THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. XCII.—CENTRAL ENGLAND: STAFFORDSHIRE AND DERBYSHIRE :-THE TOWNS.-(CONTINUED.)

IVE have had already occasion several times to speak of Tamworth,— the Tamanweorthe, Tameneordige, and Tamawordina of Saxon times, and the Tanumwde of Domesday Book. This name is interpreted to mean " the island of the river Tame," at the junction of which river with the :biker the town is situated, the Tame running through the town and dividing it into two 'Arta—one of which, with the castle, is in Warwickshire, while the other, with the church, lies in Staffordshire, to which county, on that account, the town is generally considered to belong. Of the history of the castle from its Saxon origin in the time of Ethelfleda, and itsNorman tenure by Robert de Marmion, down to its becoming the property of the Marquis Townshend, we have already spoken. The town was of some importance in early Saxon times, King Offa, in the eighth century, and several of his successors dating 'their charters from the "royal palace" here. The Northmen totally destroyed it in their overwhelming inroad, but Ethelfleda rebuilt it, and made the castle her principal residence. For some time after the Norman Conquest it remained part of the Royal domain, and in Domesday Survey twelve burgesses are mentioned as belonging to the Staffordshire part of the town, viz., four in lit (Wiggington, a hamlet of the parish, about two miles north-east of the church) and eight in Draitone, (Drayton Bassett, about two miles south of Tamworth). In the Warwickshire portion of the town ten burgesses are mentioned. In the third year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth the town was incorporated, and two years afterwards first sent representatives to Parliament. The church, dedicated to St. Edith, or Editha—daughter of King Edgar, and Abbess of Polesworth Nunnery,—" who is buried here, is a very fine building, of decorated and perpendicular dates, with a handsome and conspicuous tower." Formerly, Tamworth was noted for its manufacture of superfine narrow woollen cloths, and it has still a few manufactories of calicoes, cottons, tapes, nails, &c. But it is chiefly dependent on the rich grazing district in which it is situated. The rich woods and finely watered meadows in the immediate neighbourhood give the place a peculiar rural beauty. A mile and a half south of the town is Fazeley, " where, in 1785, Mr. Robert Peel established his cotton mills, and promoted the construction of the canal by which Fazeley communicates with the Northern Counties." From this time the influence of the Peel family has been paramount in Tamwortb, two miles south of which is situated their residence of Drayton Manor, once the property of the Bassett family, and afterwards of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth, who visited him there once. Tamworth is at present a well-to-do town, with a (municipal) population (in 1861) of 4,326, though the incorporation of the agricultural districts around in the Parliamentary borough swells this number to more than 10,000. The population of the municipal borough in 1851 was 4,059.

Besides Lichfield, Stafford, and Tamworth, mention is made in Domesday Book of Tuteberie, i.e , Tutbury, on the Dove, ten mileseast south-east from Uttoxeter, as a market-town with 42 homines, and a castle. The castle played a celebrated part in English history, and its walls still " stand with imposing effect on a height, whose base is washed by the Dove. The circuit of the walls includes an area of three acres." A vast number of coins have been found since 1831 in the bed of the river Dove, which are believed to have formed the contents of a military chest lost by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, in crossing the river when he was driven out of Tutbury Castle by the royal forces in 1312. The whole parish of Tutbury has now (1861) only a population of 1,982, but the large church (restored in 1863),—a portion of the nave of the ancient priory, and containing some Norman work,—still attests the former importance of the place. In modern times some cotton-spinning has been carried on here, and rather extensive glass works.

