History
The name 'Whitmore' is said by topynmists to come from the Old English 'hwit' (white) and 'mor' (moor - which was used to describe a marshy area) - possibly a foggy area of marsh land, and 'Reans' is said to possibly mean a type of furrow created during ploughing, designed to drain the land. Another name used for the nearby area that West Park now stands on was the 'Hungry Leas' - hungry being used to describe land which was little or no use for agriculture.
The 1842 Tithe map shows only Whitmore End House in the area. This was soon to change - Wolverhampton's population was rising rapidly in the mid-1800s - and so a 'new town' would be built to the north west of Wolverhampton. It was originally to be called 'New Hampton', as is known today from the street names New Hampton Roads east and west, but Whitmore Reans was commonly used and stuck.
The terraced housing that makes up the Whitmore Reans residential area was built alongside roads, cartways and tracks that radiated out from the town centre servicing fields that spread out towards Dunstall and Tettenhall. New Hampton Road (known then as Whitmore End Lane), Molineux Alley & what is now Staveley Road / Dunstall Road, as well as Waterloo Road (then called Wellington Road) were the routes through the fields that houses would be built alongside & between.
Focal points in the Whitmore Reans area were Leicester Square, with its shops and circular iron gentleman's urinal, known under various names such as the 'Pepper Pot' and the 'Green Man', and the area of shops on New Hampton Road West, known to locals as 'West Market'.
In 1924, the Courtaulds Company started constructing a factory on the former site of Dunstall Hall. Operating from 1926 onwards, the factory produced rayon yarn. Known to many generations and a visible landmark in Whitmore Reans and beyond for almost fifty years were the Courtaulds chimneys, known as the 'three sisters'. They were demolished in June 1973. The Farndale housing estate now stands on the former Courtaulds grounds.
Read more about this topic: Whitmore Reans
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