Sedgley in 1817

Description from A Topographical History of Staffordshire by William Pitt (1817)

SEDGLEY.

The village of Sedgley stands on high ground mid-way between Wolverhampton and Dudley. The parish of Sedgley is large and populous, including Gornall, Coseley, Ettingsal, etc. in all nine villages, containing 2000 houses and 12,000 inhabitants, chiefly consisting of lime-men, colliers, and nailers.

Here are immense heaps of lime-stone, and skirtings of coal and iron-stone in abundance. The facility of water-carriage has greatly contributed to the increase of the coal and iron trade in this neighbourhood: the Dudley tunnel passes under the lime-stone hills.

The church is a vicarage, dedicated to All Saints: it is an ancient structure of rough stone, with a lofty spire, which forms a fine object in the surrounding landscape.

Between Wolverhampton and Sedgley, is Sedgley Park, an ancient seat of the Dudleys, which has been long used as a Roman Catholic seminary. There is a fine eminence to the south-east, on which was formerly a beacon, the summit of which still bears that name: the stratum of this hill is principally limestone. Here is a considerable estate belonging to the Petit family, called Ettingsal Park, which contains great quantities of lime-stone and iron-stone: it is occupied by Samuel Fereday, Esq.

On the east side of the parish, adjoining the Canal, is a very extensive bed of excellent coal, in some of the mines fourteen yards thick, and intersected with different strata of iron-stone.

At Cotwell End and Gornall, excellent grinding stones are dug: those at the latter place possess a coarser grit, and are generally used for setting thick-edged tools.

The number of freeholders from this parish who voted at the contested election in 1747, was 753. There are three chapels for dissenters.

On Monday, April 23, 1797, during a violent thunder-storm, a fire-ball fell into the chimney of a house occupied by Stephen Cox, a nailer, of Sedgley, whilst he and his wife were sitting by the fire-side, and their child was sleeping on a chair near them. Hearing an extraordinary noise in the chimney, the mother snatched up the child, and thereby saved its life, as the pillow upon which it had lain was scorched, and a great quantity of bricks fell near it. The electric fluid passed through two houses adjoining, and, attracted by a nail, penetrated into a back kitchen, and forced out a piece of the door, which appears as if cut with a knife: it partially melted in its passage the wards of a lock and the key that was in it; part of the lead in the windows of all the three houses was also melted, and a piece of one of the window-frames struck off.

Ellers, on the west side of this parish, is a pleasing specimen of the taste of S. Fereday, Esq. in ornamental gardening: several varieties of the most delicious and highly-flavoured fruits are cultivated in great profusion.