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

Welshmans Hill/ Welchmans Hill

B73 - Grid reference SP092948

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

It is likely that this name refers to the trade in cattle from Wales which is documented as early as the 13th century. From the 17th century the trade was a major factor in the Welsh economy with many thousands of cattle being brought for sale for fattening on the fertile pastures of the Midlands or for slaughter.

Some 18th-century drovers avoided turnpiked roads wherever possible as the tolls were a major expense on their journey. The alternatives, however, were often circuitous and longer. Drovers from North Wales would have used the Chester Road Turnpike set up in 1759. With the speed of travel as slow as 2 miles per hour, nightly stop-overs were made and would have had to be paid for. Welshmans Hill at New Oscott off the Chester Road North near Sutton Park may have been one such, before the cattle were driven into Birmingham the next day.

See also The Welsh End.

William Dargue 27.02.09

Google Maps - If you lose the original focus of the Google map, press function key F5 on your keyboard to refresh the screen. The map will then recentre on its original location.

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

Map below reproduced from Andrew Rowbottom’s website of Old Ordnance Survey maps Popular Edition, Birmingham 1921. See Acknowledgements. Click the map to link to that website.