Wolverhampton
—  City  —
City of Wolverhampton
Coat of Arms of the City Council
Nickname(s): W'ton, Wolves, Wolvo, Wolftown
Motto: Out of darkness cometh light
Wolverhampton shown within England
Coordinates: 52°35′N 2°08′W / 52.583°N 2.133°W / 52.583; -2.133
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	West Midlands
Ceremonial county	West Midlands
Admin HQ	Wolverhampton Civic Centre
Founded	985
Founder	Lady Wulfruna
Named for	Lady Wulfruna
Government
• Type	Metropolitan borough
• Governing body	Wolverhampton City Council
Area
• Total	69.44 km2 (26.81 sq mi)
Population (2006 est.)
• Total	239,400 (Ranked 57th)
• Density	3,407/km2 (8,820/sq mi)
• Ethnicity (United Kingdom Estimate 2005)[1]	76.5% White 14.7% S.Asian 4.8% Black 1.1% Chinese or other 2.9% Mixed Race
Time zone	Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0)
• Summer (DST)	British Summer Time (UTC+1)
Postcode	WV
Area code(s)	01902
ISO 3166-2	GB-WLV
ONS code	00CW
OS grid reference	SO915985
NUTS 3	UKG35
Website	www.wolverhampton.gov.uk

Wolverhampton ⁱ/ˌwʊlvərˈhæmptən/ is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region (code UKG35) and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region. In 2004, the local government district had an estimated population of 239,100^[2]. Wolverhampton is part of the West Midlands Urban Area which had a population of 2.3 million in the 2001 census^[3] which makes it part of the second largest urban area in the United Kingdom.

Historically a part of Staffordshire, and forming part of the metropolitan county of the West Midlands from 1974, the city is commonly recognised as being named after King Wulfhere, who established an abbey in 659. The original name being from Wulfereēantūn = "Wulfhere's high or principal enclosure or farm" after the Mercian King.^[4] The name Wulfrun is used to denote a later nun who established a church in the city – for example, for the Wulfrun Centre^[5] or for Wulfrun Hall.^[6]

The city's name is often abbreviated to Wolvo "W'ton"^[7] or "Wolves".^[8][9] The city council's motto is "Out of darkness cometh light".^[10] People from Wolverhampton are known as Wulfrunians, or, colloquially, "Yam Yams" due to regional phraseology.

The city grew initially as a market town with specialism within the woollen trade. During and after the Industrial Revolution, the city became a major industrial centre, with mining (mostly coal, limestone and iron ore) as well as production of steel, japanning, locks, motorcycles and cars – including the first vehicle to hold the Land speed record at over 200 mph. Today, the major industries within the city are both engineering based (including a large aerospace industry) and within the service sector.^[11]

History[link]

A local tradition states that King Wulfhere of Mercia founded an abbey of St Mary at Wolverhampton in 659

^[12]

Wolverhampton is recorded as being the site of a decisive battle between the unified Mercian Angles and West Saxons against the raiding Danes in 910, although sources are unclear as to whether the battle itself took place in Wednesfield or Tettenhall.^[13] The Mercians and West Saxons claimed a decisive victory and the field of Woden is recognised by numerous place names in Wednesfield.^[14][15]

Statue of Lady Wulfrun on western side of St. Peter's Collegiate Church.

In 985, King Ethelred the Unready granted lands at a place referred to as Heantun to Lady Wulfrun by royal charter,^[16] and hence founding the settlement.

