Wednesbury

Wednesbury (locally Wedgebury), a municipal and parliamentary borough in the south of Staffordshire, 8 miles NW. of Birmingham. Crowning a hill at the north end of the town is the cruciform Perpendicular church of St Bartholomew, supposed to occupy the site of a temple of Woden—whence the Anglo-Saxon name, Wodnesbeorh. It seems to have been built in the 11th, and rebuilt in the 15th century, and was much altered and restored between 1766 and 1885. Here, too, in 916 the Princess Ethelfleda, Edward the Elder's sister, founded a castle. Modern buildings are the town-hall (1872), public baths and free library (1878), and art gallery and museum (1891), with a collection of modern paintings, the gift of a local benefactor, valued at £10,000. One of the great iron towns of the Black Country, in a district abounding in coalpits, ironworks, railways, and canals, Wednesbury has manufactures of boiler-plates, bar-iron, steel, railway ironwork, gas and steam tubes, edge tools, &c. In 1886 it was incorporated as a municipal borough, and in 1867 was made a parliamentary borough, returning one member, and till 1885 including West Bromwich (q.v.). Pop. (1851) 11,914; (1881) 24,566; (1891) 25,342; of parliamentary borough (1891) 69,083. See the History of Wednesbury (Wolv. 1854).