Wombourne is a large village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

located in the district of

South Staffordshire South Staffordshire is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. The district lies to the north and west of the West Midlands county, bordering Shropshire to the west and Worcestershire to the south. It contains notable settle ...

, in the county of

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...

, England. It is 4 miles (6 km) south-west of

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

and just outside the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

and

conurbation A conurbation is a region comprising a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most cas ...

of the West Midlands. Local services are run by a parish council. At the 2001 census it had a population of 13,691, increasing to 14,157 at the 2011 Census.

Etymology and usage

The

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

word ''burna'' signifies a stream, and a stream is a notable feature of the village. Formerly the village name was thought to mean "Womb Stream", or stream in a hollow, because this is a reasonable description of the situation. However, more recent scholarship explains the name as meaning a Crooked Stream, which is at least as good a description. ''Burna'' was one of the terms for a stream used in the earliest

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

place names, and the stream was presumably itself called the Wom Bourn. However, today it is always distinguished from the village by the name Wom Brook, from another, slightly later, Old English term for a stream: ''brōca''. The Wom Brook, which has required considerable work to ameliorate its flooding, originates on Penn Common and is a tributary of the Smestow Brook, which it meets just south of Wombourne. The spelling "Wombourne" is now preferred for official use. However, the village is marked "Wombourn" on the 1775 William Yates ''Map of the County of Stafford'' and as late as the 1945–48 series

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

maps.

History

Origins

The village has

origins, and was part of the large central kingdom of

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , y ...

, which was settled by

Angles The Angles ( ang, Ængle, ; la, Angli) were one of the main Germanic peoples who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England. Their name is the root of the name ...

. The whole region was wooded when the Germanic settlers arrived, and hamlet names like Bratch ("newly-cleared-land") and Blakeley ("dark clearing") attest to the need to clear land for settlement. The settlers reared large herds of pigs, which were easily fed in the beech, oak and birch woods, which are the naturally-predominant vegetation in the region. Local

toponyms Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

like Kingswinford ("royal pig crossing") and

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon unitary authority area had a population ...

("pig hill") confirm the importance of pig rearing in Anglo-Saxon times.

The medieval village

Wombourne is mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086, and was clearly a medium-sized village by the standards of the time. Before the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...

, it was owned by an Anglo-Saxon nobleman called Thorsten. By the time of the Domesday survey, William Fitz Ansculf held seven hides of land, some of them let from him by one Ralph of Wombourne. William was an important landowner throughout the West Midlands, the son of Ansculf of

Picquigny Picquigny () is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Geography Picquigny is situated at the junction of the N235, the D141 and D3 roads, on the banks of the river Somme, some northwest (and downstream) of ...

, a Picard baron who came to England with

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...

and built a castle at

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

. William's total holding at Wombourne supported 8 ploughs and was worth £3. There were 13 villagers (probably not including dependents, so perhaps thirty to forty people in total); a priest, and so perhaps some sort of church; as well as two mills, the first evidence for the importance of water power in the area. Wombourne was part of the Seisdon Hundred. The Priors of Dudley built or rebuilt the Parish Church of St.

Benedict Biscop Benedict Biscop (pronounced "bishop"; – 690), also known as Biscop Baducing, was an Anglo-Saxon abbot and founder of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory (where he also founded the famous library) and was considered a saint after his death. Lif ...

around 1170, the only parish church dedicated to this Anglo-Saxon cleric. The building as it is seen today, however, is the result of numerous reconstructions and refurbishments, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries. The parish of Wombourne extended far from the village, taking in Orton and

Industrial developments

For most of its history Wombourne was mainly an agricultural village. However, its involvement with industry began unusually early. From the Middle Ages, the Smestow Brook and the Stour were lined with small iron

bloomeries A bloomery is a type of metallurgical furnace once used widely for smelting iron from its oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. Bloomeries produce a porous mass of iron and slag called a ''bloom''. ...

and forges, using local reserves of charcoal and water. The

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

brought coke-fired furnaces. In 1772, the

Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is a navigable narrow canal in Staffordshire and Worcestershire in the English Midlands. It is long, linking the River Severn at Stourport in Worcestershire with the Trent and Mersey Canal at Haywood ...

was opened, with major canal locks at the

Bratch The Bratch is an area of Wombourne in South Staffordshire, South Staffordshire, England, noted for its industrial heritage and more recently as a way station for walkers, riders and cyclists. Formerly, it was a small, separate hamlet, and became ...

and Bumble Hole, integrating the area more closely into industrial Britain. Iron production concentrated in a smaller number of centres – at

, in the southern part of the Wombourn parish, at Gothersley, at the Hyde near

Kinver Kinver is a large village in the District of South Staffordshire in Staffordshire, England. It is in the far south-west of the county, at the end of the narrow finger of land surrounded by the counties of Shropshire, Worcestershire and the ...

