ECONOMIC HISTORY.
Agriculture.
In 1086
the manor was 3 hides in extent and had land for 3
ploughs. There were 3 teams worked by 10 villeins
and 3 bordars and a fourth team in demesne. The
value, 40s., was the same as it had been in 1066. (fn. 40)
During the Middle Ages the farming pattern
was a mixture of open-field husbandry and farming
in severalty. Three cases brought against the lords
of the manor in 1293 suggest that by that date the
demesne arable had been inclosed for 50 years or
more and that others were following the lords'
example and inclosing parts of the open fields. (fn. 41)
Elsewhere in the parish the area of inclosed land was
gradually increased by assarting. In the late 13th
century lords and tenants reached a formal agreement on the payment of heriots for assarts and new
lands, in which a distinction was drawn between
those lands which had been built upon and those
which had not. (fn. 42) The process of assarting and inclosure continued, (fn. 43) and manorial ordinances of
1606 accept the possibility of inclosure of strips in
the open fields as a matter of course. (fn. 44)
The open fields in the parish lay around All Saints'
Church on the ridge east of the Hobnail valley. (fn. 45)
One, north-west of the church, was probably
bounded by what are now Walsall Road, Marsh
Lane, and Heath Lane. It occurs as Gnarpanell
field in 1516, (fn. 46) as variations of Knapeney Hill field
between at least 1526 and 1709, (fn. 47) and as Napney
field from at least 1686; (fn. 48) Lydiate field occurs as an
alternative name in 1610 and 1709 and Walsall
Lane field in the 1780s. (fn. 49) Another field lay north
and north-east of the church. If the small areas
known in the early 19th century as Middle field and
Tenter House field originally formed part of it, it
was probably bounded by the present Walsall
Road, Charlemont Road to about Bird End, and, in
the south, by the upper end of Water Lane, Newton
Road, and Heath Lane. Its original name seems to
have been Wigmore field, and it occurs as such
between at least 1348 and 1709. (fn. 50) The name Church
field occurs from 1531. (fn. 51) At first it may have been
used for only part of Wigmore field: the mention in
1641 of an acre of arable lying in two fields called
Church and Wigmore fields (fn. 52) suggests a division
of the original Wigmore field. Church field was
given as an alternative name for Wigmore field in
1709 (fn. 53) and by the earlier 19th century was the name
of what remained of the field. An open field in the
Wigmore area known as the 'heyefeld' occurs in the
14th and 15th centuries; (fn. 54) it may have been Wigmore field under another name. Another field lay
between the church and Lyndon; it included the
triangle of land between the present Church Vale
and Tenscore Street and extended a little to the
east and west of those two roads. From at least the
earlier 17th century it was called Lyndon field. (fn. 55) The
south-eastern portion of the field was known as Stye
Croft from at least 1531, (fn. 56) and its northern end
Windmill field or Little Church field by the 1780s. (fn. 57)
Open-field husbandry appears to have continued
in some form until 1804 when under an Act of 1801
the remaining fragments of the three fields were
inclosed. Of the 387 a. inclosed by the Act only
some 111 were described in the award as being
part of the open fields, and those were scattered
among areas of piecemeal inclosure. (fn. 58) The tenants'
obligation to maintain gates and field hedges had
been enforced until at least the early 18th century, (fn. 59)
and overseers of the field hedges were regularly appointed in the manor court until 1804. (fn. 60) By the later
18th century, however, their duties may have become more formal as tenants continued to throw
together and inclose acres in the fields. (fn. 61)
Three-course rotation was used in the parish by
the late 13th century, (fn. 62) and farming in the open
fields during the Middle Ages probably followed
the course recorded several times in the 17th century: winter-sown rye, spring-sown oats, and fallow. (fn. 63) In at least the late 16th and early 17th centuries, however, wheat and barley were also being
grown in the open fields, though in smaller quantities than rye and oats. (fn. 64) Other crops included
dredge, (fn. 65) hemp and flax, (fn. 66) and a mixture of oats
and peas. (fn. 67) Cottages with 'hemplecks' (small pieces
of ground for growing hemp or flax) are found in
surveys of 1630 and 1695, (fn. 68) and flax was grown in
the parish until at least the later 18th century.
Bustleholm mill was worked as an oil-mill between
at least 1732 and 1758, (fn. 69) presumably producing linseed oil, and there was a flax-oven near West
Bromwich Hall in the 1770s. (fn. 70) When Arthur Young
visited the parish in 1776 he found both three-course
and four-course rotation being employed. (fn. 71) In the
former case the sequence was fallow, wheat, and barley or oats; in the latter it was turnips, barley, clover
and rye-grass, and oats or wheat. For turnips lime
was applied at the rate of 8 or 10 quarters an acre.
Large quantities of potatoes had been planted in
previous years; but there had been a glut of them in
1775, and fewer were being grown in 1776. Some
farms were being let at from 15s. to 25s. an acre.
Pasture in the fields, in the meadows by the Tame,
and on the waste was an important feature of the
agricultural economy of the parish. In 1291 pasture
and the sale of grazing rights (or perhaps of hay)
accounted for almost half the value of the small
Halesowen abbey estate, and a case of 1293 in
which the abbot unsuccessfully claimed common of
pasture for 600 sheep (fn. 72) may give some indication
of the scale of live-stock farming in West Bromwich.
At the end of the 15th century the abbey was drawing £6 13s. 4d. a year from pastures in Bromwich
park. (fn. 73) Meadow, pasture, heath, and commoning
rights feature prominently in a number of 16thcentury land transactions. (fn. 74) Flocks of between 30
and 60 sheep were not uncommon in the late 16th
and early 17th centuries; (fn. 75) no really large flocks
have been found. Pasture was stinted by the early
17th century. Manorial ordinances of 1606 allowed
one beast or five sheep for each acre in the fields
and laid down that any tenant who inclosed land in
the fields was to lose his pasture rights in them. (fn. 76)
In 1591 Henry Partriche's small herd of cattle included 13 'fatting kine', (fn. 77) and by at least the late
17th century West Bromwich had probably become
one of the areas in which animals were raised for
the expanding Birmingham market. Land in the
parish was being leased to outsiders who fattened
beef cattle, (fn. 78) and in 1688 tenants of the manor were
forbidden to pasture the sheep of 'foreigners' on the
commons. (fn. 79)
Encroachment on the waste continued throughout
the 17th and 18th centuries. Occasionally it was for
industrial purposes: the construction of a saw-pit
in 1634, for example, or, in the 1680s, the digging
of sand; many cottagers built small workshops on to
their houses. (fn. 80) In general, however, most of the
early encroachments appear to have been for cultivation or for the building of cottages. In 1630 17
cottagers, the more prosperous ones, paid rents of 2s.
a year and upwards to the lord of the manor; at
least 3 lived in cottages taken from the waste. Rent of
a further 10s. 10d. a year covered the rest of the
cottages upon the waste and some little parcels of
waste ground which could not be improved because
they were held by poor tenants. (fn. 81) In 1723 99 cottages in the manor were listed as encroachments on
the waste; 54 were on Bromwich Heath, 20 at
Mayer's Green, and the rest scattered throughout
the parish. (fn. 82) Sporadic attempts were made to solve
the problem by ejecting trespassers. In 1692, 1699,
1709, and 1718 the freeholders threw down illegal
inclosures. In 1720 they decided at a public meeting
to prosecute nine cottagers at quarter sessions, possibly as a test case; the grand jury found only three
true bills, however, and there is no evidence that
further action of that kind was taken. (fn. 83) The
machinery of the manor court was also used, though
with diminishing frequency and effect. In 1734,
when the parish was 'abounding in cottages which
frequently prove chargeable to it' and the number of
them was increasing, the lord of the manor was
asked by some leading parishioners to order that
the court should actually collect the fines regularly
imposed for encroachments on the waste. The intention was apparently not to demolish existing
cottages but to prevent the erection of new ones.
Although the cottagers paid, except for some at
Mayer's Green, (fn. 84) the experiment was soon abandoned: in 1765 it was noted that, although the
cottagers were still 'regularly amerced, fined, and
called every court', no fine had been paid for 20
years. (fn. 85) In the later 1750s there were 129 longstanding encroachments on the waste (52 cottages
on Bromwich Heath, 47 at Mayer's Green, and 30
others scattered elsewhere) and some 40 more recent inclosures. More were added every year, until
by 1803 there were just over 200. About half of them
were on the Heath and its fringes. Most consisted
of gardens, privies, pigsties, or courtyards added to
existing buildings; but about 50 were houses and
cottages. A large-scale developer was Thomas Penn,
who in the 1780s erected and leased out several
houses on the eastern side of the Heath. (fn. 86)
The growth of settlement around the various
hamlets in the parish meant that from an early
date the waste was gradually dismembered. The
spread of housing and cultivation led to the emergence of several distinct patches of waste: thus
Hateley Heath occurs by 1485, Greets Green by
1556, and Mayer's Green by the 1660s. (fn. 87) These and
other fragments (Ryders, Golds, Hall, Ireland, and
Carter's Greens) have survived as modern placenames but were insignificant by the beginning of the
19th century; Bromwich Heath was then the only
substantial area of waste left, (fn. 88) and it was inclosed
in 1804 under the 1801 Act. (fn. 89) A few years later the
Heath, like several other recently inclosed commons
in south and east Staffordshire, was 'in part brought
into cultivation, and covered with growing crops;
and other parts preparing for turnips, or in fallow,
and coming round in course'. (fn. 90) The high price
fetched by some of the newly inclosed land, apparently sold for building, was noted in 1818. (fn. 91)
The spread of new streets and the industrialization of the parish became more marked in the course
of the 19th century. Agriculture had long been, in
economic terms, of secondary importance. Young
had found it 'carried on so connectedly with manufactures that it is subservient to them'. (fn. 92) In 1801
only 245 of a population of 5,687 were farmers or
farm workers, (fn. 93) and the percentage of those so employed continued to drop steadily. Large tracts of
the parish, however, were still farmed. In 1845 the
area of some 4,600 a. subject to tithe included
2,385 a. of arable and 1,190 a. of meadow and
pasture. (fn. 94) In 1882 about half the parish remained
agricultural. (fn. 95) Of this some two-thirds belonged to
the Sandwell estate. By the later 19th century farming on the estate conformed to the pattern found
elsewhere on the fringes of large towns. Farmers
were permitted to abandon classical crop rotation
and grew successive straw crops on part of their
land for sale to urban horse-owners in West Bromwich and other neighbouring towns; the fertility of
the ground was maintained by the use of night soil.
