Situated approximately four miles north east of Wolverhampton, Essington has quite a lengthy history despite its modern appearance.
The name has three elements derived from the Anglo-Saxon name of ‘Esne’ (probably someone high ranking), the word ‘inga’ which denotes possession and ‘tun’ meaning homestead or farmstead. So, Essington means ‘the homestead of Esne’s people’.
In the Domesday Book of 1086, Essington is recorded as ‘Eseningetone’.
The manor belonged to the William Fitz Ansculf, one of the middling landowners in the county, who also owned land around Penn and Sedgley.
The manor (valued at 20 shillings) was large enough to support six ploughs, 15 villeins (tenants who held land in return for their labour), two bordars (smallholders who had brought land into cultivation on the edges of the village) and two serfs.
Records from the Middle Ages show several moated sites at Essington; Moat House (now a water-filled earthwork), Hollies moat (filled in 1896), Essington Hall Farm and Prestwood.
At the time of the Hearth Tax of 1666 the Village registered 64 households, with 35 being liable for the tax, the largest house, with seven hearths, belonged to Mrs Jane Beardmore. The remaining households were deemed too poor to pay the tax.
The present parish church was built in 1933 and is dedicated to St John. The brick is pale in colour and the design was by Wood and Kendrick.
Prior to this, there was an iron church, which was a chapel of ease to St Mary’s, Bushbury.
Before the iron church was built, services were conducted in the National School, which was licensed for the purpose.
A Wesleyan chapel was built in the village in 1883, replacing the earlier 1834 chapel.
The main industry in Essington, dating back too 17th century, was coal mining.
These mines were listed as being exhausted early in the 19th century, however, coal mining continued well in the late 19th century.
Hilton Main Colliery, which opened in 1924, was the last to close in the area.
The area’s soil is comprised of clay, which led to the creation of a local brick and tile making industry.
Essington also has the remains of the only roundhouse windmill in Staffordshire, built in 1681.
A transport network developed to support the coal mining industry – the Wyrley and Essington Canal was built in 1797 to transport the coal from Great Wyrley, Willenhall and Bloxwich and to help open Cannock Chase coalfield.
There were two later branches, the Daw End Branch and the Lord Hay’s Branch, which ceased trading in 1954.
The canal was supplemented by railway construction in the 19th century with a railway connecting the Essington pits with the Lord Hay’s Branch Canal.
In the 1860s the construction of a railway to connect Holly Bank and Essington Collieries with the Wyrley Bank Branch Canal improved communications further.
Later, with the opening of Hilton Main Colliery, the LNWR put into effect a scheme to build a line between Holly Bank and Blackhalve.
This enabled the colliery to build its local line to join it.
Schools were opened in Essington in 1846, enlarged in 1872, 1888 and again in 1902 and in 1912 for infants only.
