A bit of Bank holiday history.
Today’s picture is of the Tame close to Bescot, it was a bit overgrown when I took this one. This is close to where Elwell’s forge would have been years ago. That’s the fascinating subject of the History of Wednesbury blog post this weekend.
The River Tame runs through Wednesbury and is associated with the history of the town. Water and wind power helped to drive early industry before the age of steam. You can gain access to the river in Tame avenue and walk down the river towards Bescot. The river flows down to there from William Green road and you can walk up river from there. Cross the bridge over the river and walk up stream and you come to Woden Road South.
Woden was an Anglo-Saxon God and possibly a King too. In some manuscripts he was said to be the ancestor to the early English royalty including Alfred the Great. Wednesbury was named after Woden and was an important place in history.
You are not able to follow the Tame to where that statue of the eight legged horse Sleipner is. Sleipner is part of Nordic legend, not Anglo Saxon of course. I have no idea why we have that statue in Wednesbury. The Anglo Saxons fought against the Vikings. In fact where the churches are now was said to be the site of a fort or castle built by the Lady of the Mercians, Ethelfleda.
If you really want to get immersed in history, you can walk from the Tame in Woden Road South down Hall Green Road to the Manor House. That’s a 13th Century Manor House and they offer guided tours.
That’s the Great Hall in the Manor House. They have various attractions there including performances of Shakespeare plays like Romeo and Juliet. There was a display of falconry when I was there last Sunday afternoon.
Why not go out and discover a little local history today? The weather here isn’t very good, it seems cool and rain seems likely. It could be a good day for exploring or visiting museums that are open.
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So interesting. Amazing how we managed so well on water and wind power all those years ago eh?! 🙂
26, August 2013 at 11:40 am
Hi Sophia,
Yes, all those medieval weapon were forged in black smiths shops and the mass production came with the use of water power for forges. There is still the remains of a water mill to see today!
Thanks for visiting. 🙂
26, August 2013 at 1:24 pm
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