WEDNESBURY, a market-town and parliamentary borough of Staffordshire, England, is situated near the source of the Tame, on the Great Western and London and North-Western railway lines, 8 miles north-west of Birmingham, and 136½ miles north-west of London. The church of St Bartholomew, a fine building in the Perpendicular style, is supposed to occupy the site of a heathen temple to Woden, and some remains of the ancient castle adjoin it. The church was erected probably in the 11th century, and from 1301 the advowson, tithes, &c., belonged to the abbot of Halesowen until 1535. It was partially rebuilt towards the close of the 15th century, and restored in 1766, in 1827, in 1878, andin 1885. Among other public buildings are the town-hall (1871-72), the free library in the Gothic style (1878), containing about 9000 volumes, the Liberal club (1875), the assembly rooms, the public baths, and the temperance hall. The neighbourhood of Wednesbury has been long celebrated for its iron and coal mines, the coal being unequalled as fuel for the smith’s forge. A special kind of iron ore is obtained which is manufactured into axes and other edge-tools. The town possesses large steel and iron works, the more important manufactures being those of the large kind of iron work used by railway companies (such as bridges, cranes, switches, roofs, wheels, axletrees, boiler-plates, and rails), water, steam, and gas pipes, and various kinds of wroughtiron work. The population of the urban sanitary district (area 2124 acres), which is identical with the township, in 1871 was 25,030, and in 1881 it was 24,566. In 1811 the population was only 5372. Until 1885 the parliamentary borough had an area of 11,340 acres, with a population in 1871 of 116,809 and in 1881 of 124,437. West Bromwich, ...