Made in Walsall - Softcover

Glasson, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0752435663 ISBN 13: 9780752435664

Publisher: The History Press LTD, 2005

Synopsis

Walsall's history as a great manufacturing centre can be traced back beyond the start of the Industrial Revolution. Coal mining had been taking place since the fourteenth century and metalworking was almost as old an industry. Over the following centuries Walsall grew to be the centre of a myriad of specialist metal and leather-working trades, and its craftsman and women enjoyed a worldwide reputation for their skills. At Darlaston there was the gunlock trade, as Willenhall, lock manufacturers, and awl blade making at Bloxwich. Leather-working grew to predominate but even David Lloyd George commented in 1907 that Walsall had 'a greater variety of trades than probably any town in England'. During both wars, Walsall's industries supplied the war of its larger engineering companies, the large car component manufacturing Rubery Owen amongst them. Darlaston alone lost 20,000 jobs. The history of the trades, many now long gone, is fascinating and is told with insight by Michael Glasson, senior Curator if Walsall Museums.

About this edition

• Publisher: The History Press LTD
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0752435663
• ISBN 13: 9780752435664
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128