Bilston
Bilston is a market town in the City of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, England. It is in the Black Country, south east of Wolverhampton city centre and close to the borders of Sandwell and Walsall. The town was known for enamelling from the mid-17th century, and is a former coal and iron mining district. Iron works dominated in Victorian times and the area became a centre for steel production. The town had a population of 34,639 at the 2021 Census.
History
Bilston was first referred to in AD 985 as Bilsatena when Wolverhampton was granted to Wulfrun then in 996 as Bilsetnatun in the grant charter of St. Mary's Church. Bilsetnatun can be interpreted as meaning the settlement of the folk of the ridge. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book as a village called Billestune.Historically in Staffordshire, Bilston was a largely rural area until extensively developed for factories and coal mining in the 19th century.
In 1866 Bilston became a civil parish. Bilston Urban District Council was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 covering the ancient parish of Bilston. The urban district was granted a royal charter in 1933, becoming a municipal borough and Alderman Herbert Beach its Mayor. Between 1920 and 1966, the council replaced most of the 19th-century terraced houses with rented modern houses and flats on developments like Stowlawn, the Lunt, and Bunker's Hill. By 1964 there were more than 6,000 council houses.
On 1 April 1966 the Borough of Bilston was abolished, with most of its territory incorporated into the County Borough of Wolverhampton, although parts of Bradley in the east of the town were merged into Walsall borough and part went to West Bromwich. The parish was also abolished on 1 April 1966 and merged with Wolverhampton, Walsall and West Bromwich. In 1961 the parish had a population of 33,067.
Bilston Town Hall, dating from 1872, has now been refurbished and re-opened. It had been derelict for more than a decade after Wolverhampton Council discontinued its use as housing offices, but now operates as a venue for events, conferences, performances and occasions.
Bilston lost its passenger railway station in 1972, although goods trains continued to pass through the site of the station for a further decade. The town's new bus station opened in October 1991, linking with the town's West Midlands Metro station, which opened in May 1999.
The huge British Steel Corporation plant to the west of the town centre was closed in 1979, after 199 years of steel production at the site, with the loss of nearly 2,000 jobs. Part of the site was developed as the Sedgemoor Park Housing Estate between 1986 and 1989, and a B&Q superstore opened on another part of the site in December 1993, forming the first phase of a new small retail park and industrial estate which developed over the next decade. The GKN steel plant to the south of the town centre closed in 1989.
Construction of the long-awaited Black Country Route began in the mid 1980s, although the final phase was not completed until July 1995, by which time Bilston had a direct unbroken dual carriageway link with Dudley, Walsall and the M5 Motorway. The Black Country Spine Road opened at the same time, improving Bilston's road links with West Bromwich and Birmingham.
21st century developments in Bilston include the South Wolverhampton and Bilston Academy and the adjoining Bert Williams Leisure Centre, which form the centerpiece of the town's new Urban Village, which is planned to include an eventual total of more than 1,000 new homes.
St Leonard's Church
Christian worship in Bilston can be traced back to 1090. In 1458, the chapel was replaced by St Leonard's Chantry and a third renovated church was consecrated in 1733. The church seen today dates from a rebuilding of 1825–26 to the designs of Francis Godwin in the manner of John Soane and is the fourth church on the site, though a small amount of older stonework from the C14 or C15 remains visible inside the present tower. It was altered in 1882–83 by prolific church architect Ewan Christian. Ewan Christian altered the aisle windows into single tall, thin openings where there had previously been two. The church contains a font of 1673, probably from the older church. The church is painted stucco inside and out. It is also unusual in having a chamfered square tower, giving it an octagonal appearance, in being surmounted with a cupola, a golden globe with weather vane and a fenced viewing platform.Industry
From the middle of the 18th century, Bilston became well known for the craft of enamelling. Items produced included decorative containers such as patch-boxes, scent boxes, and bonbonnieres.With the opening of the Birmingham Canal to the west of the town in 1770, industrial activity in the local area increased, with the first blast furnaces near the canal at Spring Vale being erected by 1780.
