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Walsall (St. Matthew)

WALSALL (St. Matthew), a parish, and the head of a union, in the S. division of the hundred of Offlow and of the county of Stafford; comprising the market-town and newly-enfranchised borough of Walsall, 18 miles (S. E. by S.) from Stafford, and 118 (N. W.) from London; and containing 20,852 inhabitants, of whom 7395 are in the township of the old borough, and 13,457 in that of Walsall-Foreign, into which numerous streets of the town extend. This place is supposed to have derived its name, in various ancient records written Whaleshall and Walshule, from its situation in or near an extensive forest, resorted to by the Druids for the celebration of their religious rites, and in which the Saxons subsequently erected a temple to their god Woden, from which the appellation of the town of Wednesbury, in the vicinity, is deduced. In the early part of the 10th century, Walsall was fortified by Ethelfleda, daughter of Alfred the Great, and Countess of Mercia, probably about the same time that she built a castle at Stafford. At the Conquest, it was retained by William, and continued to be a royal demesne for nearly 20 years, till given by that king to Robert, son of Asculfus, who had accompanied him to Britain. In the time of Henry III. it was held in fee-farm by William Rufus, and subsequently was owned by the Earl of Warwick, the "Kingmaker." Henry VII. and Henry VIII. afterwards possessed it, and the latter granted it to John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, on whose execution the manor was conferred by Mary upon the Wilbrahams, from whom it descended to the family of the present owner the Earl of Bradford. Walsall is not connected with any events of historical interest: Queen Elizabeth, in one of her tours through the country, visited it, and affixed the royal seal and signature at Walshale, on the 13th of July, in the 28th year of her reign, to a deed now preserved in the corporation archives, containing a grant of certain lands to the town. In 1643, Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I., remained here for a short time previously to joining the king at Edge-Hill; and Charles II., on his road from Boscobel to the coast, found an asylum at Bently Hall, about a mile distant.

The town is situated on the summit and acclivities of a limestone rock, and is watered by a small brook called by Erdeswick "Walsal water," which falls into the river Tame a little below the town. It contains several regular and spacious streets, in some of which are handsome houses of modern erection, many of them of a superior description. The environs are interesting, and contain some pleasant villas, and much beautiful and varied scenery. The town is well paved, and lighted with gas under the superintendence of the corporation, and is amply supplied with water. A subscription library was established in 1800; and a handsome edifice containing reading and news rooms, ornamented with a Doric colonnade 30 feet high, has been erected. The principal hotel, a very spacious building, has been beautified at a considerable expense, and is adorned with a fine portico formed of pillars that once belonged to Fisherwick, the noble mansion of Lord Donegal.

The chief articles of trade and manufacture are bridlebits, stirrups, spurs, saddle-trees, and every kind of saddlers' ironmongery; buckles, snuffers, spoons, and various other sorts of hardware; coach harness and furniture, plated ware, locks, chain-curbs, dog-chains, and other articles, some of which are brought into the town and sold by factors. Many mercantile houses have been established here, having an extensive business with America and other countries; and a considerable hometrade is of course carried on. A manufactory for Herbert's patent progressive corn-mills has been erected within four miles of the town, where one of these mills is in operation. There are several brass and iron foundries, of which the iron-foundry at Goscote is the most important, as well as the oldest, in the district; steamengines of every power, cylinders, and cannon, besides the various smaller articles of cast-iron, are founded here upon the most improved principles. A good trade is carried on in malt: in the vicinity are large limestonequarries; and some extensive mines of coal and ironstone, with both which the neighbourhood abounds, have lately been opened at the Birchills and near Bloxwich, causing the population to increase rapidly. The situation of the town, in the north-eastern part of a large mining and manufacturing district, gives it many advantages. A branch of the Old Birmingham canal, which comes up to the west end of the town, and the Wyrley and Essington canal, which passes within a mile north of it, now united, afford every facility of inland navigation; and about a mile distant, is the Walsall station of the Liverpool and Birmingham railway. In 1846 an act was passed for a railway from this station to Lichfield and Wichnor, 16¾ miles long. The market is on Tuesday and Saturday. Fairs are held on February 24th; Whit-Tuesday, a pleasure-fair; and the Tuesday before Michaelmas-day, chiefly for horses, cattle, and cheese.

