Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the English West Midlands, traditionally part of the county of Staffordshire. In 2002 the local authority had a population of 239,358; the Urban Area had a population of 251,462.

The city was named after Lady Wulfruna, who founded the town in 985: its name came from Anglo-Saxon WulfrÅ«nehÄ"antÅ«n = "WulfrÅ«n's high or principal enclosure or farm". Many buildings and firms in Wolverhampton are named after her. Its name is often abbreviated to "W'ton" or "Wolves". The city council's motto is "Out of darkness, cometh light".

The United Kingdom government announced on December 18, 2000 that Wolverhampton would be granted city status, making it one of three "Millennium Cities".

Geography

Wolverhampton lies northwest of its larger near-neighbour Birmingham, and forms the second largest part of the West Midlands conurbation. 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 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/Coventry. Examples would be UK Government regional bodies such as "The Black Country Development Corporation", under whose remit the city falls.

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. Most of this area had been part of the Wolverhampton parliamentary borough created by the Reform Act 1832, which also included diverse areas such as Wren's Nest, New Invention and Gornal. Unusually, there was no change made to the boundary of the borough 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 the Redcliffe-Maud Report, where large areas of the present South Staffordshire district were to be added to the borough.

Wolverhampton was also a Royal Peculiar covering a large area.

The 2001 census gives the Wolverhampton urban sub-area as the largest in the West Midlands conurbation, after Birmingham, and bigger than Dudley, whose metropolitan borough is bigger but is counted as several units. 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.

History

St Peter's Church

A monastery existed in Wolverhampton in Saxon times, founded by Lady Wulfruna and consecrated in 994. This became the site for the new St. Peter's Church in 1425. A statue of Lady Wulfruna, sculpted by Sir Charles Wheeler, can be seen on the stairs outside the church. By the 13th century Wolverhampton had grown to become a thriving market town. The city was famous for its part in the woolen trade, a fact that can be seen by the inclusion of a woolpack on the city's coat of arms, 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.

From the 16th century onwards, Wolverhampton became home to a number of metal industries including lock and key making and iron and brass working.

In the 19th century the area to the south-east of the city became known as the Black Country because of the heavy industrial pollution which covered the area in black soot. 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) 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; in the 20th and 21st centuries immigrants have come from further afield: the Caribbean, South Asia, Africa and eastern Europe and their descendants living in Wolverhampton.

Wolverhampton was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1849 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.

In 1866, a statue was erected in memory of Prince Albert, the unveiling of which brought Queen Victoria to Wolverhampton.[1] The statue stands in Queen Square and is referred to by many locals as simply "the Man on the Horse". 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 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. Two farmers, Thomas Smart and John Holyhead of Rowley Regis, were hanged in High Green, now Queen Square, in January 1606, for sheltering some of the Gunpowder Plotters who had fled to the midlands. The pair played no part in the original plot but nevertheless suffered the traitor's death of hanging, drawing and quartering on butcher's blocks set up in the square a few days before the execution of Guy Fawkes and several other plotters in London.

Commemorative traffic lights in Princes Square

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

The railways reached Wolverhampton in 1837, with the first station located at "Wednesfield Heath", now Heath Town. This station was sadly demolished in 1965, but the area exists as a nature reserve just off Powell Street. Wolverhampton railway works was established in 1849 for the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway and become the Northern Division workshop of the Great Western Railway in 1854

Wolverhampton High Level station (the current main rail station) opened in 1852, but the original station was demolished in 1965 and then rebuilt. Wolverhampton Low Level station opened on the Great Western Railway in 1855. The Low Level station still exists, although it is currently disused, having closed to passengers in 1972, and completely in 1981. It is supposedly the best preserved example of a large Victorian station in the UK. Wolverhampton St George's (in the city centre) is now the northern terminus for the Midland Metro light rail system.

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. He was followed in more recent times by Conservative mavericks Enoch Powell and Nicholas Budgen.

Transport

Midland Metro terminus

Wolverhampton is well-served by motorways, being near the M6, M5, M6 Toll and M54. The main roads radiating from the city centre meet the city's Ring Road, which is effective in keeping through traffic out of the city centre itself.

The city's railway station is served by the West Coast Main Line, and has regular rail services to London, Birmingham and Manchester, as well as many other major cities in the UK.

