The name Shelfield derives from the Anglo Saxon Skelfeld for sloping ground or field.

[2] [full citation needed] Shelfield is mentioned in the Domesday Book as containing a hide of waste belonging to the Manor of Walsall.

[3] Transliterating the Domesday Book Latin the entry reads: In Scelfeld est hida vasta pertinens eidem Manerio.

Although not having its own station nor halt, Shelfield had a small branch line from which left the Heath End sidings just south of Pelsall railway station, onto an embankment which passed over the Ford Brook and then the "Donkey Bridge" pathway followed by a cutting under two bridges, one on the Four Crosses Road and immediately followed by the Lichfield Road bridge and onto to the colliery fields at Walsall Wood.

The goods traffic to Leighswood Colliery ended in the 1930s but the branch line continued to serve Atlas Brickworks until the closure of the works in 1964.