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Penkridge
Penkridge  Penkridge shown within Staffordshire
Population	7,000
OS grid reference	SJ922141
District	South Staffordshire
Shire county	Staffordshire
Region	West Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	STAFFORD
Postcode district	ST19
Dialling code	01785
Police	Staffordshire
Fire	Staffordshire
Ambulance	West Midlands
EU Parliament	West Midlands
UK Parliament	Stafford
List of places: UK • England • Staffordshire

Penkridge

Penkridge is situated in the district of South Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire. It is located between Stafford which is five miles to the north and Wolverhampton, approximately ten miles to the south, and lies on the River Penk. For many years it was commonly thought that the town derived its name from the river, but archaeological research^[1] indicates that the opposite is likely the case.

The popular etymology of the town's name derives it from the River Penk, which flows through it. It was assumed that since the town could be said to stand on a ridge by the Penk, it must derive its name from the river. However, this is to reverse the true derivation. The name of the town, or something like it, is attested many centuries before that of the river. The name "Penk" is actually a back-formation^[2] from the name of the town.

The occupying Romans gave their fort in the area the Latin form Pennocrucium^[3]. Cameron argues that this, like similar Latinized Celtic names, was passed by the native British directly, orally in its Celtic form, to the later Anglo-Saxon occupiers--not through the medium of Latin^[4]. Thus the name Pennocrucium attests the origins of the name Penkridge, but is not its direct origin. In the indigenous Celtic, the name of the village was almost certainly penn-crug, meaning "the head (or end) of the ridge", or "chief hill or mound", and pronounced roughly penkrik. "Penkridge" is actually much closer in pronunciation to its Celtic roots than to the Latinized form.

The name might reflect the town's location at the terminus of the long ridge of land running along the east side of the river. However, this ridge is not actually very prominent and few visitors would perceive Penkridge as a hill town. Modern toponymists have become convinced that the hill in question was more likely a tumulus--prominent in pre-Roman and Roman times, and perhaps much later. Brewer comments that "none is evident in the locality".^[5] However, Margaret Gelling, predisposed to find direct evidence for toponyms in the local landscape, has proposed a precise location for the mound, now destroyed by ploughing, that gave both the town and, ultimately, the river their names.^[6]. This was a tumulus at Rowley Hill Farm, Ordnance Survey reference GR90251180, approximately 52°42′18″N 2°08′46″W / 52.705°N 2.146°W / 52.705; -2.146, which was still prominent in the 18th century and still discernible in the early 20th. It would have directly overlooked the outlying Roman camp, across the Penk and just north of Pennocrucium on Watling Street, the remains of which are clearly visible in satellite photographs. Certainly, it makes more sense to look for the hill in question in the immediate vicinity of the ancient settlement than that of the modern town, which is well to the north of it. The Rowley Hill tumulus is well-documented, and was clearly an extremely important landmark for several millennia.

Early human occupation of the immediate area around Penkridge has been confirmed by the presence of a Bronze or Iron Age barrow at nearby Rowley Hill^[7]. A significant settlement in this vicinity has existed since pre-Roman times, with its original location being at the intersection of the River Penk and what became the Roman military road known as Watling Street (today's A5 trunk road). This would place it between Water Eaton and Gailey, about 2.25 miles SSW of the modern town.

The town of Penkridge in its current location dates back at least to the early Middle Ages, when the area was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, and it held an important place in local society, trade, and religious observance. In very early times of Anglian settlement the inhabitants of the district were known as the Pencersæte (dwellers by the river Penk). Queen Elizabeth the First is noted to have passed through the town in 1575.^[8]

A local legend claims that King Edgar made Penkridge his capital for three years whilst he was reconquering the Danelaw. However most historical sources see the reign of Edgar as an uneventful one and there is no record of any internal strife between English and Danes during his reign, making this claim doubtful.^[9]

In later times, Penkridge's location put it near the centre of Cuttlestone Hundred,^[10] and it was known as the site of an annual horsefair as late as the eighteenth century.

Penkridge's historic local market has been revived and is held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The substantial tower of the Grade I listed Church of St. Michael and All Angels on the western edge of town, parts of which date back to the early thirteenth century, is visible even to passing road and rail travelers. A smaller Methodist church is located on the main A449 route through the town, and there are numerous buildings dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Penkridge has its own historic stocks and cells still to be seen in the town centre.

The town has several pubs, and there are also numerous sports clubs in Penkridge including well-respected cricket, football, rugby union and tennis clubs. Every November for one night the town centre is turned into a Victorian Christmas Market.

Penkridge lies on the A449 and is mid-way between junctions 12 and 13 of the M6 motorway. It is served by National Express long-distance coaches, and also by local buses provided by Arriva. It has a railway station on the West Coast Main Line, and can also be accessed by the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.

Penkridge has three First Schools (Marshbrook, St Michael's and Princefield), one middle school (Penkridge Middle School) and one high school (Wolgarston, recently granted Specialist Technology College status). The High School has its own swimming pool and the council-run leisure centre is on the same site. Villages and hamlets on the outskirts of Penkridge also use the Middle and High schools.