Bilston was transformed by the Industrial Revolution. In 1800, it was still a largely rural area dependent on farming. By 1900, it was a busy town with numerous factories and coalmines, as well as a large number of houses for the workers and their families. The Bilston coal mines were reputedly haunted by an evil spirit, so the miners brought in a local exorcist known as The White Rabbit.
Six new blast furnaces were erected there between 1866 and 1883. Five of these were producing a total of nearly 25,000 tons of steel per year at what was now known as Bilston Steel Works. The first electric powered blast furnaces opened there in 1907, and finally in 1954 the "Elisabeth" blast furnace was erected, creating 275,000 tons of steel per year. However, by the 1970s the steel works had become uneconomic and the Labour government decided to close it, with closure taking place on 12 April 1979. The iconic "Elisabeth" was demolished on 5 October 1980. Local unemployment, which had been steadily rising for some years, was pushed even higher by the plant's closure. A former railway bridge which connected parts of the steelworks site remains in situ across the canal.
The industry remained prolific during the interwar years, but much of the housing was now sub-standard, and during the 1920s and 1930s, many of the older houses were cleared and replaced by modern council houses.
Notable people
- John "Iron-Mad" Wilkinson, industrialist, built a blast furnace in Bilston in 1748.
- Richard Salter, inventor, began making the first spring scales in Bilston in the late 1760s.
- John Croft, architect, prominent for being a "Rogue Architect of the Victorian Era".
- George T. Morgan, Chief Engraver of the United States Mint, designed the Morgan silver dollar.
- T. E. Hickman, Army Brigadier-General and MP for Bilston, 1918/1922
- Sir Henry Newbolt, poet, novelist and historian.
- Sir Francis Newbolt, barrister, judge and artist.
- Charles Kidson, artist, leading figure in New Zealand's Arts and Crafts movement in Canterbury.
- Titus Lowe, bishop, served for the Methodist Episcopal Church.
- George Page, Mayor of Nelson, New Zealand, 1935 to 1941.
- Geoffrey Peto, MP for the constituency of Bilston, 1931/1935
- Edward Kidson, meteorologist, enhanced weather forecasting in New Zealand.
- Captain George Onions, British soldier, awarded the Victoria Cross in August 1918.
- Tom Webster, cartoonist and caricaturist.
- William Harold Dudley, painter, known for his landscapes.
- Hugh Walters, science fiction writer, lived the majority of his life in Bilston.
- Frank Bealey, political scientist, pioneer in the academic study of politics.
- Sir Bruce Forsyth, entertainer, made his first public stage appearance, billed as "Boy Bruce, the Mighty Atom", aged 14 at the Theatre Royal in 1942.
- David Daker, actor, best-known role on TV was Harry Crawford in Boon
- Dennis Turner, local MP, 1987 to 2005, life peer, granted the title Baron Bilston
- Michael Lyons, sculptor, prominent works on display at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
- Steve Woolam, violinist, one of the founding members of the Electric Light Orchestra.
- Don Powell, drummer in the band Slade.
- James Fleet, actor, played Tom in the romantic comedy film Four Weddings and a Funeral.
- Jane Owen, politician and diplomat, the current Governor of the Cayman Islands
- Sonita Gale, documentary filmmaker, made the film Hostile which showcased the Home Office hostile environment policy.
Sport
- Jack Holden, a long-distance runner
- Edith Atkins, racing cyclist and a prolific breaker of long-distance records
- Reg Lewis, footballer, who scored both goals for Arsenal in their 2–0 victory over Liverpool in the 1950 FA Cup final.
- Bert Williams, football goalkeeper, played 406 games including 381 with Wolves and 24 with England.
- Bill Shorthouse, football player and coach, who played 344 games for Wolves.
- Dennis Gordon, footballer who played 277 games for Brighton
- George Showell footballer who played 200 games for Wolves.
- Maureen Tranter, retired sprinter, competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics
- Ron Pountney former footballer who played 347 games for Southend United F.C.
- Mark Grew, football goalkeeper, played 277 games including 184 for Port Vale
Transport