Wolverhampton History

WOLVERHAMPTON
Description and History from 1868 Gazetteer

"WOLVERHAMPTON, a parish, market, and union town, parliamentary and municipal borough in the hundreds of Seisdon, Cuttlestone, and Offlow, county Stafford, 16 miles S. of Stafford, and 12½ N.W. of Birmingham. It is the largest town in Staffordshire, situated on an eminence, and almost encompassed by canals, and provided with ample railway communication to all parts of the country. It has two direct lines to London, 125¾ miles by the London and North-Western, and 141½ by the Great Western. The Birmingham and Liverpool canal passes through the town, and also the Staffordshire and Worcestershire, and the Wyrley and Essington canals. Wolverhampton is mainly indebted for its rapid rise and great prosperity to the mineral wealth in its immediate vicinity.

The geological strata on which it stands are limestone, ironstone, and coal-beds of various thickness. To the S. and E. the iron and coal mines extend as far as Birmingham, and beyond Walsall and Dudley, over what is termed the "black country." It is estimated that ironstone to the amount of 1,000,000 tons is annually raised from the South Staffordshire mines, that about 600,000 tons are imported, and that 160 furnaces are engaged in extracting the ore. The annual make of finished iron is about 850,000 tons, the produce of 2,100 puddling furnaces. The country on the N. and W. of the town affords many fine views: the Wrekin and Stafford Castle forming conspicuous objects; and is devoted to agriculture, the soil being rich and fertile.

The parish of Wolverhampton comprises the townships of Bilston, Bentley, Featherstone, Hatherton, Hilton, Kinvaston, Pelsall, Wednesfield, Willenhall, and Wolverhampton. The area of the parish is 16,680 acres; the population, according to the census of 1861, is 113,832. The area of the township is 3,008 acres, and the population 60,860, an increase of 10,875 since the census of 1851. The number of inhabited houses in the township is 11,770, and uninhabited 1,069. The parliamentary borough includes Bilston, Sedgley, Wednesfield, and Willenhall. The borough was formed on the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832, and returns two members. Wolverhampton received its charter of incorporation in 1848, and is governed by a mayor, 12 aldermen, and 36 councillors. The borough consists of 8 wards, and the council hold their meetings at the townhall.

The name of the town is a corruption of Wulfrunas Hantune. Its original name was Hantune, or Hampton. Wulfrunas was added to it in the year 996, in honour of Wulfruna, sister of King Ethelred and wife of Aethelm, Duke of Northampton, who founded at Hampton a college for a dean and several prebendaries; she also endowed the town with many privileges. The market-place, a triangular area of considerable extent, with an equestrian statue of Prince Albert, by Thorneycroft, in the middle, is in the centre of the town, and the streets diverging from it take their names, in most cases, from the roads in which they terminate. The streets are clean, well-paved, and lighted with gas; the houses substantial and well-built, and the shops large and well-furnished.

There are two large railway stations in the town. The London and North-Western (or high level station) is situated at the bottom of Queen street. The Great Western (or low-level station) is situated close to, and to the N.E. of the high-level station, with which it has communication by a covered footway. This station is the joint design of the late Sir I. K. Brunel and John Fowler, Esq. There are several public buildings and institutions in the town. The market hall, in North street, opened in 1853, is a large building of brick and stone, erected at a cost of £30,000. The interior is divided into three compartments, each 100 feet in length; the centre compartment being 33 feet, and each of the two side ones 26 feet wide. The townhall, in North street, has a stone front of Italian design, with the borough arms sculptured in the tympanum of the pediment. The corn exchange, adjoining the market-place, has a principal room of 100 feet in length, and 50 in height; it contains a reading-room and law library, and was completed in 1853, at a cost of £10,000.

The free grammar school in St. John street was founded in 1515; the present building was erected in 1785. Abernethy and Sir W. Congreve were educated there. The Bluecoat school, in Berry street, was founded early in the 18th century, and is supported mainly by voluntary contributions; 50 boys and 30 girls are educated and clothed by the charity, and 20 of the above are also maintained. The Union workhouse is a large structure in Bilston road, and was erected in 1838 at a cost of £9,000. The South Staffordshire hospital, in the Cleveland road, cost upwards of £15,000, and provides accommodation for upwards of 100 inmates. About a mile from the town, on Goldthorn Hill, Penn road, stands the Wolverhampton orphan asylum. The institution was founded in 1850, and the present building, which has accommodation for 100 boys and 100 girls, was completed in 1863 at a total cost of £18,000. The charity is mainly supported by voluntary contributions.

