In the early twentieth century Albert A. Birchenough wrote the following about Wheaton Aston.
At the dawn of the nineteenth century, and until the coming of the Primitive Methodists, the inhabitants of Wheaton Aston were steeped in ignorance and vice. Drunken-ness, immorality, and brutality prevailed to an alarming degree. The people were fond of practical joking, which caused great personal annoyance; such as the removal of farmers’ cattle or pigs, and driving them in the silence of the night to a field or lane some four or six miles away; the stripping of little children and hiding their clothes behind a hedge, and allowing them to go home clad in the original suit in which they were born. Rustic hooliganism prevailed to such an extent that young people, and especially unprotected females were afraid to venture out in the village streets after dark. It was the rendezvous of a gang of village robbers ,who, during the darkness of the night plundered the solitary farms for miles around, and brought home their spoils of stolen cheeses, hams, sides of bacon, and other commodities in a cart with muffled wheels. On the Sabbath hundreds of miners came from the Cannock coalfield and spent the hours of the sacred day in indulging in cock-fighting, bull, bear, and badger baiting, and other brutal sports on the village green, in which the inhabitants also greatly delighted. In those so-called “good old times,” prior to the early closing movement, the village public-houses were kept open all through the hours of the night. Drinking, fighting, and lewdness turned the place into a noisy pandemonium, and even the village constables were afraid to interfere with the rioters. These vicious pastimes, along with the general wickedness of the villagers secured for the place a bad name, and for miles around it was generally known as “wicked” Aston.
Extracted from a transcription of an article in the Christian Messenger by Albert A. Birchenough written up to 100 years after the events he describes.
Wether or not this description was accurate, it is not known, but the village was known as Wicked Aston.
You can find out how the primitive methodists “saved” the village here.