Pensnett Chase

Pensnett Chase was a wooded area of land owned by the Lords of Dudley Castle in the parishes of Kingswinford and Dudley (or mainly so). As a chase, it was originally used by them to hunt game in although it was also used as common land by local people. At some periods it was regarded as extending into Gornal and including Baggeridge Wood at one end and perhaps Cradley Heath at the other. By the 17th century the ancient woodlands had largely been cleared.

In the early modern period, the Dudley portion of the Chase came to be known as Dudley Wood and the name was largely reserved for the portion in Kingswinford. This was in the 18th century an extensive area of commonland which was inclosed in the late 18th century, with the mines reserved to the lord of the manor. It extended from the area now called Pensnett through Brierley Hill to Quarry Bank.

History

Pensnett Chase, a wooded area to the south and west of Dudley, came into possession of Ralph de Somery, one of the barons of Dudley castle in the early 13th century. The land had been part of the Forest of Kinver, owned by the monarch but was exchanged by King John in return for land in Wolverhampton. As the name 'Chase' suggests, the woods were used for hunting although they were also common lands, with rights for locals to graze their animals and gather wood for fuel. The name 'Pensnett' was probably derived from the two elements 'pen' meaning a hill and 'snaed' an Old English word for a wood. The original Chase was bordered on the south by the river Stour, dividing the common land from the manor of Cradley. The western boundary is not so well defined but a 17th century map shows the Chase extending further than Enville. Over time, the Chase lands were reduced as parts were enclosed to become private property.

Pensnett

Coordinates: 52°30′N 2°08′W / 52.50°N 2.13°W / 52.50; -2.13

Pensnett is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England, situated 2.3 miles (3.7 km) south-west of central Dudley. Pensnett has been a part of Dudley since 1966, when the Brierley Hill Urban District, of which it was a part, was absorbed into the County Borough of Dudley, later the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley from 1974.

Pensnett Chase

The present Pensnett covers a small portion of what was a large common called Pensnett Chase in Kingswinford parish, but contiguous with Dudley Wood in Dudley. As such, it belonged to the lords of the manor, descending as part of the Dudley estate from medieval times. With Dudley Wood, it is probably the woodland mentioned in the Domesday Book, as belonging to those manors.

The name is from the Celtic 'pen', for hill and the Anglo-Saxon 'snaed' for 'a piece of woodland'. For many years, it was used as commonland, for animal grazing although also a hunting reserve of the lords of Dudley. Pensnett Chase was inclosed, under the Pensnett Chase Inclosure Act of 1784. This reserved mining rights to the lord of the manor, but included a clause to compensate people for mining subsidence, indicating the industry was well established in the area. The mining of coal and ironstone was long established, and probably goes back to medieval times.