Stourbridge

STOURBRIDGE, a market-town and chapelry, and the head of a union, in the parish of Old Swinford, Lower division of the hundred of Halfshire, Stourbridge and E. divisions of the county of Worcester, 21 miles (N. by E.) from Worcester, and 124 (N. W.) from London; containing 7481 inhabitants, and comprising 200 acres. This place was originally called Bedcote, a name which the manor still retains. It derives its present appellation from the erection of a bridge, about the time of Henry VI., across the small river Stour, which here separates the counties of Worcester and Stafford. The surrounding country abounds with coal and ironstone, and by a manuscript in the possession of the Lyttelton family, mines appear to have been worked in the district so early as the reign of Edward III.; the manufacture of glass was established here in 1557, about the period it was introduced into this country from Lorraine. The town consists chiefly of one long street, called the High-street, which is well flagged, macadamized, and lighted with gas; the lower part of the street is spacious, and contains some good houses. A subscription library was established in 1790, which has upwards of 3000 volumes, and of which Parkes, the self-taught and celebrated chymist, was the first president. Races are held on two days in the last week in August, during which, and for a short time previously, a theatre is open.

The principal branches of trade and manufacture are those of glass, iron, and fire-bricks. The first is carried on to a very great extent, there being twelve houses in the immediate neighbourhood, where the different varieties of flint, crown, bottle, and window glass are manufactured: there are also several cutting-mills. The flourishing state of this branch of manufacture is chiefly owing to the plentiful supply of fuel, and to the existence, near the town, of that superior species of clay used in making glass-house pots, crucibles, and firebricks, which is found here in large quantities, and furnishes a considerable article of export, by the name of "Stourbridge fire-clay:" the best lies at about 150 feet below the surface of the earth, in strata three or four feet thick, in the compass of about 200 acres near the town. Large quantities of fire-bricks are sent to London and other places. The manufacture of iron forms also a most important branch of the trade, and the manufactories are generally extensive, particularly that of Bradley and Co., which covers nearly four acres, and gives employment usually to more than 1000 hands, nearly every article in wrought or cast iron being manufactured. In the other factories are made the various articles of hammered iron, together with scythes, spades, anvils, and vices, plantation tools, chains, called gearing, &c. But the branch of the iron-trade which is carried on to the largest extent is nail-making, which, in the town and its vicinity, affords employment to many hundreds of men, women, and children.

The trading interests are greatly benefited by a canal which, running from the town to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal, connects it with the extensive line of inland navigation which spreads in various branches over the mining and manufacturing districts of the country, and also with the Severn; affording an opening for the transit of goods to all parts of the kingdom. An act was passed in 1845 for a railway from Oxford, by Stourbridge, to Wolverhampton. The market, granted in 1486 by Henry VII., is on Friday, and is well attended. The market-house was erected at an expense of about £15,000, and is a handsome brick building: the principal front, towards the High-street, is stuccoed, and of the Doric order of architecture; that portion of it not occupied by the entrance is disposed in shops. The fairs are on March 29th and September 8th, of which the former, continuing several days, is a celebrated horse-fair; the latter is for horses, hornedcattle, sheep, and pedlery. The powers of the county debt-court of Stourbridge, established in 1847, extend over the registration-district of Stourbridge: pettysessions take place on Wednesday and Friday.

St. Thomas's church here, erected in 1736, and enlarged and repaired at a cost of £2300 in 1837, is a neat brick edifice with a square tower, and has a very handsome interior, with a good organ: the incumbent is appointed by the inhabitant householders; net income, £134. There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, Wesleyans, Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics. The free grammar school was founded and endowed by letters-patent granted in 1553 by Edward VI., and has an endowment of about £460 per annum: Dr. Johnson received a part of his education in the establishment, but the report of his having been an unsuccessful candidate for the head mastership is void of truth. A national school was erected in 1815, and is maintained by subscription; a school was built in 1844, on a site given by James Foster, Esq., on the Enville road, and several other schools are supported. The poor-law union of Stourbridge comprises 14 parishes or places, containing a population of 47,948. In a sandy tract of ground westward of the town, numerous detached portions of jasper, porphyry, rock-salt, granite, chalcedony, agate, cornelian, and several varieties of marble, supposed to be diluvial remains, have been discovered.

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