London

Tower of London Fullwood Rents Grays Inn St Andrews Church Holborn

Warwickshire

Tanworth-in-Arden Wilmcote Aston Cantlow

Staffordshire

Sedgley Bilston Coseley

Places 1

Locations associated with Fullwood families

Click on thumbnail photo to enlarge

Formerly Glebe farm now Mary Arden's House Wilmcote

The Grove Tettenhall Christmas Card by Arrowsmith

Fullwood Place [site of Fullwood's Rents]

Tower of London Richard Fulwood (believed to be Warwickshire born) assisted in the escape of John Gerard (a Jesuit priest) from Tower of London in 1597. This escape from the “Tower” is described in detail in John Gerard’s “The Autobiography of an Elizabethan” translated from his Latin manuscripts by Philip Caraman. This account was recently published in a Daily Telegraph magazine series in May 1999 called “2000 years of Christianity”. Richard Fulwood and John Lillie in 1597 helped John Gerard, a Jesuit priest, to escape from the Tower of London. The book describes in detail the two attempts to rescue him and avoid capture from the authorities. Richard Fullwood was an assistant to Father Henry Garnet. (Superior of the English Jesuits from 1587 to 1606). At the time of the Gunpowder Plot, Father Garnet and Brother Nicholas a Jesuit Lay Brother took refuge at Hindlip Hall in Worcestershire, where they were arrested soon afterwards. Nicholas (now Saint Nicholas Owen) was taken to the Tower of London and tortured severely to make him reveal the whereabouts of his hiding holes, but this he resolutely refused to do. He died in the Tower of London on 2 March 1606. Grays Inn & St. Andrew’s Church Sir George Fullwood, a barrister who travelled between his home at Middleton or Fullwood’s Castle in Derbyshire to Grays Inn within the district of Holborn London where he owned property called “Fulwood Rents” now sign posted “Fullwood’s Place within the confines of Grays Inn campus. Above are three views of St Andrew’s Church in Holborn Circus where several of Sir George’s children were baptised including Christopher Fullwood (barrister).

Solihull - Longdon Hall Forde Hall Stratford-upon-Avon

St. Mary Magdelen church Tanworth-in-Arden.

Tanworth-in-Arden Clay Hall formerly “Fulwood” near Tamworth in Arden was built within the Manor of Fullwood as the ancestral home of the FULWOOD family. The exact location of Clay Hall hasn’t as yet been determined but it is believed to be located to the north east of the Archer’s estate at Umberslade Hall. Unfortunately, by the late 16th century this property had been sold and Clay Hall completely demolished. In 1346 Robert Fulwood was Vicar of St. Mary Magdelen church Tanworth-in-Arden. The photographs above show the Church entrance and inside the church including a mediaeval brass plaque referencing Richard Fulwood and the FULLWOOD Coat of Arms. Richard had 10 daughters which is demonstrated in the figures of the plaque. Up till the latter part of Queen Elizabeth's I reign (until the 1580’s) Fullwood‘s had been prominent in the Tamworth-in-Arden community and was considered one of the top twenty families in Warwickshire. The Fulwode’s (Fullwood) continued to hold on to their Manor from the Mountforts (Montforts) of Beaudesert until the male heirs of this branch of the family failed. Their land then reverted back to the Earldom of Warwick, the overlords of the rest of Tamworth-in-Arden. Although the Tanworth-in-Arden branch of Fullwood’s had died out by the early 1600‘s, Fullwood’s continued to live in the Aston Cantlow, Little and Great Alne areas of Warwickshire and further afield in other counties. Aston Cantlow This village and the nearby hamlets of Little and Great Alne were areas where several Fullwood families lived. John Fullwood and Mary HILL married (1561) at Aston Cantlow church. But notably, it is believed John Shakespeare and Mary Arden the parents of William Shakespeare, were also married here at Aston Cantlow Church. Aston Cantlow’s medieval Guild Hall is shown here. Aston Cantlow was used as a HQ for parliamentarian forces in that part of Warwickshire during the English Civil War. Wilmcote - Mary Arden’s house For decades a black and white timber-framed farmhouse located in the village of Wilmcote, a hamlet near Stratford upon Avon in the parish of Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire, was until 2000, considered to be a property once owned by Robert Arden the father of Mary Arden who eventually became the mother of William Shakespeare. Because of a manuscript discovery in 2000, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust now know this farm house belonged to Adam Palmer in the 1570s and 1580s not Mary Arden’s family. As a result of this discovery the true location of the Arden homestead was identified as the neighbouring property and the name “Mary Arden's House” has now been transferred to what was known as a Victorian farmstead with the name of Glebe Farm. The photograph of Glebe Farm house shows a Victorian brick façade which is covering an Elizabethan timber framed building. Forde Hall – Aspley Manor This manor, granted to Roger de la Forde of Aspley in 1282, was part of Wootten Wawen Parish. In the late 16th century, Forde Hall at Aspley was inherited by John Fulwood b.1558 (junior) from his father John b.1538 and before him, from John b.1515 (senior) his grandfather. John Fulwood b.1515 (senior) acquired the Forde Hall estate which subsequently became part of Ullenhall Parish by marriage (c.1535) to Joan Heath, on the death of his father-in-law, Baldwin Heath. After John Fulwood’s (junior) death and with no male heir, Forde Hall passed to his daughter, Grace Fulwood. Grace Fullwood married Angel Gray at St. Martin’s in the Fields, Westminster, London in 1633. Longdon - Solihull Longdon Hall, Solihull, was John Fulwood’s (junior) second inherited estate through his marriage to Katherine Dabridgecourt of Solihull. Burman’s History of Warwickshire indicates on John’s (junior) death his sister Frances Fulwood, who had married William Noel, inherited Longdon Hall. Burman adds Longdon Hall subsequently descends to Lord Byron, poet, by his marriage to the daughter of Sir Ralph Millbanke Noel. Stratford-upon-Avon (The English Civil War) There is a reference made to a Thomas FULLWOOD of Little Alne in the book Conflict and Community in South Warwickshire, 1642-1646. He is listed as being a Parliamentarian. Little Alne is an adjacent village to Aston Cantlow which was a major HQ used by the parliamentarian forces in Warwickshire during the Civil War. There are individuals who married into the FULLWOOD family who are mentioned in this book, namely Maurice WALSINGHAM who married Jane FULLWOOD and Oliver WEIGHAM whose daughter Dorcas married Robert FULLWOOD in 1648 and they raised a family at Whittington in Staffordshire. Please note references from this book are listed here thanks to the kind permission of Philip Tennant the author of Civil War activities in Warwickshire.Robert FULLWOOD of Whittington (mentioned above) is the grandson of John FULLWOOD and Mary Hill who have an indirect family link to William Shakepeare’s family. See the Shakespeare Family Tree.