In 994, a monastery was consecrated in Wolverhampton for which Wulfrun granted land at Upper Arley in Worcestershire, Bilston, Willenhall, Wednesfield, Pelsall, Ogley Hay near Brownhills, Hilton near Wall, Hatherton, Kinvaston, Hilton near Wolverhampton, and Featherstone.^[16] This became the site for the current St. Peter's Church.^[17] A statue of Lady Wulfrun, sculpted by Sir Charles Wheeler, can be seen on the stairs outside the church.^[16]

In 1179, there is mention of a market held in the town, and in 1204 it had come to the attention of King John that the town did not possess a Royal Charter for holding a market. This charter for a weekly market held on a Wednesday was eventually granted on 4 February 1258 by Henry III.^[17]

It is held that in the 14th and 15th centuries that Wolverhampton was one of the "staple towns" of the woollen trade,^[17] which today can be seen by the inclusion of a woolpack on the city's coat of arms,^[18] and by the many small streets, especially in the city centre, called "Fold" (examples being Blossom's Fold, Farmers Fold, Townwell Fold and Victoria Fold), as well as Woolpack Street and Woolpack Alley.^[17]

In 1512, Sir Stephen Jenyns, a former Lord Mayor of London and a twice Master of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, who was born in the city, founded Wolverhampton Grammar School, one of the oldest active schools in Britain.^[19]

Wolverhampton suffered two Great Fires: the first in April 1590, and the second in September 1696. Both fires started in today's Salop Street. The first fire lasted for five days and left nearly 700 people homeless, whilst the second destroyed 60 homes in the first five hours. This second fire led to the purchase of the first fire engine within the city in September 1703.^[17]

From the 16th century onwards, Wolverhampton became home to a number of metal industries including lock and key making and iron and brass working. On 27 January 1606,^[20] two farmers, Thomas Smart and John Holyhead of Rowley Regis, were executed on High Green, now Queen Square, for sheltering two of the Gunpowder Plotters, Robert Wintour and Stephen Littleton,^[21] who had fled to the Midlands. The pair played no part in the original plot but nevertheless suffered a traitor's death of being hanged, drawn and quartered on butcher's blocks set up in the square a few days before the execution of Guy Fawkes and several other plotters in London.^[17]

19th century[link]

In Victorian times, Wolverhampton grew to be a wealthy town mainly due to the huge amount of industry that occurred as a result of the abundance of coal and iron deposits in the area. The remains of this wealth can be seen in local houses such as Wightwick Manor and The Mount (both built for the Mander family, prominent varnish and paint manufacturers), and Tettenhall Towers. Many other houses of similar stature were built only to be demolished in the 1960s and 1970s.

In the 19th century the city saw much immigration from Wales and Ireland, following the Irish Potato Famine.

Statue of Prince Albert, Queen Square

Wolverhampton gained its first parliamentary representation as part of the Reform Act 1832, when it was one of 22 large towns that were allocated two Members of Parliament. It was incorporated as a municipal borough on March 15, 1848 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 before becoming a County Borough in 1889.^[22]

In 1866, a statue was erected in memory of Prince Albert (often referred to locally as "The Man on the Horse" or "MOTH"^{[citation needed]}; it is a common meeting place for the city's youths), the unveiling of which brought Queen Victoria to Wolverhampton.^[23] The unveiling of the statue was the first public appearance Queen Victoria had made since the funeral of her husband the Prince Consort. A 40-foot (12 m) tall archway made of coal was constructed for the visit. The Queen was so pleased with the statue that she knighted the then-mayor, an industrialist named John Morris. Market Square, originally named High Green, was renamed Queen Square in honour of the visit. The statue replaced a Russian cannon captured from Sevastopol during the Crimean War in 1855,^[22] and remains standing in Queen Square.

The railways reached Wolverhampton in 1837, with the first station located at Wednesfield Heath, now Heath Town on the Grand Junction Railway.^[24] This station was demolished in 1965, but the area exists as a nature reserve just off Powell Street.^[25] Wolverhampton Railway Works was established in 1849 for the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway and became the Northern Division workshop of the Great Western Railway in 1854.^[26]

Since 1900[link]

Wolverhampton had a prolific bicycle industry from 1868 to 1975, during which time a total of more than 200 bicycle manufacturing companies existed there, but today none exist at all. These manufacturers included Marston, Sunbeam, Star, Wulfruna and Rudge.^[27] The last volume manufacturers of bicycles left Wolverhampton during the 1970s, the remnants which shut down during the 1980s being small companies including Percy Stallard (the former professional cyclist) and Jack Hateley.^[28]

