It is in the Black Country, 2.5 miles (4 kilometres) south east of Wolverhampton city centre and close to the borders of Sandwell and Walsall.

Historically in Staffordshire, Bilston was a largely rural area until extensively developed for factories and coal mining in the 19th century.

It had been derelict for more than a decade after Wolverhampton Council discontinued its use as housing offices, but now operates as a venue for events, conferences, performances and occasions.

[12] Construction of the long-awaited Black Country Route began in the mid 1980s, although the final phase was not completed until July 1995, by which time Bilston had a direct unbroken dual carriageway link with Dudley, Walsall and the M5 Motorway.

It is also unusual in having a chamfered square tower, giving it an octagonal appearance, in being surmounted with a cupola, a golden globe with weather vane and a fenced viewing platform.

The Bilston coal mines were reputedly haunted by an evil spirit, so the miners brought in a local exorcist known as The White Rabbit.

[28] The bill for its construction stated that "the Primary and Principal Object of this Undertaking was and is to obtain a Navigation from the Collieries to this Town [ie Birmingham]".

[31] When the BCN New Main Line was built the Wednesbury section became a loop serving industry and collieries, the southern part of which was subsequently abandoned and filled in.

The final stub of the railway, connecting a town centre scrapyard with the South Staffordshire Line at Wednesbury, closed in 1992.

The town was set to be served by 2 new lines by 2024, with trams travelling to Stourbridge & Walsall, however budget constraints have put back the opening date to at least 2025.

Though initially running around one-half mile (800 metres) east of the A4123, it was extended in 1990 to Oxford Street in Bilston town centre.

During 1995, completion of the final phase of the Black Country Route between Bilston and Junction 10 of the M6 motorway led to an improvement in traffic flow in and around the town centre.

[33] Buses run from the bus station to Wolverhampton, Willenhall, Wednesfield, New Cross Hospital, Tipton, Dudley and Walsall.

Service 79 (Wolverhampton - West Bromwich) does not stop at the bus station, instead its route is along Wellington Road and Lichfield Street.

At the Bilston end of the Black Country Route can be seen the group of wooden statues designed by Robert Koenig and called "Steel Columns."

The artist William Harold Dudley as born in Bilston; several of his works are in the collection of Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

Bilston Carnival in the 60's travelled along Wellington Road before ending in Hickman Park where there would be Pat Collins' fun fair, horse jumping and an open air stage hosting various entertainment including wrestling and live music bands.

According to the Windsor and Eton Journal, Saturday 11 January 1862, Brandrick was hanged outside Stafford Jail that morning for the murder of John Bagott, a clothier and pawnbroker.

Two Wolverhampton men, Christopher Lewis and Marvin Walker, were found guilty of manslaughter on 25 April 2008 and sentenced to five and a half years in prison.

The jury at Birmingham Crown Court heard that the pair had frogmarched Owoo to the pool amid allegations that he had stolen a bicycle from one of the defendants.

A third man, Tobias Davies, received a 12-month prison sentence for assaulting Owoo, but had not been present when the other two men attacked him and chased him into the pool where he drowned.

[37] On 28 July 2009, 47-year-old Moxley pub landlord Swinder Singh Batth was shot dead in the town centre outside Gavin's Sports Bar.