I visited a cheerful estate four miles from Wolverhampton city centre to see why residents call it 'the best place ever'
With a busy shopping precinct and plenty of indoor and outdoor fun for all the family it is easy to see why this West Midlands estate is so popular with it's residents.
Perton, a name derived from 'Pear Town' after local pear varieties, is a large estate and civil parish in South Staffordshire, three miles to the south of Codsall and four miles west of Wolverhampton city centre. Part of the estate also connects to the nearby estate of Tettenhall.
Old Perton lay on the slopes of Perton Ridge down to the Bridgnorth Road, and the manor passed from Edward the Confessor to Westminster Abbey before being granted to Lord William Perton in 1162.
The estate was sold in 1523 to James Leveson of Wolverhampton and later passed to Sir Richard Leveson, who was knighted for his services against the Spanish Armada and became Vice Admiral of England in 1604.
In 1662 Sir Walter Wrottesley purchased Perton manor from Richard Sackville, 5th Earl of Dorset, and it remained with the Wrottesley family until its sale in the 1960s. The Wrottesley Arms pub is named after the family.
During the twentieth century Fern Fields, south west of the current estate, served as a First World War relief landing ground, and later became RAF Perton in the Second World War. Dutch forces were trained there, but the site was eventually abandoned in 1947 before being used for refugee housing until 1962.