, and increasingly in the nearby

Black Country The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands county, England covering most of the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall. Dudley and Tipton are generally considered to be the centre. It became industrialised during its ...

– using the canal to bring ore, coal and limestone to the works. Other villages, however, remained centres for

smithing A metalsmith or simply smith is a craftsperson fashioning useful items (for example, tools, kitchenware, tableware, jewelry, armor and weapons) out of various metals. Smithing is one of the oldest metalworking occupations. Shaping metal with a h ...

, with cheaper and more available iron greatly increasing the number of workers. Increasingly, Wombourne became a centre for nail-making. The Wom and the Smestow continued to provide both power and cooling water, with several large mills along each stream by the late 18th century. Perhaps the largest water-driven forge was to the west of the village, where, an 1817 history remarks, "has been erected an iron-work called the Heath-forge, with genteel mansion". This works had a large mill pool, supplied by the Merryhill Brook and by a contour canal from the

River Smestow The Smestow Brook, sometimes called the River Smestow, is a small river that plays an important part in the drainage of Wolverhampton, South Staffordshire, and parts of Dudley in the United Kingdom, and has contributed to the industrial developm ...

. Water fell thence in several stages to the Wom, which then joined the Smestow a short distance to the west. The forge mill was later converted into a corn mill, which functioned until the 1930s. The Heath Mill industrial estate on the main Bridgnorth road preserves the name of the complex. The mansion building, now converted into flats, is still to be seen in the Poolhouse estate, itself named after the poolhouse that stood at the dam. The water mill is clearly marked on the 1775 Yates map of Staffordshire, along with one at the Wodehouse, and another just south of the village centre, the remains of which are now the Pool Dam. It was around the same time that the Hellier family reached the peak of their influence in the area. The Helliers lived at the Wodehouse, on the Wom Brook, to the east of the village. It was the fourth Samuel Hellier, knighted in 1762, who turned the Jacobean house into a centre of culture. He had the grounds laid out in fashionable style, with a hermitage, a temple to the memory of

Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...

, and a music room. He spent a fortune on musical instruments and books of music, building up a private collection and endowing both the church at Wombourne and St. John's, Wolverhampton. The family collection included the Stradivarius named after them. Dying without issue in 1784, he left his property to a family friend, the Reverend Thomas Shaw, on condition he change his name to Hellier. One of his descendants spent years as commandant of the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall. It is claimed that the Wodehouse has not been sold for over 900 years. In 1851, Wombourne was described by William White as a large village, "occupied chiefly by nailors, who work for the neighbouring manufacturers". Nail-making remained important into the 20th century. As White implies, it was mainly the preserve of outworkers, who operated small-scale machinery in, or attached to, their own homes, fetching iron sheet or rod from the foundries and returning the finished product. White tells us that the main landowners in the area in the mid-19th century were

John Wrottesley, 2nd Baron Wrottesley John Wrottesley, 2nd Baron Wrottesley (5 August 1798 – 27 October 1867) was an English astronomer. Life Wrottesley was the son of John Wrottesley, 1st Baron Wrottesley, and his first wife Lady Caroline Bennet, daughter of Charles Bennet, 4 ...

, a notable astronomer, and Lord Ward – at this time the Reverend William Humble Ward, the tenth Baron, a relative of the

Earl of Dudley Earl of Dudley, of Dudley Castle in the County of Stafford (now the West Midlands), is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, both times for members of the Ward family. History Dudley was first used for a ...

. The Wards made their wealth not merely from land, but what lay under it: the coal and limestone of the West Midlands. Another important landowner, the Reverend William Dalton, was an Evangelical clergyman from Ulster, but he owed his wealth to marriage to the widow of a

Bilston Bilston is a market town, ward, and civil parish located in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. It is close to the borders of Sandwell and Walsall. The nearest towns are Darlaston, Wednesbury, and Willenhall. Historically in Staffordshi ...

iron master.