Wolverhampton High Level station (the current main railway station) opened in 1852, but the original station was demolished in 1965 and then rebuilt.^[29] Wolverhampton Low Level station opened on the Great Western Railway in 1855. The site of the Low Level station, which closed to passengers in 1972 and completely in 1981, is currently undergoing redevelopment.^[30] Wolverhampton St George's (in the city centre) is now the northern terminus for the Midland Metro light rail system. Wolverhampton was one of the few towns to operate surface contact trams and the only town to use the Lorain Surface Contact System.^[31] Trolleybuses appeared in 1923 and in 1930 for a brief period, the Wolverhampton trolleybus system was the world's largest trolleybus system.^[32] The last Wolverhampton trolleybus ran in 1967, just as the railway line through the High Level station was converted to electric operation.

Location of the UK's first set of traffic lights at Princes Square: the poles are painted with black and white bands as they were originally.

England's first automatic traffic lights could be seen in Princes Square, Wolverhampton in 1927.^[33] The modern traffic lights at this location have the traditional striped poles to commemorate this fact.

In 1918, David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, announced he was calling a General Election at "The Mount" in Tettenhall Wood.^[34] Lloyd George also made his "Homes fit for heroes" speech at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre in the same year.^[35] It was on the idea of "Homes fit for heroes" that Lloyd George was to fight the 1918 "Coupon" General Election.

Wolverhampton was represented politically in Victorian times by the Liberal MP Charles Pelham Villiers, a noted free trade supporter, who was also the longest serving MP in parliamentary history. Lord Wolverhampton, Henry Hartley Fowler was MP for Wolverhampton at the turn of the century. Sir Geoffrey Le Mesurier Mander, a member of the Mander family, was Liberal MP for Wolverhampton East from 1929 to 1945, distinguished for his stance against Appeasement and as a supporter of the League of Nations; known as "the last of the Midland radicals". More recent members have included the Conservative mavericks Enoch Powell and Nicholas Budgen. In 2005, former Bilston councillor and MP for Wolverhampton South East, Dennis Turner entered the House of Lords as Lord Bilston.

Powell was a member of Edward Heath's Tory shadow cabinet from 1964, until he was dismissed in April 1968 following his controversial Rivers of Blood speech in which he warned of massive civil unrest if mass immigration of black and Asian commonwealth inhabitants continued.

Large numbers of black and Asian immigrants had settled in Wolverhampton in the 1950s and 1960s, mostly in the Whitmore Reans, Blakenhall, All Saints and Heath Town areas. Wolverhampton is home to a large proportion of the Sikh community, who settled there during the period (1940–1970) from the Indian state of Punjab. Today, the Sikh community in Wolverhampton is roughly 8% of the city's population.

In 1974, as a result of local government reorganisation, it became a metropolitan borough. The United Kingdom government announced on December 18, 2000 that Wolverhampton would be granted city status, making it one of three "Millennium Cities",^[36] an honour that had been unsuccessfully applied for in 1953, 1966, 1977,^[37] 1985^[38] and 1992.^[37] Wolverhampton also made an unsuccessful application for a Lord Mayor in 2002.^[37]

There was civil unrest in the centre of Wolverhampton in 1981 when a riot broke out on 12 July, at a time when numerous other cities and towns across the United Kingdom were being blighted by rioting.^[39] Racial tension was a factor in the riots, as well as the high unemployment and general social discontent which was affecting most of the country during the recession of that time; when two people accused of taking part in the riots appeared in court, there was a fierce battle to free the defendants and four people - reported to be Rastafarians - were arrested.^[40] The far right National Front had planned to demonstrate in the city on 23 March that year, until a 14-day ban on political marches in the borough was pressed ahead by the local council and approved by the then Home Secretary William Whitelaw.^[41]

