Did You Know?

The Industrial Revolution changed Walsall from a village of 2,000 people in the 16th century to a town of over 86,000 in approximately 200 years. The town manufactured a wide range of products including saddles, chains, buckles and plated ware.

The Crown Wharf retail park, the art gallery and the Waterfront has been a great thing for Walsall but the town centre itself has always thrived in its own right.

Walsall is known as the leather and saddle making capital of Britain.

Walsall is the traditional home of the English saddle manufacturing industry, hence the nickname of Walsall Football Club, "the Saddlers. It also has a leather museum because in the past, Walsall also makes leather hand bags for the queen!

Walsall began as a small Saxon village. It is first mentioned in the early 11th century. The name Walsall may be derived from the words Saxon word Walh halh, which means Celt's valley.

By our standards Medieval Walsall was very small. Its exact population is not known but it was not more than 1,500. The town consisted of just a dozen small streets. At first many of the people made a living from farming but increasingly Walsall became an industrial centre.

In 1824 an Act of Parliament set up a body of men called Improvement Commissioners with powers to pave, clean and light the streets. Walsall gained gas light in 1826. The railway reached them in 1847.

Local landmark Barr Beacon is the highest point on its latitude going east until the Ural Mountains in Russia.

Walsall underwent modernisation in the 1970s with a new town centre being built at the expense of some medieval properties. In 1974, Walsall was transferred from the county of Staffordshire to form the metropolitan county of the West Midlands. 

Walsall was home to a horse racing course. The grandstand was constructed in 1809 at a cost of £1,300 on a piece of land donated by the Earl of Bradford on a lease of 99 years. Soon after completion, one of the lower compartments was converted into a billiards room, which contained a table donated by Lord Chichester Spencer of Fisherwick Park. Throughout the 19th century, races were held annually at the racecourse at Michaelmas.