The modern village

Although the parish had a population approaching 2000 by the mid-19th century, the village itself remained quite small – essentially confined to the area around the present village green. The hamlets of Giggetty, Blakeley, Ounsdale, and the Bratch were quite separate from the village and were only absorbed into it as suburban housing spread from the mid-20th century. This changed the whole character and structure of the village. The area around the green, the original village of Wombourne, evolved as the commercial and cultural centre. The green was surrounded by small, independent shops, which remain a distinctive feature of the village's commercial life. A new civic centre, housing local council services, was constructed near Lower End, just south west of the centre. Suburban housing grew to form a wide ring around it, absorbing most of the hamlets. In the 1950s, several hundred council houses were built around Wombourne by Wolverhampton council as part of an overspill rehousing programme for residents of the large town's slums. Large housing developments of the 1960s and 1970s around Giggetty and Brickbridge, to the west, were followed by a still larger westward extension in the Poolhouse estate of the 1980s, which absorbed the former Heath Mill. Meanwhile, light industry developed along the canal and the

, particularly beyond the main Bridgnorth Road, with industrial estates replacing former foundries. A new bypass was opened to the south of the village in July 1988, carrying

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. Histor ...

and

Telford Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in t ...

traffic around Wombourne and Himley, and clearly separating much of the industrial area from the residential section. With Wombourne becoming an increasingly popular residential area, mass housing development continued into the new millennium, with building to the west of the canal between Ounsdale and the Bratch. Wombourne has become well known for its "annual" carnival, held on the first Sunday of July. The carnival has a wide variety of stalls made up of independent traders, local businesses, community groups and local charities as well as much family entertainment. Including a funfair, bands, music groups, dance/drama groups, women's institute event and the Wombourne Village "Quacky" Races. The main parade starts at 12pm sharp, allowing residents and guests of Wombourne to line the parade route to cheer on the floats and follow them up to the main carnival site for the official opening at 1pm. The Parade will start at Wombourne Civic Centre, passing down Gravel Hill, Common Road, Giggetty Lane, Planks Lane, Church Road, High street and back to Wombourne Civic Centre. There will be temporary road closures during the parade so we ask for your patience during this time and hope people join in the festivities. The parade is made up of floats which are theme based, created by local schools.

Amenities

The

runs north–south through the western side of the village and

Locks are located just to the north-west. Another popular local spot is the South Staffordshire Railway Walk, which follows the path of a now disused railway (it served as a goods railway prior to the 1960s and as a passenger line for a few years between the two wars). Wombourne Village Green is considered to resemble an archetypal 'English village', as it is in the centre of the village and opposite St Benedict's Church. It regularly plays host to local

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

matches. The main commercial area is around the village green and on the neighbouring streets. This contains a considerable range of small, independent shops, as well as banks, cafes and other services. There are also small developments of shops and services in the outlying areas of the village, particularly at Giggetty and Blakeley. Wombourne has a retained fire station, run by Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service, which is currently being refurbished. The station houses one pumping appliance and is located on Giggety Lane next to Wombourne Ambulance Station. The ambulance station was run by West Midlands Ambulance Service and was manned full-time. The west midlands house builder Kendrick Homes acquired the site for residential development in June 2014, it has planning permission for 9 dwellings. Wombourne Police Station can be found on the High Street and is part of Staffordshire Police. Police officers work from the police station 24 hours per day, however staff of the enquiry office are only available at certain times. The village is served by a wide variety of churches, many based around the village green, which do much in the way of maintaining village traditions and in serving the more needy people in the parish. There was considerable volunteer support for the mental health centre in Planks Lane before it closed. The Hand in Hand Centre is well-supported by Christians and a number of activities for older members of the village are run and paid for by volunteers.

Walks and Local Countryside

Image:Wombrook Lower End Bridge.JPG, Lower End Bridge, just south-west of the village centre, marks the eastern edge of the Ham Meadow section. Image:Wombourne Ham Meadow.JPG, Ham Meadow, south-west of the village centre, through which flows the Wom Brook. Image:StaffsWorcs Bratch Toll.jpg, The nearby Bratch Locks. Image:Wombourne Railway Station.jpg, Wombourne Railway Station on the South Staffordshire Railway Walk. A number of important footpaths cross Wombourne, constituting an important leisure amenity as well as providing safe access to the village and surrounding countryside for walkers and cyclists.

