Description:The rural village of Pattingham, described by White’s Directory of 1834 as ‘neat and pleasant’, is located 6 miles west of Wolverhampton near the Shropshire border. The name derives from the personal name P(e)atta and means place or settlement associated with P(e)atta. The origins of the name date back to at least the Anglo Saxon period.
In the Domesday Book of 1086, Pattingham is recorded as Patingham and belonged to the King. It is recorded as two hides and had land for eight ploughs and so was under cultivation. The population was recorded as three villeins (tenants who held land in return for labour services) with the priest and ten bordars (smallholders who had brought land into cultivation on the edges of the village). In addition it records woodland which was 1 league in length and half a league in breadth.
In 1532, 24 households or families were recorded in Pattingham. By 1666, 73 households were recorded in the Hearth Tax Returns as paying tax. A further 41 households were considered too poor to pay the tax. None of the houses had over three hearths indicating an absence of very large houses at that time.
Pattingham borders Shropshire and consists of two townships: Pattingham and Rudge. The latter is in Shropshire. The land in the parish has been predominantly used for arable farming with an increase in the number of market gardeners by the end of the nineteenth century. In 1633 rye, peas and oats were grown in the parish with wheat introduced in 1669. By 1840 a five year Norfolk system of crop rotation was in place which let clover lie a second year. As a farming area it also had its fair share of blacksmiths supporting the rural community. By the 1970s the parish still retained it farming industry growing crops such as barley, sugar beet, potatoes and wheat.
The major landowners in the 19th century were Sir George Pigot (the public house the Pigot Arms was named in 1800 after this family) and the Earl of Darthmouth. Pigot was patron of the vicarage whilst the Earl of Dartmouth supported the restoration of the church and founding of the National School in the nineteenth century.
The parish church at Pattingham is dedicated to St Chad. The church has an early English chancel and a Norman nave with a square tower of the Decorated period. The spire was erected by the Earl of Darmouth in memory of his father the fourth earl. In 1857 the chancel was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott at the cost of the Earl of Dartmouth vicar and parishioners.
A free school was built on the Poor’s Land in 1702 and endowed in 1725 and 1736 by Edward Devy and others. The Poor’s Land was land let to be occupied by paupers and became a charity in 1856. It still existed in the 1970s. The school was rebuilt in 1831 and opened as a National School for the education of about 100 children. It comprised a boys, girls and infants school and later became St Chad’s Church of England School.
Pattingham has grown substantially since the Second World War. Initially people migrated from the village to Wolverhampton during the 19th century whilst in the post war period the reverse occurred. The village is now a popular commuter area to Wolverhampton and the West Midlands with a population of 2,237 (Pattingham and Patshull ward) in 2001. It still retains its charming rural character and the Pigot Arms remains at the centre of the village.
More information about the history of Pattingham can be found in the Victoria County History of Staffordshire Volume XX.