Description:The large village of Wombourne is situated five miles south- west of Wolverhampton. Its name is thought to derive from Wom brook, a tributary of Smestow brook, meaning a ‘winding stream’. In the Domesday Survey of 1086, it is recorded as Wamburne, one of the manors of William Fitz Ansculf. Orton or Overtone was also recorded as a separate manor. At the time of Domesday there were two mills in Wombourne worth 4 shillings. Even at that time there was a good quantity of agricultural land in the manor with enough arable land to support 10 ploughs in total.
By 1666, at the time of the Hearth Tax assessment, 38 households were charged with tax, the largest being that of John Dolman, cleric, with six hearths. A further 46 households were excluded from the assessment.
There was a church in Wombourne as early as 1086. The tower of the present church dates from the 14th century but there was a great deal of restoration carried out by Street between 1862 and 1867. The dedication to St Benedict Biscop is unique in England. He lived between 628-689 and came from Northumbria. He founded the abbey of Wearmouth and later that of Jarrow. Congregationalists were established in the village as early as 1672 and Methodists started to hold services here in the early 19th century. A house for the worship of the Latter Day Saints was registered in Wombourne in 1855, although this had ceased to exist for worship by 1876.
Iron making is recorded in the area by the 16th century and by the beginning of the 17th century nail making began to be established in the village. By 1816 there were 18 nailshops in Wombourne and two in Orton. 174 nailmakers were recorded in the parish in the 1841 census and this figure rose to 186 in 1861. Sand quarrying also developed here in the 18th century. By the first half of the 20th century a variety of commercial, farming and other industrial trades were recorded in what was by then becoming a large village.
Communications have always been important in the area with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, which was opened in 1770, passing through the west of the parish. The contractors’ headquarters for the building of the Wolverhampton and Kingswinford Railway was situated at Wombourne. Although the line was begun in 1913, it was not completed until 1925, owing to the intervention of war.
The Wodehouse, a Jacobean house restored by the architect G.F. Bodley in the 1870s, stands in the parish. Many of the decorative features were carried out by C.R Ashbee, who was the founder of the Guild of Handicraft, based in Chipping Campden. It has been the home of the Hellier family since the 17th century.
For more information about Wombourne, see the Victoria County History Staffordshire, Volume XX pp 197-224. Reprint available from Staffordshire Record Office, <a href="http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/leisure/archives/services/publications/VCHReprints.htm" target="_blank">Victoria County History Reprints
</a>