WALSALL
The Growth of the Town, p. 146; Communications, p. 165; Manors, p. 169; Other Estates, p. 175;
Economic History, p. 180; Local Government, p. 208; Public Services, p. 220; Parliamentary History,
p. 225; Churches, p. 226; Roman Catholicism, p. 239; Protestant Nonconformity, p. 241; Other Religions,
p. 249; Social Life, p. 249; Education, p. 254; Charities for the Poor, p. 266.
The Ancient parish of Walsall (fn. 1) consisted of a
borough and a foreign. The two parts were incorporated as the borough and foreign of Walsall in
1627. A new borough of Walsall was created in
1835. It became a county borough in 1889 and part
of a new metropolitan borough of Walsall in 1974. (fn. 2)
The area known as Walsall Wood was a detached
part of the foreign but was not included in the 1835
borough; in 1894 it became part of the urban district
of Brownhills. (fn. 3) The ancient parish (including the
1,551 a. of Walsall Wood) comprised 8,324 a. The
1835 borough was 6,683 a. in area and was extended
to 6,763 a. in 1876 and 7,480 a. in 1890 by the
addition of parts of Rushall. (fn. 4) It was increased to
8,782 a. in 1931 by additions from the boroughs of
Wednesbury and West Bromwich and the civil
parishes of Bentley, Great Barr, and Rushall; (fn. 5) it
was reduced to 8,780 a. in 1934 by an adjustment of
the boundary with the urban district of Darlaston. (fn. 6)
In 1966 it was extended to 12,990 a. by the addition
of most of the urban districts of Darlaston and
Willenhall and various boundary adjustments. (fn. 7) The
present article is concerned primarily with the history of the area covered by the ancient parish, except
Walsall Wood which is treated in a separate article.
Some account of the areas added to the borough
before 1966 is given from the time of their addition,
but their earlier history is reserved for treatment in
future volumes.
Walsall lies on the South Staffordshire Plateau
on undulating ground that drops to 370 ft. in the
south-west at Broadway West and rises to 539 ft.
to the north of Bloxwich. (fn. 8) The limestone hill in the
centre of the town, on which St. Matthew's Church
stands at 491 ft., rises to 511 ft. at the junction of
Sandwell and Windmill Streets south of the church;
the ground falls away on all other sides of the church
but rises again east of Ablewell Street to 497 ft. at
the junction of Holtshill Lane and Charlotte Street. (fn. 9)
Most of the parish is situated on the Coal Measures,
but an inlier of Silurian limestones and shales runs
east and south-east from the town centre. The drift
is mainly boulder clay, but there is sand and gravel
east of Bloxwich and in the south-west of the
parish. (fn. 10)
Several streams flow through the area, and some
of them formed the boundaries of the parish. (fn. 11) On
the north-west the boundary followed Sneyd Brook,
the lower part of which was known as Bentley
Brook in the late 14th century and as both Bentley
Brook and Park Brook in the 18th century. (fn. 12) It
meets a stream flowing from the west in Bentley
Mill Lane, and the united stream, known as Bescot
Brook in the 18th century, (fn. 13) formed the southwestern boundary down to its confluence with the
Tame near Bescot. The Tame and its tributary Full
Brook formed the southern boundary and a stream
called Scottes Brook the south-eastern boundary.
The Holbrook formed the pre-1890 boundary with
Rushall in the present Arboretum area. Clock Mill
Brook formed the north-eastern boundary at Goscote and Essington Wood Brook the northern
boundary by Yieldfields Hall. The Holbrook joins
Ford Brook (fn. 14) under the site between Lichfield and
Darwall Streets occupied by the central library and
the Gala Baths. As Walsall Brook the united stream
flows under the centre of the town and joins Bescot
Brook close to its confluence with the Tame; a mill
fleam runs off it near the Bridge and rejoins it below
the site of the New Mills south of Wednesbury
Road. (fn. 15)
Walsall Area, c. 1775
(scale about 1 inch to 1 mile)
The name Walsall suggests a settlement of
foreigners, that is Britons, or of serfs. (fn. 16) The
'Walesho' of Wulfric Spot's will in the early 11th
century may be Walsall; otherwise the first known
mention of a settlement is in 1159, when it was presumably on the hill by the parish church. (fn. 17) A
borough had been created by the earlier 13th century. (fn. 18) There is also evidence of early cultivation
about a mile to the west on the sandy soil in the area
occupied by the 13th-century park and the manorhouse. (fn. 19) The other main settlement in the parish
was at Bloxwich, a name suggesting a pre-Conquest
origin. (fn. 20) Most of the parish lay within Cannock
forest, a fact which influenced its early agrarian development. (fn. 21) Industrial activity was in progress by
the 14th century when there is evidence of mining
and iron-working. (fn. 22) Leland c. 1540 described Walsall
as a little market town with a park, many smiths and
bit-makers, and pits of coal, lime, and ironstone. (fn. 23)
Much of Walsall's industry developed out of the
requirements of horse transport, the production of
horse furniture being followed by leather-working
and rope-making.
