OLD TOWNS BOOKS & MAPS


powered by FreeFind

     
     
XXX XXX
     
   
 
 
  PICTURES  
     
  ARTICLES  
     
   
     
  PURCHASING  
     
  GENEALOGISTS  
     
  CONTACT  
     
  PRIVACY  
     
  EBAY FEEDBACK  
     
     
     
     

 

 

MARKET TOWNS OF STAFFORDSHIRE (from SDUK Penny Cyclopedia)

Walsall in 1843

WALSALL, a parliamentary borough in the southern division of the hundred of Offlow, in the county of Stafford, 119 miles from the General Post-Office, London, by St. Albans, Dunstable, Towcester, Daventry, Coventry, and Bir mingham (from which last place it is about 8 miles distant) ; or by Birmingham railway to Birmingham, and from thence by Grand Junction railway to Bescot Bridge, half a mile from Walsall, 124 miles, travelled in about 6 hours.

The manor of Walsall anciently belonged to the crown, and the corporation claims to be by prescription. The place is not mentioned in ‘Domesday,’ nor is any historical interest. attached to it.

The borough and parish are co-extensive, and comprehend the two townships of the Borough and the Foreign :-

 

Houses in 1831

Pop. in 1831

Area in Acres

Inhabited

Uninhab.

Building

Total

Families

Persons

Borough township

100

1,269

87

5

1,361

1,306

6,401

Foreign township

7,820

1,616

100

12

1,728

1,654

8,665

TOTALS

7,920

2,885

187

17

3,089

2,960

15,066

A portion of the Foreign township is separated from the rest of the parish, and is insulated by other parishes.

The population in 1821 was 11,914, so that there was an increase in ten years of 3,152, or more than 25 per cent. Scarcely any part of the population of the parish is agricultural.

The town is in the southern part of the parish, in the Borough township, beyond the limits of which it extends in almost every direction : it consists of several streets irregularly laid out, paved, lighted with gas, and lined with an unusual proportion of good houses.

The parish church of St. Matthew is in the centre and highest part of the town : it was taken down in the earlier part of the present century, and rebuilt, excepting the tower and the chancel, which were allowed to remain ; the chancel has however undergone great alterations : the tower is of fine proportions, and is surmounted by a lofty spire, which, from its commanding situation, forms a conspicuous object. There are three other Episcopal churches or chapels in the parish : St. Paul’s, a handsome building of Grecian architecture, in the town, erected by the trustees of the grammar-school; a chapel at Walsall Wood, in the detached part of the parish ; and one at Bloxwich, a populous village above two miles north of the town. There are in the town several places of worship for Protestant dissenters, and two Catholic chapels, one of them a handsome Grecian edifice. There is a town-hall, an old respectable building, with the borough gaol, which is altogether insufficient, in the basement story. A handsome public library and news-room, with a Doric colonnade, has been erected, and there are commodious premises for the grammar. school.

Walsall is situated on the eastern border of the South Staffordshire coal-field, and of the Warwickshire and Staffordshire iron district, and partakes largely of that manufacture. In 1831, 1,200 men, besides women and children, were employed in making guns, gas-tubes, chains, locks, keys, spades, shovels, hinges, screws, files, edge-tools, buckles, stirrup-irons, bridle-bits, and machinery. There are brass and iron foundries ; and in the vicinity are coal-pits and free-stone quarries. Considerable trade in malt is carried on ; there are a weekly market (on Tuesday), and three yearly fairs. The manufacture of brass and iron goods is carried on in the outparts of the parish, and especially in the village of Bloxwich, as well as in the town. There is one banking establishment in the town.

Walsall appears to be a borough by prescription, but is of comparatively modern origin, and its franchises and immunities were originally of little importance. By the Reform Act it was empowered to return one member to parliament. The parliamentary borough does not include the detached portion of the municipal borough and parish. The number of voters in 1835-6 was 679 ; in 1839-40, 837 ; showing an increase in four years of 158. By the Municipal Reform Act the borough, retaining its original limits for municipal purposes, was divided into three wards, with six aldermen and eighteen councillors. It has a commission of the peace. There are quarter-sessions, petty sessions weekly, and a Court of Record for causes under £20.

The living of Walsall is a vicarage, of the clear yearly value of £368, with a glebe-house ; the perpetual curacies of St. Paul and Bloxwich are of the clear yearly value of £50 and £143 respectively ; Bloxwich has a glebe-house. The value of Walsall Wood is not given. All are in the rural deanery of Tamworth and Tutbury, the archdeaconry of Stafford, and the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry.

There were in the parish, in 1833, one infant-school with 35 boys and 35 girls ; twenty-one other day-schools, with 705 boys and 488 girls : making a total of 1,263 children, or about one in twelve of the population under daily instruction. One of the day-schools was an endowed grammar-school with 60 boys ; another an endowed English school with 84 boys ; two were national and blue-coat schools combined, with 194 boys and 139 girls ; and eight others were partly supported by endowment or subscription, and one by a grant from the grammar-school. Four day-schools were also Sunday-schools, with 298 boys and 242 girls ; besides which there were four other Sunday-schools, with 670 boys and 528 girls : making a total of 1,738 children under instruction on Sunday. There are some almshouses and several charitable bequests for the poor of the town. Races are held about Michaelmas, and assemblies at the race time and other times.