GROWTH OF SETTLEMENT.
No archaeological evidence has been found for continuity of
settlement sites between the Romano-British and
Anglo-Saxon periods, but the possibility of administrative continuity within Wrockwardine hundred has been argued. (fn. 63) The name Walcot may
have denoted a settlement of Celtic people who
remained beyond c. 700, (fn. 64) and outside the
coalfield there are few names with leah to suggest
that the Anglo-Saxons found unoccupied land to
reclaim. (fn. 65)
Wellington, from which the parish took its
name, may have been the chief settlement well
before 1066. It then had five dependent
berewicks. (fn. 66) The name may be derived from an
unattested personal name Weola or possibly from
weoleah ('sacred grove with a heathen temple'). (fn. 67)
If there was a pre-Christian religious site it may
have been where the parish church was built, on a
slight knoll.
There is reason to believe that the church,
rather than any defensive site or conjunction of
early routes, was Wellington's original focus. The
only early highways into the town, those from the
north and north-west that united on its outskirts, (fn. 68)
were aligned on and terminated in the Green, a
triangular space of c. 1/8 ha., whose south side
adjoined the medieval churchyard. (fn. 69) That the
Green was the original, probably Anglo-Saxon,
market place, situated where visitors to the
church naturally congregated, is suggested not
only by its shape and site (fn. 70) but also by its use for
cattle fairs in more recent times. (fn. 71) Wellington's
earliest dwellings were presumably built on its
east and west sides. The town seems to have had
originally no major road through it, and travellers
who did not wish to enter the Green probably
bypassed it along Back Lane (later King Street). (fn. 72)
Wellington street plan c.1300
In 1086 the inhabitants of the emergent town
were few. The recorded population of the whole
manor, including the berewicks, was only 33
including a priest. (fn. 73) Nevertheless the town probably grew considerably in the 12th and 13th
centuries. (fn. 74) Before 1309, probably when the market was granted in 1244, (fn. 75) Wellington seems to
have been deliberately enlarged on lower ground
south of the churchyard, about a new square
market place of c. ¼ ha. that was joined to the
Green by a southern continuation of Church
Street. (fn. 76) New Street (fn. 77) was laid out southeastwards from the new market place and joined it
to Back Lane and thus to Watling Street and the
south-east. (fn. 78) West of the new market place, not
necessarily at the same period, a grid of streets
seems to have been laid out, eventually known as
Butchers Lane (later Market Street), (fn. 79) Walkers
(later Walker) Street, (fn. 80) and Newhall Street (later
Foundry Road), (fn. 81) linked by Tan Bank, (fn. 82) Water
Lane, and New Road. (fn. 83) Walker Street, which led
directly from the new market place, had a westward continuation to Watling Street at Haygate
and thus to Shrewsbury. (fn. 84)
In 1327 Wellington, with Apley, Arleston,
Aston, and Dothill, had 29 taxpayers, (fn. 85) far fewer
than Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, or Ludlow, and
was comparable in size to Market Drayton, Newport, Much Wenlock, and Whitchurch. (fn. 86) In 1563
the parish had 219 households, (fn. 87) of which Wellington town, with Apley, Arleston, and Dothill,
probably had c. 130. (fn. 88) The total population
apparently doubled in the next hundred years. In
1676 the parish returned 1,544 adults at the
Compton census. (fn. 89) The town probably accounted
for c. 725 of them. (fn. 90) Nevertheless Wellington's
relative size among Shropshire towns was similar
to what it had been in the 14th century. (fn. 91) In the
18th century, however, its population grew
threefold and in 1801, (fn. 92) with c. 4,000
inhabitants, (fn. 93) the town was, with Bridgnorth,
second only to Shrewsbury. (fn. 94)
Expansion before the 19th century hardly
transgressed the medieval street plan. The part of
New Street nearest the new market place had
burgage plots by 1309. (fn. 95) Behind them, on the
north, (fn. 96) lay inclosures called the Bury Yards. (fn. 97) By
1800 the street was built up as far as the junction
with Back Lane. Other medieval burgage plots
apparently fronted the Green (east and west
sides), Church Street, the new market place (east
side), and Walker Street. No evidence of medieval
burgages occurred in other parts of the western
grid c. 1800, and occupation of the grid had
perhaps never been completed; by 1800 only
Walker Street and Tan Bank were fully built up. (fn. 98)
Some marketing probably took place at an early
period at the south end of Church Street, where it
entered the new market place. (fn. 99) By c. 1600 (fn. 1) the
market place was occupied by two parallel north-south rows of permanent shops, which divided it
into Dun Cow Lane (later Duke Street), (fn. 2) Crown
Street, (fn. 3) and Pig Market (later Bell) Street, (fn. 4) and
the south end of Church Street became the
market place. (fn. 5) Most buildings in Wellington earlier than the 18th century were timber-framed,
but in the early 19th many were rebuilt or cased in
brick.
