Shelfield is a historic village in the borough of

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

in the West Midlands, England. It is conjoined by the nearby suburbs of Walsall Wood and Rushall. The name Shelfield derives from the Anglo Saxon ''Skelfeld'' for sloping ground or field. Shelfield 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

as containing a hide of waste belonging to the Manor of

. Transliterating the Domesday Book

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

the entry reads: ''In Scelfeld est hida vasta pertinens eidem Manerio''. In English: ''In Shelfield there is one hide of waste appertaining to the said Manor''. This interpretation is further justified by a 1469

quitclaim Generally, a quitclaim is a formal renunciation of a legal claim against some other person, or of a right to land. A person who quitclaims renounces or relinquishes a claim to some legal right, or transfers a legal interest in land. Originally a c ...

which records a witness named Richard Scelfelde; implying 'Scelfelde' is the ablative form of Scelfeld denoting "Richard of Shelfield." As such, we see the name Shelfield not only in

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

, but also now in Latin.

Railway

Although not having its own station nor halt, Shelfield had a small branch line from which left the Heath End sidings just south of Pelsall railway station, onto an embankment which passed over the Ford Brook and then the "Donkey Bridge" pathway followed by a cutting under two bridges, one on the Four Crosses Road and immediately followed by the Lichfield Road bridge and onto to the colliery fields at Walsall Wood. The old bridge brick wall is still intact on the west side of the Lichfield Road despite the deep cutting behind the wall being completely filled in following the line's closure. It was a single track and the branch line served Leighswood Colliery and crossed the Daw End Branch Canal. The goods traffic to Leighswood Colliery ended in the 1930s but the branch line continued to serve Atlas Brickworks until the closure of the works in 1964. The branch line has since been built on in parts however the cutting between Four Crosses and Lichfield Road can still be seen from the Co-op and Esso garage and is still there on the one side of the bridge with the other side being occupied by houses and commercial buildings. The section from Pelsall to Shelfield now forms part of the Timberland Trail/Mercian Trail.

Education

Greenfield Primary is in Shelfield, with 292 pupils in January 2007. High Heath in Shelfield is home to the Shelfield Community Academy, which went through a 6 million pound refurbishment in 2002. Formerly called Shelfield Sports and Community College, it changed its title to Shelfield Community Academy in January 2009, and was turned into an

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

funded by the

Ormiston Academies Trust Ormiston Trust is a charitable trust based in London, England. It is a grant-making trust that chiefly assists schools and organisations supporting children and young people. The trust was established in the memory of Fiona Ormiston Murray who ...

.Shelfield Community Academy
/ref> Shelfield is also home to St Francis, Catholic Primary School which is located adjacent to the Catholic Church.

References

Metropolitan Borough of Walsall Villages in the West Midlands (county) Walsall Aldridge Rushall - Shelfield {{WestMidlands-geo-stub