page_title: Wombourne
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Wombourne / History / Origins
caption_attribution_description: Flint axehead, likely neolithic, found at Wombourne, then Staffordshire, England, in 1943. 10.7cmx5.2cm. Now in the collection of Wolverhampton Museum (record no A202.4), from whose records this description is taken.
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: The village has Anglo-Saxon origins, and was part of the large central kingdom of Mercia, which was settled by Angles. 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 like Kingswinford ("royal pig crossing") and Swindon ("pig hill") confirm the importance of pig rearing in Anglo-Saxon times.
caption: Flint axehead, likely neolithic, found at Wombourne in 1943. Now in the collection of Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
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