West Bromwich History

WEST BROMWICH
Description and History from 1868 Gazetteer

WEST BROMWICH, a parish in the southern division of the hundred of Offlow, in the county of Stafford, 4 miles to the N.W. of Birmingham. It is a station on the Birmingham and Wolverhampton branch of the Great Western railway. The parish is situated in the centre of a district abounding in iron and coal, on the banks of the river Tame, a branch of the Trent.

The growth of the town has been very rapid, the result of the numerous extensive works and factories established in the neighbourhood. It extends above 3 miles in length, and contains, besides the manufactories and the houses of the workpeople, many good and handsome residences. The various branches of the hardware manufacture form the chief business of the place. Among the articles manufactured are guns, gun-locks, swords, bayonets, fire irons, locks, chains, sadlers' ironmongery, nails, and ornamental ironwork. Here are also many smelting furnaces, foundries, slitting mills, glass-works, collieries, &c. The gas-works are on a scale of immense extent, and furnish a supply for neatly the whole of Birmingham, where one of the stations is, besides Wednesbury, Dudley, and other neighbouring towns. The pipes employed for the conveyance of the gas have an aggregate length of above 150 miles.

The Birmingham and Wolverhampton canal crosses the parish. West Bromwich is the seat of a Poor-law Union and the head of a County Court district. Petty sessions are held weekly, and polling for the southern division of the county takes place here.

The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Lichfield, of the value of £530, in the gift of the Earl of Dartmouth. The church, an ancient edifice, partly rebuilt about 1785, is dedicated to All Saints. There is a parsonage house, the gift of the late Earl of Dartmouth.

There are four other churches - Christ Church, St. James's, St. Peter's, and Trinity Church. The livings are curacies: that of Christ Church, worth £300, is in the gift of the Earl of Dartmouth; that of St. James's, £200, in the same patronage; that of Trinity Church, £200, in the gift of trustees; and that of St. Peter's in the patronage of the bishop. Christ Church was built about 1828, and is a large and handsome structure in the perpendicular style, with a good tower; St. Peter's was erected in 1860.

The chapels belonging to the Dissenters are numerous, and include seven for Wesleyans, three each for Independents and Primitive Methodists, two for Baptists, and one for Roman Catholics. There are several literary and mechanics' institutions, National and other schools. The parochial charities are very considerable. A cemetery was formed in 1859, in which there are two small chapels.

To the E. of the town is Sandwell Park, the seat of the Earl of Dartmouth. It is pleasantly situated in a valley, and the grounds are well planted. The house stands on the site of Sandwell Priory, a small Benedictine house, founded in the reign of Henry II. This parish was the birthplace of William Parsons, porter to James I., and noted for his gigantic size and strength.

 

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