Tettenhall Wolverhampton

Fullwood’s have lived in and around the “Black Country” for at least 500 years and is an area in the West Midlands located between Birmingham in the south east and Wolverhampton in the north west. This area includes the towns of Sedgley, Bilston, Tipton, Dudley, Willenhall, Darlaston, Wednesbury, West Bromwich, Smethwick, Oldbury and Rowley Regis. Woodsetton It is an area of Sedgley parish lying in the shadow of Dudley Castle. The earliest known recorded Fullwood in Staffordshire is detailed in a document called “Families in the Archdeaconry of Stafford”. John Fullwood is shown in 1532/3 living at Woodsetton with his wife Margery and their children Henry, Christian, Elizabeth and Agnes. Sedgley One of the first names to be recorded in Sedgley’s parish register is a burial of Margaret Fullwood in AD 1539. Could this be the Margery mentioned above living in Woodsetton? For more information about the Ancient manor of Sedgley visit this very good web site: http://www.sedgleymanor.com/index.html Bilston & Coseley James Fullwood, my x3 great grandfather was born in May 1793 (probably in the Ladymoor area of Coseley in the parish of Sedgley) and he married Mary Treen in March 1832. Mary lived in Temple Street Bilston the location of the first Cholera epidemic in that area. James Fullwood caught the disease at some point between March 1832 and his subsequent death in August 1832. James was buried at Swan Bank Church, Bilston and in October 1832 Mary gave birth to my x2 great grandfather also named James. James subsequently moved to the Merridale and Chapel Ash area of Wolverhampton. Wolverhampton The first business premises purchased by James Treen Fullwood in 1908 for the Staffordshire Motor Tyre Repairing Co, was located in Queen Square Wolverhampton. On the left is an early drawing of the premises. The entrance to the business was located next door to where the old Queen’s Ballroom and Cinema stood. Here is a photograph taken circa 1901 of the Queen Square area. This building is now an office block. Tettenhall During World War II, it is believed a German bomber looking for the nearby aircraft factory of Boulton Paul, dropped a bomb by mistake on “the Grove” a large Victorian house on Wood Road Tettenhall. Harold Fullwood MD of Staffordshire Motor Tyre Company subsequently bought the house soon after the war and then set about rebuilding “the Grove” to its former glory. The restored “Grove” building which had a view over Henwood Road, Compton and Wolverhampton. Here is a winter scene of the Grove’s back garden. The “Grove” was sold in the seventies to developers Maythorn Construction who build a small executive home development called Maythorn Gardens.

Temple St Bilston -source of the 1832 Cholera epidemic

Staffs Tyre first business - Queens Sq Wolverhampton

Second business premises - Chapel Ash Wolverhampton

The Grove Tettenhall before and after a WW2 bomb

The Grove entrance

Aerial view

Christmas card by Arrowsmith

Chapel Ash premises of Staffordshire Tyre Co.

Queen’s Square Wolverhampton

Cholera epidemic Temple St Bilston 1832