Milk, potatoes, and pigmeat were produced for
urban consumption. (fn. 96) Only 1,258 a. of farmland
were left in the early 1950s, (fn. 97) and since then housing,
industry, and new roads have reduced the total. By
1969 what remained lay in the east of the parish;
five farms survived, all save one having lost land to
development. (fn. 98)
In 1086 there was woodland 1 league in length and
½ league in breadth; (fn. 99) it may have lain in the northern
part of the lordship which was bordered on the northwest by Cannock forest and on the north-east by
Sutton Chase. (fn. 1) By the early 13th century there was
a wooded park belonging to the manor. (fn. 2) The other
most considerable area of woodland was on the
lands of Sandwell priory; in 1526 more than 145 a.
were thickly wooded. (fn. 3)
The establishment of the iron industry in West
Bromwich during the later 16th century must have
led to the felling of much timber in the area. In the
1590s William Whorwood, owner of the Sandwell
estate, became partner with Thomas Parkes in
several Staffordshire ironworks. The partnership
broke up, however, and it has been suggested that
the long quarrel which followed was caused partly
by the erstwhile partners' competition for charcoal
supplies. Certainly when the quarrel was finally
settled Whorwood sold Parkes all or most of his
woods in West Bromwich to be felled, coaled, and
carried away within the space of about ten or eleven
years. (fn. 4) There was still timber on the Sandwell
estate in Brome Whorwood's time (1634-84), for
his steward was felling and coaling trees partly for
Whorwood's own use and partly for sale to Bromwich forge. (fn. 5)
Friar Park, an estate belonging to the Whorwoods in the north of the parish, was being regularly coppiced during the 17th century. The property
needed much supervision by the owner as the
wood was evidently a profitable crop whose value
was enhanced by the needs of the many local ironworks. For most of the century, when the Whorwoods were living at Holton (Oxon.), the tenants
of their Balls Hill property had to promise to ensure
that no damage was done to the growing timber in
the coppices at Friar Park. (fn. 6) In the early 18th century William James, the Sandwell agent, took great
pains to safeguard Lord Dartmouth's interests
during the cutting, cording, and coaling of the
wood each year. (fn. 7) When cutting began in December
1705 James had to recommend that a house be built
for a watchman who could see that the next year's
spring of wood was not damaged. (fn. 8) The need for
vigilance was emphasized by James again in 1707
when he reported that the tenant farmer at Friar
Park had allowed his cattle to damage the previous
year's wood when it first sprang. (fn. 9) At that period Lord
Dartmouth was selling the wood to the Mr. Downing who, from at least the spring of 1707, was trying
to obtain a lease of Bromwich forge. (fn. 10)
At the end of the 18th century the most extensive
areas of woodland were Friar Park, Sandwell Park,
and Ridgacre Coppice to the south-east of Hill
Top. (fn. 11) Ridgacre Coppice was cut down apparently
in the 1820s to make way for the Ridgacre and
Dartmouth branch canals. (fn. 12) At Friar Park Lord
Dartmouth still owned 102 a. of woodland in 1845;
in 1886, however, the area was said to be losing the
seclusion which had made it attractive to wild birds,
and most of the woodland disappeared soon afterwards. (fn. 13) By the beginning of the 19th century
Sandwell Park had been planted with timber in such
a way that it was secluded from the surrounding
industrial landscape, (fn. 14) and although some ornamental plantations were felled after Lord Dartmouth moved to Patshull in 1853, (fn. 15) much timber
remained there in 1970.
Free warren in his demesne lands at West Bromwich was successfully claimed in 1293 by Walter
Devereux, one of the lords of the divided manor,
who cited a charter granted by Henry III to Walter,
his father. In 1294 Walter's coparceners, Richard
de Marnham and his wife, renounced all claim to
free warren in the manor. (fn. 16) In 1606 it was stated
to be one of the rights of the lord of the manor, (fn. 17)
and he retained it over Bromwich Heath until inclosure. (fn. 18) The warrener had a lodge on the Heath
from at least the 1650s. (fn. 19) Fishing rights in the Tame
presumably belonged to the lords of the manor in the
Middle Ages and are mentioned as an appurtenance
of the manor in 1560 and 1719. (fn. 20) They were reserved
to the lord by the Inclosure Act of 1801 and in 1901
were held by Lord Dartmouth as lord. (fn. 21)
Mills.
The mill at Bromford stood on the Oldbury bank of the Tame, but in the mid 19th century
at least the greater part of its pool was within West
Bromwich. (fn. 22) The mill is probably the same as
Oldbury mill, mentioned in 1306. (fn. 23) There was
certainly a mill on the site by 1610 when William
Turton the younger bought the manor of Oldbury
and Wallexhall. Turton sold the manor in 1617 but
retained a blade-mill with adjacent land. On his
death in 1621 the mill passed to his son William. (fn. 24)
The Turtons also owned Greet mill, the next mill
downstream, and the flow of water powering the
two mills was controlled under a family agreement. About 1690, however, the blade-mill was
bought by Joseph Carles (or Careles); he pulled it
down and built in its place 'an iron forge or flattingmill'. The new forge required more power than the
old blade-mill. Carles apparently enlarged the millpool, and in 1694 it was alleged by Eleanor Turton,
the owner of Greet mill, that two streams which
should have powered her mill had been diverted by
Carles. (fn. 25) The forge was owned by the Carles
family for some seventy-five years. In the mid 18th
century it was worked for a time as a plating forge
by Edward Gibbons, and by the later 18th century
it was variously known as Oldbury forge, Bromford
forge, or Oldbury mill. In 1765, while it was untenanted, it was bought by Mary Abney, a descendant of the Turtons and owner of Greet mill. She
immediately let it to William Taylor, (fn. 26) and it was
described as a grinding-mill in 1772. (fn. 27) A few years
later it was turned into a water-powered wireworks
by Roger Holmes, Mary Abney's son-in-law. (fn. 28) The
wireworks had presumably ceased operations by
1796 when the mill-pool was let to John Izon, who
had an iron-foundry at Greet mill; the foundry
seems thenceforward to have drawn on the pool. (fn. 29)
Nonetheless a small grinding-mill evidently existed
there until at least 1845. (fn. 30) The pool became almost
entirely covered by spoil heaps in the later 19th
century, and railway sidings were built over the
rest in the early 1890s. (fn. 31)
The mill known as Greet mill by the 1290s stood
on the Tame a little below Bromford mill where the
road now called West Bromwich Street crosses the
river. It occurs in the early 14th century, but the next
known reference is in 1556. (fn. 32) In 1592 it comprised
a corn-mill and a blade-mill; (fn. 33) by 1694 both were
a corn-mills. (fn. 34) They were occupied by Thomas
Hawkes in 1782 as a set of overshot mills used for
grinding corn and dressing leather. In October 1782
Izon & Whitehurst, an iron-founding firm of
Aston (Warws.) in search of extra sources of power,
took a lease of the mills and the adjacent estate.
There the firm erected a new foundry and a row of
workmen's cottages; John Izon moved into a house
standing near the mill. During the 1780s Izon &
Whitehurst abandoned water-power in favour of
steam, but they remained at the mill, which was
situated on the Birmingham Canal conveniently for
the transport of the foundry's raw materials and
finished products. (fn. 35) Nothing now remains of the
mill buildings. Until 1906 or 1907 water from the
mill-pool was used to cool the firm's beam-engine.
