Wednesbury (/ˈwɛnzbəri/[1] locally [ˈwɛnzbriː]) is a market town in the Sandwell district, in the county of the West Midlands, England - historically in Staffordshire.

[2] The substantial remains of a large ditch excavated in St Mary's Road in 2008, following the contours of the hill and predating the Early Medieval period, has been interpreted as part of a hilltop enclosure and possibly the Iron Age hillfort long suspected on the site.

[3] The first authenticated spelling of the name was Wodensbyri, written in an endorsement on the back of the copy of the will of Wulfric Spot, dated 1004.

She erected five fortifications to defend against the Danes at Bridgnorth, Tamworth, Stafford and Warwick, with Wednesbury in the centre.

Wednesbury's fort would probably have been an extension of an older fortification and made of a stone foundation with a wooden stockade above.

[6] In 1086, the Domesday Book describes Wednesbury (Wadnesberie) as being a thriving rural community encompassing Bloxwich and Shelfield (now part of Walsall).

During the Middle Ages the town was a rural village, with each family farming a strip of land with nearby heath being used for grazing.

In the 17th century Wednesbury pottery – "Wedgbury ware" – was being sold as far away as Worcester, while white clay from Monway Field was used to make tobacco pipes.

[10][11] Francis Asbury, Richard Whatcoat and the Earl of Dartmouth are among those who attended Methodist meetings, all to have a profound effect on the United States.

On the evening of 31 January 1916, Wednesbury was hit by one of the first wave of German Zeppelins aimed at Britain during the First World War.

[20] The first council houses in Wednesbury were built in the early 1920s, but progress was slow compared to nearby towns including Tipton and West Bromwich.

The cinema operator challenged this decision in court, claiming that the imposition of the condition was outside the corporation's powers.

[23] The Dangerfield Lane estate (developed during the interwar and early postwar years) was absorbed into Darlaston, which was now part of an expanded Walsall borough.

In 1974 West Bromwich amalgamated with Warley (i.e. Oldbury, Rowley Regis and Smethwick) to form the present-day borough of Sandwell.

On 21 December 1977, four siblings aged between 4 and 12 years died in a house fire in School Road, Friar Park, at the height of the national firefighters strike.

[26] On 24 September 1984, four pupils and a teacher from Stuart Bathurst RC High School were killed when their minibus was struck by a roll of steel which fell from the back of a lorry, on Wood Green Road close to the park keepers house.

[27] For well over 100 years, Wednesbury was dominated by the huge Patent Shaft steel works, which opened during the 19th century and closed in 1980.

The iron gates of the factory still exist and are mounted on the traffic island at Holyhead Road and Dudley Street.

[30] Dr Walter Chancellor Garman (1860–1923), a general practitioner, and his wife, Margaret Frances Magill[31][32] lived at Oakeswell Hall.

There were nine children, seven sisters and two brothers: Mary (1898), Sylvia (1899), Kathleen (1901), Douglas (1903), Rosalind (1904), Helen (1906), Mavin (1907), Ruth (1909) and Lorna (1911).

It runs from Wolverhampton to Birmingham, and the line for a proposed extension to Brierley Hill is currently being cleared ready for the new track bed and electrification.

[35][36] It will use sections of the South Staffordshire Line alongside freight traffic which will run from Walsall to Brierley Hill via Wednesbury Town and Dudley but freight traffic may start later than the metro due to relaying of the track and assessing the space required for the joint line to work.

Until 1972, the town was served by the former Great Western Railway line between Birmingham and Wolverhampton at Wednesbury Central station.

[40] Patent Shaft (part of the Cammel Laird group) steelworks was erected on land off Leabrook Road near the border with Tipton in 1840, serving the town for 140 years before its closure on 17 April 1980 – an early casualty of the recession.

Lloyd steelworks was formed at a site on Park Lane near the boundaries with Walsall and Darlaston during the 1880s, and provided employment for some 100 years.

[43] A Cargo Club supermarket-style retail warehouse, part of the Nurdin and Peacock group, opened in July 1994.

Lloyd steel plant from Triplex in 1988, and opened one of its first British stores on the site in January 1991, just 14 months after the development had been given the go-ahead.

Quantum print and packaging Limited employs 30 people since relocating to Wednesbury in 2013 from their Willenhall base.

[46] It begins: At Wednesbury there was a cocking, A match between Newton and Skrogging; The colliers and nailers left work, And all to Spittles' went jogging To see this noble sport.