Bilston

What follows is taken from the Official Handbook published by Bilston Borough Council at the end of the 1950s.

It covers the amenities that were under the control of the council along with health, education, religion, public transport and industry.

In the late 1950s, Bilston was a thriving industrial borough with an expanding population.

population:
1801 - 5,600: 1811 - 9,640:
1832 - 14,492: 1852 - 24,000:
1923 - 28,000: 1930 - 31,160:
1947 - 31,970: 1951 - 33,464:
1953 - 33,420: 1957 - 33,960.

By this time the pre-war slum areas had been redeveloped, nearly 200 acres of land had been reclaimed for the building of houses and playing fields, along with 36 acres for the Loxdale Industrial Estate.

There were many good schools for children, employment was plentiful, the market and the local shops were thriving, and there was plenty of night life. The library and museum were extended and health care was well catered for by the Central Health Clinic.

It was almost a golden era, which in modern times has changed considerably.

Bilston Town Hall.

Chief Council Officers and Departmental Heads:
Town Clerk - A. M. Williams
Borough Treasurer - H. E. Carder
Medical Officer of Health - J. P. Neylon
Borough Engineer - A. F. B. Sidwick
Housing Director - C. R. Lawley
Chief Public Health Inspector - J. R. Tart
Housing Manager - A. Scott
Borough Librarian - H. G. Wood

A strong community spirit binds Bilston people together in their play as in their work. The Council is actively interested in housing conditions, the provision of sport and outdoor recreation facilities and also indoor amusement and social and cultural amenities in general. There are many organisations and societies in the Borough besides clubs and institutions for people of all ages as well as a number of cinemas which will be mentioned later.

During the last ten years or so the Council has gone ahead with building as speedily as possible even though it has been necessary to carry out large land reclamation works involving the removal of over a million tons of earth works. By the 31st October, 1947, the Council had completed 63 permanent houses and private enterprise another 16. At the same time 24 families were temporarily re-housed in converted premises. These figures compare favourably with those of 1919/20, for in 1919 the Council erected only 27 temporary houses and 30 in 1920, whilst permanent houses, including 2 built by private enterprise, totalled only 19 for those two years. The Council's 5,000th house was opened in 1957.

Special consideration has been given to the provision of accommodation for aged persons and bungalows have been erected at Ormond Place, Beckett Street the Rough Hills Estate and in the Temple Street redevelopment area. Shopping Centres have been established on all the Housing Estates and in addition the Council have constructed numerous lock-up garages on the various Estates.

Dwellings built in post-war years consist of houses of 1-6 bedrooms. Considerable variation has been provided in the types of houses erected which gives interest in the appearance of the estates. On Bradley Lane South a special feature has been the 2-storey flats. The 100 temporary houses "Arcon" type with two bedrooms, in Great Bridge Road, which for 10 years provided good accommodation for the tenants, have been demolished and the site redeveloped with the construction of 154 modern traditional type houses, flats and bungalows.

New houses in Ward Street.

Stow Lawn Estate.

Health Service

Bilston Council, prior to regionalisation of the health services, was responsible for the Mountford Lane Infectious Diseases Hospital. Hospital services are provided by the Royal Hospital, Wolverhampton; Wolverhampton and District Hospital for Women; and the Wolverhampton Eye Infirmary, all easily and quickly accessible from Bilston.

Bilston is fortunate in having health services for Maternity and Child Welfare and the County School Medical Services housed in the Centre Health Clinic. This modern building at the corner of Wellington Road and Prouds Lane was opened in February, 1940, by the Countess of Harrowby. Its initial cost was £16,000 and the excellent accommodation provided has greatly increased the efficiency of the services provided.

Infant Welfare Centres under the control of Staffordshire County Council are held each week on Monday and Thursday afternoons from 2-4 pm. at the Centre Health Clinic. Weekly attendances average 130. A fortnightly session is held at John Street, Ettingshall, on 1st and 3rd Tuesday afternoons from 2-4 pm. Ante-Natal Clinics are conducted here on Fridays at 9 am. and 1.30 pm. by Dr. J. A. Nagle. Average attendance is 28 mothers.

Eye Clinic: Mr. Campbell Orr interviews all mothers referred from the Welfare and Ante-Natal Clinics and babies and toddlers referred from the Welfare Centres at a special session held on Wednesday mornings. Diphtheria Immunisation: Children under school age may be immunised at the Infant Welfare Centres. Others are immunised by the School Medical Officer. Dental Clinics for ante-natal and nursing mothers and toddlers are arranged with the Dental Surgeon who attends daily. The average number of patients per session is ten. Minor Ailments Clinics are held each weekday from 9 am. to 12 noon. Eye Clinics: Mr. Campbell Orr is in attendance every Wednesday from 9 am. to 1 pm. Dental Clinics are held at 9.45 am. and 1.45 pm.

