WROCKWARDINE WOOD
Wrockwardine Wood, north-east of Oakengates town centre, was originally a detached piece
of woodland, later a township, belonging to the
manor and parish of Wrockwardine, the rest of
which lay 7 km. to the west. The township, the
area here treated, contained 515 a. in 1882. (fn. 8) Its
eastern and western boundaries followed no natural features or roads for any significant distance.
On the south it was bounded by Watling Street.
The northern boundary was that part of the
ancient Wellington-Newport road known by 1288
as Trench Way (later Trench Road), (fn. 9) a name
suggesting that the wood was cleared back from it
in the early Middle Ages. (fn. 10) From Watling Street
the ground falls sharply, giving extensive views
north across the township. In 1884 the township
became a civil parish and was enlarged to 914 a.
by the transfer of Hortonwood and part of Trench
from the parish of Eyton upon the Weald Moors,
and of an adjoining detachment from Preston
upon the Weald Moors. (fn. 11) In 1898 the civil parish
was included in the new urban district of
Oakengates. (fn. 12) Wrockwardine Wood was included
within the designated area of Telford new town in
1968. (fn. 13)
The Middle Coal Measures, lying close to the
surface across most of the southern half of the
township, were intensively mined from the 17th
to the 19th century. Across the lower, northern
half of the township boulder clay and small
outcrops of sandstone from the Hadley and Coalport formations occur. Some sand and gravel lies
along Trench Road. (fn. 14)
There was little settlement in the township in
the Middle Ages. Part of the settlement at Quam
Pool apparently lay in Wrockwardine Wood, and
Quam Pool township made presentments at
Wrockwardine manor courts between 1397 and
1457. (fn. 15) A moat in the north part of the township
probably marked the site of the farm or lodge of a
medieval assart. (fn. 16) By the mid 17th century there
were settlements along the roads bounding the
township to north and south. The development of
coal and ironstone mining in the 18th and 19th
centuries may have accounted for the scatters of
squatters' cottages south-west of Cockshutt Piece
and north-east of Ball's coppice. In the earlier
19th century there was some building in the north
part of the township around the glassworks and
the new church. In the later 19th century, however, much more extensive building began to cover
the centre and south part of the township with
new streets and works. Much of the north remained undeveloped until the 20th century when
new estates were built there by the Oakengates
urban district council and, from the 1960s, speculative builders and Wrekin district council.
In 1650 there were 12 cottagers at Pain's Lane
on Watling Street. In 1836 the place was said to
have risen in eminence; there were then 33 householders in that part of Wrockwardine Wood. (fn. 17)
Even in 1847, however, Pain's Lane remained a
crossroads settlement and the laying out of new
streets there began only in the 1850s when terraces were built in various styles, largely for
workers at the Lilleshall Co.'s Priorslee blast
furnaces and, from 1861, at the New Yard. Many
of the terraces in Granville Street, and particularly in Church Street were relatively spacious and
well built, and in New Street small groups of
houses have the style of a freehold land society
estate. More cramped terraces were erected east of
the Priorslee-Donnington road north of Granville
Street. Albion Street was developed from the
1860s, when Pain's Lane began to be known as St.
George's. (fn. 18)
Trench, like Pain's Lane, was only partly in
Wrockwardine Wood. Settlement probably began
in the mid 17th century. It remained a straggling
roadside settlement, although considerable infilling and linear expansion occurred in the 19th
century, when Trench became one of the few
villages in the east Shropshire coalfield to have
any concentration of shops and public houses.
The public houses had apparently been an integral part of the settlement from the start. (fn. 19)
Wrockwardine Wood 1847
Two sprawling industrial settlements developed either side of Cockshutt Piece, apparently in
the 18th century. At the Nabb scattered squatters'
cottages were erected, to which some terraces, like
Diamond Row, were added in the 19th century.
At the Moss and around the church, there were,
as well as squatter properties, some single-storeyed
terraces, like Moss barracks, and some terraces of
c. 1800, like Glasshouse Row.
