Pelsall Iron Works

Pelsall Iron Works began in 1832 and was owned by a Wolverhampton banker named Mr. Fryer.By 1851 it had passed into the hands of Boaz Bloomer and a Mr. Davies who greatly expanded it and renamed it The Pelsall Coal & Iron Company.The works covered a huge area stretching from Pelsall Works Bridge at Wood Lane to the canal extension opposite where The Red Iron Bridge is today and provided employment for several hundred men and women.Young boys would fetch "essential supplies"(beer from the nearby Free Trade Inn)appropriately named as in its heyday the iron works exported iron to the United States,China,India and the Sudan.Nails went to Canada, Norway and Sweden.

About halfway between the bridge at Wood Lane and the Red Iron bridge stood a massive black iron bridge(today you can see a cut out section on the canal tow path where it once stood)a rail track ran across the bridge, back across the common,up Highfield Road North, across the Wolverhampton Road,down Highfield Road and across to the main line at the bottom of Ryders Hayes Lane.This allowed freight locomotives to travel in and out of the ironworks.During the 1860s Shropshire Union Railway & Coal Company barges were also employed, by then Pelsall Coal & Iron Company also owned several local collieries. As the population of Pelsall was only small at the time many of the workers came from outside the village,some made permanent moves while others travelled back home at weekends.The demise came with the advent of steel causing a slump in orders for iron.This coupled with fierce foreign competition sadly saw the end of what had been the life blood of the whole district.In 1891 heavily in debt the company collapsed.The last two chimneys were demolished in the early 1920s watched by a large crowd of people.By the mid 1930s the ironworks had been completely demolished.
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