Introduction to Billingsley

This page provides an introduction to the history of Billingsley. For further information, look at the related webpages menu

History of Billingsley

Billingsley is a small parish whose eastern boundary is formed by the Borle Brook. For the most part its western boundary is a small, unnamed tributary of the Borle, although it does depart from this at its northern end where it adjoins Sidbury. The parish stands on coal measures belonging to the Wyre Forest Coalfield.

The sum total evidence for human activity in Billingsley prior to the Saxon period consists of a flint blade and a fragment of worked chert, perhaps discarded by a neolithic hunting expedition. The name is Saxon and may mean the clearing of the sword; it has been suggested this may refer to the shape of a woodland clearance first observed by Saxons who settled here, perhaps around the 7th Century. The village is not directly named in the Domesday book but this is because it was a detached portion of the royal manor of Morville. The latter was one of the main manors in late Saxon south Shropshire. It had a minster church, similar to Stottesdon, where priests were based who could minister to the surrounding countryside. Billingsley may have been attached to it to provide extra woodland; woods were important to provide fuel, timber for building and grazing. It is now very difficult to speculate on how it became attached to Morville; it may reflect a linkage going back to the 7th Century or beyond, but it could equally well have been as a result of a much later property deal.

Morville faired badly after the Conquest, rapidly losing influence to the new town of Bridgnorth. It passed to Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury. Roger founded the abbey at Shrewsbury and endowed it with Billingsley, amongst other holdings. Around 1147 it was transferred to the ownership of Seez Abbey in Normandy. This may have been responsible for the final break with Morville. A chapel had been built at Billingsley in the 1130s and this soon lost its dependency on the mother church in Morville.

The undertenants of Seez and its successor for the Middle Ages were the Beysin family and their heirs. They owned a number of other estates in Shropshire, including Wricton and Walkerslow in Stottesdon and for the most part were probably content to let a steward manage their interests at Billingsley. As far as is known, in the post-medieval period the farms that make up the parish remained the property of the lord of the manor so that although the title had little meaning, the holder held an estate covering the entire parish.

Billingsley was probably a predominantly agricultural village, although there is some evidence for iron-working in the late medieval period and by the 17th Century the woods were being coppiced for charcoal. Coal and ironstone were being mined in the 18th Century. In the early 1790s Billingsley came into the hands of Sir William Pulteney, MP for Shrewsbury. Pulteney owned estates throughout the country and was particularly keen on exploiting the mineral reserves of Billingsley. In his position as a national figure, he was able to obtain the services of one of the foremost mining engineers in the country, George Johnson of Byker, Newcastle on Tyne and his business partner and brother-in-law, Dr Henry Grey MacNab. Johnson and MacNab formed a consortium to work the coal under Pulteney’s land; latterly this included Thomas Telford, the noted civil engineer, as a partner. Unfortunately the colliery struggled; a group of Black Country ironmasters headed by George Stokes were recruited to build a blast furnace but this was to little avail. George Johnson died at Billingsley in 1801 and in 1802 MacNab fled the country to escape his creditors. New purchasers were found for the mine, but after further changes of ownership this phase of industrialisation was concluded by the bankruptcy of George Stokes in 1811. Billingsley briefly trebled in size but soon the population returned to its 18th Century levels.

In the late 1860s a brick works was opened in Billingsley, which continued to work until the First World War. There was also further prospecting for coal. This was successful and the Billingsley Colliery Company was formed. The story of this may be followed by reading the related webpage, from the menu on the left of the screen. In brief, the first Billingsley Colliery was dogged by fraud and the colliery was sold to its chief clerk, Alfred Gibbs in 1883. Gibbs ran the colliery as a successful small mine for many years, but in 1910 formed another company to expand operations. The mine was greatly expanded but found little success and closed in 1921. Whilst some houses were built as a result of this, most of the miners were housed in Highley.

In the 1960s a small new housing estate was built in Billingsley. It however remains a small, rural parish.