An ambulance service is operated by Staffordshire County Council from a main station at Richards Street, Darlaston, where a day and night service of both ambulance and sitting cars is provided.

The Day Nursery in Prouds Lane (for 10 babies and 20 toddlers), formerly provided by Bilston Council, is now controlled by Staffordshire County Council and is open Mondays to Fridays between 7.45 am. and 6.30 pm.

The Centre Health Clinic.

Education Facilities are provided in Bilston for primary and secondary modern education at 18 schools including four Church of England Schools and one Roman Catholic School. In Wellington Road is to be found the handsome brick-built Girls' High School set in well-planned grounds where secondary grammar school education is provided for girls. Similar facilities are available for boys at the Bilston Boys' Grammar School.

The Bilston College of Further Education was established in 1947 and was one of the first of such Colleges to be established under the 1944 Education Act. It has developed rapidly and has an annual enrolment of about 2,000 with an anticipated rise in this figure to some 5,000 when fully developed. It serves an area wider than Bilston and offers, as may well be expected in such an area, a wide variety of vocational and non-vocational courses. It is at present housed in buildings which were erected by public subscription in 1896 so that the present College is, historically speaking, a rapid expansion of educational activity which has been going on for the last sixty years. A new College is now being built on a fine open site at Stowlawn, the Engineering block being already in use. The College is well known for the contribution it is making to the creation of an efficient and adequate instrument of further education, as envisaged in the Education Act, and is already a considerable influence in the cultural life of the area.

Staffordshire County Council also maintains an occupational centre for mentally defective children and in Coseley Road is the Youth Employment Bureau, where advice and help is given with a view to placing intending school-leavers in suitable employment.

Libraries

In 1935, the Council purchased Brueton House, Mount Pleasant, which was enlarged and adapted for use as a public library and reading room. Extensions were also made for a museum and art gallery. The new buildings, fronted by trees and gardens, which were opened on the 18th March, 1937, provide for both adult and junior libraries, together with reference and reading rooms. All residents in Bilston have the free use of the books provided, which total about 35,000 volumes. The subscription rate for non-residents is 5 shillings a year, but anyone holding a valid ticket of any other library may have free use of the library. The library is open weekdays from 10 am. to 7 pm. except Wednesdays and Saturdays when it closes at 5 pm.

Approximately 5,000 books are available in the junior library which is open from 4 pm. to 6 pm. Monday to Friday (except Wednesday when it is closed at 5 pm.), and on Saturday from 10 am. to 1 pm. and 4 pm. to 5 pm. It is open mornings during school vacation periods.

The reference library, which is open concurrently with the lending library has been developed and includes facilities for obtaining quickly information on numerous subjects. There is also a local collection relating to Bilston and Staffordshire which contains books, maps, pamphlets and other printed materials, as well as photographs and manuscripts, and this also links up with the museum and art gallery. Five galleries grouped around the central staircase afford 1,852 square feet of floor space for museum exhibits. Local bygones and the more interesting and artistic examples of local history, including Bilston enamels, japanned ware and pottery, are special features of the permanent exhibition and there is also a collection of local birds. Hours of opening: weekdays, May to September, 10 am. to 7 pm.; October to April, 10 am. to 5.0 pm. Closed on Sundays.

The library, museum and art gallery.

A reading room in the library, museum and art gallery.

Parks and open spaces already provided in the borough cover approximately 100 acres and in their plans for the immediate increase in facilities for outdoor recreation the Council propose to increase this acreage to 220 acres. Excellent recreational facilities are provided at Hickman Park, opened 1911, where twelve acres of well-timbered grounds are laid out with lawns, flower beds, rose garden and bandstand, and facilities are also provided for tennis and sport.

The four and a half acres of Greenway Playing Fields at Bradley, and £2,000 for their upkeep, were gifts to the borough in 1931 by Mr. James Luther Greenway, J.P., who also contributed £1,000 towards laying-out municipal playing fields in Trinity Road, which were opened in 1938, and placed £3,000 on trust in the interest of convalescent children and for Christmas and summer treats for children of the Bradley Ward.

There are also public open spaces at Prouds Lane and Stowlawn. In 1948, eighteen acres of land in Great Bridge Road was acquired to provide playing field facilities in the town. The site is laid out to provide three cricket and four football pitches, two tennis courts and a netball pitch.

