Sedgley in 1859

SEDGLEY (ALL SAINTS), a parish, in the union of DUDLEY, N. division of the hundred of SEISDON, S. division of the county of STAFFORD, 3 miles (N.) from Dudley; containing 24,819 inhabitants. This populous parish is divided into nine hamlets or villages, viz., Brierley, Coseley, Cotwallend, Ettingshall, Lower and Upper Gornall, Gospelend, Sedgley, and Woodsetton; it is situated in the midst of a country abounding with coal, iron-stone, and limestone, the working of which furnishes employment to most of the inhabitants. There are by measurement 7360 acres, of which 3860 are arable, 2000 pasture, 560 woodland, and 500 gardens; the soil is for the greater part a strong rich loam, well adapted for wheat; the surface is very hilly, and the lower grounds are intersected by numerous rivulets and canals leading to the different mines.

The parish is in the centre of England, and the scenery from the heights is beautifully picturesque and panoramic, including the Malvern and Abberley hills, in Worcestershire, the Wrekin, in Salop, the Black mountains, the peaks of the Montgomery mountains, and Admiral Rodney's monument, in North Wales. The village is supposed to occupy one of the highest sites in the kingdom, and the waters divide on the eminence, one portion running into the Trent and the other into the Severn, and flow into the sea at two opposite extremities of the island. The iron is manufactured in a variety of ways, both into pig-iron in furnaces, and into wrought or malleable in mills or forges, which latter is again converted into bars, rods, hoops, hurdles, nails, coffee-mills, locks, &c.: one of the largest manufactories is the Wednesbury-Oak works, established in 1814, by Philip Williams and Sons. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal intersects the parish in various directions. A court leet is annually held by Lord Ward, as lord of the manor, at which two constables and four deputies are chosen.

The living is a vicarage, endowed with a portion of the rectorial tithes, and valued in the king's books at £5.12.85.; net income, £503; patron, Lord Ward, who, with others, is impropriator of the remainder of the rectorial tithes. The church, a beautiful edifice standing on an eminence and seen in all directions, is in the purest English style, with side aisles, vaulted nave, and clerestory windows, and was completed in 1829, at the expense of £10,800, entirely defrayed by the late Earl of Dudley. The eastern window is of richly-stained glass, representing ten of the Apostles and the coat of arms of the earl; it cost £300. At Coseley, Lower and Upper Gornall, and Ettingshall, are district churches. There are places of worship belonging to Particular Baptists, Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, Independents, Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics; also a national school erected by the late earl. The encrinite, and the singular fossil called the trilobite, or "Dudley locust," are found chiefly at Woodsetton, the latter only in an isolated limestone rock termed the Wren's Nest Hill. 

An 1859 Gazetteer description of the following places in Sedgley is to be found on a supplementary page.

• Coseley
• Ettingshall
• Upper Gornal

[Description(s) from The Topographical Dictionary of England (1859) by Samuel Lewis - Transcribed by Mike Harbach ©2020]