Produced by John Hemingway/Jennifer Foster, 2006.
Historic Environment Team, Directorate of the Urban Environment, Dudley M.B.C, 3 St James’s Road, Dudley, West Midlands, DY1 1HZ.
The Boggs
The Lydiatt
1/2
The Orchard
HETCHLEY FARM
The
Hill
Home
Meadow
Wall’s Close
Clover
Piece
Jones
Piece
Hanging Hill
Big
Hetchley
ay
llow
Ho
ds
lan
ce
ip
rH
Lower
Meadow
a
Pie
Ne
Wainhouse Leasow
Great
Leasow
Quarry Leasow
Garden
Leasow
Lower
Leasow
Middle
Leasow
The
Manor Hill
The Brick Yard
H
Long
Lands
Bog
Quebb
This
Brick
Yard
Hilly Quebb
r Rad
s
Oaks
Colt Leasow
Oat
Lodge Leasow
Leasow
Upper
Park
dens
Middle
Raddens
Holly
Leasow
Lower Park
Chapel
Piece
Shop
Leasow
Barn Close
Lowe
k
ey Oa
r Abb
Abbey
Lower
Abbey
Oaks
Middle
Manor
Abbey
Farm
Garden
Lower
Court
Stone Pit Leasow
Uppe
Th
Upper
Church
Yard
k
lec
eP
Th
e Pools
Lower
Church
Yard
Lower
Hill
The
Croft
LAPPAL
FARM
The Lawn
ard
op Y
Pit Leasow
Far
Middle
Leasow
Near
Middle
Leasow
Holiday Hill
Barley Leasow
House Leasow
Upper
Leasow
s
llie
Little
Ho
Acre
The Meadow
Middle
Meadow
Holly Leasow
F i e l d
Lower Ground
Lower
Coppice
Field
Rough
Piece
Upper
Meadow
Lodge Leasow
Far Hill
T
Perry’s
Leasow
Nea
rO
Middle
Oaks
Field
Upper
Oaks
Field
Upper
Raddens
M5
Bou
nda
ry
cres
Far
Piece
M Litt
ea le
do
w
Oak Leasow
G r e e n
en A
he T
e
Th
Upper Field
WEBBS
GREEN
FARM
Little
Piece
Far Hiplands
The Hemms
Haeton’s Barn Field
s
Calve
Close
Long
Piece
Broad
Leasow
Stenholds
Blooming
Leasow
The Palley
Barn
Close
Wood
Piece
Job’s Meadow
Mill
Pool
Big Meadow
Big Leasow
r
ve
Clo ld
Fie
THE LEASOWS
Furlong
Pit
Hetchley
Ga
Lea rrison
sow
ogs
B
The
ns
MILE
Howley
Grange
Hate
Hetchley
riso
Gosty
Hill
Gar
1/4
tle y
Lit chle
t
He
0
Part of
Township
of
Lapal
1750
aks
Buildings
Rivers
Roads
Field Boundaries
Fie
ld
Garden
Leasow
r
Fa ens
dd
a
R
Meadow
Pasture
Arable
Wood
Garden
ling
S
The
Borough Boundary
Lapal Township
Lapal is in the parish of Halesowen and was within the county of Worcester. The
place-name is derived from two elements: Hlaeppa – a personal masculine name and
pole – a pole. These two elements are Early English (Anglo-Saxon). Pole element’s
are interesting as they occur regularly in the shire. They have been considered to be
pagan symbols demonstrated in totem images, but it is probable that they just signify
a timber pole of some size on the estate. The geology of the area is coal measures in
the west and volcanic dolerite in the east.
The bounds of Lapal are; Ridgeacre (Quinton) and Warley in the east on the top of
the Dolerite ridge, Northfield and Illey in the south. The western bounds run along a
stream that flows into Illey Brook. Illey Brook on the west and Leasowes Brook on
the north side. The north eastern boundary runs along Spies Lane – an ancient route.
Lapal was a scattered settlement with no nucleus. Eight farms were recorded in the
19th century: the Abbey Site, Lapal Farm, Carter’s Lane Farm, Webb’s Green Farm,
Hems Farm, The Leasowes, Hetchley Farm and Howley Grange. But a total of
seventeen surnames are recorded in the 13th century Manor Court Book. They include;
Hem, Putteway (an early name for Spies Lane), Lapple, Carter, Hidley, Steynulf
(Stennels), (north of the junction Carter Lane and Spies Lane) More, Porte, (a gate)
Golding, Hulle,(north-east of Lapal Farm called Athelyshuille) Bigge, Heeth, Haye,
(This large woodland area lay in the south-east corner of the township) Harald, Knyst,
Carpenter (he lived on Spies Lane) and Miller, (he lived at the abbey site).