The centre of Wolverhampton was scene of a second riot on 22 February 1987 when youths stoned police officers in response to the death of 23-year-old black man Clinton McCurbin, who died two days previously after being restrained by police officers who had arrested him for trying to use a stolen credit card at the Next clothing store. 21 arrests were made.^[42]An inquest into Mr McCurbin's death the following year recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.^[43]

There was a third riot in the city on 23 May 1989, when a raid on a public house in the Heath Town district sparked a riot in which some 500 people were involved. A newsagents shop in the district was looted and a local council office suffered fire damage.^[44]

Many of the city centre's buildings date from the early 20th century and before, the oldest buildings being St Peter's Church (which was built in the 13th century but has been largely extended and refurbished since the 15th century, situated on Lichfield Street)^[45] and a framed timber 17th century building on Victoria Street which is now one of just two remaining in the area which was heavily populated by them until the turn of the 20th century. This building was originally a residential property, but later became the Hand Inn public house. It was completely restored in 1981 after a two-year refurbishment project and has been used by various businesses since then – currently as a second hand book shop.^[46]

In 1960, plans were announced to build a ring road around the centre of Wolverhampton. By the end of the 1960s, more than half of the ring road had been completed, stretching from Snow Hill to Stafford Street (via Penn Road, Chapel Ash and Waterloo Road), followed a few years later by a section between Snow Hill and Bilston Street. However, the final section between Bilston Street and Stafford Street (via Wednesfield Road) was not completed until 1986.

The centre of Wolverhampton has been altered radically since the mid 1960s; with the Mander Centre (plans for which were unveiled on 15 April 1965)^[47]being opened in two phases, the first in 1968 and the second in 1971. Several refurbishments have taken place since.

The Wulfrun Centre, an open shopping area, was opened alongside the Mander Centre's first phase in 1968, but has been undercover since a roof was added in the late 1990s.^[48]

Central Wolverhampton police station was built just south of the city centre on Birmingham Road during the 1960s, but operations there were cut back in the early 1990s when a new larger police station was built on Bilston Street on land which became vacant a decade earlier on the demolition of a factory. This was officially opened by Diana, Princess of Wales, on 31 July 1992.^[49]

The town centre (as it was then) had several cinemas during the 20th century, the last of these was the ABC Cinema (formerly the Savoy) on the corner of Garrick Street and Bilston Street, which closed on 17 October 1991 after 54 years. It has since been converted into a nightclub, with part of the site being converted into the offices of a recruitment agency in 2005.^[50]

A modern landmark in the town centre is the Crown Court on Bilston Street, which opened in 1990 as the town's first purpose built crown court.^[51]

Many department store chains including Beatties, Marks and Spencer, British Homes Stores and Next have stores in the centre of Wolverhampton. Rackhams had a store on Snow Hill for some 25 years until 1992. This building was then divided between a Netto supermarket and the local archives service but by 2006 its future was under threat as part of the proposed Summer Row retail development. This led to the closure of the Netto supermarket in June 2007 and the closure of the archives service in October 2008. However, the Summer Row project has since fallen through and the building remains dormant.

In 2000 Wolverhampton was granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II as part of the millennium celebrations in 2000.^[52]

In August 2011, the city was the scene of one of many riots which hit England, beginning on the afternoon of 9 August 2011 when gangs of youths began to congregate on the car park of the Asda supermarket near the Wolverhampton Wanderers stadium. Missiles were later hurled at nearby Staveley Police Station in Whitmore Reans before a firework was let off in Queen Square in the city centre, where unrest followed. Numerous shops were then vandalised and looted.^[53]

Art and culture[link]

From the 18th century, Wolverhampton was well known for production of the japanned ware and steel jewellery. The renowned 18th and 19th century artists Joseph Barney (1753–1832), Edward Bird (1772–1819), George Wallis (1811–1891)were all born in Wolverhampton and initially trained as japanned ware painters.

Wolverhampton Art Gallery was established in 1884.

