Minworth was documented in the Domesday Book as Meneworde from the Old English Mynna's worth, 'Mynna's farmstead'. Although Mynna is not found recorded elsewhere as a personal name, it is believed to be such. Mynna would have been a member of the Tomsaete tribe, The Tomsaete or Tomsæte (dwellers of the Tame valley) were a tribe in Anglo-Saxon England living in the valley of the River Tame in the West Midlands of England from around 500 and remaining around Tamworth throughout the existence of the Kingdom of Mercia. The tribe was identified as Anglian Mercens who came from the north, following the Trent Valley, and eventually settling along the valleys of the Tame, not much is known about the Tomsaete. Minworth was a small and poor manor of only one hide, c50 hectares. At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, Turchel of Warwick held four hides of land at Curdworth, with one hide as Minworth, and down the centuries Minworth has had to play second fiddle to its near neighbour, Curdworth Minworth's proudest claim in mediaeval times was the possession of a water-mill, which stood on the River Tame to the south of the Water Orton road, about three-quarters of a mile from the village.
Minworth and Curdworth both originated in the 6th or 7th centuries, being established by Angle settlers, and are historically associated with the Arden family (William Shakespeare's maternal relations). Peddimore Hall is a double-moated farmstead and can be associated with the Ardens from 1298 until 1659. The present farmhouse can be dated to the 16th century.
Historical spelling variations
Meneworde 1086
Munnewrth c.1194
Monewurth 1230
Minnewurth 1232
Monneworth 1288
Munneworth(e) 1301
Mineworth 1316
Muneworth 1327,1332
Mynworth 1372
Munworth 1380
Mynneworth 1419
Mynworth 1583
Menworth c.1650
In 1783, with the building of the Birmingham to Fazeley Canal, Minworth was cut in two by this waterway, without any notable gain to itself. And almost a century later an event took place which was to leave an indelible mark upon the face of the village. In 1881 W.W. Bagot, a local landowner and a member of the family who once owned Pype Hayes Hall, sold 344 acres of land to the then Birmingham Tame and Rea Drainage Board, by which means sewage became Minworth's staple industry. The project was a success from the start at least. from the Board's point of view, if not the village's and in 1888, Mr Bagot sold a further 358 acres of Minworth land to the Board.
Minworth was originally a hamlet in the parish of Curdworth in the hundred of Hemlingford. Minworth then became a civil parish in the Castle Bromwich Rural District of Warwickshire from 1894 to 1912, then became part of the Meriden Rural District. In 1931 the parish was abolished, with the populated parts being split between Sutton Coldfield and Birmingham, and an area of unpopulated land going to Castle Bromwich parish.
If Minworth's role in the past has been a subservient one, there was at least one short period when it was on the fringe of history-making events. During the second world war, when they was the home of the biggest aircraft factory in Europe, Minworth had within its borders a storage depot with bangers so high that a pilot testing Spitfires habitually flew straight through them.
In 1967 Minworth suffered a great upheaval due to the need for laying a main outfall sewer to the nearby sewage works. This entailed massive ex-Com and tree-felling on the village green. Minworth people were very proud of this green heart to the village, which was all that remained of an eighth-century common, and through the local press they lamented their Fortunately, the village green still survives and the mellowing effect of the ensuing years has, in part, restored it to its former glory.
When excavations were undertaken for Minworth sewage works, evidence of the Pleistocene period was found here, including the fossilised bones of a mammoth which walked this way one million years ago.
Many years ago Minworth was annexed by Sutton Coldfield and was administered by the town's borough council until local government organisation in 1974. The relationship was not always harmonious. A council plan to bring new life into the village with more housing, shops and industry met with a cool reception. It became clear that many people lived in Minworth because they liked the village atmosphere and did not want to see any change.
Neither did they warm to the proposal for an 11-acre recreational development of the canal side in the form of a marina. It seems they preferred the canal to remain, as it had become since its usefulness had declined - a quiet retreat from the noise and speed of traffic along Kingsbury Road. To leave the road and descend by the steps from the hump-backed bridge to the path beside the canal is to leave behind the hustle and bustle of the modern age This is the quiet world of inland waterways: a world born to serve the needs of the Industrial Revolution, but where many people now find solace in cruising along the canal at three miles an hour, or just strolling along the path.