page_title: Wombourne
section_title: The medieval village
hierarchical_section_title: Wombourne / History / The medieval village
caption_attribution_description: English: Mansion Court, Wombourne, Staffordshire, UK - formerly Heath House, a seat of the Foley Family, close to Heath Mill on the Wom Brook.
context_page_description: Wombourne is a large village and civil parish located in the district of South Staffordshire, in the county of Staffordshire, 4 miles south-west of Wolverhampton and just outside the county and conurbation of the West Midlands.
  Local affairs 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. Due to its proximity to the county and conurbation of the West Midlands, it is, to some extent, an urban fringe settlement or dormitory village for the conurbation, although it also has a distinctive centre and a long history.
context_section_description: Wombourne is mentioned in Domesday Book and was clearly a medium-sized village by the standards of the time. Before the Norman Conquest, it was owned by an Anglo-Saxon nobleman called Thorsten. By the time of the survey, probably 1086, 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, a Picard baron who came to England with William the Conqueror and built a castle at Dudley. 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 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 Swindon.
caption: The former Heath House, a residence of the Foley family attached to their industrial complex at Heath Mill. Today it is an apartment block, known as Mansion Court.
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