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Warstone - any one know the origin?

leslam

leslam

Brummie by marriage
A colleague asked me an interesting question at work: "What is the origin of the name Warstone - as in Warstone Lane? There is also a Warstone Road/Lane in Wolverhampton"

Anyone out there know, because I was at a loss to know what to say!
 
Yes it's wonderful that the Warstone is still there. (It's probably a bit heavy to "half-inch", Lloyd!)

Bill Dargue's "A History of BIRMINGHAM Places & Placenames . . . from A to Y" website is quite excellent - an invaluable resource for local historians (the Birmingham History Forum appears on his "Top Ten Birmingham Websites" page!!). Warstone is first recorded in 1390 as Horestonfeld. It is fascinating that Harborne was Horeborne in Domesday Book (1086), thus containing the same first element and perhaps having a similar connotation of "boundary".
 
There are several 'Warstones' within the West Midlands....probably boundary stones, as suggested earlier. I recall that the one in West Bromwich (Warstone Road/Hall) might also be a corruption of West-ton ... the 'settlement in the West' etc....simply a parish demarcation (same thing?). However, if that were the case, we'd have North-ton, East-ton and souths-tons too....are there any? Some believe that 'Wassum' is another corruption (or original?) of the same. I once heard that war-stones were the local levying points in time of war - where the 'levy' would meet prior to joining up with the main army etc. Again, this is probably the same as a 'boundary' stone....a common sense rallying point.
 
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