BILSTON, formerly Bilsreton, a market-town of England, in the county of Stafford, 2∣ miles S.E. of Wolverhampton, indebted for its importance to the iron trade, which it carries on in various departments. In the vicinity are very productive mines of coal and ironstone, as well as sand of the finest quality for casting, and grindingstones for cutlers. Bilston contains numerous furnaces, forges, rolling and slitting mills for the preparation of iron, and a great variety of factories for japanned and painted goods, brass-work, bells, and similar articles. The town itself is very irregularly built; but it has some handsome buildings, as St Leonard’s and St Mary’s chapels, and the Roman Catholic chapel. The population of township, which is under an improvements commission, and forms part of the parliamentary borough of Wolverhampton, was, in 1871, 24,188.