The Wom Brook Walk

The Wom Brook Walk is a Local Nature Reserve entirely within the boundaries of the village. It stretches for about 1.5 miles (2.6 km) along both sides of the Wom Brook, traversing the village from east to west. It contains a mix of meadow and woodland. It was established after some years of work by a local conservation group, the Friends of Wom Brook. There has been great excitement over the arrival of Wombourne's very first Little Egret in October/November 2010. It was seen hunting and roosting around the Wombrook on a number of occasions and Daniel Traynor captured the very first image of the bird which was later shown in the Parish News.

The South Staffordshire Railway Walk

The South Staffordshire Railway Walk is another Local Nature Reserve. It follows the course of the former Wombourne Branch Line, traversing Wombourne from north to south, before swinging east towards

Himley Himley is a small village and civil parish in the English ceremonial county of Staffordshire, situated 4 miles west of Dudley and 5 miles southwest of Wolverhampton. At the time of the 2011 Census, Himley had a population of 802.It is most n ...

and

. It intersects with the Wom Brook Walk at the western end of Ham Meadow. To the north, it connects with the Wolverhampton Railway Walk, affording a pedestrian route into Wolverhampton via the Smestow Valley LNR. The former Wombourne station at the

has car parking facilities, as well as a café and information.

The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal

The tow path of the

also runs north–south through the western part of Wombourne, roughly parallel with the

South Staffordshire Railway Walk The South Staffordshire Railway Walk is located in Staffordshire, England. It runs for five and a half miles (about 8.85 km) from Castlecroft to Wall Heath. It is a local nature reserve. History As the name suggests South Staffordshire ...

and intersecting with the Wom Brook Walk at Giggetty. It forms part of a conservation area and can be followed as far as

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it ha ...

and

Stourport on Severn Stourport-on-Severn, often shortened to Stourport, is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District of North Worcestershire, England, a few miles to the south of Kidderminster and downstream on the River Severn from Bewdley. At the 2011 ...

to the south and Wolverhampton and

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in th ...

to the north. It is said that once a year the phantom ghost train runs through Wombourne, with many of the local residents claiming they have both seen and heard it.

Surrounding area

As well as the walks in or passing through Wombourne, there are also many country parks and places to walk in the surrounding area including:

Baggeridge Country Park Baggeridge Country Park is located within the South Staffordshire district of Staffordshire, England. Its entrance is on the A463 just west of Gospel End, a small Staffordshire village just beyond the borders of the Wolverhampton, Gornal and t ...

Highgate Common Highgate Common is a Staffordshire Wildlife Trust reserve containing a mix of heathland and woodland. It is about 129 hectares or 320 acres in size. The common is a popular leisure destination and a Site of Special Scientific Interest, located in S ...

Himley Hall Himley Hall is an early 17th-century country house situated in Staffordshire, England. It is situated in the south of the county in the small village of Himley, near to the town of Dudley and the city of Wolverhampton. Himley Hall is a Grade I ...

and Kinver Edge.

Governance

Wombourne is part of a two-tier local government structure, typical of rural county areas in England. :*It is situated within the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...

. This is based in

Codsall Codsall is a large village in the South Staffordshire district of Staffordshire, England. It is situated 4.5 miles northwest of the city of Wolverhampton and 13 miles east-southeast of Telford. It forms part of the boundary of the Staffordshi ...

, to the north of Wombourne, although it has district offices locally. It was established in 1974 by the merging of Seisdon Rural District, to which Wombourne had belonged, with

Cannock Rural District Cannock was a rural district in Staffordshire, England from 1894 to 1974. It was created by the Local Government Act 1894, based on the Cannock rural sanitary district, and had the town of Cannock on its eastern border. In 1934 it was expanded ...

. Wombourne consists of three district council wards, each represented by three councillors: Wombourne North and Lower Penn; Wombourne South West; Wombourne South East. :*South Staffordshire itself is contained within the

. This was established as an

administrative county An administrative county was a first-level administrative division in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974, and in Ireland from 1899 until either 1973 (in Northern Ireland) or 2002 (in the Republic of Ireland). They are now abolished, although mos ...

in 1889. Wombourne constitutes a single division in County Council elections: South Staffordshire – Wombourne. Wombourne also has a parish council. This was originally established in 1894 and took its present form in 1974. Wombourne is part of the South Staffordshire parliamentary constituency, which is not coterminous with the district of the same name. Prior to

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time, GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 Central Eur ...

in 2020, it was also part of the large West Midlands constituency, which had seven

MEPs A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, it ...

in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

. Before the local government reforms of the 19th century, the local parish or

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

was both a civil and an ecclesiastical unit within the Seisdon

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

of the historic county of Staffordshire. In Victorian times, it became part of the Seisdon Poor Law Union.

