies distributed to homes in and around Dudley and South Staffordshire.
We are always pleased to provide advertisers with full details of our circulation
including a road-
Indeed, often we can alter our distribution patterns according to advertiser wishes.
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