e burial mound of
the host." The corruption Rumbelow is probably made out of the phrase
"At Tromelowe."

Wergs (The), through many transformations from Wytheges to Wyrges, is
"the withy hedges."

Wobaston, an estate in Bushbury, was anciently "Wibald's town."

Wombourne was the "bourne (or brook) in the hollow."

Wolverhampton was at first Heantune, or Hamtun, otherwise the "High
town," to which name was prefixed soon after the year 994 that of
Wulfrun, a lady of rank who gave great possessions to the Church; and
hence was evolved the more distinctive name, Wulfrunhamtun, since
modified into its present form.

Although some of these names (as Showells, formerly Sewall) may not date
quite back to the Saxon period, most of them may be accepted as
present-day evidences of the great Teutonic descent upon this Midland
locality. One of the very few Celtic place-names retained from the
previous occupiers is Monmore, which in the tongue of the ancient Britons
signified "the boggy mere."

[Picture: Decorative flower]

IV.--The Founding of Wulfruna's Church, 996, A.D.

After the advent of Christianity, the new religion was gradually advanced
throughout the land by the settlement of priest-missioners in the various
localities. Where the missionary settled on the invitation, or under the
protection of a thane, or "lord," that lordship was formed into a parish.
Thus some parishes doubtless became co-terminous with the old manors.
Owing, however, to the many changes of jurisdiction in the course of
succeeding centuries, it is difficult to find instances of parish and
manor of identical area in this locality. Bescot was a manor within the
parish of Walsall; Bloxwich and Shelfield were anciently members of the
manor of Wednesbury, though now included in Walsall; Bentley, at the
Norman Conquest, was part of the manor of Willenhall, then belonging to
Wolverhampton Church; while Dunstall was a member of the King's manor of
Stow Heath. Tettenhall parish originally included as many as a dozen
manors and townships.

England is made up of some ten thousand parishes, each with its parish
church, around which for a thousand years has revolved the social and
political, as well as the whole religious life of the place. The parish
is our unit of local government, and the history of a town is usually a
history of the parish.

But Willenhall never was a parish. It is merely a member of a parish--of