EARLY SETTLEMENT

The first village in Handsworth was probably beside Grove Brook, near St. Mary's Church on Hamstead Road. Birchfield to the east and Heathfield were probably the great open fields of the manor, which may have had others. Browns Green and Hunts Green were pastures, also Wilkes Green : the brook could be dammed to make fishponds, whose successors are still in Handsworth Park. The meadows of the Tame provided summer pasture and winter hay. However by Norman times there seem to have been two settlements, both Saxon in name and presumed origin Hunesworde, Honesworde - but one of these was recorded in the Oxfordshire survey, and it is not absolutely sure that it referred to Handsworth.

Both manors were owned by William fitz-Ansculf, lord of Dudley, but had different tenants. Honesword, whose tenant lord was Drogo, had one hide (120 acres) of land under plough, with two more hides available, already cleared, or clearable without immense labour. Drogo retained some, doubtless the best, land for his own demesne. His tenants numbered 10, so that the community perhaps housed 50 persons. Only 2 acres of meadow and a quarter square mile of wood were recorded, and there was no church, but Drogo had a mill worth 2 shillings in annual tax.

Hunesworde, in Walter's possession, was worth £4, four times as much. It also had a mill, worth 8 shillings. There were 5 hides and as many more available, a demesne large enough to employ two ploughs, but only 8 tenants. No wood was listed, but there were 20 acres of meadow. These entries present many problems. Here are two communities, perhaps sharing the manor later called Handsworth, only about a hundred men, women and children, but apparently providing, in poor agricultural country, work for two Watermills. No waste is listed beyond what must be an under-estimate of the amount of woodland, and the meadow seems far too little for a manor that borders the Tame for five miles and has plenty more watercourses.

It has been suggested that one of the Domesday Book entries refers to Hamstead, and that this was Walter's Hunesworde which had the larger meadow acreage beside the Tame. But as Perry, on the north bank of Tame and also held by Drogo, was credited with only four acres of meadow, it becomes apparent that the statistics are suspect and cannot be used to prove anything. The mills have been reasonably identified with those at Hamstead and Oldford.

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