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Wom Brook
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Wom Brook
The Wom Brook is a stream in South Staffordshire, England. It flows through the large village of Wombourne, and has played an important part in its industrial history. It is an important tributary of the River Smestow and part of the Severn catchment.
The name of the stream is probably a back-formation from the name of the village of Wombourn or Wombourne. The word burna was used for a stream in the oldest strata of Old English toponyms. The village name was long thought to mean "Womb Stream", or stream in a hollow, because this is a reasonable description of the situation.
The stream itself is not named in Domesday and medieval documents relating to the village. However, to turn the first element in the village name into a designation for the stream was logical and the Wom Brook is so-named on Ordnance Survey maps, although not on earlier maps. The Old English term brōca, another word for a stream, is later than burna and its derivative, brook, continues in use as a common noun in the English Midlands, while burn has become confined to Scotland and Northern England. This makes it fairly certain the name Wom Brook is of considerably later origin than the village name. Occasionally it is found in elided form as Wombrook.
The name Wom Brook is generally applied to a stream that emerges from the pools at the Wodehouse - the product of the confluence of the Penn Brook, the Lyden Brook and other streams that drain water from the Colton Hills on the southern fringe of Wolverhampton. Flowing south-west, it goes beneath both A449 and the older Stafford-Worcester road that runs alongside it, emerging at the edge of the village of Wombourne. At this point the Wom Brook Walk, a local nature reserve begins.
The stream is soon interrupted by the Pool Dam, the remains of a forge mill, where it tumbles steeply to the lower level. Passing just south of the village centre and behind the Civic Centre, it arrives at Lower End, the site of another former mill, where it passes under a road. The banks then open out into Ham Meadow, an area of grassland and trees. Flowing under the South Staffordshire Railway Walk and dropping again, the Wom enters the wooded Giggetty section, where it meanders through trees well below the level of the nearby housing.
Beyond Giggetty, the Wom disappears briefly into a culvert beneath a road and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Walkers take a short detour to find the brook flowing out from the culvert across the road at Longford, still a hazard to motorists after heavy rain. Immediately after comes the confluence with the Merryhill Brook, which joins the Wom next to Tyre Hill, the remains of a disused quarry. The brook flows through the Poolhouse estate, on the site of the former Heath Mill complex. Disappearing under the Bridgnorth road, it then flows through an area of industrial estates, finally discharging into the River Smestow directly opposite the village of Smestow.
The Wom Brook has played an important part in the industrial history of Wombourne and the surrounding area. Despite considerable variations in flow, it provided a source of power for many centuries. Domesday, around 1086, recorded two mills already at Wombourne. These would have been undershot watermills, which were already diversifying in use beyond corn grinding in that period, although there is no precise information on how these mills were used.
From the Middle Ages, the Smestow, the Stour and their tributaries were the home of a thriving iron industry. By the 17th century, when civil and colonial strife greatly increased the demand for iron, this industry used overshot watermills to drive simple machinery for hammering, rolling, cutting, slitting and sharpening iron, smelted with local supplies of charcoal. This required considerable investment, as well as political and legal influence, as weirs or dams, and often small canals, had to be constructed to maintain a sufficient head of water. Well before 1700, there was a development of considerable enterprises, under wealthy and powerful iron-masters, who sought to control the local market through the forming of cartels. The development of coke-fired furnaces in the Industrial Revolution greatly stimulated iron-working along the Wom and other streams in the area, while the construction of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal in 1770–72 made it easy to transport both raw materials and finished products in bulk.
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Wom Brook
The Wom Brook is a stream in South Staffordshire, England. It flows through the large village of Wombourne, and has played an important part in its industrial history. It is an important tributary of the River Smestow and part of the Severn catchment.
The name of the stream is probably a back-formation from the name of the village of Wombourn or Wombourne. The word burna was used for a stream in the oldest strata of Old English toponyms. The village name was long thought to mean "Womb Stream", or stream in a hollow, because this is a reasonable description of the situation.
The stream itself is not named in Domesday and medieval documents relating to the village. However, to turn the first element in the village name into a designation for the stream was logical and the Wom Brook is so-named on Ordnance Survey maps, although not on earlier maps. The Old English term brōca, another word for a stream, is later than burna and its derivative, brook, continues in use as a common noun in the English Midlands, while burn has become confined to Scotland and Northern England. This makes it fairly certain the name Wom Brook is of considerably later origin than the village name. Occasionally it is found in elided form as Wombrook.
The name Wom Brook is generally applied to a stream that emerges from the pools at the Wodehouse - the product of the confluence of the Penn Brook, the Lyden Brook and other streams that drain water from the Colton Hills on the southern fringe of Wolverhampton. Flowing south-west, it goes beneath both A449 and the older Stafford-Worcester road that runs alongside it, emerging at the edge of the village of Wombourne. At this point the Wom Brook Walk, a local nature reserve begins.
The stream is soon interrupted by the Pool Dam, the remains of a forge mill, where it tumbles steeply to the lower level. Passing just south of the village centre and behind the Civic Centre, it arrives at Lower End, the site of another former mill, where it passes under a road. The banks then open out into Ham Meadow, an area of grassland and trees. Flowing under the South Staffordshire Railway Walk and dropping again, the Wom enters the wooded Giggetty section, where it meanders through trees well below the level of the nearby housing.
Beyond Giggetty, the Wom disappears briefly into a culvert beneath a road and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Walkers take a short detour to find the brook flowing out from the culvert across the road at Longford, still a hazard to motorists after heavy rain. Immediately after comes the confluence with the Merryhill Brook, which joins the Wom next to Tyre Hill, the remains of a disused quarry. The brook flows through the Poolhouse estate, on the site of the former Heath Mill complex. Disappearing under the Bridgnorth road, it then flows through an area of industrial estates, finally discharging into the River Smestow directly opposite the village of Smestow.
The Wom Brook has played an important part in the industrial history of Wombourne and the surrounding area. Despite considerable variations in flow, it provided a source of power for many centuries. Domesday, around 1086, recorded two mills already at Wombourne. These would have been undershot watermills, which were already diversifying in use beyond corn grinding in that period, although there is no precise information on how these mills were used.
From the Middle Ages, the Smestow, the Stour and their tributaries were the home of a thriving iron industry. By the 17th century, when civil and colonial strife greatly increased the demand for iron, this industry used overshot watermills to drive simple machinery for hammering, rolling, cutting, slitting and sharpening iron, smelted with local supplies of charcoal. This required considerable investment, as well as political and legal influence, as weirs or dams, and often small canals, had to be constructed to maintain a sufficient head of water. Well before 1700, there was a development of considerable enterprises, under wealthy and powerful iron-masters, who sought to control the local market through the forming of cartels. The development of coke-fired furnaces in the Industrial Revolution greatly stimulated iron-working along the Wom and other streams in the area, while the construction of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal in 1770–72 made it easy to transport both raw materials and finished products in bulk.
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