The house in which John Izon lived was still used
as a storehouse in 1941 but has since disappeared;
the workmen's cottages erected by Izon & Whitehurst were demolished in 1901. (fn. 36)
There was a mill on Robert Rider's estate by
1554, (fn. 37) situated on the Tame about half a mile west
of Greets Green. It remained with the Riders
during the 17th century and became known as
Rider's Mill. (fn. 38) In the 1650s and 1660s it was apparently worked by Nicholas Rider, a kinsman of
the Nicholas Rider who owned the estate. (fn. 39) Between at least 1732 and 1818 the mill was occupied
by the Gutteridge family (fn. 40) and became known as
Gutteridge's Mill, a name still in occasional use in
the later 19th century. (fn. 41) The estate was sold in 1812,
most of it going to three joint purchasers, one of
whom went bankrupt in 1816. Most of his interest
was bought by Thomas Price of Bescot Hall in
Walsall, a coalmaster and ironmaster, who in 1822
died at Charlemont Hall, West Bromwich. (fn. 42) In 1829
the jointly purchased estate was finally partitioned,
and the mill, with its pool and adjacent land, passed
to the Prices. (fn. 43) Meanwhile in 1828 the mill had been
burnt down. (fn. 44) It was rebuilt and worked for many
years as Dunkirk Forge. (fn. 45) The new line of the Birmingham Canal was carried across the southern
part of the mill-pool c. 1835, and the Birmingham,
Wolverhampton & Stour Valley Railway, opened in
1852, was carried along the same embankment. (fn. 46) In
1970 the culverted mill-stream could still be seen
on both sides of the canal and railway embankment; most of the dry mill-pool on the north side
of the embankment was also visible.
There was a mill at 'Grete' by the late 12th
century, when it was given by the lord of West
Bromwich manor as part of his endowment of
Sandwell priory. (fn. 47) It may have stood on the Tame
to the south of Great Bridge where the priory
owned a meadow on either side of the river in the
early 16th century. (fn. 48) It may also be the mill with ½ a.
for which the prior sued Nicholas Comitassone in
1294. (fn. 49) It was not, however, one of the two West
Bromwich mills owned by the monks in the early
16th century. (fn. 50) By the later 18th century there was
a mill at Sheepwash south of Great Bridge but on
the Tipton side of the Tame. (fn. 51)
The pair of water-mills known by the earlier 18th
century as the Hall mills stood on Hobnail Brook
near Hateley Heath. (fn. 52) They existed apparently by
the 1570s, (fn. 53) and they remained part of the manorial
estate until the 19th century; they were retained
by the Clarke Jervoise trustees when the manor
was sold to Lord Dartmouth in the 1820s. They
were leased to Jeremiah Parker in 1673 and Richard
Dickenson in 1693 (fn. 54) and by 1720 were held by
William Webb who later renewed his lease for a
further 18 years from 1733. (fn. 55) Webb worked at least
one of them as an iron-foundry, for which Thomas
Webb was buying iron in Worcestershire in the
1740s; Thomas's last purchases appear to have been
made in 1748 and Webb may have given the
foundry up shortly afterwards. (fn. 56) The mills then
seem to have been held on separate tenancies. Bayly
and William Brett, the sons of a West Bromwich
ironmonger, (fn. 57) took a lease of the smaller mill for 21
years from 1751 and may have used it as a slittingmill. (fn. 58) In 1752 the larger mill was taken by Harvey
Walklate for 21 years, but he was soon succeeded
by William Elwell of Walsall. William worked for
a time in partnership with his brother Edward, and
on the dissolution of their partnership c. 1762
Edward took over the West Bromwich concern,
working it as a blade-mill and iron-foundry in 1781.
He died in 1809, and either he or his son, another
Edward, was succeeded by Edward Reddell, who
was working the foundry in 1836. (fn. 59) By the mid
1840s the mills had ceased to exist; the site and
adjacent land had been let by the trustees of Thomas
Clarke Jervoise to the coal-mining firm of Thomas
Botteley & Co. (fn. 60)
The mill which was known as Friar Park smithy
by the later 16th century stood on the Tame in the
northernmost part of the parish. It is almost certainly to be identified with the mill which Halesowen
abbey owned in 1223 as part of the estate in West
Bromwich given by a lord of the manor. (fn. 61) The mill
had been leased out by the earlier 16th century.
It occurs as Friar Park smithy in 1587, and in 1590
Laurence Thomson of Laleham (Mdx.) was working it. By 1592, however, it had ceased to be used
as a smithy because the timber in the area had
been used up, and it was ruinous. (fn. 62) By c. 1776 a mill
on the site was being used as a tannery. In 1781 it
was described as Friar Park blade- and corn-mill,
but it seems to have been converted into a rollingmill by one Leonard (probably Charles Leonard)
about that time. It was subsequently worked as a
forge by Edward Elwell. (fn. 63) By 1836 it had been disused for some years. (fn. 64) The mill-stream and the
dried-up pool still existed in the mid 1840s, but by
the 1880s the whole site had been obliterated by
railway sidings. (fn. 65)
Bustleholm mill on the Tame in the north-east
of the parish seems originally to have belonged to
Wednesbury manor: in 1595 William Comberford,
lord of Wednesbury, sold it to Walter Stanley, lord
of West Bromwich. (fn. 66) It was probably one of the
mills that had been settled on William and his wife
with Wednesbury manor in 1567. (fn. 67) In 1625 William
Stanley leased it with some land to Hugh Woodman
and John Reignolds; it then comprised two mills
under one roof. (fn. 68) By 1630 Sir Richard Shelton had
let the mills to Sir Edward Peyto of Chesterton
(Warws.) and Roger Fowke of Wolverhampton, and
they seem to have begun the conversion of one of
the mills into a slitting-mill by then. (fn. 69) Bustleholm
was certainly working as a slitting-mill by 1633
when Richard Foley of Stourbridge (Worcs.) undertook to supply it with six tons of iron a week. (fn. 70)
Thomas Foley of Stourbridge and Gerard Fowke of
Gunstone in Brewood were renting the mill from
John Shelton in 1649, and in 1650 they took a lease
of Bustleholm, which then consisted of a corn-mill
and a slitting-mill. Foley worked the mill as part
of an integrated system of ironworks, sending bars
from his forges at Little Aston in Shenstone, West
Bromwich, and Wednesbury to be slit into rods. (fn. 71)
From 1667 the mill was worked by Thomas Foley's
son Philip, and in 1669 his forge at Little Aston
was sending about 100 tons of bar iron a year to
Bustleholm to be slit. From c. 1676 Philip appears
to have sub-let the mill to Humphrey Jennens of
Erdington, Warws. (d. 1690). He took a new lease
in 1692. (fn. 72) By c. 1700 the mill was in the hands of
Humphrey Jennens's son John, a leading Birmingham ironmaster who also worked Bromwich forge
about that time. (fn. 73) In 1709 John Shelton, lord of
West Bromwich, sold Bustleholm mill to John
Lowe, an ironmonger; it then comprised a slittingmill and a corn-mill. Lowe's third son Jesson, also
an ironmonger, was working Bustleholm as a
slitting- and oil-mill in 1732, and in 1742 as a
forge also. (fn. 74) In 1758 he left his 'rod-mill and oilmill or ironworks' to his brother Alexander, who was
working it as a slitting-mill in 1765. (fn. 75) About 1775
Charles Leonard may have occupied the slittingmill. (fn. 76) By 1818 Bustleholm, then belonging to
James Smith of Hall Green House, was let to
William Chapman, a farmer and bayonet-maker,
who probably used it as a blade-mill. It was leased
from 1820 to Thomas and William Morris, two
Bradley ironmasters, who worked it as a rollingmill. After they left the mill stood idle for some
years. It may subsequently have been worked by
G. B. Thorneycroft to produce sheet iron. (fn. 77) By the
mid 1830s Bustleholm had been converted to
agricultural milling; it then comprised three cornmills and was being worked by George Smith
Dorsett. (fn. 78) It remained the property of James Smith's
trustees, who granted a series of leases. (fn. 79) By 1900 it
was grinding iron-founders' blacking, coal slack
being brought by barge on the Tame Valley Canal. (fn. 80)
It ceased to work during the First World War; the
machinery was dismantled some time shortly after
1947. (fn. 81) The building, erected probably in the early
19th century and housing an undershot wheel, was
demolished in 1971. (fn. 82)
Joan mill stood about three-quarters of a mile
south of Bustleholm either on the Tame or on a
stream flowing through the Wigmore area and into
the Tame. It existed by 1401-2 (fn. 83) and was one of
the two West Bromwich mills owned by Sandwell
priory at its dissolution in 1525. In 1526 it was
held by Ann Heles but was decayed 'for lack of
timber'. (fn. 84)
The water-mill known as Bromwich forge stood
on the Tame about a mile below Joan mill. It
probably did not exist before 1586 when Walter
Stanley, lord of West Bromwich, authorized Thomas
Parkes of Wednesbury to make a watercourse as an
extension of that which had formerly powered Joan
mill. (fn. 85) The mill stood on property belonging to the
lord of West Bromwich; the new watercourse, however, crossed the Whorwoods' property, and for
over two centuries the lord of the manor's tenants
of the forge had to take a separate lease of the watercourse from the owners of the Sandwell estate. (fn. 86) By
c. 1590 Parkes had built a forge or hammer-mill,
a furnace, and cottages for his workmen. The furnace evidently stood a little way south-west of the
forge. (fn. 87) The ironworks was operated by Parkes until
his death in 1602 and by his son Richard (d. 1618),
but about six months after Richard's death his son
Thomas, of Willingsworth Hall in Sedgley, sold his
interest to John Middleton, Thomas Nye, and
others. (fn. 88) The furnace was worked by Richard Foley
probably from c. 1625, (fn. 89) and he seems to have
occupied the forge from about the same time: in
1630 he was holding the furnace and forge on two
separate leases from the lord of the manor, though
by then the furnace had probably gone out of use. (fn. 90)
Bromwich forge was one of three ironworks in the
area which Foley was operating in 1633 and was
one of the many works which were operated by his
grandson Philip from 1667. It supplied bar-iron
to be slit by the Foleys' mill at Bustleholm. (fn. 91) In
1676 Philip Foley assigned an interest in the works
to Humphrey Jennens, and after Humphrey's death
in 1690 the works passed to his son John, who
apparently held it until 1708. (fn. 92) Probably from 1708
the forge was let to a Mr. Downing, apparently
another ironmaster, who had been trying to secure
a lease from at least the spring of 1707. (fn. 93) In 1714
John Shelton leased it to Richard Guest (or Geast) of
Handsworth, (fn. 94) who seems earlier to have been in
partnership with Downing. (fn. 95) In 1725 the forge was
leased to Thomas Powell, a Dudley ironmaster who
had apparently attempted to take a lease of it in
1706. Powell's lease was subsequently assigned to
Edward Kendall. (fn. 96) In 1742, on Kendall's surrender
of the lease, the forge was let to a partnership of four
ironmasters—John Churchill of Hints forge, John
Thompson of Abbots Bromley, James Bourne of
Rushall furnace, and Henry Bourne of Abbots
Bromley. (fn. 97) In 1762 the forge was let to John
Churchill, (fn. 98) but from 1766-7 it was worked by the
iron-manufacturing partnership of John Wright and
Richard Jesson as a rolling- and slitting-mill. (fn. 99)
Joseph Jesson & Co. worked it c. 1800 but by 1804
had moved to Bromford Ironworks near the Oldbury
boundary. (fn. 1) The mill was subsequently worked by
Charles Bache, an ironmaster, who was still there in
1823. By then it was owned by Lord Dartmouth,
the new lord of the manor. (fn. 2) The forge was said in
1836 to have 'lain in ruins several years'. (fn. 3) A flourmill known as the Old Forge mill was built on the
site soon afterwards. (fn. 4) It ground fodder for local
farmers from the early 1890s until c. 1914; the
pool was then emptied and converted to pasture and
the mill was dismantled. (fn. 5) In 1970 the 19th-century
corn-mill building was still standing and the position
of the undershot wheel and sluice on its north side
could still be seen. The 18th-century mill had two
wheels and probably stood immediately to the
north of the 19th-century building; in 1970 there
were still traces of a second sluice a few yards to
the north of the one in use in the 19th century. (fn. 6)
A cottage, cart-shed, and stable, all of the 19th
century, also remained.
