Wolverhampton
A settlement may have existed in the area as far back as 1200 BC, but Wolverhampton town itself was founded in 985 AD through a grant of land by the Anglo Saxon King Aethelred to the town’s benefactoress Lady Wulfruna. Recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Heantun, the church and market town of Wolverhampton became an important centre for the local wool trade. Much of the Tudor town of the middle ages was destroyed by fire in 1590.
Along with the surrounding areas of the wider Black Country, Wolverhampton became a thriving industrial area from at least the late 1600s. Fuelled by coal and iron from neighbouring Dudley and Sedgley, Wolverhampton became best known for japaning and for it‘s foundaries and furnaces producing locks and keys, steel jewellery and toys.
The town prospered and expanded during the 19th and 20th centuries, was visited by Queen Victoria in 1866 and finally granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II on the 18th December of the Millennium year 2000.
Wolverhampton has a population of 240,900 (1999 mid-year estimate). A thriving modern city set in a borough covering about 26 square miles, bordering the South Staffordshire green belt and well known for Banks’s Beer, pop group Slade and the Wolverhampton Wanderers football team.
Wolverhampton trivia
Black Country
Mark O'Shea - Reptile Expert Extraordinaire