Located right next to the railway station is Wolverhampton Bus Station. This acts as a gateway for both towns people and train passengers to interchange between the 2 modes of transport.

The Midland Metro also terminates within the city centre at Wolverhampton St Georges.

The nearest major airport is Birmingham International Airport, approximately 25 miles away. The airport is easy to reach by train, with a direct express service to it. By car, it can actually sometimes be quicker to reach Manchester Airport instead, due to traffic delays on the M6 eastbound motorway towards Birmingham International.

Wolverhampton has its own minor airport to the southwest of the city. Expansion of the airport is planned, but these plans are being fought by local residents.

Within the city are also many miles of canal network; the Birmingham Canal, the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, the Shropshire Union Canal and the Wyrley & Essington Canal are all to be found.

Music and arts

The rock groups Slade, The Mighty Lemon Drops, and the one hit wonder Babylon Zoo came from Wolverhampton, as do soul/ R&B singer Beverley Knight and Drum n Bass guru Goldie. Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin is also a Wulfrunian. Musician Jamelia lives in Wolverhampton with her mother and daughter. Wolverhampton has a number of live music venues; the biggest is technically the football ground, the Molineux stadium, but the biggest indoor venue is Wolverhampton Civic Hall, with a standing capacity of 3,000. Second to that is Wulfrun Hall (part of the same complex as the Civic Hall, which is owned and operated by the city council) which has a standing capacity of just over 1,100. There are also a number of smaller venues with capacities between 100 and 250: the Little Civic and the Wolverhampton Varsity being the most longstanding of these. The 18th century church of St John's-in-the-Square is a popular venue for smaller scale classical concerts. The city is also home to Regent Records, a choral and organ music recording company.

Wolverhampton Art Gallery

The Grand Theatre and the Arena Theatre are located in the city centre, with a multiplex Cineworld cinema located at Bentley Bridge, Wednesfield, and a smaller cinema, The Light House, housed in the former Chubb Buildings between the city centre and the rail station. While Cineworld caters mainly for popular tastes, showing Hollywood films and other big-budget films as well as some Bollywood films, The Light House shows a range of older and subtitled films as well as some selected new releases. The Light House has also played host to visual art shows, and incorporates a small cafÃ©. The City's Arts & Museums service, run by the council, covers three sites: Wolverhampton Art Gallery, home to England's biggest Pop Art collection; Bantock House, a fine historic house with Edwardian interior and also museum of Wolverhampton set in Parks and Gardens; Bilston Craft Gallery with exhibitions of contemporary crafts. Eagleworks Studio in the suburb of Chapel Ash, run by a small artist group, which has periodic exhibitions and group shows. The city's main choral groups include the Wolverhampton Civic Choir (a choral society founded in 1947) and St Peter's Collegiate Church Choir, who perform cathedral style church services each week during term time.

Media

Wolverhampton is home to the Express & Star newspaper, which boasts of having the largest circulation of any provincial daily evening newspaper in the UK.

The city is also home to three radio stations, 107.7 The Wolf, Beacon Radio and Classic Gold WABC. The BBC also occasionally makes use of the City of Wolverhampton College's training and campus radio station's studio on Newhampton Road, WCR

In December 2005, the BBC commissioned the poet Ian McMillan to write a poem about Wolverhampton, along with four other towns which "had a reputation they didn't deserve". The result of this can be found here.

Education

Wolverhampton Girls' High School is a well known selective school which has been producing top of league table results for years. Notable old girls include the former English Women's Cricket Captain Rachael Heyhoe-Flint.

Wolverhampton Grammar School was founded in 1512, making it one of the oldest active schools in the UK. Old boys include Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England since July 2003, and Sir David Wright, former British Ambassador to Japan.

Other notably historic schools include The Royal Wolverhampton School (founded in 1850) and Tettenhall College (1863).

In 1835, the Wolverhampton Mechanics' Institute was founded, and its lineage can be traced via the Wolverhampton and Staffordshire Technical College (1935), to The Polytechnic, Wolverhampton (1969) to today's University of Wolverhampton, given university status in 1992. The main university campus is in the city centre, with other campuses at Compton, and in the nearby towns of Walsall and Telford.

Sport

Molineux, home of Wolverhampton Wanderers

Wolverhampton is represented in the Coca-Cola Football Championship by Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C..