The Council is also a Burial Authority owning a cemetery, which was opened in 1855, of about fourteen acres in Cemetery Road, off Wellington Road.

Hickman Park.

The Market Hall fronting High Street was erected in 1891 and contains 85 shops and stalls, a further 49 stalls being provided in the adjoining open market. Market rights and premises are owned by the Corporation, the public market being established by Act of Parliament in 1824. Major structural improvements including electric lighting installations have been carried out in recent years.

Bilston's water supply is owned and controlled by the Corporation and comes mainly from the Bratch Waterworks, Wombourne. These works were built between 1892-97 and extended in 1924-27. Bilston offers to industrialists and residents alike the exceptional advantage of gas at attractive rates, and details of the Board's all purpose tariff are available at the District Office in Ward Street, Ettingshall, and at the Sales and Service Centre, 17 Lichfield Street, Bilston. Electricity in the Borough of Bilston is provided by the Midlands Electricity Board whose District Offices are at Camp Street, Wednesbury. Attached to these offices and, at 55 Church Street, Bilston, are Service Centres where all types of electrical appliances can be inspected and well trained staff are available to give free advice on the economical use of electricity in the home.

St. Leonard's Church.

Two south-west rail routes run through the town from the adjoining important rail centre of Wolverhampton. The Ettingshall and Bilston Station, situated in Parkfield Road, serves one which continues as the Stour Valley line to Dudley and Birmingham (New Street) whilst the other route forks at Priestfield Station (John Street) via Coseley and Bradley Stations to Oxford and Worcester and via Bilston Central Station (Railway Drive) to Dudley and Birmingham (Snow Hill)

The Wolverhampton Corporation Trolley buses link up the adjoining towns and districts of Coseley, Darlaston, Sedgley, Willenhall and Walsall, whilst connections can easily be made with the Midland Red Omnibus network which serves Wolverhampton, Dudley and the outlying countryside.

Industry

Joseph Sankey & Sons Limited, founded 100 years ago in Bilston by the grandfather of the present Chairman and Managing Director, began by making and japanning tea trays. The business prospered and increased its range to embrace many kinds of hollow-ware and by 1874, when John William Sankey, the eldest son of the founder, was in the business, the number employed had risen to 65.

About 1886 it was becoming evident that armatures for dynamos would in future be made from charcoal sheet iron and early in 1887, Sankeys booked their first order for stampings of this nature. This was the beginning of the electrical lamination business. The rapid growth of electric lamination production and improvement in electrical qualities of steels necessitated the establishment of a new factory at Bankfield in 1900 and the purchase of Manor Sheet Rolling Mills in 1904.

Today Bankfield Works are the largest and best equipped in Europe for the production of laminations for the electrical and allied industries. Steel body panels for the Arrol-Johnson car and the first pressed steel artillery wheel followed in 1909. Demand for this latter product was so great that in 1910 it was necessary to acquire the Castle Works, Hadley, Shropshire, and the production of motor car bodies was also switched to the new factory. These works have been vastly extended and turn out enormous quantities of wheels, motor car chassis and pressings for the shipbuilding, engineering, aircraft and building industries. The famous Sankey-Sheldon office furniture and steel partitions are also made at Hadley and there are in addition large departments engaged in the production of agricultural machinery, trailers, washing machines, etc.

In 1929, increased demands for the Company's products necessitated the purchase of Bath Street Works, Bilston, which produce components for jet aircraft engines and large pressings of all types. Indeed, much of the pioneer work in connection with the fabrication of jet engine combustion chambers was carried out at Albert Street many years before jet aircraft flew.

Since 1943, five overseas factories have been established, two in India and one in Australia for electrical laminations; one in Canada for steel furniture and one in South Africa for both steel furniture and laminations.

To cope with the ever-growing expansion of the organisation, smaller satellite factories have been established at Hereford, Stourport-on-Severn, Dudley and Cannock.

Since its foundation a century ago by Joseph Sankey and two fellow workmen, the company has now come to employ many thousands of people at home and abroad and is a member of the Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds Group, but it is significant that during the whole period members of the Sankey family have, in unbroken succession, held executive positions in the organisation.

Stewarts and Lloyds Limited.

Bilston Works has been the site of blast furnaces at least since the 1780's. By 1882 Springvale Furnaces Ltd. were not only making iron there but had installed ball furnaces, puddling furnaces and a considerable variety of mills. In that year a big step forward was taken when the Staffordshire Steel and Ingot Iron Company Limited was formed with a capital of £70,000 for the purpose of manufacturing by the Thomas Gilchrist process. In order to get the process going, the plant of the Mersey Iron and Steel Works was purchased in 1883 and re-erected, with adaptations, at Bilston. This continued in operation until the 1920's.