Sandwell mill stood on the north side of what is
now known as Swan Pool, about half a mile north
of Sandwell priory. It was one of the two West
Bromwich mills owned by the priory at its dissolution. In 1526 it was a substantial thatched wooden
building but was not working. (fn. 7) If the mill was ever
put into operation again it had fallen into disuse by
1639: one of Brome Whorwood's tenants then had to
promise to grind his corn at the mill within the manor
of Sandwell if such a mill should be built. (fn. 8) Nothing
more is known of a mill on that site until 1775 when
there seems to have been a slitting-mill there. (fn. 9) It is
probably to be identified with a rolling- and slittingmill which stood about half a mile from Sandwell
and was owned by Charles Leonard in the late
18th century. (fn. 10) By 1851 the mill was working as a
saw-mill on the Sandwell estate. (fn. 11) The site has been
obliterated by the spoil heap of Jubilee Pit, sunk
in 1897. (fn. 12)
The lord of West Bromwich owned a windmill in
1616 and 1622. (fn. 13) It stood on the south side of the
present Hydes Road near the Hall mills, (fn. 14) and it
was probably worked in conjunction with them, for
all were in the hands of the lord in 1626 and all were
leased to Jeremiah Parker in 1673. (fn. 15) The windmill
still existed in 1822, but it had disappeared by the
mid 1840s. (fn. 16) There was a windmill on the Riders'
estate by 1694 about a quarter of a mile south of
their water-mill on the Tame. (fn. 17) It still existed in
1767 but was apparently demolished soon afterwards. (fn. 18) There was a windmill on the north side of
Mill Street at what is now the junction with Tantany Lane in 1837. (fn. 19) It was probably the mill which
was being worked by Charles Higgins in 1834 and
Richard Higgins in 1835. (fn. 20) It still existed in 1842. (fn. 21)
There may have been a windmill a little to the north
of Lyndon where land was still called Windmill field
in the early 19th century. (fn. 22) It is also said that Crabb's
Mill Farm, which stood on the east side of Holloway Bank by 1742, took its name from a windmill. (fn. 23)
Markets.
A market house at Lyndon, implying
the existence of a market there, belonged to the
lord of the manor in 1725. It seems to have fallen
into decay by c. 1740. (fn. 24) In 1824 the manor court
urged the revival of the market, (fn. 25) and by 1840 a
street market was being held in High Street. (fn. 26) In
that year a market-place was opened on private
ground between High Street and Paradise Street,
and in 1970 markets were still being held in a hall
on that site on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
In at least the 1850s the triangular piece of land
at the junction of Paradise Street and High Street
was also used on Saturdays. (fn. 27) In 1874 a market hall
designed by Weller & Proud of Wolverhampton
was completed as part of the new public buildings in
High Street, with an open-air cattle market behind
it. The new market was not a success, partly because
people preferred the older open market, partly
because the market hall did not form a thoroughfare
between two centres. (fn. 28) Under an Act of 1899 it was
discontinued, the hall demolished, and the site used
for the public library. (fn. 29)
The iron industry.
Since the 16th century the
main industrial activity of West Bromwich has been
concerned with iron—both with getting and smelting
the ore and with working the iron into a wide range
of manufactured articles. The second activity developed earlier. The iron-using and finished-metal
trades were established by the early 16th century,
depending on imported raw materials as they do
again today. In 1970 they remained the town's most
important industry. The primary iron industry
flourished from the late 16th century and reached
its greatest prosperity in the mid 19th century with
the development of local mining. Unlike the secondary industry, however, it did not survive the exhaustion of the local coal and iron ore later in the
century.
The metal trades.
The first evidence of a local
metal manufacture serving a more than local market
comes from the early years of the 16th century when
John Repton of West Bromwich was supplying
buckles, rings, and bridle bits to the Crown. (fn. 30)
When John Wilkes of West Bromwich died, probably in 1533, he was apparently engaged in metal
trading at least as far afield as Uttoxeter. (fn. 31) By the
end of the century nailing was probably the most
widely practised of the West Bromwich iron trades.
In the 1590s and the early years of the 17th century
various West Bromwich husbandmen were accused
of working as nailers without having been apprenticed. (fn. 32) Two West Bromwich nailers, Edward
Ashmore and John Norris, were particularly active
in bringing prosecutions against unapprenticed
nailers. They became professional informers and
their careers suggest that in West Bromwich and the
surrounding parishes the nailing industry was
growing rapidly. (fn. 33) Buckle-making too was practised, (fn. 34) and in 1601 Richard Hopkis, buckle-maker
and blacksmith, informed against two men who had
worked in West Bromwich as buckle-makers without having served apprenticeships. (fn. 35) In the early
17th century the manor court was attempting to
enforce the apprenticeship laws and to regulate
the employment of journeymen from outside the
manor. (fn. 36) In 1606 it also forbade anyone employed
as a smith, nailer, or buckle-maker to let any 'stall
or stock' to anyone of the same trade. (fn. 37) The regulation must partly have aimed at limiting the number
taking up those overcrowded trades, but it was
probably also intended to prevent the engrossing of
the iron supplies for those trades by the capitalist
chapmen and truckmasters whose increasing influence over the Black Country metal trades was
arousing bitter complaint at that time. (fn. 38) In 1609
John White and William Jefferson were each fined
for letting stalls in their workshops to a bucklemaker, (fn. 39) but in general such efforts to prevent the
growth of capitalist power over those domestic industries must have been ineffective. John Partrydge,
a West Bromwich ironmonger, was probably one
such early capitalist: when he died in 1617 he was
owed almost £60. (fn. 40)
Buckle-making gradually became concentrated in
Walsall, (fn. 41) but the manufacture of hand-wrought
nails continued to develop in West Bromwich. In
the mid 17th century very many people were employed in it. (fn. 42) In the late 1690s John Lowe may have
been engaged by the parish to employ the poor in
nail-making, and in 1738-9 nails were apparently
being made in the workhouse. (fn. 43) The hand-wrought
nail trade reached its greatest prosperity in the later
18th century, (fn. 44) and by 1775 West Bromwich was
one of the principal nail-manufacturing parishes
in the Black Country. The trade was controlled
by the 'nail ironmongers', merchant employers who
gave out work to the nailers. In 1775 the nail ironmongers in West Bromwich were Turton & Co.,
Richard Jesson, and William Brett. Turton & Co.