On the fringes of the town there were small
separate settlements by the late 17th century on
Back Lane (fn. 6) (the central part) (fn. 7) and Street Lane (fn. 8)
(i.e. the Watling Street from Haygate to Wrekin
Road). (fn. 9) By the 1750s another settlement, called
Watling Street, (fn. 10) lay at the junction of Mill Bank
and the Watling Street. (fn. 11) A small settlement called
the New Town, on the way from Wellington to
Haygate, had been formed by 1739 (fn. 12) but was
never more than a few cottages. (fn. 13)
By the early 19th century the most handsome
streets were Church Street (with the Green and
the Market Place) and Walker Street. New Street,
with Nailors Row and Chapel Lane leading off, (fn. 14)
was the most populous and had many small
tradesmen (fn. 15) but was poorly built except near the
Market Place. Wellington's best houses were detached brick mansions built west and north of the
town in the 18th and early 19th century. On the
Haygate road was the Mount and on the Wrockwardine road (called Mansion House Lane) where
it entered the town (fn. 16) lay the Vineyard (built c.
1721) (fn. 17) and Parville House. Other detached
houses lay at the town's northern extremity near
the edge of the Apley demesne. (fn. 18)
The town's population continued to grow
vigorously in the earlier 19th century, especially
in the 1820s and 1830s, and reached 6,084 in
1841. (fn. 19) The undeveloped parts of the western grid
began to fill, especially with commercial and
industrial premises. (fn. 20) Walker Street, having the
workhouse and parish offices, became the town's
administrative focus, in which other offices
opened later in the century and in the next. (fn. 21) The
greatest early 19th-century growth, however, consisted of workmen's housing on the south-east side
of the town. New Street was already built up and
between 1800 and 1840 more rows were built off
it: for example Burnett's Yard, Jackson's Yard,
Brown's Yard, and Corbett's Yard; (fn. 22) at the same
time Nailors Row and Chapel Lane were extended. In Jarratt's Lane (later Glebe Street), a
south-east continuation of Tan Bank, a small
group of cottages (fn. 23) expanded northwards as
Parton (later New) Square and southwards (fn. 24) as
Bladen's Court. (fn. 25)
Wellington c. 1838 (scale 27 in to 1 mile). North is at the top.
Wellington c. 1925 (scale 6 in to 1 mile)
Wellington's population growth slowed in the
mid and late 19th century, with only a short-lived
acceleration after the introduction of railways in
1849. (fn. 26) In the 1880s the population of the urban
sanitary district was falling (fn. 27) and in 1898 a local
society existed to assist emigrants. (fn. 28) The town
nevertheless spread markedly from the 1840s, (fn. 29)
with both new detached middle-class houses at its
edges and working-class dwellings of improved
design indicating dissatisfaction with the density
of occupation that had prevailed until then. In
1897 Lord Forester projected a spacious estate of
middle- and working-class houses extending for
two miles along the south side of Watling Street, (fn. 30)
though it was never built.
In the 1890s many of the 18th- and early
19th-century cottages, especially in and around
New Street, were fit only for demolition. (fn. 31) Replacement became urgent, but speculative developers had little interest in providing the cheap
housing needed by people displaced from premises condemned by the urban district council, such
as the 40 houses demolished in Nailors Row in
1897. (fn. 32) In 1900 the urban district's population was
increasing again (fn. 33) and the Wellington Workmen's
Dwellings Society petitioned the U.D.C. to
provide council houses. (fn. 34) The council estimated
that at least fifty were urgently needed (fn. 35) but it
decided to build by instalments. (fn. 36) The first sixteen, Urban Terrace, designed by T. H. Fleeming, were completed in 1902 (fn. 37) in Regent Street.
No more were built until the period 1920–5, when
another 96 were completed nearby. (fn. 38) On the west
side of the town the council completed Ercall
Gardens (40 houses) off Union Road in 1924; (fn. 39) 12
were for sale. (fn. 40) Notable increases of population in
the 1930s and 1940s, when that of the U.D.
(including the area added in 1934) rose by a third,
and in the 1950s and 1960s, when it rose by a
half, (fn. 41) were paralleled by those of the council's
housing stock.
