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Local government
in and around Wolverhampton Wolverhampton It was not until 1777 that modern local government was established in Wolverhampton with the passing of the 'Wolverhampton Improvement Act''. This act established the Town Commissioners with authority to levy rates and begin improvement to the streets and thoroughfares of the growing industrial town. The minute books of the Town Commissioners survive for the period 1777 through to 1848 when the Commissioners were replaced by the Borough Council (ref. CMB-WOL-C-TC). The Commissioners undertook a wide variety of work, including the prevention of the slaughtering of live animals in the streets and punishing bear baiting by fines of £5! Over the course of the lifetime of the Town Commissioners street lighting and drainage were improved, and streets widened. Attempts were also made to regulate the markets and inspect hazardous food.
It
is ordered that for widening two certain streets in Wolverhampton
aforesaid called Bilston Street and Dudley Street … Despite some success, particularly in the areas of street lighting and widening, there was disquiet by the 1840s over the fact that the Commissioners were unelected and therefore unaccountable. Some of the borough felt that a more efficient and modern way of governing the town would be by an elected council. In 1848 a pamphlet was published entitled 'How shall the Town be Governed?'
How shall the Town be Governed? (L352) Following petitions to Parliament and the Queen, borough status was granted to Wolverhampton in 1848. The first elections to the borough council took place on 12 May 1848.
Wolverhampton Chronicle, May 1848 The council consisted of thirty-six councillors from eight wards. There were also twelve aldermen, or senior members of the council, who served for six years. Those who were eligible to vote represented a tiny proportion of those who lived in the town. As Chris Upton writes in A History of Wolverhampton: 'even by 1900 the property based qualification meant that only 17 % of the population was eligible to vote; in that year only 1% of the town's population bothered to turn out'. Each year a mayor was elected from among the councillors.
On 31 January 2001 Wolverhampton was granted city status. The Council originally met in the Assembly Rooms in Queen Street, later moving to Garrick Street, and then to the old Red Lion Inn in North Street. In 1869 the Council decided to demolish the Red Lion and build Wolverhampton's first town hall.
The old Town Hall (F1/WOL/E/2)
The new Town Hall (F1/WOL/A/E/2)
Interior of the new Town Hall (F1/WOL/A/I/1-2)
Ticket for the opening ceremony 1871 (L72p) The Town Hall was opened in 1871. The Council established a committee to oversee the project of designing and building the new town hall. The extract from the minutes below show the use to which the rooms in the new building were put:
Extract from Town Hall Committee (CMB-WOL-C-MISC/4) Municipal boroughs were able to grant the title of 'freeman'. Originally freemen were citizens who could claim exemption from tolls, but by the nineteenth century the title had become an honorary one.
The Borough coat of arms was granted by the College of Heralds on 31 December 1898, Wolverhampton Council's jubilee year. This replaced an earlier coat of arms which had been in use since the borough's incorporation in 1848, although it had never been officially granted by the College of Heralds. The keys are indicative of St Peter to whom the Collegiate Church is dedicated, while the book suggests learning as represented by the Grammar School. The column represents the ancient pillar in St Peter's churchyard, the lock an early staple industry of the town, and the woolpack is a symbol of the wool stable or market, formerly held in the town. The cross was the principal feature in the coat ascribed to Edgar, the Saxon king. The brazier is indicative of the Black Country.
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