Other early 19th-century terraces, like Bonser's
Row and Bunter's Row, some of them speculatively built, were scattered elsewhere in the
township south of the Wombridge Canal. (fn. 20) As
elsewhere in the coalfield housing demand occasionally caused the conversion of industrial buildings to tenements. Wrockwardine Wood furnaces
closed in the 1820s and were later made into 16
dwellings, and the glassworks into 10 dwellings in
1856. (fn. 21) Until the growth of St. George's in the
1850s there were few good quality artisans' dwellings in Wrockwardine Wood; most buildings were
small and poorly constructed. They were, however, usually well spaced, and there were no concentrations of barrack dwellings similar to those in
Donnington Wood. (fn. 22)
Lincoln Road and New Road, like St.
George's, were laid out in the third quarter of the
19th century, short terraces again being the dominant form of housing.
After the First World War Oakengates urban
district council built housing in the north-east
corner of the township, the inner part of Woodhouse Crescent being finished in 1922. (fn. 23) Council
houses were built in Gower Street to accommodate families cleared from slums under the 1930
Housing Act. (fn. 24) By 1946 the remainder of the
Woodhouse Crescent estate was built, with the
neighbouring Gibbons Road estate being added in
the mid 1950s. (fn. 25) In the 1970s and early 1980s over
200 council dwellings were built at the south end
of Moss Road and near St. George's in New
Street and Gower Street. (fn. 26) Speculative building of
the 1960s or early 1970s filled the area south of
Trench Road around Teague's Bridge Lane. By
1973 a large area between Albion Street and the
Nabb had been scheduled for private housing, (fn. 27)
and building was in progress there in 1982.
In 1650, as well as 16 tenants occupying 14
holdings in the township, there were 35 cottagers,
12 of them at Pain's Lane. Sixteen householders
paid hearth tax in 1672. (fn. 28) By 1817 the township
had 1,938 inhabitants; 703 of them were receiving
poor relief. (fn. 29) By 1841 population had fallen to
1,698, but it had risen to 2,099 by 1851, and in
1861 the figure was 3,317, an increase of 58 per
cent over the decade. By 1871 it was 3,794, and
over the next forty years population grew, though
more slowly, to a peak of 5,276 in 1911. Thereafter it fell (fn. 30) perhaps for fifty years. (fn. 31) Between 1851
and 1861 the number of miners increased from
309 to 476, and that of ironworkers and engineers
from 84 to 486. The number of pit bank girls rose
too, from 63 to 128. Many of the new workers
were immigrants from the more rural parts of the
county: 90 per cent of the township's population
was native to the coalfield in 1851, only 64 per
cent in 1871. (fn. 32)
From the growth of mining and industry in the
17th century until the building of council and
private housing estates in the 1960s and 1970s
most of the township's inhabitants were employed
in the local coal, iron, and steel works. The
changing methods or fortunes of those industries
directly affected the employees. In 1791 the introduction of a new system of regulating wages and
hours by the Coalbrookdale partners led to riots at
Coalpit Bank and Wrockwardine Wood. In 1816-
17, during the post-war depression, 36 per cent of
the inhabitants received poor relief, (fn. 33) and in 1931
the old-fashioned New Yard works closed with
the loss of 1,000 jobs. (fn. 34)
Apart from Watling Street and Trench Road,
turnpiked in 1726 and 1763, (fn. 35) and probably what
were known by the 19th century as Teague's
Bridge Lane, Church Road, and Furnace Lane,
all roads in the township seem to be later than the
17th-century expansion of mining.
The Wombridge Canal, probably completed in
1788, and the Shropshire Canal, completed c.
1793, crossed Wrockwardine Wood and met on its
eastern boundary. About 1794 the Wombridge
Canal was linked to the new Shrewsbury Canal.
