Madeley: History & Dates.

By Chris Machin

Neolithic Madeley (About 4000BC to 2400BC)

Neolithic means 'New Stone' and is part of the Holocene Epoch, or Stone Age, and followed the Paleaolithic and Mesolithic. A Neolithic hammer head has been found at Upper Thornhill Farm. A flint arrow head found at the Bar Hill/Round Hollows area.

Celtic Madeley (About 2400BC to 43AD)

The local Celtic Tribe were the Cornovii. They loosely covered the present area of Cheshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire. Their capital was The Wrekin. The Wrekin was first used as a round barrow in the Bronze Age. It was first fortified in about 400 BC and the sides were artificially steepened to strengthen the defences. It stands 1350 ft (411 metres) high and covers approximately 10 hectares.. It had entrances at the east and west and these were protected by stone guard houses. It is thought that the Madeley area would be thinly populated at the time. A Bronze Age spear head has been found at Stonylow. A Quern has been found at Old Manor Farm.

Roman Madeley (About 43AD to about 440AD)

The Romans first came to this area in about 48AD when the XX Legion occupied Chester. The Legion established themselves at Uriconium, or Oriconion (the Roman name of The Wrekin). The Romans moved the Celtic tribe four miles away to Viroconium Cornoviorum. The Romans later moved to a new centre at Wroxeter.

After some initial resistance, the Cornovii coexisted with the Romans.

A Roman Fort was built at Chesterton and a Roman Road ran from there, across Knutton Heath, along Pepper Street to a highway at Keele. Then past Agger Hill (an Agger is a Roman Embankment which formed the foundation of a Roman Road) to Madeley Heath. Here it connected with a road from Manchester to Condate (Kinderton). This road entered Staffordshire at Balterley, passed under the site of Heighley Castle and went on through Madeley to Maer, Ashley, Eccleshall and on to Uriconium.

(There is a theory that Madeley is the location of a lost Roman town of Mediolano or Mediolanum but no Roman dwellings have ever been found locally.)

In 1817, two urns of Roman coins were found at a farm in Little Madeley. See 1817 for more information.

There is some evidence that the Romans also mined coal in the Leycett area.

In a field called Cheshire Meadow Field, the Victorians found foundations of a building, carving and moulded stone work. In an adjoining field, called Wall Croft, a deep fosse (a canal ditch or trench) and vallum (a rampart and stockade, used for defence) were found.

In Madeley Field an entrenchment was found in 1871, Roman pottery, corroded pieces of iron and an iron fibula (brooch or clasp) were found. Nearby is a hollow, which was paved with large boulders and traces of roads and buildings were said to exist under the fields. At Ovenden, a circular leaden case 16 or 18 inches across, and 9 inches in depth, was found. It is possibly a sepulchral, or funeral, urn case but it is doubtful if it is Roman.

Anglo-Saxon Madeley (About 440AD to 1066AD)

Madeley is derived from the Saxon, Madanlieg, meaning ‘a clearing in the woods belonging to Mada’ (Mada is a female Saxon name).

975 - King Eadgar granted 3 hides of land (about 360 acres) at Madeley to Aethelwold, Bishop of Winchester. The grant refers to the River Lea and Checkley Brook and Wrinehill, but also to a Great Moss, which is possibly the area of the current Moss Estate. If so, it is the first written record of any area of modern day Madeley. King Eadgar (944-75) was King of the English. He was the younger son of King Edmund of Wessex and was made King of Northumbria and Mercia in 957. In 959 on his brother Eadwig’s death, he succeeded him as King of Wessex. He recalled St Dunstan from exile and made him Archbishop of Canterbury. In 973 he received the submission of all the kings of Britain who ceremonially rowed him on the River Dee. He accepted the Danelaw. His first wife had a son, Edward the Martyr, his second wife, Aelfryth had Athelred II, the Unready.