Great Wyrley
| Great Wyrley | |
|---|---|
 Aerial view (of part) |
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 The manufacturing base here for Caterpillar Inc. |
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 Great Wyrley
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| Great Wyrley shown within Staffordshire | |
| Population | 11,060 |
| OS grid reference | SJ994068 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Walsall |
| Postcode district | WS6 |
| Dialling code | 01922 |
| Police | Staffordshire |
| Fire | Staffordshire |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| EU Parliament | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
Great Wyrley /ˈwɜːrli/ is a civil parish and large village in the district of South Staffordshire, England, forming part of the Staffordshire border with the metropolitan borough of Walsall, West Midlands. It had a population of 11,060 at the 2011 census.
The word "Wyrley" derives from two Old English words: wir and leah. Wir meant "bog myrtle" and leah meant "woodland clearing", suggesting that Great Wyrley began as sparse woodland or marshland. "Great" refers to its dominant size over Little Wyrley.
Great Wyrley is mentioned in the Domesday Book under the name of Wereleia, and as early as 1086 is said to have been indirectly owned by the Bishop of Chester St John's as part of the "somewhat scattered holdings" of the Church of Saint Chad in Lichfield. Some 480 acres of farming land were, assumingly, evenly distributed between Wyrley and nearby Norton Canes. However, all six dependencies of Saint Chad had been labelled as "wasta", which meant they had been abandoned by the time the Domesday Book was made.
Manorialism continued for a long period and the current holder of the rights to the feudal title of Great Wyrley Manor is, Anthony Henry Lord GREAT WYRLEY, the freeholder of Great Wyrley and Essington Estates, Red Lane Essington, South Staffordshire, having acquired the title deeds from the The Right Honourable Elizabeth Millicent Countess of Sutherland Duke of Sutherland in 1989. There is considerable documentation (dating from 1397) relating to this very large manor in terms of land currently in the safekeeping of Staffordshire libraries.
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