There were 367 poll-tax payers in 1377. (fn. 24) In 1563
there were said to be 290 households. (fn. 25) In 1619
the number of recipients of Mollesley's Dole, by
which everyone in Walsall on Twelfth Night received 1d., was 2,861 (1,622 of them in the borough)
and in 1661 4,213 (2,241 in the borough); visitors,
however, as well as inhabitants, were eligible. (fn. 26)
The Compton Census of 1676 gives 1,360 adult
conformists, 40 papists, and 200 Protestant nonconformists. (fn. 27) In 1773 the vicar reported some
1,500 houses in the parish, adding that there were
'no families of distinction but some gentlemen and
several capital traders'. (fn. 28) The population in 1801
was 10,399 (5,222 of them in the foreign). (fn. 29)
Many changes were made in the central part of
Walsall from the 1820s, with Lord Bradford, John
Walhouse, and their successors acting as urban developers. It was stated in 1834 that Walsall 'ranks as
the second manufacturing town in the county, as
regards its population, and yields to none of them in
beauty and elegance'. (fn. 30) In 1845 Lord Bradford's
agent Peter Potter noted that the wealthier inhabitants were living in the central parts of the town
but that in the area to the north-west the 'inhabitants were living in the central parts of the town
miners and mechanics'. (fn. 31) The population rose
sharply from the 1820s, from 11,914 in 1821 to
26,822 in 1851; the large increase to 39,690 in 1861
was the result of the extension of mining and ironworking in the foreign. By 1901 the population of
the county borough was 87,464. Growth was particularly marked in the foreign; in the borough
township there was a decline in the later 19th century. (fn. 32) By the mid 19th century the population included an Irish element, concentrated in the Blue
Lane area; by the early 20th century there was an
Irish settlement at Coal Pool. (fn. 33) It has been noted
that 'the Irish have been the traditional scapegoats
on whom Walsall projects its fears and frustrations'. (fn. 34)
Between the World Wars council estates became
a feature of the landscape particularly in the northeastern part of the borough, and after the Second
World War in the north-western part. (fn. 35) In the
centre of the town there was extensive clearance in
the later 1930s and after the war and redevelopment
in the 1950s and 1960s. (fn. 36) In addition reclamation
of derelict land in the borough, largely for building,
began after the war. (fn. 37) The population of the enlarged borough was 103,059 in 1931 and 118,498 in
1961. (fn. 38) By 1961 it included a number of immigrants,
largely in the Caldmore and Palfrey areas; there
were 625 born in India, 353 in Pakistan, and 478
in Jamaica. (fn. 39)
Notable natives of Walsall include John Edward
Gray (1800-75), naturalist; Sir Harry Smith Parkes
(1828-85), diplomatist, who was born at Birchills
Hall; and Jerome Klapka Jerome (1859-1927),
novelist and playwright, who was born in a house on
the corner of Bradford Street and Caldmore Road. (fn. 40)
Among other local worthies John Reynolds (16671727), writer of tracts and hymns, was assistant
minister at the Presbyterian meeting-house from
1721 until his death; he was buried at West Bromwich. Josiah Owen (1711-55), author of sermons and
anti-Jacobite tracts, was minister of the chapel in the
late 1730s. (fn. 41) Dorothy Wyndlow Pattison (1832-78),
otherwise known as Sister Dora, was noted for her
work as nursing sister at the Cottage Hospital from
1865 to 1878. (fn. 42) Patrick Collins (1859-1943), amusement caterer, settled in Walsall in 1882 and later
lived at Lime Tree House, Bloxwich; he was M.P.
for Walsall from 1922 to 1924 and mayor in 1938-9. (fn. 43)
Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938), poet and man of
letters, was the grandson of G. B. Stubbs, a town
clerk; he lived from 1866 to 1869 in Doveridge Place
and from 1869 to 1873 in Birmingham Road, and
attended the grammar school from 1870 to 1872. (fn. 44)
The inhabitants of Walsall were described in the
mid 1520s by one of the lessees of the manor as
'light persons suddenly moved to affrays and insurrections'. He accused three townsmen of threatening to set 400 men on him armed with clubs known
as 'Bayard and his thousand colts' and to rouse the
townsmen by ringing Bayard's bell. (fn. 45) During the
Civil War and Interregnum the corporation tended
to support the Parliamentarians. (fn. 46) Henry Stone,
mayor in 1638-9, was active in the county on the
parliamentarian side and was governor of Stafford
from 1644 until at least 1651. The gentry of the
foreign were royalist in sympathy, but they retained
some influence on the town council, while Mark
Antony Caesar Galliardello, who was employed by
Henry Stone in 1651 and became town clerk in
1657, had been a royalist in 1643. The town was not
garrisoned for either side during the war. In July
1643 Henrietta Maria passed through Walsall on
her way from Lichfield to King's Norton (Worcs.)
and is said to have stayed at George Hawe's house
in Caldmore. In May 1644 the parliamentarian army
under the earl of Denbigh stopped at Bloxwich on
its way to besiege Rushall Hall and was quartered
in Walsall during the siege. Denbigh returned for
a time to Walsall after the indecisive fight at Dudley
on 11 June 1644. Riots were frequent in the 18th
century, and during a riot in 1750 George II was
hanged in effigy on Church Hill. There was further
rioting during the reform crisis of 1832. (fn. 47)
Plan of Walsall, 1679