"Wolves", as they are known, are one of the oldest English football clubs, and were one of the 12 founder members of the Football League. Their most successful period was the 1950s, where they won three League Championships and two FA Cups, and were involved in the earliest European friendlies. They were hailed by the press as "The Unofficial World Champions" after one of their most famous victories, against Honved of Hungary. They were also the first English team to play in the Soviet Union. These victories instigated the birth of the European Cup competition which later evolved into the UEFA Champions' League (see European Cup and Champions League History).

In total, they have won three League Championships, four FA Cups, have two League Cup victories and many other minor honours, including reaching the UEFA Cup Final in 1972, and appearances in the last eight of both the UEFA Champions League, and the European Cup Winners' Cup, but have spent just one season in the top division since 1984. They are also the only club to have won five different league titles (Division 1, Division 2, Division 3, Division 4 and Division 3 (North)).

Wolverhampton is also home to Wolverhampton & Bilston Athletics Club and Wolverhampton Wolves, one of the leading Speedway clubs in the UK.

Olympic Gold Medallists Denise Lewis and Tessa Sanderson were raised in Wolverhampton.

Wolverhampton Racecourse is located at Dunstall Park, just to the north of the city centre. This was one of the first all-weather horse racing courses in the UK and is Britain's only floodlit horse race track. There is also greyhound racing at Monmore Green. West Park, a large park near the city centre, was converted from a racecourse.

People

The following people were born in Wolverhampton (source: The Book of British Birthplaces, A.J. & Marilyn Mullay, 2002):
*Frances Barber - actress.
*Sir William Maddock Bayliss - physician.
*Stephen Byers, former Cabinet Minister, Labour Party politician.
*Katie Fletcher - adult actress, later became a popular novelist.
*Helene Hayman, Baroness Hayman - first Lord Speaker.
*Sir Jack Hayward, OBE - son of Wolverhampton factory owners, self-made millionaire, benefactor of many charities, fighter pilot in the Second World War, President of Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.
*Rachael Heyhoe-Flint - captain of the England Women's Cricket World Cup team 1973.
*Dave Holland - jazz bassist.
*Beverley Knight - soul singer
*John Marston the founder of the Sunbeam company, in Upper Villiers Street
*Alfred Noyes - poet.
*Hugh Porter - Olympic cyclist, broadcaster and media personality.
*Tessa Sanderson - gold medallist, javelin, 1984 Olympic Games.
*Meera Syal - actress, novelist and comedian.
* Percy Stallard - racing cyclist, founder of the British League of Racing Cyclists and the father of massed start cycle racing on public roads in Britain.
* Jack Taylor - referee, 1974 FIFA World Cup final.
*Sir Charles Pelham Villiers - member of Parliament for sixty-three years, holding the record for being the longest serving MP in Parliamentary history. A statue of him stands in West Park in Wolverhampton.
*Sir Charles Wheeler - sculptor and former president of the Royal Academy.
*Jonathan Wild - self-penned Chief Thieftaker General of Great Britain and Ireland.
*Billy Wright - the Northern Ireland Loyalist terrorist leader (not the Wolves footballer of the same name).
*David Wright - former UK Ambassador to Japan.

The following are closely associated with Wolverhampton:
* Oscar Gustave Rejlander - the "father of art photography".
* Enoch Powell - politician (Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West 1950 - 1974), poet, scholar and soldier.
* Eric Idle - actor and comedian.
* Mervyn King - Governor of the Bank of England, educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School.
* Sir Richard Leveson - Vice Admiral of the Fleet for Life, hero of the Battle of Cadiz, 1596.
* Button Gwinnett - signatory of the US Declaration of Independence.
* Edward Elgar - despite living in Worcester, he was an ardent Wolverhampton Wanderers fan and may have travelled to home games on his bicycle. Elgar bought two Wolverhampton-produced Royal Sunbeam bicycles in 1903, which he named Mr Phoebus, and visited the Sunbeamland Works in Upper Villiers Street for 'tuning'
* Billy Wright - captain of England and Wolverhampton Wanderers and for a long period of time the most capped English football player.
* Denise Lewis - Olympic Gold Medallist born in West Bromwich and raised in Wolverhampton.
* Jamelia - Musician originally from Birmingham now living in Wolverhampton.
* Anita Lonsborough - Olympic Gold Medallist in swimming.