A John le Knyst (Knight) who was bailiff of Lapal in 1295 was given land in Lapal
Waste. This was perhaps in the area of The Leasowes which is a post medieval
creation taking part of the neighbouring Township of Hill. Richard Puttewey was
recorded as going to live at the Abbey in May 1295. Marl Pits recorded in 1301 lay
east of Howley and Greenfield was the name of a huge open field on its western
border.
St Mary’s Abbey was the biggest thing to happen to the people of Lapal. It was given
to the Premonstratention order by Bishop Peter de Roche in 1214 and building started
in 1215 using the Hasbury Sandstone. The monks moved in on the 6th May 1218, so a
few of the buildings were up by then. The site was chosen due to its proximity to
water. This was because the canons wanted to make fishponds, as eating fish was felt
to be better than eating other meats.
It is interesting to note that the Abbot was given the right to fortify the site in 1293.
Relations between the white canons and the residents of Halesowen, was not very
good and arguments continued till 1327. It is probable that the Abbot thought the
abbey may have been attacked by the locals, which was why he fortified it. The
Abbey was interested in making money and it was they that created the Cornbow
Market and also promoted the St. Kenelm’s cult that brought hundreds of people to
the site. One person of importance who came to the abbey was King Edward III on his
invasion of Wales in 1332.
The abbey were also keen on supplying their own agricultural goods and they did this
by creating granges, like Howley Grange. Everything that Howley grew or reared
went to the abbey. The canons did not have the same rules as the monks and therefore
it was easier for them to slide into worldly temptation. The abbot was ordered to
remove from the abbey certain ‘evil women’ in 1481. On 9th June 1538 the Abbot
voluntarily surrendered the Abbey to Henry VIII at the general Dissolution for a good
pension and granted their property to Sir John Dudley. The conventional buildings
were demolished shortly after the Dissolution and Sir John Dudley granted the
mansion of the abbey to his servant George Tuckey.
Lapal continue to be a farming community regardless of the Abbey and it was not till
1730 that it was anything else. William Shenstone whose father and then himself
leased The Leasowes off the Lyttelton Family turned it into an international landscape
Farm, called a Ferme Orne. He was a published poet of the time and various visitors
came to see it including: Lord Stamford, Lord Arne, William Pitt the elder, Benjamin
Franklin and John Wesley amongst others.
By William’s day the industrial revolution was just starting and much to his disgust
nailers abounded. Even the Leasowes Stream which flowed into the Illey Brook at the
bottom of his property was turned into a mill pond driving Halesowen Mill. In the
years after his death the Lapal Canal was constructed and opened in 1797. It ran at the
foot of his parkland! The Lapal Canal ran through a tunnel, towards Selly Oak, just
west of Lapal Lane and supplied the raw materials that the Black Country had in
abundance.
In the 1841 Census the population was recorded as 351. By the Second World War
Lapal had changed very little but after it development occurred. On the building of the
Motorway on its eastern border in the 1950’s this gave rise to the systematic building
of domestic housing, until today this fills a substantial part of the township.
John Hemingway, 30th March 2005.
Notes: The base material for the composition of the 1750 map is the Tithe Map of 1845, with
other material gathered from local histories and documentary research.
Select Sources
Amphlett, John (1912) Court Rolls of the Manor of Hales 1270-1307. Oxford.
Billingham. John, (1991) History Around Us; Halesowen, Dudley.
Thorn, Frank & Caroline (Ed) (1982) Domesday Book Worcestershire, Chichester.
M.A.Faraday The Lay Subsidy for Shropshire 1524-7, Shropshire Record Series 3.
Halesowen (1977) Victoria County History of Worcestershire, Vol III, London, pp
136-152.
Hunt, Julian, (2004) A History of Halesowen, Chichester.
Stenton, Mawer & Houghton, (1927) The Place-Names of Worcestershire. Oxford.
Tithe Map:1845.
Razi.Z, ( 1980) Life, Marriage and Death in a Medieval Parish: Economy, Society and
Demography in Halesowen 1270-1400, Cambridge.