And Bell End turned out to be a name that tied Rowley Regis to its medieval roots. While the local council suggested the name came from a local mine, a Bell End resident born in 1919 supplied another reason, sent via her daughter’s Facebook account. One of King John’s lodges at the end of the road, she wrote, had a bell-shaped knocker on the door. So: Bell End. King John, signer of the Magna Carta, began his reign in 1199, more than eight hundred years before I spoke with Linda. “The buildings are gone,” she told me, “but the names will stay forever.”
