Darlaston's location on the South Staffordshire coalfield led to the early development of coal mining and associated industrial activities.

So, for example, in 1698 Timothy Woodhouse was manager of the coal mines belonging to Mrs. Mary Offley, then the lady of the manor.

Rapid industrial growth in the early decades of the 19th century brought with it problems of housing, poverty, and deprivation.

Development was driven by the presence of excellent transport links: the Birmingham Canal Navigations and Grand Junction Railway.

Artist Thomas F. Worrall was born in the Woods Bank area in 1872, where his father worked as a blacksmith.

Notable beneficiaries of nineteenth-century industrialisation were the Rose family whose fortune had been made by astute enclosure of common land.

His brother was James Rose, shown in the 1871 census as a latch, bolt, and nut maker, employing 39 people, including 19 children.

A Luftwaffe bombing on 5 June 1941 wrecked several council houses in Lowe Avenue, Rough Hay, and killed 11 people.

In 2011 a total of 15 derelict sites in the town were designated as enterprise zones offering tax breaks and relaxed planning laws to any businesses interested in setting up bases in the selected areas.

These enterprise zones are expected to create thousands of jobs and ease the town's long-running unemployment crisis, which has deepened since 2008 as a result of the recession.

Bentley Hall was one of several country houses where in 1651 – after the Battle of Worcester – the future Charles II was sheltered, here by Colonel John Lane.

The future king finally escaped disguised as the servant of Jane Lane, the colonel's sister.

The main building now houses local Social Services departments, while the hall continues to be used for public meetings, concerts of music and other entertainments.

[18] The site dates back to early medieval times,[19] and the church registers begin in 1539 and are held at the county archives in Stafford.

[20] A grant from the UK Heritage Lottery Fund enabled the complete redecoration of the church's interior in 2018.

Services run to Lodge Farm, Bentley, Willenhall, The Lunt, Bilston, Wolverhampton, Moxley, Walsall, Pleck, Wednesbury, and West Bromwich.

Local operator Thandi previously had a large presence in Darlaston up until 2023 when the business closed their commercial bus services.

The A4038 links the A4444 Black Country New Road and the A41 Black Country New Road and Moxley High Street to Walsall Via Darlaston and Pleck Since 1999, there has been a West Midlands Metro stop at Bradley Lane in the Moxley area of the town.