VICTORIA COUNTY HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE - XII: Tamworth and Drayton Bassett

Atrilce edited by Nigel J. Tringham 

It is my pleasure to announce the publication of the latest volume in the Staffordshire set of the Victoria County History: volume XII on Tamworth and Drayton Bassett.

Important for the rulers of pre-Viking Mercia, Tamworth became a burh in 913 under Æthelflæd, ‘lady of the Mercians’, who may also have installed relics of St Edith of Polesworth in the church there. The division of the town and also the surrounding parish between Staffordshire and Warwickshire may also date from before the Conquest, and it was not until late 19th century that the town became wholly in Staffordshire, with the Warwickshire villages following suit in 1965.

Although a castle was built after the Norman Conquest, its lords did not control the town, which became a self-governing corporation under Elizabeth I and is now the head of a district council. Throughout its history Tamworth has functioned as a market centre, with some cloth-working and paper-making, whilst cotton mills opened by Robert Peel just outside the town in the 1790s were soon moved to a canal junction to the south in Fazeley, where tape-making survived (as also in the town) until the late 20th century.

Deposits of coal and clay exploited from the 19th century resulted in mining villages at Amington, Glascote, and Wilnecote in the eastern half of the parish, and they were transformed into vast housing estates in the 1960s and 1970s following the decision to take in a Birmingham overspill population. As a result the population of ‘greater Tamworth’ more than doubled by the early 21st century. The volume also includes the adjoining parish of Drayton Bassett, which had close links with the town and where the 19th-century prime minister Sir Robert Peel built a mansion house, demolished in the earlier 20th century and its site now part of a major amusement park.

The volume can be purchased directly from Boydell & Brewer:

https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781904356523/a-history-of-the-county-of-stafford/

Special Offer!

A 25% reduction in price is available until 31 July 2021: code BB913