BILSTON, 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 rising ground, in the centre of an extensive
district abounding with numerous foundries, forges, furnaces,
steam-engines, and other 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,
screws, iron-gates, pallisades, 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 mamifactures 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 court of the
royal peculiar 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
more.