Bilsæte

The Bilsæte ("dwellers of the ridge") were a tribe or clan in Anglo-Saxon England living in an area surrounding a small ridge now occupied by the modern settlement of Bilston in the West Midlands of England.

A grant of land from King Aethelred bestowing Wolverhampton on Lady Wulfrun in 985 named the settlement as Bilsatena,^[1] and a later Anglo-Saxon charter of 996 calls the settlement Bilsetnatun.^[2] These names confirm the etymology (dwelling (tun) of the people (saetna) of the ridge (bil),^[3] and disproves the alternative and better known etymology for Bilston (Billestun).