In 1897 Springvale Furnaces Limited, and the Staffordshire Steel and Ingot Iron Company were amalgamated under the title of Alfred Hickman Limited and the works came to be considered as a unit rather than as two companies on the same site.

Many new installations and improvements in design were carried out over the ensuing years, including a Siemens open hearth plant which eventually replaced the Thomas plant.

In 1920 Stewarts and Lloyds acquired Alfred Hickman Limited and the works saw many further additions and improvements, such as a Morgan continuous strip mill, which began operation in 1923, and has been recently demolished.

At the end of the war the works consisted of three blast furnaces of a fairly old design capable of producing about 200,000 tons of pig iron per annum, and an open hearth plant of five furnaces with an annual output of about 250,000 tons of steel per annum. The works also included a cogging mill and a bar mill where round and square sections were rolled for tube manufacture.

During the early 1950s the company undertook further modernisation of the plant including the installation of a modern blast furnace capable of producing 200,000 tons of pig iron per annum, and the raw materials handling site of the melting shop was improved whereby steel output has been raised to nearly 350,000 tons per annum.

Today, with a payroll of about 2,800, Bilston Works has two blast furnaces in operation (one modern furnace and one of the remaining older furnaces, giving an annual pig iron output of 280,000 tons) and five open hearth furnaces with an output of 350,000 tons per annum. There have been no changes in the rolling mill installation.

The company is now embarking on a large new scheme of development for the works which, by the installation of additional open hearth furnaces, will increase the steel production to 550,000 tons per annum. Complementary to this will be a new cogging mill and bar mill of modern design which will be able to deal with the increased output from the melting shop. Along with Corby and Clydesdale Works, Bilston Works forms part of the great trio of raw material producers for S. & L. tubes. Incidentally, the four blast furnaces at Corby were built by Ernest N. Wright Limited, Millfields Foundry, which became a subsidiary of Stewarts and Lloyds.

Farmer & Chapman Limited is one of the oldest firms in Bilston, having been established in 1820 as manufacturers of japanned and tinned goods in Caledonia Street, extending in 1890 to the present address in Prouds Lane.

The firm's activities lie now in three directions: The manufacture of high class enamelled and tinned holloware under the trade mark of Thistle Brand which is supplied to distributors mainly to the catering, hospital, butchery and florists' trades, and covers a fairly wide range to suit their various requirements.
The production of component parts for other manufacturers, and among these are parts for cookers, wash boilers, heaters, washing machines, sanitary appliances. Grill pans of many types are the firms speciality.
Considerable vitreous enamelling for the trade is done, and stampings and sheet metal work complete the range.

Bradley & Company Limited.

Beldray has been a famous household name since 1872 and although, in the past, it has been associated only with hollow-ware, the company now produces a range of modern house wares which includes the famous Beldray sit-or-stand ironing tables which have been received so enthusiastically in America as well as in this country, and the Beldray adjustable table with adjustable legs to prevent rocking on uneven floors.

The range of Beldray housewares is being constantly extended to provide more comfortable living in the modern homes.

Recent additions include a television trolley with a swivel top which permits the picture to be turned to face any part of the room, and the Beldray ‘Ironsto’ which solves the long-standing domestic problem of where to store your hot iron when you have finished using it.

Beldray hollow-ware and housewares are obtainable from good ironmongers and department stores throughout the country The company also manufactures metal presswork of all kinds.

Thomas Holcroft & Sons Limited, one of the pioneers in the cast iron holloware trade, moved from Bilston towards the end of the last century and established Ettingshall Foundry at Wolverhampton. Here the range of products was extended to meet new demands.

When cooking by electricity was introduced the company developed and patented their recessed, machined base utensils which are now specified by the makers of the famous Aga and Esse cookers.

Cast iron holloware, both tinned and enamelled, is exported to all quarters of the globe-to such places as Tierra-del-Fuego and Pitcairn Island, and even Antarctica may be included, for the most recent expeditions took Holcroft holloware in their equipment.

Castings in iron and brass for the building and plumbing trades. The renowned 'Capital' range were later produced and this was followed by a further successful development in machine-moulded castings for the light engineering and electrical trades.

These range from a few ounces to a hundred-weight. The Ettingshall Foundry now covers seven acres and includes wood and metal pattern shops, machine shops and plant for light pressings, bower barffing and non-ferrous founding. The Holcroft slogan ‘From print to the product’ is indeed well founded'.

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