F

FARMERS' FOLD,  City Centre

Edward Farmer was a baker who held property here in the middle of the 18th century.  The fold is named after him.

(Anthony Perry)

FELLOWS ROAD, Green Lanes

Named after Walter Fellows, a Mayor of Bilston and councillor for Ettingshall.  His grandfather was "Honest John" Fellows, also a councillor of Bilston.  His daughter became Alderman Annie Fellows.

(Tom Larkin)

FENN RISE, Willenhall

Just outside the city boundaries but well worth recording that the road takes its name from the family of Samuel Fenn (1817-1878) who owned Pool Hayes Colliery and Farm from the late 1860s until 1885.  Neighbouring Colliers Close, Acre Rise and The Hayes were likewise named for this former site, which stood where Pool Hayes School and Summer Hayes housing estates have now been built.  Pool Hayes farm itself was very old:  in July 1660 William Whittaker of Princes Street, Covent Garden, Middlesex, made a "discharge to Thomas Foley for the sale of wood from a farm called Pool Hayes in Wolverhampton". 

(Judith Glover)

FINCHFIELD HILL, LANE, ROAD, GARDENS, Finchfield

Finchfield seems to mean what it says: a field with finches.  This area was once in the parish of Tettenhall and the field boundaries on the old maps seem to me to show signs that this area was once one or more common fields.  That field or one of those fields would have been named after the finches observed there.  Originally this would have been a tiny settlement but it expanded a bit in the late 19th century with the appearance of some gentlemen's residences and some workers' cottages.  It eventually got a chapel of ease, St. Mary's on Oak Hill, but probably never got as big as that other Tettenhall outlier, Tettenhall Wood.  Most of the suburban development in the area came in the second half of the 20th century.  It was moved into Wolverhampton along with the rest of Tettenhall in 1966.

(Frank Sharman)

FOWLER STREET, Blakenhall

Henry Hartley Fowler was born May 16^th 1830, the son of the Rev. Joseph and Elizabeth Fowler. His father was a Wesleyan Minister and his mother was the sister of John Hartley, who became mayor in the 1850s.  Fowler trained as a solicitor and came to Wolverhampton as a partner to Charles Corser, his future wife’s brother in law. On 6^th October 1857 he married Ellen Thorneycroft, the daughter of George Benjamin Thorneycroft, who was Wolverhampton’s first mayor.

Fowler was elected to the Council as member for St Matthew’s Ward where he championed the cause of new sewerage and adequate drainage for the Town’s Streets. He later became mayor in 1862/3. He then stood for Parliament and was elected with a large majority. In the capacity of a Member of parliament he became, in the space of a few years, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and a Privy Councillor. He was instrumental in proposing the Wolverhampton Corporation Act of 1891 and became the first freeman of the Borough in the following year. For a short time he was appointed as Secretary of State for India, but the Liberals were then voted out of power.

During the next ten years of Liberal opposition he remained very active both inside and outside Parliament. In 1908 he was appointed Viscount Wolverhampton as the Right Honourable Sir Henry fowler GCSI. He died in 1911 aged 83. The family lived at Summerfield, West Park, and later at the Woodthorne, Wergs Road.

His daughter Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler 1860-1929 wrote many books about the local area and persons, slightly changing their names. She married Mr Alfred Felkin at Tettenhall in 1903.  

(Peter Hickman)

FREEMAN PLACE, Bilston

(George Philpot)

FRYERS STREET, FRYER STEET, City Centre

Alternatively named Cann Lane, this road bordered Fryer’s Yard and Brickiln in 1755. By 1822 it had been renamed Railway Street, leading down towards the Grand Junction Railway station at Heath Town. In 1871 the name Fryer Street was given for a new smaller road situated to the east of its first pathway, the present Fryer Street.  

(Peter Hickman)