The Firs

The Firs was purchased from South Staffs District Council in the mid 1970's and named Codsall Conservative Club (renamed The Firs Private Members Club) was formed to provide a meeting place for like minded Tories.

To reflect the now diverse membership type, the name reverted to its original title, "The Firs".

Membership criteria no longer requires the prospective member to be a paid up member of the Conservative Party but it does require similar standards of behaviour.

The Club is open every day of the year but drinking hours are restricted to Monday - Friday evenings, weekends and public holidays. At Christmas Eve & New Years Eve the club also opens at lunchtime.

Inside the club, members and their guests can be comfortably seated in a well maintained atmosphere, tastefully decorated and can enjoy beers and wines of the highest quality.

There is always a wide range of guest ales available to tempt your pallet.

The Doomsday Book recorded that Codsall had a population of six people in 1086, slowly growing to 1500 by the turn of the 20th Century

Codsall now has a population of around 10,000. Present day Codsall consists of two parishes - Codsall, which includes the villages of Codsall Wood and Oaken and Bilbrook, which takes in Lane Green and part of Dam Mill.
The old village of Codsall is centred on the Church of St. Nicholas, at the top of the hill. Extensively restored in 1849 & funded partly from a levied rate and partly by private subscription in the same year that the Shrewsbury to Birmingham railway was built with the station at Codsall. The arrival of the railway led to a steady influx of people from Wolverhampton and the Black Country.

Although evidence exists of two moated sites, Wood Hall and Moor Hall, probably dating from the 13th century, the oldest building is the Church, which still has a Norman doorway, dating from possibly the 12th century. The church also includes part of the Chancel of a similar date; a tower built in the 14th century and some additions in the 15th century. It was substantially altered in the mid 19th century and further restoration work was carried out in the 1950s. A small number of farm and residential buildings date from the 16th century.

Until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1549, the main landowner was Croxden Abbey, situated some distance away on the Staffordshire/Derbyshire border. After that date the large landowner to the south of Codsall - the Wrottesley family - acquired a considerable part of the land. To the north west of Codsall is another extensive estate belonging to the Giffard family (whose ancestor accompanied William the Conqueror when he came to Britain from Normandy). The Giffard estate is still largely intact and lived in by the family, whereas the Wrottesley estate has been sold into different ownership while the remaining family live outside Britain. 

In the 1930s one significant industry was developed on the outskirts of Bilbrook - Boulton Paul, the aircraft manufacturer and maker of the Defiant fighter aeroplane. This required housing in Bilbrook for its workers and the building of Codsall's second railway 'station' - Birches Halt - to receive workers from Wolverhampton.