Willenhall, United Kingdom

During the 10th century, Willenhall was in the Shire of Stafford and The Hundred of Offlow (unit of a 100 villages), consisting of 30 households and a population of around 120. In the Middle Ages, Willenhall was included in the parish of St. Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton. Although there was a church in the village, people would have to travel to Wolverhampton for weddings and funerals. It was not until 1840 that Willenhall had a parish church. St. Giles was the first church to be built. The present church is the third on the site, dating from 1867. The River Tame flows through the churchyard and was until recent years one of the few places where the water surfaced.

Willenhall was a small agricultural village throughout the Middle Ages. From Tudor times, the natural mineral wealth began to be exploited with ore being sent out to charcoal furnaces in nearby Cannock Chase. The iron product was then returned to be turned into small metal goods. Nails were a common product and by the end of 17th century Willenhall had a healthy hand trade, making grid irons, curry combs, bolts, latches and coffin handles. According to the Hearth Tax Returns in 1665, Willenhall comprised 136 households and 894 persons and the largest building in the area was the Leveson Manor House. The population did not increase dramatically until the 18th century when iron and coal began to be fully exploited. The town grew up around the Market Place and Stafford Street with many tiny streets crammed with houses, workshops and pubs. Evidence of the town's growing prosperity is still visible today in the Dale House, once the home of the Hincks family, and 33 Market Place, the home of the Clemsons, both maltsters.

Willenhall suffered its very own great fire in 1659, when most of the town centre was devastated. Most common homes at this time were still made of wattle and daub with glassless wind-eyes (windows), properties easily razed by fire. Rebuilding where money allowed was in brick; The Bell Inn Public House being a good surviving example from 1660, although now closed for business and in the ownership of a local heritage trust (the Willenhall Townscape Heritage Initiative).

Willenhall's first workhouse opened in 1741 adjacent to what is now Upper Lichfield Street; it was in operation for 100 years before merging with Wolverhampton. By 1801, the population was 3,143.

Poor housing and lack of any proper sanitation led to a cholera epidemic in 1849 when 292 people died. Many of those who died were buried in the Cholera Burial Ground "on land at the bottom of Doctors Piece." A commemorative plaque at the site reads:THE PARISH OF WILLENHALL WAS VISITED BY CHOLERA IN 1849.THE FIRST DEATH BY THAT DISEASE TOOK PLACE ON THE 17TH AUGUST, THE LAST ON 4TH OCTOBER. IN 49 DAYS 292 PERSONS DIED, THE CHURCHYARD OF ST GILES BEING TOO CROWDED FOR FURTHER INTERMENT, THIS GROUND, A PORTION OF THE CHURCH ESTATE WAS (WHILE YET UNCONSECRATED) FIRST USED FOR BURIALS ON THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER. ON THREE DAYS THE BURIALS WERE 15 DAILY THE WHOLE NUMBER INTERRED HERE AND IN THE CHURCHYARD BEING 211.

The epidemic shocked the town into improving conditions, and in 1854 the Willenhall Local Board of Health was founded: to reflect a growth in civic pride, it established a library building in Clemson Street in 1866. The board was a forerunner of Willenhall Urban District Council which took over in 1894.

The clock in the Market Place was erected in 1892 by public subscription to the memory of Joseph Tonks, who was a doctor working in the town post-cholera. About the clock, Hackwood writes: This was erected, as an inscription upon it testifies, as a memorial to the late Joseph Tonks, surgeon. "whose generous and unsparing devotion in the cause of alleviating human suffering" was "deemed worthy of public record."

Tonks brought both health and sanitation to Willenhall but died at the age of 35.

Willenhall was formerly a township in the parish of Wolverhampton, in 1866 Willenhall became a separate civil parish, in 1894 Willenhall became an urban district, the district contained the civil parish of Willenhall and from 1934 the parish of Short Heath. On 1 April 1966 the district was abolished and merged with the County Borough of Walsall and the County Borough of Wolverhampton, part also went to Cannock Rural District. The parish was also abolished on 1 April 1966 and merged with Walsall, Wolverhampton and Essington. In 1961 the parish had a population of 32,352.

By 1901, the population of "Willenhall, minus Short Heath" was 18,515.