The inhabitants enjoy several immunities by prescription. Henry I. bestowed upon them exemption from toll throughout England, and from serving upon juries out of the limits of the "borough and foreign;" and the guilds of St. John the Baptist, and of Our Lady, appear to have been ancient establishments, exercising various rights and privileges. The earliest existing charter of incorporation was granted in the 3rd of Charles I., and confirmed by Charles II. in the 13th of his reign. The government is now vested in a mayor, six aldermen, and 18 councillors, under the act 5th and 6th of William IV., cap. 76; the borough is divided into three wards, and the number of magistrates is nine. By the act 2nd of William IV., cap. 45, Walsall was constituted a parliamentary borough, with the privilege of returning one member: the right of election is in the £ 10 householders of the whole parish, with the exception of a small detached part: the mayor is returning officer. The recorder holds quarterly courts of session for all offences not capital; and the lord of the manor has an annual court leet, at which constables and other officers are appointed: the powers of the county debtcourt of Walsall, established in 1847, extend over the registration-district of Walsall. The town-hall is a handsome and rather ancient edifice, well adapted to its purpose. The common gaol, until lately a very small building, has been enlarged. The parish comprises about 7800 acres, of which about two-fifths are arable, and the remainder meadow and pasture.

The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £10. 19. 7.; patron, the Earl of Bradford, who, with Col. Walhouse, is impropriator. The great tithes have been commuted for £445, and the small for £299: the vicar has a glebe of 33 acres. The church, an ancient and spacious cruciform structure, with several chapels in the aisles, was, with the exception of the tower and chancel, which latter has undergone several alterations, taken down and rebuilt in the later English style, in 1821, at an expense of £20,000. It occupies a commanding situation on the summit of the rock on which the town is built; and the tower, which is in fine proportion, and surmounted by a lofty spire, forms a conspicuous object in the distant view of Walsall. St. Paul's chapel, a handsome edifice in the Grecian style, was erected by the governors of the grammar school, who, having sold some mines under part of the land belonging to that establishment, in 1797, obtained an act of parliament for applying part of the purchase money to the erection of the chapel, which was completed in 1826. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the governors, who appoint the head master of the school to the office of minister; net income, £50. St. Peter's district church, erected in 1840, at the end of Stafford-street, on a site given by Lord Hatherton, is in the early English style, and contains 1141 sittings, of which 700 are free; of the cost, £3500, the Earl of Bradford contributed £1000. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Walsall, and is endowed with the interest of £2000, with a glebe-house. There are places of worship for Independents, Wesleyans, and Unitarians, and two Roman Catholic chapels, one of which is a handsome Grecian building.

The free grammar school, in Park-street, was established in 1557, by Queen Mary, who endowed it with land belonging to the guilds and chantries that had existed here previously to the Dissolution, and placed it under the control of certain governors, whom she incorporated. The income is about £780 per annum; and the premises, built a few years since, are substantial and commodious. Bishop Hough received the rudiments of his education in the establishment. An English school is maintained from the same funds, in the old school buildings in the churchyard. The Blue-coat charity school, which was endowed with £14 a year, has been incorporated with a national school: a national school attached to St. Peter's Church, erected at a cost of £600, was opened in 1840; and there is another at Walsall-Wood, partly supported by an annual grant of £35 from the governors of the grammar school. Some almshouses, founded by John Harper in the reign of James I., and endowed with land producing £40 per annum, were rebuilt in 1790 by the Rev. Mr. Rutter, then vicar, for the reception of six aged widows, among whom £10 per quarter are divided. Almshouses were erected and endowed in 1825, for eleven aged widows; to which purpose a dole of one penny, paid by the corporation to every person in the parishes of Walsall and Rushall, on the eve of the Epiphany, was appropriated. In the reign of Henry VI., Thomas Mollesley gave the corporation a manor and estates in the county of Warwick, which now constitute part of their extensive possessions. There are also numerous charitable bequests for apprenticing children, and for distribution among the indigent. The poor-law union of Walsall comprises 8 parishes or places, and contains a population of 34,274. Near the town is a powerful chalybeate spring called Alum Well, on the site of the ancient manor-house, of which the moat still remains.


Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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