William Dargue - A History of Birmingham Places & Placenames . . .  from A to Y

Shawley/ Shirley

B26 - Grid reference SP131848

Use the grid reference on the Ordnance Survey website - Get-a-map. 

Shawley: first record 1495

There was a small medieval settlement on the Coventry Road called Shawley or Shirley, neither of which names are now in use here. The name, which was first recorded as Shawley in 1495, may mean 'shire clearing', as the county boundary crossed the Coventry Road east of Clay Lane; Sheldon and Lyndon were in Warwickshire while Yardley lay in Worcestershire. Placenames in the woodland areas east of Birmingham which end with -ley denote clearings for agriculature. The name may alternatively derive from Old English sceaga ie. 'a little wood'.

See also Gilbertstone.

William Dargue 10.03.09

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For 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps of Birmingham go to British History Online - Maps.