used 450 tons of iron a year in nail-making; only
three other Black Country firms operated on a
larger scale. Jesson and Brett used 350 tons and
260 tons a year respectively, and both were operating
on a larger scale than the average Black Country
firm. (fn. 45) The three firms were probably employing
between 1,200 and 1,300 nailers. (fn. 46) Arthur Young,
travelling from Birmingham through West Bromwich
in 1776, found the road 'one continued village of
nailers' for five or six miles. (fn. 47)
Nails formed an important part of the iron goods
exported to America, and the industry suffered
during the general decline in the iron trade brought
about by the War of Independence. Early in 1775
Matthew Boulton, writing to Lord Dartmouth to
warn him of the consequences of a long war against
the American colonists, stressed the seriousness of
the threat to the nailing industry of West Bromwich. (fn. 48) In 1776 Arthur Young noted the decline
which the war had caused to the industry locally, (fn. 49)
although the three West Bromwich nailmasters
mentioned in 1775 were still in business after the end
of the war. (fn. 50) In addition the hand-wrought nail
trade was beginning to feel the competition of cast
nails by the 1780s, a point urged in 1783 by Richard
Jesson, one of the partners producing wrought iron
at Bromwich forge. (fn. 51)
The hand-wrought nail industry, however, continued to be of great importance in West Bromwich
until the early 19th century. In 1812 William Whitehouse, a West Bromwich nail ironmonger, stated
that nail-making was conducted on an 'immense'
scale in the parish. (fn. 52) The industry was, however,
entering on a long period of irreversible decline. It
was badly affected by the Orders in Council of 1807
and the Anglo-American war of 1812, and the working nailers suffered depressed wages and unemployment. In 1812 Whitehouse stated that over the
previous two years he had had to reduce the number
of workers he employed by more than half. More
serious for the industry in the long term was the
new technique, developed by 1811, of cutting nails
by machinery. In 1820 nail-making was still listed
as a principal source of employment in West
Bromwich, (fn. 53) but the competition of factory-made
nails began to be felt from about 1830. Nevertheless
the town's 'father trade' (fn. 54) lingered on until at least
the 1880s as a domestic industry increasingly left to
women workers.
In 1820 the making of gun and pistol locks was
said to be a principal source of employment in West
Bromwich, (fn. 55) Gun-lock filing and forging were
established there, probably on a small scale, by the
later 18th century. (fn. 56) They were skilled trades, (fn. 57) and
that may be one reason why they never attracted so
many workers as the more easily acquired craft of the
nailer. More important, however, was the growing
concentration of the gun-making trades elsewhere
—in Birmingham, Wednesbury, and Darlaston. In
1809 the Committee of the Manufacturers of Arms
and Materials for Arms offered rewards to those
who would teach or learn gun-lock filing and forging. Out of 27 men who were qualified to give out
work and instruction in those trades only three
were West Bromwich men: James Negus, Michael
Peters, and William Seddon. (fn. 58)
A West Bromwich industry associated with the
gun trade was the manufacture of steel bayonets,
which were made to the specifications of the gunmakers. The Salter family was making bayonets in
West Bromwich from the 1770s in the area between
Spon Lane and High Street where the works of
George Salter & Co. Ltd. still stood in 1970, and
the family became well known in the trade during
the earlier 19th century. The Salters, however,
chiefly made articles incorporating springs, notably
the spring balances known as pocket steelyards. The
family's bayonet manufacture was linked with spring
manufacture because bayonet steel was the most
suitable raw material for making light springs. (fn. 59)
In the 1780s William Bullock the elder, a West
Bromwich toy-maker, was making various metal
wares, some involving the use of steel: sword-hilts,
buckles, buttons, watch-chains, and hat-pins. (fn. 60)
Other references to steel-toy making in the later 18th
and early 19th centuries (fn. 61) indicate that the trade
was then carried on in West Bromwich, but it was
not important. The Bullocks had turned to ironfounding by 1805. (fn. 62)
The foundry industry was well established in
West Bromwich by the end of the 18th century.
Before the development of a local iron-smelting
industry in the 1820s the West Bromwich foundries
must have depended on pig-iron brought in from
other areas. Indeed the great increase in the production of pig-iron in the later 18th century and the
improvement of transport enabled the iron-founder
to set up his works where cheap power was most
readily available. In West Bromwich the earliest
foundries, opened before the advent of steampower, were in converted water-mills. Edward
Elwell (d. 1809) was operating such a foundry from
c. 1762 at Hateley Heath where water-power was
available; he later built a foundry at Hill Top where
he produced cast-iron tinned hollow-ware with
machinery driven by a Watt beam engine. By 1809
his son, another Edward, had built a foundry at
Great Bridge. (fn. 63) In 1782 Izon & Whitehurst, of
Aston (Warws.), opened a foundry at Greet mill
near the Oldbury boundary and began to produce
tinned hollow-ware. The availability of water-power
had determined the firm's choice of the site, but
within a few years a Boulton & Watt beam engine
had been installed and the site's chief advantage
thereafter was the cheap transport available on the
Birmingham Canal. (fn. 64) By the early 1790s, when
Archibald Kenrick, a Birmingham buckle-maker,
began to manufacture cast ironmongery beside the
canal off Spon Lane, (fn. 65) water-power had probably
ceased to be of prime importance.
There were 14 iron-founding firms in 1834, probably employing over 1,500 workers, (fn. 66) and by 1851
there were about 20. (fn. 67) The oldest firms of founders
in the town, Izons, Kenricks, and Bullocks,
dominated the West Bromwich cast-iron hollowware industry by the mid 19th century. Izons and
Kenricks in particular had built up reputations in
the industry based on many years' use of patent
processes which they had bought or developed
themselves. (fn. 68) Despite their dominant position in the
local hollow-ware industry, however, all three firms
continued to make a wide range of general castiron ware. (fn. 69)
By the mid 19th century the iron-founding industry was divided between firms which specialized
respectively in light and heavy castings. As already
seen, the leading producers of light castings were
then the long-established firms which dominated
the town's hollow-ware trade. At the same period
the heavy founding trade in West Bromwich was
led by more recently established firms: (fn. 70) James
Roberts of Swan Village (c. 1824), Wathew &
Siddons of Hateley Heath (1833), and Johnson &
Cranage of the Ridgacre Foundry (c. 1840). The
heavy iron-founders generally concentrated on large
industrial castings and castings for the engineering
trade. James Roberts began by producing the latter
at a foundry in High Street adjacent to Christ
Church. Later he concentrated on cast-iron gasand water-pipes, and by 1836, probably as a consequence of that specialization, he had moved to
a larger site in Swan Village. By 1845 Johnson &
Cranage, iron- and brass-founders, were casting
case-hardened chilled rolls for ironworks at the
Ridgacre Foundry.
The growth of the heavy foundry trade in West
Bromwich coincided with a growing use of wrought
iron in smithies and forges. The mounting demand
for wrought iron by the constructional and engineering trades and the railways was being met by the
growing specialization of the general smiths and
coach-iron smiths of the Black Country. Besides
the specialized engineering firms great integrated
iron-making companies like Bagnalls (fn. 71) were among
the earliest firms to meet the demands of the railways for heavy ironwork. (fn. 72) Boiler-making and
engine-making were established in West Bromwich
by 1829, and by 1851 there were two boiler-making
and five engine-making firms. (fn. 73) The manufacture
of one important type of structural ironwork, corrugated sheets, had been improved by a West Bromwich ironmaster, John Spencer, the brother of
Thomas Spencer of Dunkirk Forge and the Vulcan
Works, Spon Lane. From c. 1833, when they were
first produced, corrugated-iron sheets had been
stamped. John Spencer, however, patented a method
of hot and cold rolling in 1844, and on the Balls
Hill branch canal between Swan Village and Greets
Green he erected the Phoenix Ironworks. A great
oversea market for corrugated sheets developed,
especially during the Californian and Australian
gold rushes of 1849 and 1851-2. Spencer's sons,
John and J. E. Spencer, continued in the heavy
wrought-iron and engineering trade at the Vulcan
Works (from 1874) and at the Globe Tube Works
near Wednesbury Bridge (from 1882). (fn. 74)
By 1851 there were eighteen firms of coach-ironwork smiths in West Bromwich, five of them
specialists in railway work. (fn. 75) Axles became a particular speciality of the town. (fn. 76) Some of the most
notable West Bromwich producers of engineering
wrought-ironwork began as coach-ironwork smiths.
Richard Disturnal & Co. was making coach springs
and axles near Wednesbury Bridge in 1851, and it
was at Disturnals that John Brockhouse was apprenticed c. 1857; he was the son of a Wednesbury
coach-ironwork maker and subsequently founded
one of the largest engineering concerns in the Black
Country. (fn. 77)
In response to the demand of the railways some
concerns with small beginnings, like those of James
Grice and Josiah Lane, expanded by specializing
in the manufacture of particular products. Grice
made screws and gun implements in Bull Street in
1851. He was the first to make screws in a 'clam'
lathe, which was invented by one of his workmen,
Josiah Lane. Lane set up his own works in Sams
Lane to produce screw-making machinery, and
Grice went into partnership with the son of a Bristol
iron merchant called Weston. Weston & Grice concentrated on the production of railway accessories;
the firm expanded, moved to the Stour Valley
Works, and eventually amalgamated with a Smethwick firm, Watkins & Keen, to form the Patent
Nut and Bolt Co. Ltd. in 1864. (fn. 78) Not all firms, however, grew by specializing. By 1861, for example,
Fleet & Newey, of the Crown Works near Swan
Village, was producing wrought-iron steam engines,
boilers, gas-holders, purifiers, tanks, bridge and
other girders, iron roofings, Thames and canal
boats, evaporating and sugar pans, water-barrels,
barrows, and miners' tools. They also advertised
themselves as general smiths. (fn. 79)
By the 1860s the industrial prosperity of West
Bromwich was linked not merely to the foundry
and wrought-iron trades. It also depended on the
few great integrated ironworks in the town which
controlled the whole process of manufacture from
the mining of coal and ironstone to the making of
marked iron bars and many finished iron products.