Politics

Wombourne's Member of Parliament is Gavin Williamson, who represents the South Staffordshire constituency in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

after Sir Patrick Cormack stepped down in the 2010 general election. He is a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

. In elections to the

, Wombourne was part of the West Midlands constituency which was last represented by seven MEPs: 3 Conservative, 2 Labour, 1 Liberal Democrat and 1

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...

. All nine of Wombourne's district councillors are Conservative and the district council is Conservative-controlled.

Transport

National Express West Midlands bus routes 15 and 16 all serve Wombourne. Sunday daytime service 15A omits the village centre operating directly from Wodehouse Lane A463 roundabout to

via the

A449 The A449 is a major road in the United Kingdom. It runs north from junction 24 of the M4 motorway at Newport in South Wales to Stafford in Staffordshire. The southern section of the road, between Ross on Wye and Newport forms part of the tru ...

. Previously a service ran between

and

via

(580) along with infrequent services to

Sedgley Sedgley is a town in the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, Sedgley is on the A459 road between Wolverhampt ...

Perton Perton is a large village and civil parish located in the South Staffordshire District, Staffordshire, England. It lies 3 miles to the south of Codsall and 4 miles west of Wolverhampton, where part of the village is almost contiguous with ...

and a number of rural communities in South Staffordshire. However these were progressively withdrawn due to local authority funding cuts. Due to conditions imposed at the time of the planning application, a twice weekly free bus operated between the

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...

store on the edge of the village and the village centre. This service is operated by Coastal Liner having originally been operated by Midland, although it now runs on Thursdays only. There used to be a

railway line Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...

with a station serving the village although spelt instead as "Wombourn". The line and station closed to passenger services in 1932 and freight in the 1960s. It is now the

. The station survives as a cafe and the trackbed can be walked between Wolverhampton and Himley.

Schools

There are four primary schools in Wombourne; Westfield, St. Bernadette's R.C., Blakeley Heath and St. Benedict Biscop. There is also a secondary school, Wombourne High School, that takes many of the local primary schools pupils on. Students also come from local areas on coach and bus services to the school. There is also Cherry Tree's special school and Adult Education centres operating in several locations around the village, including Ounsdale High School and the Library.

Sport

Wombourne V.C. was founded in 1995 and currently competes in the West Midlands Volleyball Association. The club has recently moved to train and compete at the brand new Evolve building near Dudley town centre. At the conclusion of the 2015 season the club was named "Volleyball England Club of the Year", topping competition from across England. Wombourne has also been represented in Sunday league football by many different teams throughout the years. The most famous team is Orton Vale Established in 1977

Notable people

William Reading William Reading (1674–1744) was an English clergyman and librarian of Sion College, known for his edition of early church historians. Life The son of a refiner of iron, he was born on 17 September 1674 at Swin in the parish of Wombourne, Staffo ...

(1674 in Swindon, Staffs – 1744) an English clergyman and librarian of Sion College * Edward Simms (1800-1893) organist of Wombourne Parish Church 1813-1821 * Ted Jarman (1907 – 2003 in Wombourne) an English professional golfer, played in the 1935 Ryder Cup. * Pip Harris (1927 in Wombourne – 2013) a British motorcycle racer in the sidecar class over a 27-year career * Robert King (born 1960 in Wombourne) is an English conductor, harpsichordist, editor and author, has concentrated on period performance of classical music in particular from the baroque and early modern periods. Also convicted sex offender * Ian Painter (born 1964 in Wombourne) a footballer mainly for Stoke City, with 113 appearances Lydia Thompson England Women v Italy Women (RBS 6 Nation)

Lydia Thompson England Women v Italy Women (RBS 6 Nation)

* Christopher Pincher (born 1969) a Conservative politician and MP for Tamworth since 2010, grew up in Wombourne * Mark Rhodes (born 1981) an English singer and television presenter, lives in Wolverhampton and socialises in Wombourne * Lydia Thompson (born 1992) an English female rugby union player, went to a school in Wombourne

References

External links

Staffordshire Past Track
Maps, photos and historic documents for all areas of the county.

with links to local history resources.
South Staffordshire District CouncilWombourne Online
Community Website for Wombourne {{DEFAULTSORT:Wombourne Villages in Staffordshire Civil parishes in Staffordshire South Staffordshire District