Kingswinford in 1859

SWINFORD (KING’S), a parish in the northern division of the hundred of Seisdon, county of Stafford, 3 miles (N. by W.) from Stourbridge, containing, with the chapelry of Brierly-Hill, and the hamlets of Brockmoor and Wordsley, 11,022 inhabitants. The situation of this parish, in a country abounding with coal and iron mines, has been the means of the establishment of its manufactures, the principal of which are iron and glass, both carried on to a considerable extent, and for the conveyance of which great facilities are afforded by the Stourbridge and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canals passing through the parish; a rail-road from some of the principal mines to the latter canal has recently been constructed, at a great expense, by Earl Dudley. A court leet and a court baron are held annually, and the inhabitants claim an exemption from tolls, under a charter granted by Queen Elizabeth, and confirmed by Charles I. A copyhold court is also held occasionally.

The living is a rectory, with the perpetual curacy of Brierley-Hill annexed, in the archdeaconry of Stafford, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, rated in the king’s books at £ 17.13.4., and in the patronage of Earl Dudley. The church is dedicated to St. Mary. His Majesty’s commissioners are about to erect a new church at Wordsley, in this parish, which, by a recent act of parliament, will become the mother church.

Holbeach House, in which Catesby and the other Popish conspirators engaged in the gunpowder plot were taken, is in this parish. There are the remains of a Roman encampment on Ashwood heath, and the spa, at Lady well, is partly in this parish, and partly in that of Dudley. There is a school-house at Brierley-Hill, for the endowment of which the Rev. Mr. Ashenhurst bequeathed £80, but the bequest does not appear to have been ever carried into effect.

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

• Wordsley

 

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