Their prosperity, however, did not outlast the 1860s
and the exhaustion of the coal and ironstone of the
South Staffordshire coalfield. (fn. 80) Nevertheless from
the 1870s West Bromwich continued to be relatively properous as a result of the diversification
of its iron products. (fn. 81)
The cast-iron hollow-ware trade continued to
flourish until the end of the 19th century. From the
1890s until the First World War cheap stampedsteel and aluminium hollow-ware began to be imported from Germany. This may have affected the
town's prosperity: the labour force of the many
hollow-ware foundries probably declined in the
early 1900s. (fn. 82) The decline in the founding trade,
however, was partly compensated by the growth of
a local manufacture of stamped-steel hollow-ware. (fn. 83)
From the early 20th century the foundries sought to
counteract the declining demand for their cast-iron
hollow-ware by turning to new types of product,
and by the 1960s most were producing castings in
iron and non-ferrous metals for the motor-car,
electrical, and aircraft industries. (fn. 84) Some, however,
still made traditional cast-iron and steel products:
hollow-ware, grates, baths, and box-, laundry, and
sad-irons. (fn. 85)
The spring trade expanded greatly in the later
19th century. In 1850 light coiled steel springs had
long been the speciality of Salters, (fn. 86) and some of
the coach-ironwork smiths produced heavy laminated springs; but the trade was still very small. (fn. 87) Its
expansion also resulted in its concentration in West
Bromwich. By 1900 five of the six Staffordshire
spring-making firms were working in West Bromwich; by 1916 fourteen out of the seventeen Staffordshire spring-makers were working there. (fn. 88)
Salters extended its works several times in the later
19th century, while in 1936 and 1940 it built two
large blocks on the north side of High Street opposite the existing works; the firm also acquired
Bullocks' Spon Lane Ironfoundry in 1885. (fn. 89) West
Bromwich remained a leading centre of spring
manufacture in the 1960s. Springs had found a
growing market in the motor-car and aircraft industries, but the town's products also ranged from
5-cwt. springs for railway rolling-stock to tiny
springs for radio equipment. More than 30 firms
were active in the early 1960s, and at least 24 remained in operation in 1971. George Salter & Co.
Ltd. specialized in spring balances and weighingmachines of all sizes and types. (fn. 90)
The constructional engineering trades also prospered during the later 19th century, (fn. 91) and the
fortunes of one outstandingly successful West
Bromwich company illustrate this. In 1886 John
Brockhouse started a coach-spring and axle business at Harvills Hawthorn and in 1888 built a small
works in the same district with a wharf on the Balls
Hill branch canal. In 1897 he opened the Victoria
Works at the end of the Balls Hill branch west of
Hill Top, and in 1898 the firm became a limited
company. During the years before the First World
War John Brockhouse & Co. Ltd. bought several
firms in the Black Country and elsewhere and was
thus able to meet the increased demand for its products during the war. The Victoria Works, greatly
extended, remained in 1970 the principal works of
the Brockhouse Organization. (fn. 92)
Since the end of the First World War the most
rapidly expanding market for the products of the
metal trades of the Black Country has been provided
by the motor-car industry, which has stimulated
the Black Country as railways did in the 19th
century. (fn. 93) As already seen, cast motor-car components were being produced in the 1960s. Motor
cars themselves have been made in West Bromwich
since 1936 by Jensen Motors Ltd., which originated
as a business carried on by W. J. Smith & Son
Ltd. Smiths, a firm of motor-body builders and
formerly coach-builders, had been established near
the junction of High Street and Shaftesbury Street
by 1904 and had been working for about twenty
years before that in Spon Lane. At first Jensens'
products consisted mainly of bodywork subcontracted by other motor-manufacturing concerns. In
the later 1950s the firm began to build its own factory on 10 a. of the Lyttleton Hall estate. In 1968
Jensens was acquired by a merchant bank and a controlling interest subsequently passed to an American
consortium. After various managerial changes the
firm's subcontracted work was phased out and Jensens began to concentrate on its own luxury cars, the
Interceptor and the Jensen FF, introduced in 19656. By 1968 the firm was making 700 cars a year. (fn. 94)
Office equipment has long been another important product. Metal safes were made in the town
by 1860, (fn. 95) and the first wholly British typewriter
was produced by George Salter & Co. c. 1890. (fn. 96)
Safes, typewriters, and other office equipment were
being made in the 1960s as well as much steel
furniture for offices. (fn. 97)
The primary iron industry.
By the later 16th century the primary iron industry had spread from its
older centres to West Bromwich, probably because
wood fuel and water-power were available there. (fn. 98)
Friar Park mill was worked as a bloomsmithy for
a time, (fn. 99) and the first recorded blast-furnace in the
Black Country was built c. 1590 in West Bromwich
near the Handsworth boundary by Thomas Parkes,
who also built a forge near by on the Tame. (fn. 1) The
local industry, however, remained on a small scale
until the 19th century, and smelting ceased when
Parkes's furnace closed probably c. 1630. Nevertheless there were several forges and slitting-mills in
the 17th and 18th centuries. (fn. 2)
Expansion began throughout the Black Country
in the late 18th century, and a West Bromwich firm
contributed to the first of the technological developments which made the expansion possible, the
use of coal in the forge. The first commercially successful method of producing wrought iron with coke,
patented in 1773, was employed by Joseph and
Richard Jesson and John Wright, who became ironmasters in partnership in December 1775. The
Jessons were brothers and members of a West
Bromwich family many of whom since the 17th century had been iron merchants; Wright was their
brother-in-law. In 1775 the partners leased several
mills and ironworks in Shropshire and were also
working Bromwich forge in West Bromwich; using
coke for fuel, they were producing 3,000 cwt. of
wrought iron a year at West Bromwich from pigiron made in their Shropshire works. By 1784 the
firm's patent process was being widely used in
the Black Country. (fn. 3) The partners traded under the
name Joseph Jesson & Co. and were evidently for
many years the only iron-making firm of any size
in West Bromwich: theirs was the only West
Bromwich firm of ironmasters to be mentioned in
national directories published in 1784 and 1798. (fn. 4)
The partnership was reconstituted when Joseph
Jesson retired at the end of 1808. Richard Jesson's
son, Thomas, and son-in-law, Samuel James Dawes,
came into the firm as managing partners, and the
firm became known as Richard Jesson & Co. (fn. 5) The
Dawes family eventually dominated the firm: by
1818 Samuel had been joined by his brother John
and the firm was known as S. & J. Dawes. By the
mid 19th century it was being run by John Dawes's
sons, J. S. Dawes of Smethwick House and W. H.
Dawes. (fn. 6) About the turn of the 18th century the firm
moved from Bromwich forge to Bromford Ironworks
in the south of the parish beside the Birmingham
Canal. (fn. 7) The move may be taken to symbolize the
beginning of a new period in the history of the iron
industry in West Bromwich. Freed from its dependence on water-power, the industry moved to
the western and southern parts of the parish where
coal, ironstone, and cheap transport were all readily
available.
Of the seven firms of ironmasters in West Bromwich listed in a directory of 1818, (fn. 8) only S. & J.
Dawes is known to have been established for any
length of time, and it was the only one which in fact
endured, becoming John Dawes & Sons by 1829. (fn. 9)
John and Edward Bagnall, the sons of a mining
engineer of Broseley (Salop.), were not mentioned
in the directory but had by that time been running
the Golds Hill Ironworks for about thirty years. (fn. 10)
The Dawes firm apparently still controlled all the
processes of its iron manufacture for it retained its
Shropshire works until 1821. (fn. 11)
The principal West Bromwich ironworks came
into existence between 1820 and 1845. In 1820, at
their Golds Hill Ironworks, the Bagnalls erected
the first blast-furnace to be built in West Bromwich
since Thomas Parkes's furnace of c. 1590. (fn. 12) In 1827
Philip Williams & Co. bought an estate in the south
of the parish adjacent to the Birmingham Canal and
with coal beneath it; there the firm erected two blastfurnaces, later known as the Union Furnaces. (fn. 13) By
1845 T. Davies & Son had established the Crookhay
Ironworks near Hateley Heath and had long been
involved in coalmining in the area. Within the next
four years the firm had built three blast-furnaces
at the Crookhay works. (fn. 14)
By 1861 there were ten blast-furnaces in West
Bromwich: three at Golds Hill belonging to John
Bagnall & Sons, the three Union furnaces of Philip
Williams & Co., and four furnaces at the Crookhay
Ironworks, then operated by G. Thompson & Co.
Seven of the ten furnaces were in blast. (fn. 15) After
1870, however, in West Bromwich as in the Black
Country generally, iron smelting began to decline.
By 1873 only four and a half of the ten West Bromwich furnaces were in blast, and all had disappeared
by the beginning of the 20th century. (fn. 16) The decline,
caused by the exhaustion of the area's coal and ironstone, meant that large integrated concerns like the
smelting firms could not survive unchanged.
