LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following for permission to use material: Aerofilms Ltd.; the Birmingham Evening Mail; the British Broadcasting Corporation; Sir Hugh Chance; Dorothy Parkes's Charity; Archibald Kenrick & Sons Ltd.; the National Portrait Gallery; the Borough Librarian, Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell; the Staffordshire Record Office; the Director of Walsall Libraries and Museum Services; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford; and the Curator of Wolverhampton Art Gallery. Unattributed photographs dated 1972 and 1975 are by A. P. Baggs.

The maps of 1775 are from W. Yates, A Map of the County of Stafford (1775). The other maps were drawn by K. J. Wass of the Department of Geography, University College, London, from drafts prepared by M. W. Greenslade and D. A. Johnson; they are based on the Ordnance Survey with the sanction of the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office, Crown Copyright reserved, with the exception of the map of central Walsall in 1876 which is based on Robinson's Map of Walsall published with the Walsall Red Book, 1876. The plan of Walsall in 1679 is reproduced from the Isham (Lamport) MSS. in Northamptonshire Record Office (I.L. 3192). The other plans were drawn by A. P. Baggs. The plan of West Bromwich manor-house is based partly on drawings by J. A. Roberts, R.I.B.A. The plan of Sandwell Hall is based on a printed plan by T. Lightoler in Staffordshire Views, viii. 149, in the William Salt Library, Stafford. The plan of St. Matthew's Church, Walsall, is based partly on plans in the Lichfield Joint Record Office (B/C/5/1821, Walsall, and B/C/5/1877, Walsall). Thanks for permission to reproduce material are rendered to Sir Gyles Isham, Bt., Mr. Roberts, the Trustees of the William Salt Library, and the Diocesan Registrar.