The name Walsall is derived from "Walh halh", meaning "valley of the Welsh", referring to the British who first lived in the area.

The Act provided facilities for the poor, improving and extending the sewerage system and giving the commissioners the powers to construct a new gas works.

The town also has a memorial to local VC recipient, John Henry Carless[4] and decorated air ace Frederick Gibbs.

The first Wurlitzer theatre organ in Great Britain was installed in the New Picture House[17] cinema in Lower Bridge Street in the town centre.

These were concentrated in areas to the north of the town centre such as Coal Pool, Blakenall Heath (where Walsall's first council houses were built in 1920), Goscote and Harden.

Primark and The Co-operative have opened in the former Tesco store, after the supermarket chained moved to Littleton Street on the site of Walsall College.

On 23 November 1981, an F1/T2 tornado touched down in Bloxwich and later moved over parts of Walsall town centre and surrounding suburbs, causing some damage.

Many of the town's 1960s tower blocks have been demolished, as well as interwar council housing in parts of Blakenall Heath and Harden, along with all of the Goscote estate.

[24] Early 2000 saw the opening of The New Art Gallery Walsall in the north-west of the town centre near Wolverhampton Street, along with the new Crown Wharf Retail Park shortly afterwards.

A new Asda store opened in 2007 and when completed St Matthew's Quarters will also include brand shops and modern flats.

In 2010 Tesco opened a new 10,000 sq ft (930 m2) shopping complex upon the former site of Walsall College, which moved to its new Wisemore Campus the year prior.

[28] However, the building became vacant again on 14 August 2011 when financial difficulties led to T.J. Hughes pulling out of the town after less than two years of trading.

[30] A local landmark is Barr Beacon, which is reportedly the highest point following its latitude eastwards until the Ural Mountains in Russia.

Apart from leather goods, other industries in Walsall include iron and brass founding, limestone quarrying, small hardware, plastics, electronics, chemicals and aircraft parts.

The three largest businesses by turnover in the borough are all involved with the storage and distribution of retail goods to an associated network of high street or cornershop stores.

Poundland Ltd (owned by South African giant Steinhoff), A F Blakemore and Sons Ltd and One Stop Stores Ltd (part of Tesco plc) turn over more than £4.5bn annually between them.

In 1821, St Matthew's Church was demolished with exception of the tower and chancel and replaced at a cost of £20,000[10] to a design by Francis Goodwin.

[33] St Martin's Church was consecrated in 1960 to serve the suburban housing estates of Orchard Hills, Brookhouse and Park Hall.

The Catholic St Mary's Church was built in 1827, designed by Joseph Ireland and is a Grade II* listed building.

In Chuckery, in the southeast of Walsall, lies Anjuman-e-Gosia Mosque, and Jamia Masjid Ghausia is located in the Birchills neighbourhood.

Services from St Paul's bus station leave Walsall serving Birmingham; Wolverhampton and Willenhall; north to Bloxwich, Cannock and Brownhills; and east to Sutton Coldfield and Aldridge.

Bradford Place mainly operates buses to the south and south-west, to West Bromwich, Bilston, Willenhall, Darlaston, Oldbury, Dudley and Merry Hill Centre.

There are also numerous shorter bus routes leaving from both stations which give the town centre a link to housing estates including Alumwell, Beechdale, Chuckery, Gility Village, Park Hall and the Walsall Manor Hospital.

The corridor section from Walsall to Wednesbury Town has been preserved for freight traffic to use to Round Oak Steel Terminal in the near future.

[45] Originally white bulbs in trees for courting couples in the autumn, in the 1960s and 1970s, the lights were purchased secondhand from Blackpool Illuminations, but over the years they were increasingly made "in house" and now all are.

[46] Although the event had attracted an estimated 250,000 people in 1995, lack of growth beyond this figure has raised the prospect of major redevelopment as the light shows have been exactly the same for a number of years.

Named, as was its predecessor, the E M Flint Gallery in memory of Ethel Mary Flint, head of art at Queen Mary's Grammar School, an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, and a former mayor of Walsall, it contains a large number of works by Jacob Epstein as well as works by Van Gogh, Monet, Turner, Renoir and Constable.

There are three works in the town centre by the sculptor Tom Lomax: "Walsall Saddle" and "Nombelisk" in Bradford Street, and "Source of Ingenuity" in The Bridge.

More recently the comic novelist Paul McDonald has used Walsall as a location for Surviving Sting (2001) and Kiss Me Softly, Amy Turtle (2004).

Soon after completion, one of the lower compartments was converted into a billiards room, which contained a table donated by Lord Chichester Spencer of Fisherwick Park.