A very different fate has attended another place in this county of Saxon origin,— Wolverhampton, about 16 miles south of Stafford, built on a rising ground, nearly 300 feet above the level of the sea. It stands on the edge of the "Black Country," " upon the thick bed of raw red sandstone which meets the great coal-field on its western extremity. The aspect is consequently manufacturing on the one side and agricultural ou the other." Of course the latter was the older source of the prosperity of the town, but it appears to have grown up under the protection of a monastery. Some think that King Wulfhere established this religious house in• 659. At any rate, three centuries later, in the reign of Ethelred H., Wulfruna (said to be the widow of Athelm, Duke or Earl of Northampton), obtained a charter to found or refound a monastery at lituntune—in the year 996. This was called after her, Wulfrunarhamtune, corrupted gradually into Wolverhampton. Wulfruna endowed the monastery with lands for the support of a dean and secular canons. These canons became so vicious in their lives that their dean, Peter Blesensis, after trying in vain all possible means to reclaim them, was compelled to surrender his deanery into the hands of Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, about the year 1200, beseeching him that Cistercians might be substituted in their stead. This, however, from some cause or other was not done, but the deanery and prebends were united by Edward IV. to that of Windsor, and so it continued till the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It was refounded by Queen Mary, whose Acts were .confirmed by James I. On the death of the dean in 1846, the collegiate establishment was dissolved by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the parish of St. Peter was made a rectory. " The fine old church of St. Peter, which occupies a conspicuous situation near the market-place, was begun in the reign of Edward III. ; but the magnificent tower and the clerestory were not completed till towards the close of the fifteenth century. The church since 1851 has been almost entirely restored," the pews and galleries in the nave still, however, disfiguring the building. There is a richly sculptured stone pulpit of about the year 1480. There are also several remarkable statues, old and modern, carvings, &c. "In the churchyard is a time-worn column, about

20 feet high, with rude sculptures of birds, griffins, spirally

arranged, and supposed," by some, " from the prominence apparently given to the raven, to have been erected by the Danes," or to commemorate some battle between them and the

Saxons.

Wolverhampton was once the great wool mart of the district. It did not, however, attain any considerable position till after the discovery of coal and iron in its neighbourhood. Its chief business at present, the lock trade (of which it is one of the centres), was introduced into South Staffordshire as early as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, "but did not flourish very extensively till the end of the seventeenth century, when it became one of the chief staple industries of the district. The locks of Wolverhampton are different from those of other districts, their security being effected principally by tumblers or levers," instead of "fixed wards." " One firm alone (Chubb and Sous) make about 30,000 locks per annum." The population, which " at the commencement of the coal and iron discovery was numbered by hundreds," had attained in 1861 to 60,860, while the Parliamentary borough reached 147,670, the parish being little short of 30 miles in circumference. The growth of the town was, however, for a long time retarded by the fact of the land being almost wholly Church land, " which was not a tenure sufficient to encourage people to lay out their money in erecting buildings." From this cause the population of the town in 1801 only reached 12,565. It is now a great hive of industry, singularly uninviting in a picturesque point of view, from the volumes of smoke disgorged from the numerous tall chimneys, but with every sign of vitality and rapid growth. There are now twelve churches, and several chapels of Dissenters, an Exchange, and several halls. " Besides its trade in tin and iron goods, and japanned and papier-mâché articles, it has become the seat of several large and important chemical and galvanizing works." There arc also several brass foundries, and coal and railway-carriage works. Its charter of incorporation dates from 1848, but it first returned two members to Parliament in 1832. It is of course well provided with railway communication. "The corporation have large reservoirs and water-works at Thtenhall," two miles distant, " conspicuous from the lofty tower attached thereto."

Walsall is situated on a rising ground, "on the eastern border of the South Staffordshire coal-field, and of the Warwickshire and Staffordshire iron district," seventeen miles south south-east from Stafford, nine miles from Lichfield, and eight from Birmingham, and is now an irregularly built and busy manufacting town, " the chief seat of the saddlery and harness trades, where nine-tenths of the bits and stirrups used in the kingdom are made. Upwards of 80 factories are kept employed in this branch." The town in its origin is of considerable antiquity. The manor (which is of large extent) belonged to Warwick, the " Kingmaker," and afterwards passed to the Dudleys. It has long been a corporate town, but did not return a member to Parliament till 1832. Its trade was much depressed at the close of the French Revolutionary wars, but has now entirely recovered. Its population in 1861 was 37,760.