The School of Practical Art was opened in 1850s and eventually became a close associate of the Art Gallery. Among its students and teachers were Robert Jackson Emerson (1878–1944), Sir Charles Wheeler (Emerson's most famous pupil and the sculptor of the fountains in Trafalgar Square), Sara Page who established her studio in Paris, and many other artists and sculptors recognized locally and nationally.

Wolverhampton Grand Theatre was opened in 1894.

There is a thriving Creative Industries Quarter in Wolverhampton, easily accessible by public transport just off Broad Street. From the newly opened Slade Rooms, the art house cinema the Light House Media Centre and the University of Wolverhampton. All of these institutions are closely linked to the City of Wolverhampton College's Creative Arts department.

Geography[link]

Wolverhampton lies northwest of its larger near-neighbour Birmingham, and forms the second largest part of the West Midlands conurbation.^[54] To the north and west lies the Staffordshire and Shropshire countryside.

Wolverhampton city centre falls outside of the area traditionally known as the Black Country, although some districts such as Bilston and Heath Town and the Willenhall side of Wolverhampton fall within the Black Country coalfields, leading to confusion as to whether the entire city falls within the region. Modern usage has tended towards using the term to refer to the western part of the West Midlands county, excluding Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry. Examples would be UK Government regional bodies such as the Black Country Development Corporation, under whose remit the city fell.

The city lies upon the Midlands Plateau at approximately 120 m (394 ft) above sea level.^[55] There are no major rivers within the city, although the River Penk and River Tame (tributaries of the River Trent) rise in the city, as does Smestow Brook, a tributary of the River Stour, and thence the River Severn. This means that the city lies astride the main east-west watershed (British usage, meaning drainage divide, of England.

The geology of the city is complex, with a combination of Triassic and Carboniferous geology; specifically Bunter and Keuper sandstone, and Upper and Middle Coal measures. There is also an area of dolerite intrusions.^[56]

Climate[link]

Wolverhampton's climate is oceanic (Köppen Cfb) and therefore quite temperate with average maximum temperatures in July being around 21 °C (70 °F) with the minimum daytime temperature in January being around 6.5 °C (43.7 °F).

The Met Office's nearest observation station is at Penkridge, about 5 miles (8 km) north of the city.

Areas of the city[link]

As with much of the locality, the majority of areas in Wolverhampton have names that are of Old English (Anglo-Saxon) origin, with a few exceptions such as Penn (pre-English Brythonic place name) and Parkfields, Park Village, Lanesfield etc. (modern place names of the last couple of hundred years).^[57]

See also List of areas in Wolverhampton

Localities in the City of Wolverhampton include:

Notes 

†–Partial Urban Districts added to Wolverhampton County Borough in 1966. These Urban Districts were split between Wolverhampton and other local authorities. Those parts within the present City of Wolverhampton local authority area are considered by the ONS to be part of the Wolverhampton Urban Sub-Area.

††–Areas within the Wolverhampton Urban Sub-Area but administered by South Staffordshire District Council.

Nearby places[link]

Cities

Towns

Commuter villages

Government[link]

The vast majority of Wolverhampton is governed locally by Wolverhampton City Council, although some small areas are governed by South Staffordshire District Council.

The area administered by the City Council is represented in the national United Kingdom parliament by three MPs representing Wolverhampton South West, Wolverhampton South East and Wolverhampton North East constituencies, with the areas administered by South Staffordshire District Council being represented by South Staffordshire constituency. The entire city is part of the West Midlands constituency of the European Parliament.

Since the abolition of West Midlands County Council in 1986, Wolverhampton City Council has been a unitary authority. South Staffordshire District Council is a two-tier authority, with some services provided by Staffordshire County Council.

Civic history[link]

Wolverhampton in 1921.

