The Annals of Willenhall

Transcribed from the 1908 Whitehead Bros. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
—by—
Frederick Wm. Hackwood
AUTHOR OF
“The Chronicles of Cannock Chase,” “Wednesbury Ancient and Modern,” “The Story of the Black Country,” “Staffordshire Stories,” &c., &c.
“I cannot tell by what charm our native soil captivates us, and does not allow us to be forgetful of it.” — Ovid .
Wolverhampton: whitehead bros., St. John’s Square and King Street.
1908.
Willenhall, vulgo Willnal, is undoubtedly a place of great antiquity; on the evidence of its name it manifestly had its foundation in an early Saxon settlement. The Anglo-Saxon form of the name Willanhale may be interpreted as “the meadow land of Willa”—Willa being a personal name, probably that of the tribal leader, the head of a Teutonic family, who settled here. In the Domesday Book the name appears as Winehala, but by the twelfth century had approached as near to its modern form as Willenhal and Willenhale.
Dr. Oliver, in his History of Wolverhampton, derives the name from Velen, the Sun-god, and the Rev. H. Barber, of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, who tries to find a Danish origin for nearly all our old Midland place-names, suggests the Norse form Vil-hjalmr; or perhaps a connection with Scandinavian family names such as Willing and Wlmer.
Dr. Barber fortifies himself by quoting Scott:—
Beneath the shade the Northmen came, Fixed on each vale a Runic name. Rokeby, Canto, IV.