An inclined plane on the Shropshire Canal rose
122 ft. in 320 yd. from the junction to a summit
level on Cockshutt Piece. The Shropshire Canal
closed in 1857, the Shrewsbury c. 1921. (fn. 36) An
underground level, perhaps navigable, ran between Donnington Wood furnaces and the area
north-west of the Nabb by c. 1800. (fn. 37)
There were horse-drawn railways in the
township in the mid 19th century. The Coalbrookdale partners were authorized to build one
c. 1758, just west of what became Furnace Lane. (fn. 38)
Others ran towards Donnington Wood furnaces
from the township's western boundary (fn. 39) and from
east of the Nabb. (fn. 40) In 1851 the Lilleshall Co.
began to replace the old railways with a private
standard-gauge network, which linked most of the
company's interests by 1855. The network
reached its peak during the First World War when
26 miles of track carried 1½ million tons of goods a
year. It linked with the G.W.R. line at Oakengates and the L.N.W.R. line at Donnington. The
system closed in 1959. (fn. 41)
Until the later 19th century social life apparently centred on alehouse and chapel. About 1650
nine people were presented for selling ale in
Wrockwardine Wood. (fn. 42) In the mid 18th century
up to seven alehouse keepers were licensed in
Trench, a settlement only partly in the township,
and up to five in the rest of the township. (fn. 43) There
were eight public houses and seven beer sellers in
1856. By the later 19th century there were up to
14 beer sellers but the number of public houses
had remained fairly constant. (fn. 44)
Cockpit yard at the Moss was mentioned in
1802. (fn. 45)
The Gentleman's Club of Pain's Lane, begun
for senior Lilleshall Co. employees in 1812, met
monthly on Saturday evenings in the Shaw Birch
or the King's Arms public houses, Trench Lane.
Sick benefit and death grants were withheld from
those afflicted as a result of fighting, drunkenness,
or venereal disease. (fn. 46) In 1840 a friendly society
began to meet at the White Horse inn. (fn. 47) In 1843
there was a school clothing society and a missionary society, in 1844 a general clothing society. (fn. 48) In
1871-2 there were two lodges of Odd Fellows
(Manchester Unity) in Trench: 'Miners' Glory'
with 21 members, 'Marquis of Stafford' with
270. (fn. 49) Several friendly societies existed in 1904. (fn. 50)
Much of the local welfare provision was by the
Lilleshall Co. for its employees. A soup kitchen,
opened in 1878, excluded Lilleshall Co. employees as they were fed by the company at the
New Yard. (fn. 51) A dining room provided in 1900 for
workers at the New Yard was available after work
for 'socials'. About the same time the company
bought the Bird in Hand public house at the
Nabb 'to safeguard the workers' beer'. (fn. 52)
In 1875 a reading room and library opened in
Matthews Buildings under the auspices of the
rector and others. (fn. 53) There was a Wrockwardine
Wood Liberal Association in 1885, a Liberal and
Labour Club in 1917. (fn. 54)
Wrockwardine Wood was said to have had one
of the earliest professional football clubs in the
country, playing first on Wade's field (later Wade
Road) and later on the White Horse field, where
by 1974 there was a licensed clubhouse. Trench
Athletic also enjoyed considerable success in the
early 20th century, playing on the Shawbirch
field, at times against teams like Aston Villa
reserves. (fn. 55) Wrockwardine Wood Bowling Club
was formed in 1922 with a green on the White
Horse field. The Nabb Bowling Club was formed
in the same year, when part of an old pit mound
was levelled and grassed. (fn. 56) The Trench and District Electric Theatre was open in 1917, in the
building known as Trench Billiard Hall in 1937
and 1941. (fn. 57) The Regent cinema, Wrockwardine
Wood, popularly known as the 'Ranch House',
opened in 1946 and closed c. 1958. (fn. 58) With the
designation of Telford new town in 1968 and the
subsequent housing developments within the parish the range of social facilities increased. In 1982
Trench Road community centre, the Oakengates
Leisure Centre (opened 1974), and a social centre
for the unemployed were in use, and schools'
facilities were increasingly available for public use
out of school hours. (fn. 59)