Great Wyrley
Great Wyrley | ||
---|---|---|
Shire county | ||
Region | ||
Country | England | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom | |
Post town | Walsall | |
Postcode district | WS6 | |
Dialling code | 01922 | |
Police | Staffordshire | |
Fire | Staffordshire | |
Ambulance | West Midlands | |
South Staffordshire | ||
Great Wyrley /ˈwɜːrli/ is a village and civil parish in the South Staffordshire district of Staffordshire, England. It forms a built up area with nearby Cheslyn Hay, Churchbridge, Landywood and Little Wyrley. It lies 6 miles north of Walsall and a similar distance from Wolverhampton. Cannock is directly north of the village. It had a population of 11,060 at the 2011 census.[1]
History
Etymology
The word "Wyrley" derives from two
Early history
Great Wyrley is mentioned in the
Lord of the manor
Manorialism continued for a long period and the current holder of the rights to the feudal title of Great Wyrley Manor is Anthony Henry Lord Great Wyrley, the freeholder of Great Wyrley and Essington Estates, Red Lane Essington, South Staffordshire, having acquired the title deeds from Elizabeth Sutherland, 24th Countess of Sutherland in 1989.[citation needed] There is considerable documentation (dating from 1397) relating to this very large manor in terms of land currently in the safekeeping of Staffordshire libraries.
Post-Industrial Revolution
In former times the village was a mining village – The Great Wyrley
In 1848 Samuel Lewis included the settlement in his gazetteer and stated it had:
- 799 inhabitants and 1600 acres, of which the Duke of Sutherland owned part;
- Several collieries[n 1];
- The road from Walsall to Cannock passing through the village, long, and consisting of detached houses;
- In 1844, Great Wyrley it formed with Cheslyn Hay a new ecclesiastical district, having a population of 1,753;
- St. Mark's Church, a highly finished structure in the early English style, built 1845, at a cost of £2,430, of which sum £1,200 was given by the Rev. William Gresley, prebendary of Lichfield; the remainder was raised by subscription, aided by £333 from the Diocesan, and £250 from the Incorporated Society;
- A perpetual curacy; patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield;
- A school, purchased from the Independents (Nonconformists), was opened in 1843 which cross-references the gazetteer entry Cannock.[4]
In 1876
Great Wyrley Outrages
In 1903, the place was the scene of the Great Wyrley Outrages, a series of slashings of horses, cows and sheep. In October, a local solicitor and son of the parson, George Edalji,[5] was tried and convicted for the eighth attack, on a pit pony, and sentenced to seven years with hard labour. Edalji's family had been the victims of a long-running campaign of untraceable abusive letters and anonymous harassment in 1888 and 1892–1895. Further letters, in 1903, alleged he was partially responsible for the outrages and caused the police suspicion to focus on him.
Edalji was released in 1906 after the Chief Justice in
Local myth remembers the Outrages to have been enacted by "The Wyrley Gang", although Conan Doyle believed that they were the work of a single person, a local butcher's boy and sometime sailor called Royden Sharp. Ironically, Conan Doyle's suspicion was based on circumstantial evidence. It was an over-reliance on this type of evidence in the first place which had resulted in Edalji's flawed conviction.
Poison pen letters in the name of the "Wyrley Gang" continued for another twenty-five years, but these were subsequently discovered to have been posted from outside the town by Enoch Knowles of Wednesbury, who was arrested and convicted in 1934.[6]
This case has been related or retold:
- Conan Doyle's The Story of Mr. George Edalji (1907, expanded re-issue in 1985).
- 1972 BBC anthology series The Edwardians: Arthur Conan Doyle (one episode) centres on his involvement in the Edaji case. Written by Jeremy Paul and directed by Brian Farnham, it stars Nigel Davenport as Conan Doyle, Sam Dastor as George Edaji, and Renu Setna as the Reverend Edaji.
- British television drama of the same title.
- A comprehensive non-fictional account Conan Doyle and the Parson's Son: The George Edalji Case by Gordon Weaver (2006).
- In Roger Oldfield's book Outrage: The Edalji Five and the Shadow of Sherlock Holmes, Vanguard Press (2010),[8] the case is set within the context of the wider experiences of the Edalji family as a whole. Oldfield taught history at Great Wyrley High School.
Politics
There are two representatives on Staffordshire County Council, conservatives Kath Perry and Mike Lawrence[9] whose physically large ward is called Cheslyn Hay, Essington and Great Wyrley. There are five representatives on South Staffordshire District Council:
Member Since | Member[10] |
Ward | |
---|---|---|---|
2005 | Brian Bates | Great Wyrley | |
1987 | Janet Johnson | Great Wyrley | |
2007 | Raymond Perry | Great Wyrley Landywood | |
1995 | Kathleen Perry | Great Wyrley | |
2007 | Kathleen Williams | Great Wyrley Landywood |
Great Wyrley has been a safe Conservative seat since at least 1983. It is in the constituency of South Staffordshire and the current MP is Gavin Williamson first elected in 2010. He has increased his majority in every General Election since being first elected.