The Agricultural Hall, Snow Hill, erected in 1863 by a limited company, is chiefly used for the exhibition of agricultural implements; the large room is 160 feet by 60. The Athenæum, post-office, and county-court are in Queen street; the police-station in Garrick street; the theatre, which is only occasionally open, in Cleveland road; the waterworks office in Worcester street; the gasworks in Horseleyfield; the cattle and hay market in Cleveland road; the pig market in Bilston street; and the hide and skin market in Salop street. There are National schools attached to all the churches, as well as a ragged-school in Salop street, and British, Congregational, Wesleyan, and Roman Catholic schools.

The Establishment has nine churches in Wolverhampton. St. Peter's (formerly the collegiate church) is a rectory. The church is cruciform, the tower lofty, and divided into three stories. In the nave is a stone pulpit, ornamented with tabernacle work. The old building has been almost wholly reconstructed, at an outlay of upwards of £12,000. The new chancel was reopened September 26, 1865. In the transepts are monuments to the Levesons and Lanes; there is also an erect brass figure, in the S. transept, of Sir Richard Leveson, a rear-admiral in the reign of Elizabeth. The organ is placed above the intersection of the nave and transepts. There are several good stained glass windows in the chancel. In the church-yard is an ancient pillar. The patron of the rectory, which is £700 in value, is the bishop of the diocese.

St. George's, on the Bilston road, value £300, patron the bishop, is a Doric structure. St. Paul's, Worcester road, value £300, is in the pointed style. St. Mark's, Tettenhall road, and St. Matthew's, Walsall road, value each £300, are in the early English style, and are both in the gift of the crown and bishop alternately. St. John's, value £300, is a Grecian building with tower and spire. St. James's, value £225, and St. Luke's, value £150, are in the gift of trustees. St. Mary's is value £300. The parish of Wolverhampton is in the diocese of Lichfield and the archdeaconry of Stafford.

The Dissenting places of worship are numerous, the Independents, Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, New Connexion and Free Church Methodists, Baptists, Unitarians, and Roman Catholics, having chapels. To almost all the churches and chapels Sunday-schools are attached. There is a synagogue in Fryer street. The Independent chapel, on Snow-hill, is in the early English style, and a congregational chapel has just been rebuilt in Queen street. The Roman Catholic chapel on Snow-hill is in the decorated style, with large schools adjoining. The Catholic Apostolic Church have a small stone chapel with tower, on Snow-hill.

Wolverhampton is well supplied with water, partly by deep wells sunk in the rock: on which the town stands, but mainly by a company established in 1845, which draws its supplies from the red-sandstone springs at Tettenhall and Goldthorn Hill; this water is soft and pure. Wolverhampton is famous for its hardware manufactures. Extensive ironworks, smelting furnaces, and foundries, are in the immediate neighbourhood, so that iron is produced in the town from the ore to the most polished perfection. Quarterly meetings of the ironmasters are held here. Tin and iron japanned wares, and articles in papier-mâché, are extensively produced in the town. There are also numerous chemical works, varnish, grease, colour, and dye works, corn mills, ropewalks, cooperages, saw-mills, coach and carriage manufactories, and agricultural implement works, crate works, and clay retort works.

There is a large cemetery abort a mile from the town. Wolverhampton has a stipendiary magistrate, and the borough court sits daily at the public office, Garrick street. A county-court is held here. Wolverhampton is within the jurisdiction of the Birmingham bankruptcy court. There is a local police force; a coroner and deputy-coroner. The corporation fire-engine station is in Police street, and several of the Fire Insurance offices have engines. There are several private and joint-stock banks, and most of the Fire and Life Insurance offices are represented. Two weekly papers are published at Wolverhampton, the Chronicle and the Express. The market days are Wednesday for cattle and corn, and Saturday for meat, vegetables, &c. The annual fair is held on the 10th of July and following days; it may be continued for eight days, but usually lasts only three or four. The Wolverhampton races are held on the Tuesday and Wednesday nearest to the 12th of August."

 

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