Seisdon

Seisdon is a rural village in the parish of Trysull and Seisdon, Staffordshire approximately six miles west of Wolverhampton and the name of one of the five hundreds of Staffordshire. The population recorded at the 2011 census does not distinguish this hamlet from the rest of the parish, which had a population of 1,150. The name appears to mean "hill of the Saxons", deriving from the Anglo-Saxon words Seis meaning Saxon and Dun meaning hill. The first element may alternatively be a personal name. Seisdon is a hamlet within the parish of Trysull and Seisdon (formerly named Trysull, only), lying one mile north-west of the village of Trysull, near the border with Shropshire. There is a narrow bridge of several arches over the river Smestow, which is of 18th century origin. On the county boundary there is a high position which formed an ancient entrenchment named Abbot's Wood (Apewood) Castle. Seisdon Hall is a grade II Listed Building dating from the 17th century and greatly extended around 1840-1850 by the Aston-Pudset family. Previously known as Green Farm. The hamlet is remarkable for giving the name to the Hundred, for which no adequate authority can now be adduced. However, a large number of Hundred names refer to hills or mounds. It seems likely that such sites were chosen as being' remote, and where interference was most easily avoided. Placename evidence suggests a fairly early Anglo-Saxon origin for the name. Certainly the village of Seisdon was of sufficient importance prior to the Norman Conquest to have its owners and value recorded in the Domesday Book. Having been held by four English free men before the conquest, it came into the hands of William Fitz-Ansculf who held 600 acres in Seisdon and also land in Trysull and other parts of the parish. Almost all of its residents were originally employed in the agricultural industry. Seisdon Hundred Each hundred was formed to support a military unit. Seisdon Hundred contains the smallest area of the five hundreds of Staffordshire, but it has a relatively high population density and agricultural productivity.