Penn, West Midlands

In fact, the name Penn suggests (but does not prove) that there was a pre-Anglo-Saxon settlement, with possible survival of Celtic language and culture locally into the Anglo-Saxon period.

The Penn area, along with a wide tract of Mercia, was assigned by William the Conqueror to Ansculf de Picquigny, who built a motte and bailey fortress at Dudley.

By 1087, the time of Domesday Book, the Penn area belonged to Ansculf's son, William Fitz-Ansculf.

He had installed in Upper Penn a tenant called Robert, who also held lands from him in Bushbury, Ettingshall, Moseley and Oxley.

The provision of a sizeable church suggests that Upper Penn, at least, had expanded considerably by this time, in line with a general growth of population and prosperity that began in the late 12th century.

Hugh gave all the tithes from Upper Penn to the support of the church, making the holder of the living a Rector.

As this match fell within the bounds of consanguinity he was forced to bribe the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield with the living of Penn.

This did not stop the Bushbury family trying to reassert their control in later generations, although the bishops ultimately managed to retain their authority over appointments.

Some of the original fabric survives, but the present, mainly brick, building is largely the result of major restorations and enlargements in 1765, 1799 and 1845.

The rest belongs to the following resident freeholders, JW Sparrow, Esq, of Penn Hall; the Rev William Dalton, of Lloyd House; Robert Thacker, Esq, of Muchall Hall; Sidney Cartwright, Esq, of the Leasowes, and a few smaller owners.A large part of Penn has been absorbed progressively into Wolverhampton, which became a County Borough in 1930 and a Metropolitan borough in 1974, thus detaching much of Penn from the administrative county of Staffordshire.

This gradual expansion of the boundaries of Wolverhampton was accompanied by a rapid development of suburban housing, particularly from the Edwardian period, with many residents depending on the Sunbeam car works for employment.

Nowadays, the Parish of Penn contains part of suburban Wolverhampton and part of rural South Staffordshire, where the village of Lower Penn is situated about one mile (1.6 km) to the west, within South Staffordshire and containing the parish's other church, St Anne's.

Shortly after closure, the school buildings were demolished to make way for the present Penn Manor Medical Centre with housing built on the remaining site.

The Stags Head in Sedgley Road has been closed for several years and recently was the subject of a planning application for conversion to a six bedroom house.

It is overlooked from the east by St Bartholomew's church, descends to a hamlet centred on the old Lloyd's brewery, and rises again to the village of Gospel End.