Localities
Great Wyrley can be divided into two South Staffordshire
Great Wyrley lies just under two-and-a-half miles south of Cannock town centre, just under two miles east of Cheslyn Hay, and three-and-a-half miles north of Bloxwich town centre.[12]
Schools
Great Wyrley has three primary schools and one high school:
- Landywood Primary School[13]
- Moat Hall Primary School[14]
- St Thomas More Primary School[15]
- Great Wyrley Academy[16]
Transport
- Road
Great Wyrley economically is largely a dormitory for commuters to Birmingham and Wolverhampton, and as a midpoint between Birmingham and Stafford, or Walsall and Cannock more locally; by the parish boundaries are junctions T7 on the M6 Toll motorway and 11 of the M6.
- Rail
- Buses
Great Wyrley is served by three bus routes running between Cannock, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Birmingham operated by Chaserider and National Express West Midlands:
- Chaserider service 1 (Huntington - Great Wyrley)
- Chaserider service 71 (Cannock - Wolverhampton)
- National Express West Midlands service X51 (Cannock - Birmingham)
Prior to 2008, the area was largely covered by
Route 2 is based on the old 351 service, and X51 from the 951 service over 10 years ago. This reduced to peak time only but in April 2019 a new timetable launched to run all day between Cannock and Birmingham via Great Wyrley. This prompted the eventual withdrawal of similar Arriva Midlands service 1 in 2020, which was relaunched by predecessor Chaserider in 2021, but later curtailed as a circular and no longer continuing to Walsall. Now service X51 provides the only link to Walsall through the village but now additionally serves the Orbital Retail Park and the Designer Outlet.
Sport
Association football
Great Wyrley F.C. was a football club based in Great Wyrley between 1980 and 2007
Table tennis
Great Wyrley Tennis Club is based on Norton Lane, Great Wyrley. Currently the club plays in the Walsall Table Tennis Leagues
Notable people
- William Brownlow (1830–1901) in 1853 was appointed Curate of Great Wyrley, ultimately Roman Catholic Bishop of Clifton
- Ronnie Allen (1929 – 2001 in Great Wyrley) an English international footballer 1946–1964, making 638 appearances
- Maurice Herriott (born 1939 in Great Wyrley) a British track and field athlete who competed mainly in the 3000 metres steeplechase, competed in the 1964 and 1968 Summer Olympics
- Mike Foster (born 1963) a former Labour Party politician and MP[17] for Worcester 1997–2010, educated at Great Wyrley High School
- Melody Hossaini (born 1984) a social entrepreneur, a professional speaker and personal development trainer and coach, educated at Great Wyrley High School
Listed building
The parish contains one
Nearest settlements
Notes and references
- Notes
- ^ "largely employing the population around." Per Lewis, below.
- References
- ^ ward and town populations Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine Staffordshire County Council, retrieved 2013-04-02
- ^ a b "Roman Britain – Organisation". 10 June 2023. Archived from the original on 11 September 2009.
- ^ Wyrley – entry in translated Norman script Domesdaymap.co.uk. Great and Little are suggested by the text and this historical maps specialist to be one.
- ^ Samuel Lewis, ed. (1848). "Wyke – Wyvill". A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
- ^ Weaver, Gordon. "Conan Doyle and The Parson's Son". The Plebeian. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
- ^ "Casebook: Jack the Ripper – Times [London] – 7 November 1934". casebook.org.
- ^ "Info on the stage adaption of "Arthur & George" at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre's website".
- ^ "Home". outrage-rogeroldfield.co.uk.
- ^ http://moderngov.staffordshire.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1
- ^ "Council Members". South Staffordshire District Council. Archived from the original on 19 March 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
- ^ "Staffordshire County Council website showing South Staffordshire ward boundaries" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 February 2012.
- ^ Results on "Google Maps"
- ^ http://www.landywoodprimary.co.uk/ Landywood Primary School
- ^ http://www.moathall.staffs.sch.uk/ Moat Hall Primary School
- ^ "New Page 2". Archived from the original on 3 August 2006. Retrieved 16 September 2006. St Thomas More Primary School
- ^ https://greatwyrley.windsoracademytrust.org.uk/ Great Wyrley Academy
- ^ Michael Foster, Former MP, Worcester retrieved 11 June 2018
- ^ Listed Buildings, Historic England, retrieved 5 October 2019
- ^ Landywood Farmhouse, Historic England, retrieved 5 October 2019