DUDLEY, a market-town and parish, in the lower division of the hundred of HALFSHIRE, county of WORCESTER, though locally in the southern division of the hundred of Offlow, county of Stafford, 26 miles (N.N..E,) from Worcester, and 127 (N.W. byN.) from London, containing 18,211 inhabitants. This place derives its name from Dodo, or Dudo, a Saxon prince, to whom it belonged at the time of the Heptarchy, and who built a eastle.here about the year 700, which was afterwards, during the contest between Stephen and the Em press Matilda, garrisoned for the latter, by Gervase Paganell, to whom the barony at that time belonged. Gervase having subsequently, taken part in the rebellion of Prince Henry against his father, Henry II., his castle -was demolished in the 20th year of that monarch's- ,reign. Roger de Somery having obtained possession. of the barony, began to convert his mansion into a. castle, and for his firm adherence to Henry III., in his wars with the barons, was permitted by his sove- reign to complete the fortifications. In the early part of the parliamentary war the castle was garrisoned by the royalists, and .in 1644 defended by Colonel Beaumont with great bravery against the parliamentarians, who were compelled to raise, the siege by the arri- val of a detachment from Worcester; it does not appear to have been repaired after the damage it sustained during the siege, and an accidental fire, which, occurred in 1750, is said to have completed its demolition. The castle.was built on an extensive and elevated limestone rock, the summit and acclivities of which are richly wooded;. the remains, which are extensive and highly interesting, consist of the gateway-tower leading into the outer court, the keep, of ponderous strength,. situated oa a lofty mount of artificial elevation, part of the postern tower, the walls and windows of the state apartments, the kitchens, and other offices; the site is extra-parochial. The prevailing character is that of the early decorated style of English architecture, of which there are several fine portions remaining, intermixed with others of the later English style. The grounds are very extensive, and have been beautifully laid out in shrubberies and walks, affording a succession of different views of this highly picturesque ruin. About half a mile from the town was a monastery of Cluniac monks, founded about the year 1161, by Gervase Paganell, and dedicated to St. James, as a cell to the abbey at Wenlock, the revenue of which, at the dissolution, was £36. 3.: there are still considerable remains, forming an interesting feature in the view from the castle hill; and near them, the Earl of Dudley has erected within the last few years a handsome building, which, from its proximity to the ruins, is called the priory, in the later style of English architecture, as a residence for his mining agent. The town is pleasantly situated in a tract of country, the surface of which is finely varied, though in several places disfigured by mining operations, which are extensively prosecuted in the vicinity; the principal street is spacious, and the whole town is well paved, and lighted with gas; the houses are in general neat and well built, and many of them are large and elegant; the inhabitants are supplied with water from wells of considerable depth; and the environs, besides the castle hill, which is a favourite place of resort, abound with pleasant walks and rides. A public subscription library, established in 1805, contains an extensive collection of books: assemblies are held occasionally at the hotel. The trade arises chiefly from the geological character of the neighbourhood, which is remarkable for the variety and extent of its mines of coal and iron-stone, lying on each side of a line of basaltic rock and limestone. Among the beds of coal is one vein of excellent quality and extraordinary thickness, called the "Ten-Yard coal," which is supposed to be now nearly exhausted; other strata, but much thinner, have been found at a greater depth from the surface within the last twenty years, and many other mines have been discovered in the neighbourhood, which supply the great consumption of the surrounding iron-works and manufacturing places; the produce, by means of the canals, is also conveyed to several of the inland counties. The iron manufacture is carried on to a very considerable extent; a large quantity of ore is smelted in the neighbourhood, and the metal is not only formed into pigs, bars, sheets, and rods, but in extensive foundries cast into every kind of article for use or ornament, and manufactured into implements of agriculture, and tools of every description; the vicinity, for a circuit of several miles, abounds with nail-manufacturers. The limestone is used for various purposes": exclusively of what is consumed in the iron-works, a cori- siderable quantity is burnt for agricultural uses, and some is manufactured into chimney-pieces, which are much admired for the beauty and variety of the fossils with which the stone abounds. The basalt is chiefly obtained in the adjoining parish of Rowley, and is well adapted to the purpose of making and repairing roads, being little, if at all, inferior to granite. The manufacture of flint-glass is carried on extensively, and there are several cutting-mills. Here