Situated on the River Stour, the town lies around 11 miles (18 kilometres) west of Birmingham, at the southwestern edge of the Black Country conurbation.

It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley at the southwestern edge of the Black Country and the West Midlands conurbation, Stourbridge includes the villages and suburbs of Amblecote, Lye, Norton, Oldswinford, Pedmore,Stambermill, Stourton, Wollaston, Wollescote and Wordsley.

Bordered by green belt land, Stourbridge is close to countryside with the Clent Hills to the south and southwest Staffordshire and Kinver Edge to the west.

[3] It lay within the manor of Swynford or Suineford (now Oldswinford), which appears in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book of 1086.

Following the Local Government Act 1972, Stourbridge was amalgamated into the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley and became part of the wider West Midlands county in 1974.

The local clay proved particularly suitable for the industry, taken up predominantly after the immigration of French coal miners in the Huguenot diaspora.

The rich natural resources of coal and fireclay for lining furnaces made it the perfect location for the industry.

Of particular note are glass cutters, as 8.1% had come from Ireland, believed to be as a result of the decline of the Irish glasscutting industry in the first half of the 1800s.

The houses inhabited by glassworkers were of a much better quality in comparison to the slums in which the nailmakers of Lye and Wollescote lived.

The next phase of regeneration on the foundry site will create parkland next to Stourbridge Canal with a "heritage and community hub" named Riverside House.

Stourbridge Farmers' and Craft Market takes place on the first and third Saturday of every month in the Clock Square.

However the line towards Dudley remains open for freight as far as the Round Oak Steel Terminal north of Brierley Hill.

[14] Most services are operated by National Express West Midlands and Diamond Bus which offer links to local areas such as Wollaston and Pedmore, and further destinations like Birmingham,Wolverhampton and Kidderminster.

[21] In the late-1980s and early 1990s, three Stourbridge indie bands – The Wonder Stuff, Pop Will Eat Itself and Ned's Atomic Dustbin – all had chart success, selling millions of albums between them and gracing the covers of NME and Melody Maker.

[22] Pop Will Eat Itself's former frontman Clint Mansell has since composed musical scores for films including Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream.

The 80s metal bands Diamond Head, Witchfinder General and 80s pop band Kayran Dache also came from Stourbridge and Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant once attended King Edward VI College (then King Edward VI Grammar School for Boys).