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Bilston in Stafford County England History and GeographyBILSTON, a market town and chapelry in that part of the parish of WOLVERHAMPTON which is in the northern division of the hundred of SEISDON, county of STAFFORD, 3 miles (S. E.) from Wolverhampton, 19 (S. by E.) from Stafford, and 120 (N. W.) from London, containing 12,003 inhabitants. This place, formerly belonging to the portionists or prebendaries of Wolverhampton, and in their charter called Bilsreton, was a royal demesne at the time of the Conquest, and in the reign of Edward III., under the name Billestune, was certified to be free of toll. Previously to the introduction of the iron-works, Bilston contained only a few private houses, but from the abundance and rich quality of its mines of coal and iron-stone, it rapidly increased in extent and population, and has become one of the largest towns in the county. The town is situated on a rising ground in the centre of an extensive district abounding with numerous foundries, forges, furnaces, steam-engines, and works necessary for the various processes of the iron trade, of which, the smoke by day, and the fires by night, present a scene singularly impressive and terrific. It is irregularly built, and is nearly two miles in length; the principal streets contain several substantial and handsome houses, and throughout the neighbourhood are scattered in every direction the numerous habitations of persons employed in the different works. The manufacture of tin, japanned and enamelled wares of every kind, iron-wire, nails, serews, iron-gates, pallisadoes, machinery, steam-engines, and all the heavier articles in the iron trade, is carried on to a very considerable extent: there are several mills for slitting the pig iron into bars, and many iron and brass foundries. Clay, of which the coarser kind of pottery ware is made, and a particularly fine sand for casting, are found in great abundance: there are also quarries of a species of very hard stone, much esteemed for grindstones, troughs, and for building; it lies in horizontal strata of twelve layers, gradually increasing in thickness from the surface. The Birmingham and Staffordshire canal, which passes near the town, and several branch canals in the vicinity, afford the means of conveying the manufactures of the town, the produce of the mines, and the massive productions of the foundries, to various parts of the kingdom. The market days, established by an act of parliament obtained in 1825, are Monday and Saturday; and the fairs, which are toll-free, are on Whit-Monday, and the Monday preceding the Michaelmas fair at Birmingham. Constables and other officers are appointed at the court leet of the lord of the manor. A court of requests, for the recovery of debts not exceeding £5, is held under an act passed in the 48th of George III., the jurisdiction of which extends over the townships of Bilston and Willenhall, and the parishes of Wednesbury and Darlaston, excepting the manor of Bradley, which is within the jurisdiction of a similar court previously established at Oldbury. The living is a perpetual curacy, within the jurisdiction of the Dean of Wolverhampton, endowed with £400 private benefaction, and £400 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the resident householders. The chapel, dedicated to St. Leonard, was rebuilt in 1826. A church, dedicated to St. Mary, and containing nine hundred and fifty-six free sittings, was erected in 1829, at an expense of £7223. 6. 1., part of which was defrayed by grant from the parliamentary commissioners; it is an elegant structure in the later style of English architecture, with a handsome tower. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists. A blue coat school was founded and endowed by Humphrey Perry, Esq. of Stafford, for clothing and instructing six boys, since which it has received a trifling bequest for the education of two additional scholars. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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