In the 12th-century, Fradley was called ‘Frodeleye’, or ‘Frod’s lea’ and was a small farming village for hundreds of years.
Some of the oldest houses in the village can be spotted by their thatched roofs.
There are not many farms left in the village any more, but there were at least 10 working farms, some growing crops in the field and some rearing animals. Old Hall Farm was built in the 1600’s and is one of the oldest houses in the village.
Many of the houses where the farm workers lived would have vegetables growing in the garden and animals kept there – may be chickens, pigs or sheep.
The nearest School and Church to Fradley was in Alrewas, the next village along, about 1-2 miles away.
In 1790, the canal was built through Fradley and Fradley Junction became a very busy place, creating lots of new jobs for people. It also connected Fradley to Alrewas, Streethay and Whittington.
As Fradley grew it needed to split from Alrewas, so in 1861, St. Stephens Church was built and in 1875, St. Stephens School was built. The original school has a quaint Victorian Schoolhouse, which was demolished in 2008 so the school could expand. There was a bakery and shops in the village, as well as pubs and it would have been a nice farming community.
In 1939, World War 2 started and building of an airfield or aerodrome, RAF Lichfield, was built on an area called ‘Fradley Common’.
In August 1940, the Royal Air Force moved in and started flying Hurricanes, Wellington bombers, Spitfires, Halifax and Anson planes from the airfield. Alongside British RAF personnel, there were also Australian, Canadian and Czech servicemen and women. The war ended in 1944, but the village had changed during this time.
The village lost many of it’s farms after the war and houses started to be built on the fields. Fradley village grew quite rapidly when Statfold Lane housing estate was built, followed by Bycars Farm estate.
The RAF left in 1958 and the whole site was sold in 1962. After this businesses moved into the hangars and construction of a lot of industrial buildings began in what is now called ‘Fradley Park’.
In 2000, a memorial to all who served at RAF Lichfield was constructed opposite St Stephen’s School. The neighbouring Church, has war graves of the Australian aircrew and one German Luftwaffe pilot who lost their lives.
Since 2000, the village was grown massively. Fradley South housing estate was built, followed by Sheasby Park , Fradley Manor and other smaller estates. These have taken over land that was once farmed and parts of RAF Lichfield.