Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for STOURBRIDGE

STOURBRIDGE, a town, a township, two chapelries, a sub-district, and a district, in Worcester. The town stands on the river Stour, and on the West Midland railway, 12 miles W by S of Birmingham; was known as Bedcote till the time of Henry VI.; is supposed to cover the site of a monastery, founded in 736 by the Saxon Cynebalt; became the seat of an important and permanent glass-trade, through the settlement at it of refugees from Hungary and Lorraine in 1556; is a borough by prescription, a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling place; occupies a gentle eminence on the S bank of the river; consists of irregularly built streets, with aggregately good appearance; publishes a weekly newspaper; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, two banking offices, three chief inns, a recent court-house, a spacious modern market house, a corn exchange, two churches, six dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a mechanics' institute, a school of art, an endowed grammar-school with £462 a year, an endowed dissenting school, and a national school. Markets are held on every Friday and Saturday; fairs are held on the last Monday of March and the first Monday of Sept.; a great manufacture of bricks, crucibles, and other articles, from a peculiarly rich fire-clay, is carried on; and there are foundries, many glass-works, a brewery, a malt-house, a tanyard, and establishments employing upwards of 1,200 persons in hardware manufacture. Pop. in 1851, 7,847; in 1861, 8,166. Houses, 1,669.

The township includes all the town, and extends beyond it. Real-property, £23,646. Pop. in 1851, 8,327; in 1861, 8,783. Houses, 1,800.-The chapelries are St. John and St. Thomas, and the livings are p. curacies in the diocese of Worcester. Value of St. J., £177; of St. T., not reported. Patron, of St. J., the Earl of Dudley; of St. T., the Bishop of Worcester.—The sub-district consists of S. township, four other townships, and a hamlet; and is conterminate with Old Swinford parish.—The district includes also King-Swinford and Halesowen sub-districts, and comprises 16,200. Poor rates in 1863, £14,816. Pop. in 1851, 57,350; in 1861, 68,726. Houses, 13,416. Marriages in 1863, 560; births, 3,028, -of which 182 were illegitimate; deaths, 1,652,-of which 970 were at ages under 5 years, and 19 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 4,915; births, 27,306; deaths, 14,348. The places of worship, in 1851, were 14 of the Church of England, with 13,537 sittings; 5 of Independents, with 1,868 s.; 4 of Baptists, with 1,278 s.; 2 of Quakers, with 300 s.; 3 of Unitarians, with 636 s.; 10 of Wesleyans, with 4,034 s.; 11 of New Connexion Methodists, with 3,246 s.; 11 of Primitive Methodists, with 2,562 s.; 2 undefined, with 125 s.; 2 of Latter Day Saints, with 105 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 280 s. The schools were 33 public day-schools, with 4,708 scholars; 126 private day-schools, with 2,799 s.; 72 Sunday schools, with 9,679 s.; and 10 evening schools for adults, with 236 s. The workhouse is in King-Swinford.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a township, two chapelries, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Stourbridge CP/Tn       Stourbridge RegD/PLU       Worcestershire AncC
Place: Stourbridge

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