Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

Wolverhampton is recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 as being in the Hundred of Seisdon and the county of Staffordshire. The lords of the manor are listed as the canons of St Mary, with the tenant-in-chief being Samson, William the Conqueror's personal chaplain. Wolverhampton at this date is a large settlement of fifty households.

In 1179, there is mention of a market held in the town, and, in 1204, it had come to the attention of King John that the town did not possess a Royal Charter for holding a market. This charter for a weekly market held on a Wednesday was eventually granted on 4 February 1258 by Henry III.

It is held that in the 14th and 15th centuries that Wolverhampton was one of the "staple towns" of the woollen trade, which can be seen today by the inclusion of a woolpack on the city's coat of arms, and by the many small streets, especially in the city centre, called "Fold", as well as Woolpack Street and Woolpack Alley.

In 1512, Sir Stephen Jenyns, a former Lord Mayor of London and a twice Master of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, who was born in the city, founded Wolverhampton Grammar School, one of the oldest active schools in Britain.

From the 16th century onwards, Wolverhampton became home to a number of metal industries, including lock and key making, and iron and brass working.

Wolverhampton suffered two great fires: the first in April 1590 and the second in September 1696. Both fires started in today's Salop Street. The first fire lasted for five days and left nearly 700 people homeless, whilst the second destroyed 60 homes in the first five hours. This second fire led to the purchase of the first fire engine within the city in September 1703.

On 27 January 1606, two farmers, Thomas Smart and John Holyhead of Rowley Regis, were executed on High Green, now Queen Square, for sheltering two of the Gunpowder Plotters, Robert Wintour and Stephen Littleton, who had fled to the Midlands. The pair played no part in the original plot nevertheless suffered a traitor's death of being hanged, drawn and quartered on butcher's blocks set up in the square a few days before the execution of Guy Fawkes and several other plotters in London.

There is evidence that Wolverhampton may have been the location of the first working Newcomen Steam Engine in 1712.

A few years before she began her reign, Queen Victoria visited Wolverhampton in the 1830s and described it as "a large and dirty town", but one that received her "with great friendliness and pleasure." In Victorian times, Wolverhampton grew to be a wealthy town mainly due to the huge amount of industry that occurred as a result of the abundance of coal and iron deposits in the area. The remains of this wealth can be seen in local houses such as Wightwick Manor and The Mount (both built for the prominent varnish and paint manufacturers, the Mander family) as well as Tettenhall Towers. All three are located in the western fringe of Wolverhampton, in the areas known as Wightwick and Tettenhall. Many other houses of similar stature were demolished in the 1960s and 1970s.

Wolverhampton gained its first parliamentary representation as part of the Reform Act 1832, when it was one of 22 large towns that were allocated two members of Parliament. A local mob attacking electors who voted or intended to vote for the Tory candidate led to the 1835 Wolverhampton riot, with dragoons being called in to end the intimidation. Wolverhampton was incorporated as a municipal borough on 15 March 1848, under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, before becoming a county borough in 1889. It was represented politically in Victorian times by Charles Pelham Villiers, a Liberal MP and noted free trade supporter who was also the longest-serving MP in parliamentary history. Lord Wolverhampton, Henry Hartley Fowler was MP for Wolverhampton at the turn of the century.

The railways reached Wolverhampton in 1837, with the first station located at Wednesfield Heath, now Heath Town, on the Grand Junction Railway. This station was demolished in 1965, but the area exists as a nature reserve just off Powell Street.

Wolverhampton railway works was established in 1849 for the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway and became the Northern Division workshop of the Great Western Railway in 1854.