The first documented evidence of Cotteridge dates from the year 1317 when the Patent Rolls mention a Hugh de Cotteruge (Hugh of Cotteridge) who is likely to have taken his name from the area in which he lived. Cotteridge belonged to King’s Norton Manor, and documents from 1494 – 1504 mention Coteriche Gate, Coteriche Hall, Coteriche Lane and Corterich. It is probable that the name means Cotta’s Ridge, and indeed there is a clear ridge running up from Breedon Hill. Cotta could have been the name of an Anglo Saxon family who lived in the area over a thousand years ago. Other less likely explanations suggest that Cotteridge may have been where cottars lived – farm labourers who had a cottage.
Interestingly, Cotteridge contains rare evidence of the Celts who lived in the Birmingham area before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons. The Tithe Map of 1840-1 indicates a Breedon House owned by a John Lane Snow and now the site of Cotteridge Primary Schools. There was also a Breedon Cross Farm locally which was farmed by the Cheshire family in the 1870s. The word ‘bre’ is Celtic and means hill, whilst ‘don’ is an early English word also signifying hill. It seems likely that the early Anglian settlers of this neighbourhood heard the local British folk talking of the ‘bre’ and thought that this was the name of the hill. Thus Breedon Hill actually contains the word hill three times.
History is written in the names we give to places over successive generations. Celts, Romans and Anglo-Saxon people have left traces of their settlements which were named after their surroundings. Barr is a Celtic word for hill, so Perry Barr is Peartree Hill. The Romans gave us the name Streetly which reflects the Roman Ryknield (sometimes written Icknield) Street. The endings of many of our place names are Anglo Saxon: ham (like Birmingham) means home; ton (like Aston) means town and ley (like Yardley or Selly) mean clearing or fields. Many places named in the Anglo-Saxon period reflect the people who lived there: Erdington is Eerda’s town and Edgbaston is Exgbeald’s town for example. Other places reflect geography: Aston is East town, Sutton is South town and Norton is North town. Balsall Heath is named for the heathland that was once there; Bournbrook takes its name from the brook (stream) that formed the boundary between Warwickshire and Worcestershire; and Bromford relates to the crossing that fords the river Tame.