The U.D.C. built 213 houses near Orleton
Lane in the period 1928–35, (fn. 42) including 68 to
complement slum clearance. (fn. 43) It then turned to
land south of Watling Street, mostly in Arleston
township. The first 70 council houses there were
finished in 1939 (fn. 44) and a further 578 dwellings
(including 36 flats) were built 1947–54. (fn. 45) Thereafter the council concentrated on sites on the
north-west side of the town and on cleared sites
near the centre. Its Park Walls estate (310 houses,
6 of them for sale) was completed 1955–7 (fn. 46) and the
first phase (296 flats, maisonettes, and houses) of
the Dothill estate in 1963. (fn. 47) The first town-centre
council housing, 27 flats (School Court) off King
Street, was completed in 1959. (fn. 48) By 1963, when
the 2,000th council dwelling was opened, (fn. 49) the
U.D.'s need for council housing had virtually
been met (fn. 50) and by 1972 only 95 such dwellings
had been added. (fn. 51) The council's building land was
in any case almost exhausted, for further expansion at Dothill was impossible before the Rushmoor sewage works opened (fn. 52) in 1975. (fn. 53)
From the 1920s private developers provided
houses for sale. At first the south and south-west
sides of the town were especially favoured, (fn. 54) but in
1958 planning consent was given for the largest
single private development to date, the Brooklands estate (376 houses) on the north-west. (fn. 55)
Private development was also encouraged by the
U.D.C. at Dothill. (fn. 56)
By the mid 20th century Wellington's commercial centre was badly congested. In 1946 the
U.D.C. commissioned a redevelopment plan
from G. A. Jellicoe (fn. 57) but it was not executed. (fn. 58) In
1963 the council, in collaboration with property
developers, (fn. 59) prepared an ambitious plan for a
large pedestrian shopping centre, with offices and
an inner ring road. (fn. 60) It was postponed in 1965
when proposals to extend Dawley new town were
mooted, (fn. 61) and then lapsed. In 1969, after Telford
new town had been designated and planned, a
more conservative scheme was substituted, to
preserve and improve existing streets and to
pedestrianize them by building the ring road. (fn. 62)
The road was completed in 1979. (fn. 63)
Wellington c. 1983
Telford's designation in 1968 did not result in a
rapid extension of housing near Wellington. In
fact the U.D.'s population fell by nearly a tenth in
the 1970s; town-centre redevelopment and a decline of manufacturing may have been causes. In
1981 the former U.D. had 15,691 inhabitants. (fn. 64)
The development corporation's Leegomery
scheme, an extension of Hadley, did not reach
completion of its first phase until 1978. (fn. 65) Only in
1982 did the corporation complete the first phase
(178 dwellings in Eyton C.P.) of its Shawbirch
scheme, (fn. 66) part of which was planned to be in
Dothill township. (fn. 67) By then the corporation had a
surplus of houses to rent (fn. 68) and regarded Shawbirch as its last scheme. (fn. 69) There was, however, a
demand for private houses. (fn. 70) The Shawbirch
scheme included private estates, (fn. 71) and 128
houses (fn. 72) were also provided c. 1980 (fn. 73) on the
north-east side of the town, partly in Apley
township. (fn. 74)
By the 11th century there were a number of
settlements outside Wellington itself but in the
later Middle Ages most of them shrank and some
virtually disappeared. Apley, Arleston, Aston,
Dothill, and Walcot were presumably Wellington
manor's five Domesday berewicks. At Apley 12
tenants were named in 1384 (fn. 75) but the settlement
afterwards shrank. No record of its open fields is
known and in 1672 only the big house paid hearth
tax. (fn. 76) At Dothill there was some 13th-century
occupation east of the capital messuage (fn. 77) and the
presence of open fields in the later Middle Ages (fn. 78)
suggests that there was more than one household.
By 1626, however, only the big house remained. (fn. 79)
Aston and Walcot each had several households in
1672 and each was a small group of farms and
cottages in 1983; (fn. 80) there had been no significant
growth or contraction since the 17th century.
Arleston was said in 1284 to have had 24
hearths in 1212. (fn. 81) In 1672 thirteen households
paid hearth tax. (fn. 82) In 1841, after growth presumably stimulated by mining, (fn. 83) there were c. 25
houses, mostly on the inner west side of the
northern square of a two-squared grid of lanes
bounded east by Arleston Lane, with Arleston
House in the southern square. The unoccupied
parts of the grid may have been abandoned
medieval house sites. By then the township also
had workmen's cottages at New Works (partly in
Little Wenlock) (fn. 84) and on Watling Street from the
Swan eastwards to Ketleysands. (fn. 85) Wellington's
district under the Improvement Act of 1854
included the settlement round the Swan; in 1903
the U.D. absorbed Bennetts Bank farther east, and
in 1934 the rest of Arleston's Watling Street
houses. (fn. 86) Between 1939 and 1954 the area between
Watling Street and Arleston village was filled with
council housing and thus absorbed by Wellington
town. (fn. 87)
Leegomery was caput of an extensive manor in
1086. (fn. 88) By 1723 it was a nucleated hamlet of four
large houses and a few cottages. A field then called
the Old Town c. 400 metres SSE. of Leegomery
House, may have been the site of houses abandoned in the later Middle Ages. (fn. 89) Three farms
were amalgamated in 1734 (fn. 90) and by 1842 there
remained only Leegomery House and some
cottages. (fn. 91) By 1901 Wellington town was beginning to impinge on the township's south-western
edge, (fn. 92) which was added to the U.D. in 1903. (fn. 93) In
the late 1970s Telford development corporation's
Leegomery housing estate began to cover the
township's eastern side, absorbing the old
hamlet. (fn. 94)
Wappenshall (mentioned 1228) (fn. 95) consisted by
1723 of Wappenshall Farm and c. 3 cottages, (fn. 96) as
in 1983. At the canal junction, opened 1835, (fn. 97)
there was a public house in 1841 and a house by
the wharf. (fn. 98) A few cottages were added near the
junction before the 1880s (fn. 99) but by 1870 the public
house was closed (fn. 1) and there was no further
growth.