We now come to the district of Staffordshire called the Potteries, and must first notice the old town of Newcastle-under-Lyme. This "is one of the most ancient towns in North Staffordshire, although, with the exception of a general old-fashioned aspect, it has very few remains of antiquity to show." It is built all on the side of a hill which separates it from Stoke-upon-Trent, sixteen miles north by west from Stafford, and about two miles from the north bank and near the source of the Trent. Its appellation "under-Lyme" is derived from limes, the boundary or border. It appears to be the lineal successor of Chesterton-under-Lyme, one mile and a half to the north-west, where a town and strong castle

existed (some think) anterior to the Conquest, and which .John bestowed on Randall, Earl of Chester. Camden (temp. Elizabeth) tells us lie saw their remains and shattered walls, and Erdeswick says that he could perceive the to walls have been of wonderful strength and thickness. But Dr. Plot could only discover a few traces of them in 1680, and they are now entirely obliterated.

Chesterton, as the name indicates, was also before the Saxon time the site of a Roman station, perhaps MEDIOLANUM. The place

went to decay as early as the time of Henry III., who, having granted itto his second son, Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, that prince built another castle at a short distance, and entirely neglected the more ancient one. This was the origin of New Castle, though the fortress bearing that name has suffered the fats of its predecessors. Leland says that in his time (Henry VIII.) the whole edifice was

destroyed, with the exception of one tower ; and now not a vestige is left. The town, however, which sprang up around it, has had a

more fortunate career. Henry III. granted it a charter of incorporation, which was confirmed by Elizabeth and Charles IL with other privileges. In the 27th of Edward III. it first sent representatives to Parliament. "Some parts of the church are old, and it has a remarkably lofty and well-proportioned tower, with a musical clock in it." Its chief manufacture is that of hats, which are prepared here and finished iu London. 'There's also one of shoes ; silk, cotton, and paper mills, and pottery works. Five fairs and five cattle-markets are held in the course of the year. Its population in 1861 was 12,938.

The modern pottery district includes within it the market towns of Burslem, Hanky, Lane End (with Longim1), Stoke, and 7'unstall Court. Of these, Stoke (upon Trent) is the " show place," " mainly owing to the beautiful collections of ceramic art established by the Copelands and Mintons." It " consists more of a long straggling series of townlets than of one distinct and compact town." The population of the parish was, in 1861, 71,308. It has returned (iu conjunction with several other places in the same district) one member to Parliament since 1832, this Parliamentary district having at the same period a population of 101,207.

Burstein, called sometimes, from having been the earliest scat of the earthenware manufacture, " The Mother of Potteries," is situated on the river Trent, 18 miles north by west from Stafford. It appears in Domesday Book as Butwardsleme, and in the time of the Stuarts was called the Butter Pottery, from there being there then a small manufactory of butter-pots. Dr. Plot (in 1686) mentions the different sorts of pots made there then from different sorts of clay dug up in the neighbourhood of the town. At the end of the seventeenth century its trade " included the manufacture of dishes, jugs, and other articles, all coloured, the white clay not being introduced till later on—from Cornwall. In 1720 the town contained 20 pottery ovens, and in 1759 Joseph Wedgwood began his first pottery in a small house called Ivy Cottage. At present, Burstein is a very flourishing place, containing about 22,000 inhabitants, all of whom are dependent more or less on some 34 earthenware and pottery establishments, dotted about the town and the suburbs of Cobridge and Lougport." The town is "well built and well arranged." A tramroad connects it with IIanley. There arc a modern school of art and public library erected as a memorial to Wedgwood, and Burslem is one of the few places " which has voluntarily assessed itself to a library-rate."