WALSALL TOWN OF A HUNDRED TRADES WALSALL HAS BEEN

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WALSALL TOWN OF A HUNDRED TRADES WALSALL HAS BEEN

Walsall has been home to an amazing variety of trades and industries

Walsall: Town of a Hundred Trades

Walsall has been home to an amazing variety of trades and industries. Here are a few of them:

Metalworking

Walsall has a very long history of metalworking, in common with most West Midland towns. The local iron ore deposits were being worked by the 14^th century, and by the 16^th century the town was known for specialising in saddlers` ironmongery (bits, stirrups, spurs and other metalwork for the horse), as well as the making of items in brass and pewter. Over succeeding centuries a number of other specialist metalworking crafts developed such as the making of locks and keys- for which Willenhall became world famous- chains, buckles, horse brasses, hand tools (particularly for leatherworking), nuts and bolts, small metal castings of all kinds, galvanised products such as metal buckets, and electroplated wares. The late 19^th century saw the growth of heavy engineering firms which manufactured massive structures such as railway bridges and steel frameworks for entire buildings.

Clothing

Walsall`s best known clothing firm, John Shannon and Sons, employed some 2000 people in its Edwardian heyday. In the 1920s there were half a dozen manufacturers producing men`s and women`s shirts, overalls and suiting.

Electrical Fittings

Walsall has been home to a number of companies producing electrical equipment such as dynamos, electric motors and measuring instruments, and fittings such as plugs, sockets, switches and circuit breakers. Probably the best known company was JA Crabtree, whose extensive Lincoln Works was a local landmark until its demolition in the 1990s.

Plastics

The Streetly Manufacturing Co pioneered the production of high quality, brightly coloured plastics for everyday use in the 1930s, using their patented `Beetle` material. Another Walsall company, Alfred Stanley, produced countless plastic cap badges for the British armed services.

Printing

An important local industry, the best known firm probably being the Walsall Lithographic Co. whose speciality was the printing of trade catalogues for the local leather and metal working industries, and embossed labels of all shapes and sizes. The company went on to produce the world`s first self adhesive postage stamp (in 1964).

Food and Drink

Food and drink have been processed in the Borough as long as people have lived here - Domesday Book records a corn mill in Rushall (probably in the Butts area) in 1086 for example. Dozens of small businesses in the town once baked bread and brewed beer. Among the better known businesses in the 20^th century were Pelari`s ice creams (founded by an Italian immigrant, Giuseppi Pelari), Smith`s flour mills in Birchills, Mack`s pickles, and the Highgate Brewery, founded in 1899 and still brewing today.

Saddlery and Harness

A tannery existed in Walsall by the 15^th century, but the real growth in the local leather trades did not take place until the 19^th century when a number of local loriners ventured into making saddlery and harness. Within a few years Walsall had become the UK`s leading centre of saddlery and harness production, and by the 1890s there was a thriving export business supplying everything that could possibly be required for the horse. At their peak in 1900 the local leather trades employed close to 10,000 people. With the coming of the motor car the trade went into steep decline and it was only in the 1960s that it revived, as horse riding once again became a popular activity. Today Walsall is the leading European centre of the trade.

Fancy Leathergoods

The coming of the motor car forced local leather manufacturers to diversify into new products, as demand for saddlery and harness plummeted. For much of the 20^th century the industry was kept busy making fancy leathergoods (such as handbags, wallets, and purses), luggage, pet accessories, gloves, and sports goods such as footballs and golf bags. Although the trade is now much diminished in size, a number of companies (including two Royal warrant holders) still manufacture top quality leathergoods in the Borough.

Transport

Walsall companies have made bicycles, horse drawn coaches and carriages, canal boats, and parts for motor cars. Rubery Owen of Darlaston made chassis frames for motor cars, lorries and buses,(including one of the very first car frames, made in 1896) and Helliwells of Aldridge manufactured the celebrated Swallow Doretti sportscar.

Miscellaneous Products

Other Walsall-made items have included:

artificial teeth; baskets; bricks and tiles; cardboard boxes; clay plant pots; clogs; church bells; church organs; files and rasps; fittings for fish and chip shops; fishing tackle boxes; gas tubes; glue; golf clubs; gunlocks; horse grooming brushes; horse shoes; hydraulic presses; ice; iron fencing; mineral waters; patterns and moulds; pneumatic egg boxes; ropes and tents; rubbergoods; sacks; shaving brushes; spectacles; scales and weighing machines; tin chapels; tin openers; umbrellas; washing machines; wheelbarrows; wooden paving blocks; wooden water pipes and barrels….to name but a few!

M. Glasson, 2008

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