The Shires

14.1. Map 6

During the lifetimes of Aethelflaeda, Lady of the Mercians, and of her brother Edward the Elder - daughter and son of Alfred the Great - the Danelaw was re-conquered. After the Danish foray across south Mercia had been ended by Edward's victory near Tettenhall, Aethelflaeda bui1t strong fortresses at Stafford, Tamworth, and Warwick, like those her father had erected at Worcester. Edward created a new defensive system from the wreck of the old kingdoms, making strategically placed towns in the valleys of the Severn, Avon, and Trent - Worcester, Warwick, Stafford - the capitals of artificial territorial units called shires. Their bounds inevitably met in the Birmingham Plateau, and the interlocking of these reflects political rather than geographical or tribal considerations.

Thus Hwiccan areas were given to Warwick in the south part of the shire, while Yardley went to Worcestershire and Harborne-with-Smethwick to Staffordshire. These two allotments were due to their ownership, the former by Pershore Abbey, the latter by the Bishop of Lichfield. Halesowen and Warley were annexed to Shropshire soon after 1086 by the Earl of Shrewsbury : this explains the name of Three Shires 0ak which once stood at the west end of the road named after it, and the names of Warley Salop and Warley Wigorn.

Shireland and Chad Brooks have been shire boundaries for a thousand years and the former's name is thereby explained. It has marked the meeting of two manors , two parishes, two Hundreds, two counties, two boroughs, and a city and a county borough. In 1966 'Warley' brought a new neighbour for Birmingham, and a change of county, to Worcestershire : now it is part of Sandwell (with West Bromwich) and like Birmingham it is a metropolitan District in the County of West Midlands.