B11 - Grid reference SP089836
The name comes from the Old English se' (abbreviated from seofon) weles meaning'seven wells' plus green meaning 'common grazing land'. The site is on a hill along Show
B11 - Grid reference SP089836
The name comes from the Old English se' (abbreviated from seofon) weles meaning'seven wells' plus green meaning 'common grazing land'. The site is on a hill along Showell Green Lane, and the placename now has little currency, the location being considered part of Sparkhill.
The word well did not have its modern sense of an artificially constructed hole from which to draw water. Rather it was used to mean a natural spring or perhaps a small stream. This name is surprisingly common across England, there being over 60 recorded examples in various forms. The number 7 occurs far more frequently than other numbers in placenames. It must have had a special significance for the Anglo-Saxons, and for other ancient cultures, though its significance is unknown. It has been suggested that it relates to what were the seven known members of the solar system which were believed to revolve around the earth: the Sun and the Moon, and the planets Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. From these were named the seven days of the week.
However, it is worth noting that other names have a similarity to ‘seven wells’ names, but are known to be unrelated. There are field and farm names of the Showell type which derive from are from Old English scofl meaning ‘shovel’. And some farm names of this type derive from personal names related to such modern surnames as Sewell.
Located near the junction of Belle Walk, Yardley Wood Road and Stoney Lane, Bull's Spring is mentioned in 972 in the Yardley Charter and is the source of Showell Green Brook. Now mostly culverted, this small stream runs alongside Sparkhill Park down to the River Cole. Small though it was, it was used to power Showell Green Mill in linen manufacture.
Showell Green lay in Yardley within the sub-manor of Greet whose medieval open fields lay between the Warwick and Stratford roads and the River Cole. Heyne (High) Field lay between Stoney Lane, Showell Green Lane and Stratford Road. It is not certain when the open fields here were enclosed, but the final enclosures in Yardley, of which Greet was a part, occurred during the 1840s, by which time time there was only a narrow strip of common land surviving at Showell G