Tipton History

TIPTON
Description and History from 1868 Gazetteer

"TIPTON, (or Tibbington), a parish and manufacturing and mining district in the hundred of South Offlow, county Stafford, 2 miles N. of Dudley, 9 N.W. of Birmingham, and 4¼ S.E. of Wolverhampton. The parish comprises several hamlets, Dudley Port, part of Great Bridge, Gospel Oak, Horseley Heath, Ocker Hill, Princes End, Tipton, and Toll End. Its acreage is 3,020, and its population in 1861 was 28,870, being an increase of 3,998 since 1851. The return for 1861 includes 161 persons living in boats. The number of houses was 6,085.

The prosperity of the parish is due to its minerals, coal and iron. Many mines are at work to supply the blast furnaces that abound in and around the parish. Large iron-works and foundries are engaged in working the iron. The manufactures are mostly heavy, as cables, anchors, pit chains, railway iron-work, engine-boilers, sheet, bar, and nail-rod iron, fenders and fire-irons, stove grates, spouts, pipes, palisades, &c. There are also brick and tile, nail, and file works, breweries, cement works, &c. Among the larger establishments may be mentioned those of the Bloomfield ironworks, the Staffordshire Anchor-Testing Company, the Summerhill ironworks, the Gospel Oak works, and the Horseley Heath works.

The parish is a network of canals, and has water communication in all directions. Three lines of railway also facilitate its trade, viz:, the Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Wednesbury (London and North-Western), with four stations within the parish; the South Staffordshire (London and North-Western), one station; and the West Midland (Great Western), with two stations. The Birmingham and Dudley road traverses the parish, and is its main thoroughfare: at Dudley Port the road is spanned by the Royal Aqueduct, erected in 1836. The principal roads are lighted with gas, supplied from the Birmingham and South Staffordshire gasworks, Swan Village. The water comes from Lichfield, but there is a reservoir near Dudley. A board of health is established in the parish. The police-station and offices, erected 1864, are on Horseley Heath, near the parish church. Athletic sports are much in favour at Tipton, and there are footraces at the Britannia grounds almost weekly. The wake is held in August.

Tipton is in the diocese of Lichfield and archdeaconry of Stafford, and has four churches. St. Martin, the mother church, is value £419; St. Paul's, value £300, in the patronage of the incumbent of St. Martin's; St. John's, value £40, in the patronage of the bishop; St. Mark's, value £150. The Independents, Baptists, Methodist New Connexion, Primitive Methodists, and Wesleyans, have chapels. There are several National and other day and Sunday schools

 

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]