The Unofficial Website
West Melton
Melton comes from the Old English Midleton, Norse Methaltun meaning the middle enclosure, farmstead or village. There is an old centre to the village with the usual housing estates all around. There are some very nice old properties along Melton High Street, many if them originally farms or farm buildings; some of them are still working farms. We walked along here one Sunday morning and if the Sunday morning traffic is anything to go by it must be hell on earth at busy times.
According to the Domesday book published in 1086 there were three estates listed among the 'lands of the King's Thanes'. Arnthorr the Priest held lands here and at Brampton with arable land for five plough teams before 1066. Under the Norman William The Conqueror he retained some of his land. Other Saxon tenants had also retained estates at West Melton whilst the King had kept some land in Brampton and West Melton for himself.
For many centuries life in West Melton and similar villages moved slowly along at the pace of the agricultural year. Then along came King Coal. The Ordnance Survey Map for 1851 shows collieries at West Melton and at Cortonwood and a number of smaller coal pits. The real development came in 1873 when the first shaft of Cortonwood Colliery was sunk. Housing for the miners was built and the population rapidly increased hence the new church built in 1855.
View of West Melton
Brampton Church
