WEDNESBURY, (Staffordshire) or WEEDSBURY, on the Tame, near Darlaston, was fortified heretofore by Adelfleda, governess of
the Mercians, and was at the Conquest the ancient demesne of the crown; but in the R. of Henry II. was given to the
Heronviles, from whom it went to the Beaumonts, and from them to the Comberfords. There is great quantity of an excellent
sort of pit-coal here, which some prefer before channel-coal, it burning away with a sweet bright flame into white ashes;
and here is that sort of iron ore called bland-metal, which is used to make nails and horse-shoes, and all sorts of heavy
tools, as hammers, axes, &c. Here lived the ancestors of the Pagets Earls of Uxbridge. There are vessels of divers sorts
made here, which are painted with a reddish sort of earth dug hereabouts, which they call slip.