Wolverhampton is a city in Staffordshire, England. It is located around 30 miles to the south of Stoke-on-Trent in the north of the county, 15 miles south of the county town Stafford, and about 15 miles north-west of Birmingham, Warwickshire. The immediate south and east is the Black Country, of which Wolverhampton is sometimes considered a part, and around 10 miles to the west lies the border with Shropshire.
Wolverhampton became a vital canal hub during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century.[1]
History
Outside the present-day site of St Peter's Collegiate Church is a 14 foot high stone column, believed to have been carved in the 9th century. The column itself may be even older and pillaged from the Roman site at Viroconium (present-day Wroxeter in Shropshire). The stone pillar is decorated with carvings of animals and acanthus.[2]
At Tettenhall (which now forms a western suburb of Wolverhampton) in 910 AD a battle (known as the Battle of Tettenhall or the Battle of Wednesfield) took place between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms Mercia and Wessex against the Scandinavian Vikings of the Danelaw. Edward of Wessex had been allied with the Mercians through his sister Æthelflæd, who would later rule as Lady of the Mercians. The battle marked a significant turning point in the Anglo-Saxon attempts to ward of Viking incursions as it saw the crushing defeat of the last of the large Danish Viking armies to ravage the land, including the deaths of the Danish Kings, Eowils and Healfdan
The settlement was established by 985 AD, when Ethelred the Unready granted the lands of Heanton to a Lady Wulfrun.
In 994, a monastery was consecrated at Wolverhampton for which Wulfrun granted land at various locations in Staffordshire: Upper Arley, Bilston, Willenhall, Wednesfield, Pelsall, Ogley Hay, Hilton (Lichfield), Hatherton, Kinvaston, Hilton (Wolverhampton), and Featherstone.
In the Domesday Book (1086 AD), Wolverhampton was among the largest 20% settlements recorded in the survey, with a recorded population of 50 households (6 villagers, 30 smallholders, 14 slaves). Its tenant-in-chief was Samson the Chaplain.
Among the oldest buildings in Wolverhampton is St Peter's Collegiate Church. The oldest parts of the building, namely the crossing under its tower, is thought to date from c. 1200. However, much of the church is of 14th and 15th century origin.
With the Industrial Revolution, Wolverhampton became a major node on the English canal network with the completion of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal in 1771 and the Birmingham Canal in 1772. Wolverhampton also saw significant growth from the steel industry at this time, with the town's first blast furnaces being in operation by 1780.[3]
In the mid-19th century, Wolverhampton saw significant immigration from Ireland. In 1847, local doctors began to record "Irish beggars" in the town and by 1851, around 1 in 8 of the town's population was Irish-born. Most had come from the counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon and had arrived in Great Britain to escape the Irish potato famine.[4]
Although Wolverhampton was not as well-known for coal mining as the adjacent Black Country towns, there were a few collieries on its northern fringes. Holly Bank was established in the 1890s, as a continuation of the 1850s colliery Essington Wood.[5] It was located near the present junction 10A on the M6 (for the M54) and closed in 1952. Hilton Main was located near what is the the Featherstone Interchange (J1) of the M54 and closed in 1969.