The Bagnall family sold its business before the
beginning of the depression became evident. By the
early 1870s most of the Bagnalls who had been concerned with the firm had retired, and the business
was being run by John Bagnall's sixth son, James. He
died in 1871, and in 1873 the business was sold to
a public company, John Bagnall & Sons Ltd. The
shares were over-subscribed, but irregularities in
the floating of the new company and the almost immediate onset of the iron-trade depression meant
that much of the capital had to be written off in
1878. The Golds Hill Ironworks was closed down
in 1882. (fn. 17)
Philip Williams & Co. still worked the Union
Furnaces in 1872, but in 1873 the Stour Valley
Coal and Iron Co. acquired the ironworks. The
new owners, however, could not run the business
profitably and Philip Williams & Co. resumed possession. The furnaces were blown out in 1884. (fn. 18)
Two of the four furnaces at Crookhay were in blast
in 1873, but they seem to have been blown out by
1888. (fn. 19) John Dawes & Sons, despite a vast expansion
of its interests outside Staffordshire, also failed to
survive the 1880s. Many years of bad trade after
the early 1870s led to its failure and the closure of
the Bromford Ironworks in 1887. (fn. 20)
Thus the primary process of the iron industry
ended in West Bromwich during the 1880s. In some
cases, however, the works survived. Although the
Union Furnaces were blown out in 1884, the
foundry that Philip Williams & Co. had operated
there continued to work for some years afterwards. (fn. 21)
Similarly the Crookhay Ironworks continued for a
few years after the blowing out of the furnaces, but
by 1902 it had been demolished. (fn. 22) At Bromford the
Dawes's failure and the closing of the works had a
happier sequel. The Bromford Ironworks was restarted by a new company in 1888 (fn. 23) and was still
in production in 1970. By then, however, in West
Bromwich as elsewhere in the Black Country the
basic manufacture of iron had yielded to more
finished processes such as the production of bright
drawn and rolled steel; metal strips and sheets in
iron, steel, zinc, brass, and copper; and iron and steel
galvanized and corrugated sheets. The material
for those products was imported into the area. (fn. 24)
Coal-mining.
West Bromwich straddles the
Eastern Boundary Fault of the South Staffordshire
coalfield and thus overlies the exposed and concealed
sections of the field. The northern and western parts
of the ancient parish are within the exposed section,
while in the eastern and southern parts the coal lies
below the Red Sandstone. (fn. 25) Thus in a pit at Hall
End Colliery in the mid 1830s the coal lay at a depth
of only 45 feet; but at Heath Colliery near Christ
Church at the same period the first pit was being
sunk to a depth of over 900 feet through 660 feet of
sandstone. (fn. 26) The coal worked has been mainly the
Thick Coal; ironstone and fireclay have also been
mined.
Early mining in West Bromwich was naturally in
the exposed field. By the early 14th century coal was
taken from Finchpath to Northamptonshire and
Oxfordshire. (fn. 27) There is mention of a 'coal carrier' in
1657. (fn. 28) In 1706 Lord Dartmouth began boring on
his newly acquired West Bromwich estate, evidently
near Balls Hill, and four pits were opened in 1707;
two new pits were sunk in 1708. (fn. 29) By the end of
1707 the Sheltons, who owned the manor, had begun
to mine near Dartmouth's workings, an operation
which caused his agent some alarm, (fn. 30) and in 1719 the
manorial estate was said to include a very good mine. (fn. 31)
There was keen competition for custom between
Dartmouth and the Sheltons, (fn. 32) but Dartmouth at
least found himself hampered by poor transport (fn. 33)
and by the irregular working habits of the colliers. (fn. 34)
The rapid growth of coal-mining in West Bromwich came with the development of local coalconsuming industries and the improvement of local
transport. Nevertheless coal under 5 a. of land in
the parish was advertised for letting or selling in
1764. (fn. 35) By the 1760s there was mining to the north
of Golds Green, and the branch of the Birmingham
Canal opened in 1769 was built to serve the pits
there. (fn. 36)
The Act of 1801, under which the Heath was inclosed, recognized the lord of the manor's right to
mine there; but it forbade him to do so within 40
yards of any house and required him to put the land
back into its original state when operations were
finished. (fn. 37) Inclosure, completed in 1804, was not
followed by any great burst of activity on the Heath.
Nevertheless surveys of Lord Dartmouth's estates
were made the following winter by the new agent
William James (1771-1837), who himself became
a colliery owner and also a noted railway projector.
The surveys held out the hope that the Ten Yard
coal underlay much of the estate. (fn. 38) Work apparently
went ahead. In 1808 James reported to Lord Dartmouth that pits were being sunk at Balls Hill and
hoped that the next winter's coal supply for Sandwell would come from the estate. (fn. 39) By 1812 James
& Co. was working Balls Hill Colliery on the east
side of Holloway Bank; mining had also increased
in the Golds Green area and had started in the southwest of the parish where Union Colliery was in
operation. (fn. 40) Meetings of coalmasters were being
held at West Bromwich by 1816, with James as
chairman. (fn. 41) About that time mining was being developed around Swan Village by the Holloway
family. (fn. 42) Yet in 1821 three experienced coalmasters
certified that there was no coal beneath the site of
the proposed Christ Church, an area which was in
fact above the concealed coal. (fn. 43)
Within the next few years, however, coal-mining
became a major industry in West Bromwich, closely
linked with the local iron industry. (fn. 44) The ironworks
were great consumers of coal, and many ironmasters
were coalmasters as well. (fn. 45) It was in fact stated in
1842 that nearly all the colliery owners had made
their money first in the iron trade. (fn. 46) It was also
stated that 'the iron trade rules the coal trade here,
because if the price of iron is reduced, the ironmasters will not give the price for coal which they
do now, and so that reduces it all over'. (fn. 47) By 1829
there were 18 coal-mining concerns operating in
West Bromwich; (fn. 48) by 1835 there were 40, raising
'immense quantities' of coal and sending much of it
to Birmingham, Oxford, and elsewhere. (fn. 49) By then
work had started in the concealed coal in the southeastern part of the parish: in 1833 Lord Dartmouth began the sinkings for Heath Colliery
near Christ Church. This was the first large-scale
mining in West Bromwich and was undertaken on
the advice of R. I. (later Sir Roderick) Murchison,
the distinguished geologist. After seven years and
the expenditure of some £30,000 coal was reached
at a depth of over 900 feet. The colliery was then
leased out to Salter & Raybould, and in July 1842
there were 35 men working below ground and 9
above. (fn. 50) By the mid 1850s there were some 60
collieries in West Bromwich, though several of them
were evidently very small-scale; some were run in
conjunction with ironworks. Most were in the
western part of the parish on the exposed coal, close
to the canals or linked to them by tramways. (fn. 51)
West Bromwich shared in the general decline of
the South Staffordshire coalfield in the later 19th
century. At Heath Colliery, for example, coal was
becoming exhausted by the 1860s. (fn. 52) Of 65 collieries
in existence in 1868, only 40 were being worked. (fn. 53)
By 1873 the number worked was down to 36, (fn. 54)
and by 1896 it had dropped to fourteen. (fn. 55) In 1873
attempts to drain flooded collieries began: the West
Bromwich Colliery Co., for example, was formed
to drain and reopen Great Bridge Colliery and
Brickhouse Colliery, which had been waterlogged
for some thirty years. (fn. 56) The most notable venture
of the period, however, was Sandwell Park Colliery,
which worked the concealed part of the coalfield;
the first shaft was sunk east of Roebuck Lane, just
on the Smethwick side of the borough boundary,
in 1870. (fn. 57) In 1897 the company began a new colliery to tap an area to the north, sinking the first pit,
Jubilee Pit, at Warstone Fields in West Bromwich.
The Thick Coal was reached in 1901, and by 1903
a second pit, Primrose Pit, was being sunk. (fn. 58) Sandwell Park (Jubilee) Colliery ceased production in
1960. (fn. 59)
The success of the Sandwell Park Colliery Co. led
to the formation of the Hamstead Colliery Co. In
1875 sinkings began at Hamstead, on the Handsworth side of the boundary of the ancient parish but
within the borough of West Bromwich from 1928. (fn. 60)
Coal was reached in 1880 at a depth of 1,845 feet, (fn. 61)
and in 1896 the colliery was employing 455 men
below ground and 195 above. (fn. 62) The last remaining
colliery within the pre-1966 borough, it ceased production in 1965. (fn. 63)
Brick-Making.
The beds of Etruria (Old Hill) marl
used for brick-making form part of the Upper Coal
Measures of the South Staffordshire coalfield and
thus are terminated by the Eastern Boundary
Fault. (fn. 64) As a result brick-making has been concentrated in the west and south-west of the parish. The
road from Great Bridge to Harvills Hawthorn was
evidently called Brickhouse Lane by c. 1600, and in
1635 property on the south-west of the Heath
bought for the poor was known as the Brick-kiln
Land. (fn. 65) Before the 19th century, however, brickmaking was limited to particular building operations. (fn. 66) In 1818 there was apparently only 1 brickmaker in the parish; there were 4 in 1829, 5 in 1834,
and 11 in 1851. (fn. 67)
The largest of the brickworks was started in 1851,
after Joseph Hamblet had acquired part of J. E.
