| SAUTLEGE, ref. 1170, is said to mean 'Clearing among the willows'.
It has nothing to do with salt or ancient saltways from Droitwich.
The known moated site where the original manor house may have been,
could certainly have received such a name. Still visible in 1880 (in
the angle of Adderley Road and Landor Street, partly obliterated by
those thoroughfares and the railway bank, and the remainder buried
beneath Powers G.K.N. factory), this was a well-chosen place, on the
willow-fringed valley side, just above flood-level, close to the junction
of drift and clay but on the latter so that a moat fed by a brook
would retain water. Piling gravel upon it to make a dry, firm footing
would raise the 'platform' within the wide ditch. Forest climbed the
slope to the south (the claypit area now infilled), giving timber,
fuel, pannage for swine. Northward lay easily-cleared and well-drained
land, light to plough. Below were lush meadows, for hay and pasture
in dry summers but unusable in winter. There was an abundance of game
birds and animals and fish. |
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