Codsall is a large village in South Staffordshire, in the English midlands. It's also where I live.
Codsall was established sometime around 900 AD, around 5 miles west of Wolverhampton, and 30 miles east of Shrewsbury. Five miles was a morning's walk for traders and merchants, and a small trading post grew to meet their needs. The land around Codsall is flat and fertile, and easy to farm. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, Codsall contained six landowning households. It was around this time that the church of St Nicholas was built, on a hill at the top of the village.
It remained a small community for many centuries. By the time of the first national census in 1801, Codsall's population was just over 600, clustered on the hill leading to the church, and on the road to Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury. Other small communities had established themselves at Bilbrook, a mile west of St Nicholas', and at Oaken, a mile south of Codsall church.
Large expansion began in the 1850s, when a railway line between Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury was routed to pass just south of the village. Codsall was granted a station; a halt was built some little way outside Bilbrook. New houses were built down from the church to the road to Oaken, and the first serious building took place in Bilbrook.
As Codsall became more of a commuter village - to both Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury - so more housing was built. First, in the 1900s and 1920s, was the Chapel Lane estate, built to the south of the railway line on the Wolverhampton side. This estate took its name from the Methodist chapel, built around 200 yards from the station. Immediately to the north of the line, Staffordshire County Council built its Wheel estate, the name coming from the public house. These houses took Codsall's population to nearly 5000. Bilbrook, a farming village, expanded north to the railway line.
After the war, the mile of fields between Codsall and Bilbrook were filled in by the massive Chillington estate, named after Chillington Hall, the home of one of the local landowners; and the Duck Lane estate in Bilbrook. A Catholic church, St Christopher's, was built on Wolverhampton Road between the two villages. As part of this development, St Nicholas' Primary School re-located from a small building by the church to a purpose built construction about 600 yards away. Codsall Comprehensive was built to the south of the village, and took pupils from Codsall and Bilbrook primaries. The south of the village was served by Histons Hill primary, sited next to the railway line half way between Codsall and Bilbrook stations, and adjacent to the public library.
South Staffordshire District Council was created in 1974, and built offices across the road from the library. Across Wolverhampton Road from the offices came Codsall Middle School. This opened in 1976, and catered for pupils between 9 and 13. Histons Hill school closed in 1983; around that time, a new small estate was built between the Middle school and St Christopher's Catholic church.
In the 1990s, a few small housing estates have been built on the fringes of the village, and the Council Offices have been expanded 50%.
The present day sees Codsall and Bilbrook split by the oval of land where Codsall Middle and High schools stand. Oaken remains a small village of no more than 100 houses, split from Codsall by farming land. Trains link to Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury every two hours, with a bus service into Wolverhampton every ten minutes.
That, then, is the history. I also keep a note of more modern news and developments.
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