Bilsæte

The Bilsæte ("dwellers of the ridge") were a tribe or clan in Anglo-Saxon England living in an area surrounding a small ridge now occupied by the modern settlement of Bilston in the West Midlands of England.

A grant of land from King Aethelred bestowing Wolverhampton on Lady Wulfrun in 985 named the settlement as Bilsatena,[1] and a later Anglo-Saxon charter of 996 calls the settlement Bilsetnatun.[2] These names confirm the etymology (dwelling (tun) of the people (saetna) of the ridge (bil),[3] and disproves the alternative and better known etymology for Bilston (Billestun).

References
  1. Charter S 860
  2. Charter S 1380
  3. Johnston, James B. (1915) The Place-Names of England and Wales. London: John Murray


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