Piercy's estate near Greets Green and Ireland
Green. The Piercy Brickworks was run by Hamblet
in partnership with one Parkes until at least the
early 1860s. (fn. 68) Later, however, Hamblet became sole
proprietor as well as manager, (fn. 69) and in the 1870s
and 1880s Hamblet was making blue and red bricks,
flooring and roofing tiles, pavings, copings, kerbings,
channel and sough bricks, and machine-made
brindled bricks. (fn. 70) Blue bricks, however, were the
firm's speciality. In 1898, four years after Hamblet's
death, the business became a limited company as
the Hamblet Blue Brick Co. Ltd. (fn. 71)
The industry reached its zenith in the 1880s and
1890s. (fn. 72) The mission church of St. Michael and All
Angels, opened in Bull Lane in 1881, was built to
serve some 2,000 people, chiefly brickworkers, (fn. 73)
who apparently lived in the area between Swan
Village and Ireland Green. (fn. 74) In the mid 1890s
the two biggest brickworks in West Bromwich
were on the edge of that area. At the Piercy
Brickworks the Hamblet firm was producing between 400,000 and 500,000 bricks every week,
while at the adjacent Albion Brickworks Wood &
Ivery had a weekly make of between 200,000 and
300,000. There were then five other firms in West
Bromwich; their weekly outputs varied from 50,000
to 70,000. (fn. 75)
The industry declined in West Bromwich during
the earlier 20th century. The Hamblet Blue Brick
Co. was forced by fuel and labour shortages to
close its West Bromwich works in 1915, and the
estate and plant were sold in 1919. By that time
the firm had excavated three large marl holes, and
the estate was eventually bought by the corporation, which used the holes first as municipal
tips and later as building sites. (fn. 76) In 1921 there
were only three brick-making firms in the town. (fn. 77)
There were two by 1924, and by 1940 the only survivor was the Hall End Brick Co. Ltd. whose works
was in Church Lane. (fn. 78) In the early 1960s bricks
were still made on the outskirts of the town, and
brick-making plant and machinery were also produced. (fn. 79)
Brewing.
The first evidence of wholesale brewing,
as opposed to brewing for domestic and retail purposes, is in 1777 when the justices licensed Joseph
Bullevant to establish a wholesale brewery in West
Bromwich. Bullevant promised to sell no smaller
quantity than a gallon, not to permit drinking on
his premises, and to brew for the sole purpose of
'serving housekeepers with beer and ale at a reasonable price'. He left his licence in the keeping of Lord
Dartmouth's steward, who was to destroy it if
Bullevant failed to observe the conditions. (fn. 80)
The evidence of directories suggests that in the
earlier and mid 19th century there were normally
two or three common brewers in West Bromwich. (fn. 81)
They probably supplied a purely local market and
were no doubt protected against competition from
the large breweries of Burton-upon-Trent by the
high cost of transport (including pilferage en route)
and conservative local tastes. Those at any rate were
some of the difficulties being experienced by Samuel
Allsopp, the Burton brewer, in 1808, when he was
forced to give up his short-lived sales agency in
West Bromwich. (fn. 82)
The Fisher family were common brewers at
Greets Green in 1835 and 1845, and John Chapman was running the West Bromwich Brewery at
Churchfield between at least 1851 and 1860. (fn. 83) No
other West Bromwich brewers in the earlier and mid
19th century, however, are known to have continued
in business as long as the Fishers or Chapman. Between the 1860s and 1880s wholesale brewing seems
virtually to have ceased in the town, though George
and Elisha Whitehouse, brewers of Tipton, may
have had a brewery in West Bromwich for a few
years in the 1870s. (fn. 84)
By 1888 there were two wholesale brewers at work
in the town once more, and the number continued
to increase. (fn. 85) Many public houses served their own
brews at that time, (fn. 86) and some brewing businesses
doubtless developed out of the beer retail trade.
One such was Darby's Brewery Ltd. Charles Darby
and his son George were beer sellers in West
Bromwich by the late 1860s. About 1895 George
Darby's son Charles took over the Bush inn, Claypit
Lane, from his father. In 1900 he bought Dunkirk
Hall in Whitehall Road and ran the Dunkirk inn in
part of it. In 1902 he began to build a brewery next
to the hall. (fn. 87) By 1908 there were evidently eight
breweries in West Bromwich, including Darby's
newly built brewery in Whitehall Road. (fn. 88) In 1921
there were six breweries and two chemical manufacturers who apparently specialized in the production of brewers' finings. (fn. 89) There were only three
breweries in the town by 1940. (fn. 90) The industry had
ceased to exist by 1970, one of the last breweries to
survive being that of Darby's Brewery Ltd. which
apparently closed during the 1950s. (fn. 91)
Chemical industries.
John Nock was working
as a soap-boiler at Hateley Heath in 1818, (fn. 92) and
it seems likely that soap was being produced in the
earlier 19th century by the various manufacturing
chemists working in Swan Village and elsewhere in
the parish. (fn. 93) Robert Boyle & Sons, for example,
a Swan Village firm of the mid 1830s, (fn. 94) was probably
connected with the Boyle who was then a partner
in the Smethwick firm of Adkins, Nock & Boyle
and had earlier developed an improved method of
bleaching soap. (fn. 95)
Although by the mid 19th century soap-making
was beginning to be concentrated in the seaport
towns, (fn. 96) soap continued to be manufactured in West
Bromwich. Robert Spear Hudson, the inventor of
Hudson's Dry Soap Powder, was the son of John
Hudson, minister of the Congregational chapel at
Mayer's Green from 1801 to 1843. Robert founded
his business in 1837, probably in High Street where
he was trading as a chemist by 1845, (fn. 97) but the date
when he invented his soap powder is unknown. In
the 1850s the business began to expand, and by
1875, when he opened a works at Liverpool, his
firm enjoyed a substantial export trade to Australia,
New Zealand, and the Continent. (fn. 98) By 1900 the
West Bromwich and Liverpool works were producing over 18,000 tons of soap powder a year and R. S.
Hudson Ltd. dominated the market; during the next
few years the firm overcame the challenge of a rival
brand of soap powder introduced by Lever Bros. of
Port Sunlight (Ches.). The Hudsons were, however,
becoming more interested in politics than in soap,
and in 1908 they sold the business to Levers (later
Unilever Ltd.), who ran the firm as a subsidiary until the mid 1930s. The works at West Bromwich (the
Royal Chemical Works in High Street) and Liverpool were then closed as part of Unilever's programme of rationalization. (fn. 99)
In 1851 there were three manufacturing chemists
in West Bromwich, including Peter Ward of Paradise Street. William Ward was making washing
crystals, soap, and washing-powder as well as bakingand egg-powder at the Victoria Chemical Works in
New Street between at least 1860 and 1880. (fn. 1) By the
early 1890s W. & A. Ward was making soap in
High Street, and besides the Hudson and Ward
firms there was a third soap manufacturer, Cornelius
Walters of Brickhouse Lane. Wards continued in
business until the early 20th century and Walters
until the early 1920s. (fn. 2)
In the mid 1830s Isaac Hadley and John Riding
were making iron-founders' charcoal blacking, and
John Riding the younger was engaged in the manufacture in 1845. (fn. 3) The foundries of the town must
have provided a steady market for the product, and
by the late 1880s there were five West Bromwich
firms making blacking—three of them expressly for
iron-founders. (fn. 4) The manufacture of iron-founders'
blacking declined during the 1890s; by 1900 it was
being made only at Bustleholm mill. (fn. 5) While &
Smallman of the Crown Works in Swan Village
continued to make blacking until c. 1912. (fn. 6)
The development of West Bromwich's chemical
industries since the later 19th century is difficult
to summarize succinctly owing to changes in the
ownership of individual firms and to the diversification of their products. The firm of Robinson
Brothers Ltd., for example, founded in 1869, began
as tar and ammonia distillers. It turned to horticultural products in the 1920s and in 1930 began to
produce chemicals needed for rubber processing.
Since the Second World War its greatly diversified
range of products has included fungicides, chemicals
for the plastics industry, and gas odorants. (fn. 7) Ramifying family interests often complicate the story
further. The Keys family seems to have become involved in the chemical industry through an initial
connexion with brewing. Samuel Keys was trading
as a hop merchant in West Bromwich in the late
1860s. (fn. 8) Within a few years he had also turned to
making brewers' finings, (fn. 9) and in the 1880s two
Keys firms were working as manufacturing chemists
in West Bromwich: Samuel Keys & Co. Ltd. by
1884 and W. H. Keys by 1888. (fn. 10) Keys & Co. Ltd.,
of Swan Village, continued in business until the
early 20th century, when they were manufacturing
cordials and British wines. (fn. 11) About 1900 the firm
of W. H. Keys was making many products at its
Hall End chemical works on the Halford branch
of the Birmingham Canal: oil, grease, tar, varnish,
carbolic acid, zathanite, boiler composition, and disinfectant. (fn. 12) Since then the manufacture of oils and
greases has been a speciality of the firm. (fn. 13) In the
early 1960s the manufacture of lubricants remained
an important local industry, but many other
chemical products were made: boiler compositions,
fertilizers, paints, and plastics. (fn. 14)