Town in West Midlands, England
Walsall
Walsall made the buckles, bits and saddles that kept horses working across the world, and it still has a hill-top church, a Picasso and a lake that once glowed every autumn.
Key information
- County
- West Midlands
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- Leather goods, saddlery and the Black Country metal trades
- What locals are called
- Walsallians
- Famous people
- Jerome K. Jerome, Sister Dora, Noddy Holder, Gilbert Alsop
- Football clubs
- Walsall FC
About Walsall
The town that buckled up the world
Walsall's fame rests on small, tough things: buckles, bits, stirrups, spurs and saddles. For centuries it was a centre of lorinery, the trade of making metal fittings for horses, and a leather industry grew alongside it. It made sense. The Black Country had the iron, the coal and the limestone, and every horse needed harness. When horses did most of the world's hauling, Walsall's workshops were busy. The leather trade lasted far beyond the horse age, turning to handbags, belts, briefcases and other fine goods. That is why locals still say Walsall is the leather capital of Britain. The Leather Museum sits in a former leather works, and visitors can see the craft being done.
A hill, a church and a lot of canal
Walsall's centre is built on a rise, and St Matthew's Church stands on top of it, looking down over the town. There has been a church on the site for a very long time, and the position still gives it a commanding presence. Below, the Walsall Canal and its basin are part of the Black Country's huge network of waterways. The industrial boom of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries depended on them to move coal, iron and finished goods. The basin has now been reinvented as a cultural quarter, with the New Art Gallery Walsall as its centrepiece.
Picasso, Van Gogh and a sculptor's circle
You might not expect to find Picasso, Van Gogh, Modigliani and Degas in a Black Country town, but the New Art Gallery Walsall holds the Garman Ryan Collection. It is a gift of more than 350 works, assembled by Kathleen Garman and the American sculptor Sally Ryan and donated to the town by Garman in 1973. Ryan had died in 1968. Garman was the partner of the sculptor Jacob Epstein, and the collection reflects the artists and friends who moved in their circle. It includes drawings, sculpture and paintings by some of the biggest names in modern art. The collection now lives in a gallery that opened in 2000, a striking tower of glass and terracotta beside the canal.
The woman who got a statue for nursing
Dorothy Pattison, known as Sister Dora, came to Walsall in 1865 and became one of Victorian England's best-loved nurses. She cared for injured ironworkers and miners, and treated patients during a smallpox outbreak. When she died in 1878, the town mourned hard. A statue of her was unveiled in 1886, and it is often cited as one of the first in England to honour a woman who was not royalty. She is still one of the first names mentioned when anyone asks about Walsall's heroes.
Giant-killers and a lake full of light
Walsall FC, known as the Saddlers after the town's trade, were formed in 1888. Their most famous day came in January 1933, when they beat Arsenal 2-0 in the FA Cup. Arsenal went on to win the league that season, so the upset stuck in football memory for decades. Gilbert Alsop is among the club's best-remembered players. The town's other big crowd-puller was the Arboretum. It opened in 1874 as a Victorian park, and from 1951 to 2008 it hosted the Walsall Illuminations, with lights and displays strung around its lake in one of the longest-running light shows in the country. To eat like a local, order grey peas and bacon, the Black Country's own comfort dish, or faggots and peas.
Famous Walsallians
Jerome K. Jerome, author of the comic classic Three Men in a Boat, was born in Walsall in 1859. The book, published in 1889, made him a household name and has never been out of print. Noddy Holder, the Slade frontman whose roar powered glam-rock hits and a Christmas anthem that returns to the charts every December, was born in Caldmore, Walsall, in 1946. His family later moved to the Beechdale estate, where he spent much of his childhood. It is an unlikely double for one town: a gentle Victorian humorist and a platform-boot rock star, both born in Walsall.