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Cradley is a village in the Black Country and Metropolitan Borough of Dudley; near Halesowen and the banks of the river Stour. Colley Gate is the name of the short road in the centre of Cradley. It was part of the ancient parish of Halesowen, but (unlike much of the rest of that parish, which was an exclave of Shropshire) was always in Worcestershire, until the creation of the West Midlands County in 1974. This meant that for civil administrative purposes, Cradley formerly had the officers which a parish would have had. There are two villages named Cradley in the Midlands of England; the "other" Cradley lies about 30 miles to the southwest, near to the Malvern Hills in south Worcestershire, but just across the county boundary in Herefordshire. In the 19th century a new settlement grew up in heathland on the other side of the river, and became known as Cradley Heath. This was in the ancient parish of Rowley Regis. Previously the residents of Cradley had the right to graze their animals on that heath, subject to a small annual payment to the lord of the manor. ==History== Withgar, the last of the Saxons, was the last lord to live within the manor. His house, which was very likely on the site of the old "Farther Leys Barn" (Fatherless Barn) was no doubt a timber built structure like a barn, his family living at one end while his servants and ceorls occupied the other where they slept on straw. Cradley appears in the Domesday Book thus: :''CRADELEIE. Pagan holds it under William son of Ansculf. Withgar held it. There is one hide, no part in Demesne, 4 villagers and 11 smallholders with 7 ploughs. The value was 40 shillings; now 24 shillings.'' The manor of Cradley was bought and sold over the centuries, and also changed hands as a result of forfeiture and political favours. In 1473, following the forfeiture of it by James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond, it passed to the Crown, and King Edward IV gave the largest part of it to his Queen. She had built a chapel, dedicated to Erasmus, the Dutch humanist, adjoining the abbey church at Westminster, and endowed it with the manors of Cradley and Hagley, but the manor reverted to Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond, when the attainder was reversed by Henry VII. In 1564, the 7th Earl's grandson sold it, together with Oldswinford, Hagley and Clent, to Sir John Lyttleton of Frankley.〔'Halesowen: Introduction, borough and manors', ''Victoria County History, Worcester'': volume 3 (1913), pp. 136-146. () Date accessed: 18 October 2009〕〔'Parishes: Hagley', ''Victoria County History, Worcester'': volume 3 (1913), pp. 130-136. () Date accessed: 18 October 2009.〕 The boundary of Cradley, as re-surveyed in 1733, has remained virtually unchanged ever since. During the English Civil War, Parliamentary troops were quartered in Cradley. Renowned typeface designer William Caslon is believed to have been born in Cradley in 1693, although there are those who maintain that he was born in Halesowen. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cradley, West Midlands」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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