Wolverhampton gained the beginnings of modern local government in 1777, when the Wolverhampton Improvement Act was passed by Parliament. This allowed for the establishment of 125 Town Commissioners who undertook a variety of local improvement work such as punishing bear baiting, improving drainage, widening streets and by the end of the century street lighting had been provided at every street corner and over the doorway of every inn, and water supply had been improved by the sinking of ten new wells and the provision of a great water tank in the market place. Policing had been improved with the appointment of ten watchmen and attempts were also made to regulate the markets and inspect hazardous food.^[58][59]

Wolverhampton parliamentary borough was created by the Reform Act 1832, which included areas currently located with the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Walsall and Sandwell such as Wren's Nest, New Invention and Gornal. It was one of 22 large towns that returned two Members of Parliament. Under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, the original borough was replaced by three new single-member constituencies: Wolverhampton East, Wolverhampton South and Wolverhampton West.^[60]

In 1837, Wolverhampton Borough Police was formed. It was disestablished in 1966,and the larger West Midlands Constabulary, which covered not only Wolverhampton but the County Boroughs of Walsall, Dudley, West Bromwich and Warley took over its duties and was headquartered in the city. This force was then replaced in 1974 with the West Midlands Police.^[61]

Wolverhampton was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1849 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.^[62] The town was then made a County Borough in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888.^[62]

In 1933, the boundaries of the borough expanded, taking in areas from Cannock Rural District and Seisdon Rural District, with very little of the surrounding urban area being affected,^[63] with only Heath Town Urban District being abolished.

The bulk of the formerly independent urban districts of Bilston (a borough itself after 1933), Tettenhall and Wednesfield were added to the borough in 1966, along with part of the urban district of Coseley and small parts from Sedgley and Willenhall.^[63]

Wolverhampton was one of only two County Boroughs (the other being Liverpool) to have no changes made to the boundary during the 1974 reorganisation of local government, the borough already having a population larger than the 250,000 required for education authorities. This contrasted with both the Redcliffe-Maud Report, and the initial White Paper for the 1974 reforms^[64] where large areas of the present South Staffordshire district were to be added to the borough. During the 1974 reforms it was placed within the West Midlands Metropolitan County.

Wolverhampton was also a Royal Peculiar covering a large area.^[65]

Wolverhampton City Council[link]

The council offices are located in the Civic Centre, which is located in St. Peter's Square in the city centre.^[66]

The Labour Party currently control the council and have been in majority on the council since 1974, with the exceptions of 1978–1979, 1987, 1992–1994 and 2008–2010.^[67]

Councillor Malcolm Gwinnett is Mayor of Wolverhampton for 2010–11.^[68]

Demographics[link]

The 2001 Census gives the Wolverhampton Urban Subdivision as the second largest in the West Midlands conurbation. The figure given for Wolverhampton is 251,462 which also includes areas outside the borough (236,582). By this reckoning it is the 13th largest city in England.

Wolverhampton has a relatively old population, with the proportion of the population aged 60 and over being larger than the proportion of children aged 15 or under. The proportion of young people in the city has decreased between the 1991 Census and the 2001 Census by 7.4%, compared with an England and Wales average increase of 1.7%. The proportion of females within the city (51%) is slightly higher than that of males (49%).

Of adults aged over 16, 31.3% were single, 43.4% were married for the first time, 7.7% divorced and 9.6% were widowed.^[71]

Wolverhampton is an ethnically diverse city, with nearly a quarter (24.6%) of the population being of black or minority ethnic (BME) origin and 22.2% of residents classifying themselves as non-white in the 2001 Census, with the largest non-white category being Indian at 12.3%, which compares with a West Midlands average of 6.2% and an England and Wales average of 2.1%.

Wolverhampton's multi-cultural nature is reflected in an above–average level of non-Christian religions (13.6% of people, compared with 5.5% for England and Wales), with Sikhs accounting for 7.6% of Wolverhampton's population, the fourth largest Sikh community in England and Wales. The number of Hindus is also higher than the England and Wales average (Wolverhampton 3.9%, England and Wales 1.1%), while the proportion of people following Judaism and Islam was below the average for England and Wales. The figure for Buddhism is in line with the England and Wales average.