'This is the emporium of the world for buckles, spurs and stirrups'

A visitor's impressions from a trip to Walsall in the early 1800s

- By GAVIN JONES

YOU may have seen Michael Portillo’s Great British Railway Journeys on the BBC, where the presenter travels the country comparing his trip with the accounts detailed in his copy of Bradshaw’s Railway Guide from the 1800s.

But Bradshaw's weren't the only such guides ... thanks to Bugle reader and rail enthusiast Laurence Brownhill of Netherton, we've been loaned a copy of Osborne’s Grand Junction Railway Guide, which took the reader through the Black Country as it looked in 1838, nigh on two centuries ago.

We've brought you the Dudley and Wednesbury sections in previous editions; this week we take a journey through Walsall, of which Osborne's had this to say...

This is an ancient borough, and has become of late, an increasing market town. It lies about two miles from the line of road, to the east; and is situated on a high hill, on the highest part of which is the parish Church.

It is in the county of Stafford, nearly equi-distant from Birmingham, Lichfield and Wolverhampton, and contains nearly 20,000 inhabitants, including ‘the foreign of Walsall’ and ‘the Chapelry of Bloxwich! The Earl of Bradford is lord of the manor.

The parish Church is a handsome modern gothic building, with a tower and very lofty spire, situated at the top of the hill, in the centre of the town, and cost £20,000, in repairing and partly rebuilding in 1821. The living is a vicarage worth about £400, and is in the gift of the Right Hon. the Earl of Bradford.

On the south part of the town, near the church, there is burying ground, and close to it is the Vicarage new house - a large handsome residence, shaded by trees.