is a brewery; and the business done in malting is very considerable. A tunnel, one mile and three quarters in length, thirteen feet high, aud nine feet wide, has been cut through the rock on which the castle is built, for the conveyance of the limestone from the caverns under the castle hill, in which it is procured, to the kilns; it is in some places more than twenty yards below the surface, and forms a communication with the Birmingham and Stourbridge canals. The market is on Saturday: the fairs are on May 8th, for cattle, cheese, and wool; August 5th, for lambs; and October 2nd, for horses, cattle, cheese, and wool. The town, though formerly a borough, having re- turned two members to parliament in the 23d of Edward I., is within the jurisdiction of the county magistrates; a mayor, bailiff, and other officers are appointed annually at the court leet of the lord of the manor, but exercise no magisterial authority. An application is at present being made for the renewal of certain privileges, under an ancient charter which is said to have been granted to the town. Dudley formerly comprised the parishes of St. Thomas and St. Edmund, now united, the church of the former being parochial, and that of the latter used as a chapel of ease. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Worcester, rated in the Icing's books £7.18. 6., and in the patronage of the Earl of Dudley. The church of St. Thomas was rebuilt in 1819, at an expense of £23,000, of which sum, £ 7600, including £2000 contributed by the Earl of Dudley, was raised by subscription, and the remainder by a rate; it is a handsome structure in the later style of English architecture, with an elegant and lofty spire, and is not only an ornament to the town, but from its elevated situation forms a fine feature in the landscape. The church of St. Edmund having been demolished during the parliamentary war, was afterwards rebuilt, chiefly at the expense of two brothers of the name of Bradley, assisted by a subscription among the parishioners, about the commencement of the last century. At Netherton another large chapel of ease, dedicated to St. Andrew, has recently been erected, by grant from the parliamentary commissioners, the site having been given by the Earl of Dudley. There are three places of worship for the Primitive, one for the Kilhamites, and two for the Wesleyan, Methodists, and one each for Baptists, the Society of Friends, Independents, and Unitarians. The free grammar school was founded in 1562, by Thomas Wattewood, clothier, of Stafford, and Mark Bysmor, of London, still-worker, and endowed by letters patent of Queen Elizabeth, with land, the present annual rental of which is from £300 to £400: out of this the master receives a salary of about £200: the average number of scholars is from thirty to forty, who are admitted by the master as soon as they can read, and may remain until fit for the University. Besides the classics, they are tanght mathematics, history, geography, French, Italian, &c., the course of study being varied according to circumstances. Under the superintendence of the present master, the school has much improved. A charity school, for clothing and educating forty girlsi and another charity, for clothing seven poor men, were established on the 3rd, and enrolled in Chancery on the 19th, of June, 1819, by Mrs. Cartwright, in consequence of a legacy bequeathed for that purpose by the Rev. Henry Antrobus, formerly minister of St. Edmund's, who died about forty, years ago: the girls are taught to read, knit, and sew, and are brought up in the principles of the established church. A school, for clothing and instructing fifty boys was founded in 1732, and endowed with land, by Messrs Robert and Samuel, and Mrs. Ann, Baylis; the school-room has been recently rebuilt, and, exclusively of those on the foundation, about two hundred other boys are now educated, the funds having much increased, from the improvement of the land, &c.: the school is now under the care of the Unitarians. The.Blue-coat school was founded in 1708, in which there are now about two hundred and thirty boys; part of the funds is applied to the support of an infant school recently established. A school of industry has been established, in which two hundred and twenty girls are educated and taught to work. The. Unitarians also support a similar school for girls, the number at present being about eighty. In Lady-wood is a valuable spring, called the Spa .Well, in high estimation for its efficacy in cutaneous disorders,. and complaints arising from indigestion. There are also several chalybeate springs. In the lime quarries a fossil, called the Dudley locust, is found in great numbers and variety of size, and supposed to be a petrifaction of an extinct species of the monoculus. About a quarter of a mile from the town is a tract of country, comprising about twenty acres, vulgarly called the Fiery Holes, from, which smoke .-continually issues, and sometimes flame; veins of coal underneath are supposed to have been set on fire by some accident, and to have continued burning ever since. Richard Baxter, the celebrated non-conformist divine in the reign of. Charles II., was for some time master of one of the. schools in this parish. Dudley confers the title of earl on the family of Ward.