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MILE
“Township” of Lye
circa 1750
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Low
Lunt
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LYE
FORGE
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Trefay
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Stambourne Mill
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Close
MEADOWS
RI D G EGROV E
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Croft
Glass
House
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Meadow
Withy
Leasow
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Hay
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Baker's
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Lye
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Leasow
UPPER
LYE
Stony Road
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Shop
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The Close
Waste
Buildings
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Baldwin's
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Tracks
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Field Boundaries
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Meadow
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Careless
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Arable
Pasture
Lye Waste Boundary
Lye Waste Settlement
Produced by John Hemingway/Jennifer Foster, 2006.
Historic Environment Team, Directorate Of The Urban Environment, Dudley MBC, 3 St.James's Road, Dudley, West Midlands DY1 1HZ
(No. 30)
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Baker's
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Brick Kiln
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LONG LEASOWES
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H ay
0
Lye Township
Lye Township is in the parish of Oldswinford and within the county of Worcester. Its
name is derived from the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) word Leah, - which means a
woodland estate. The bounds of Lye are: Salt Brook in the east, Shepherds Brook in the
south, Grange Road in the west and the River Stour in the north. The geology of the area
is the productive coal measures which include the minerals; coal, fireclay and ironstone.
The earliest evidence of the estate is in an Anglo-Saxon charter of AD 951-955 for
Oldswinford. Attached to the charter is a boundary perambulation in which the Stour is
spelt Sture - meaning 'strong'. As the perambulation went down the western edge of Lye
it is not surprising that a few boundary features are recorded. Deonflich forda: Probably a
poor spelling of Deopan lich forda, which means ‘the deep ford by the ledge of land on a
slope’. A modern spelling, Dean Ford on the west boundary of Cradley indicates the ford
had a wider significance. The eastern boundary feature, now called Salt Brook was called
Holan Baec - the Hollow Batch, which meant it had cut its way through the subsoil. This
went up to the Eorth Brydcg: perhaps an earth-made structure of timber with soil on top
of it. The bridge probably was a forerunner of the Cradley-Lye Road. The next feature
was a Tig wellan - Tile Spring. This was in the upper reaches of the Salt Brook, the
spring or small stream seems to have been named after some tile-making that went on
nearby. As tile making was rarely an Anglo-Saxon occupation, perhaps it was a Roman
site? At a later date this was the site of clay pits for a brick works. Haye - a word derived
from haeg, an Old English term meaning hedge was the final term referring to a
woodland boundary.
Lye was not mentioned specifically in the Domesday Book of 1086, though a woodland 1
1/2 miles long is recorded in Oldswinford that may be the woodland area of the township.
The earliest reference to Lye is in 1275 when Simon de Lega (Simon of Lye) paid 30/- in
a Lay Subsidy. By 1327 there were three people paying the Lay Subsidy, Adam atte Leye,
Richard atte Leye, Alicia atte Leye, (Adam 13d, Richard 15d and Alicia 20d.) These were
the major landholders, but the fact that there are only a few suggests an unpopulated area.
By the 17th century the population was starting to rise, three settlements are recorded:
Lye Forge (by the river), Lye proper (the crossroads) and Lye Waste, the common to the
east. According to some, the early residents of the waste were gypsies, but this is unlikely
as they are travelling people. It is much more likely that these newcomers were after what
lay under the waste - coal and iron! The earliest record of people on the Waste was in
1650. After the 1662 Act of Uniformity dissenters met on the Chase and by 1669 over
103 people were recorded as living on the Waste and they were manufacturing nails.
In 1762 the Stourbridge and Halesowen Turnpike was opened, making the east west road
a more direct route. The Waste however was a still a problem with the squatter settlement
of clay houses all over the place. The reputation of the people was such that few wanted
to have anything to do with them until Waste Bank School was founded in 1782. The
bricks were given by Thomas Hill of Dennis Hall from this glassworks. The Lye Wasters
still had a formidable reputation however and their popular pastimes of Bull baiting, Dog
fighting, Cock fighting and Prize fighting still held sway.
When in 1790 the Unitarian church opened its chapel in a cottage, the residents did not
want it and created a noise and blocked up its chimney. But religion was coming to the
Waste and in 1792 a Presbyterian Chapel was built. By 1806 the people of the Waste
were considered to be much more approachable when the Unitarian Chapel was built. A
survey of 1813 recorded; 287 families (1,554 persons) were living on the Waste. Despite
being dragged into the 19th century Lye Waste still had a reputation however and it is
recorded as being the last place in England that Bull Baiting went on.
The people who lived around the Crossroads were essentially farmers who practiced
some commerce, but even their population rose up to 254 families (1,272 persons) in
1813. It was at that date that the trip to Oldswinford Church was thought to be too long
and a chapel (endowed by Thomas Hill) called Christchurch was built in Lye. Not to be
outdone the Wesleyan Methodists opened a chapel in 1837. By 1830 the surface clay was
worked out in Lye and hand-made nailers began to default to machine-made nails. The
population also began to expand in a ribbon development along the roads. When the boys
and girls school opened in 1840, 116 pupils attended it. In 1843 the Township and Parish
of Lye with Wollescote was created.
Industry in the latter years of the 19th century took over in Lye: - chains, nails, horse
shoes, frost cogs, enamelling, galvanising, hollowware, and engineering and in 1850 the
familiar clay buildings in Lye Waste were beginning to be replaced by brick. By 1866 the
population of Lye was 7,000 people with 53 public houses. With the 1870 Education Act
all children had to attend school and by the creation of the Urban District Council with
Wollescote in 1897 sewage, footpaths, gas & electricity started to appear in Lye.
By the 20th century industry began to fail and as the factories came down so dwellings
started to rise until today the vast majority of the properties are houses.
John Hemingway, 6th February 2005.
Notes: The base material for the composition of the 1750 map is the parish map of 1782,
with other material gathered from local histories and documentary research.
Select Sources
Chambers, R.L. Oldswinford, Bedcote and Stourbridge Manors and Boundaries,
Stourbridge.
Faraday, Michael A.[ed] (2003) Worcestershire Taxes in the 1520s, The Worcestershire
Historical Society, P.18.72.134.
Grazebrook, H.S. (1888) The Barons of Dudley, William Salt Collection, Vol. VIX, p.26.
Oldswinford (1977) Victoria County History of Worcestershire, Vol III, London, pp 213223.
Perry, Nigel. (2001) A History of Stourbridge, Chichester.
Stenton, Mawer & Houghton, (1927) The Place-Names of Worcestershire, Oxford.
Tithe Map:1845
Thorn, Frank & Caroline (Ed) (1982) Domesday Book: Worcestershire, Chichester.