History Of Tamworth

Tamworth has existed since  Saxon times, and once was the capital of Mercia, the largest of all English kingdoms of its time (see Heptarchy). It was by far the largest town in the Midlands when today's much larger city of Birmingham was still in its infancy. This is largely because of its strategic position at the meeting point of two rivers (the Tame and the Anker), which meant the town was perfectly placed as a centre of trade and industry.

The town was later sacked by Danes in the 9th century, and what is known (as fact) is that there was a wooden fort, probably constructed on the site of today's castle, designed to defend the town against further Danish invaders by Ethelfleda, Lady of the Mercians, the daughter of King Alfred the Great.

Tamworth Castle
Tamworth Castle

In the 11th century, a Norman castle was built on the probable site of the Saxon fort, which still stands to this day as an important tourist attraction. Grants of borough privileges, including rights to a third additional fair in 1588, consolidated Tamworth’s historic importance as ‘the seat of Saxon kings’.

In the Middle Ages Tamworth was a small market town. However the king gave it charters in 1319. (In the Middle Ages a charter was a document granting the townspeople certain rights or confirming existing ones). In 1337 Tamworth was granted the right to hold two annual fairs. (In the Middle Ages fairs were like markets but they were held only once a year and they attracted buyers and sellers from far and wide).

In 1345 Tamworth suffered a disastrous fire. Much of the town burned. (Fire was a constant hazard in the Middle Ages because most buildings were made of wood with thatched roofs. On the other hand if they burned they could be easily rebuilt).

Tamworth continued to grow and remained of the most populous towns in the Midlands by 1670, when the combined hearth tax returns from Warwickshire and Staffordshire list a total of some 320 households. Its strategic trade advantage lay with control of the two vital packhorse bridges across the Anker and the Tame on the route from London to Chester. While it remained a local market town, it did a brisk trade providing travellers with the staple bread, ale and accommodation, maintaining trading links as far afield as Bristol. Charles II’s reconfirmation of its borough's privileges in 1663 gave the town an added boost, as confirmed by Richard Blome's description of its celebrated market, well served with corn, provisions and lean cattle.

Queen Elizabeth granted Tamworth another charter in 1560.

In the 16th and 17th centuries Tamworth, like all towns, suffered from outbreaks of plague. It struck in 1563, 1579, 1597-98, 1606 and 1626. Each time the plague struck many people died but each time the population recovered. Fortunately the 1626 outbreak was the last.

In 1678 the town's future MP Thomas Guy founded almshouses in Tamworth (they were rebuilt in 1913). He also built Tamworth Town Hall in 1701 and later founded Guys Hospital in London.

There are four cannons in the Castle Grounds, an indication of the town's previously violent past.

In 1801, the population was a little over 3000.

There were a number of improvements to Tamworth during the 19th century. In 1807 the pavements were flagged. From 1835 Tamworth had gaslight. In the late 19th century a piped water supply was created.

The town grew rapidly in the 18th and 19th centuries during the Industrial Revolution, benefitting from the surrounding coal mines. It also became a hub of the canal network, with the Coventry Canal and the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal being built through the town. Later, the railways arrived with the Midland Railway route from Derby to Birmingham arriving in Tamworth in 1847, and later the London and North Western Railway, which provided direct trains to the capital. A split-level station exists where the two main lines cross one-another, the higher level platforms (on the Derby to Birmingham line), being at right angles to the lower ones on the main line to London.

The first cemetery opened in 1876. The Assembly Rooms were built in 1889. In 1897 the corporation bought Tamworth Castle.

A hospital was built in Tamworth in 1880. An infirmary was built in 1903.

The first council houses in Tamworth were built in 1900. More were built in the 1920s and 1930s and after 1945.

The first public library in Tamworth was built in 1905. Tamworth gained an electricity supply in 1924.

The Victorian Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel served as the town's MP from 1830 until his death in 1850. It was in Tamworth that Robert Peel unveiled his Tamworth Manifesto in 1834 which created what is now the modern Conservative Party. During the 19th century a breed of pig called Tamworth Pig was initially bred here using some imported Irish stock.

Samuel Parkes who won the Victoria Cross in the Charge of the Light Brigade was born in Wigginton and baptised at St. Editha's on 24 December 1815. His parents, Thomas and Lydia, are buried in its churchyard.

Tamworth grew rapidly in the postwar years as it soaked up overspill from the West Midlands conurbation to the southwest. A population of about 7,000 in 1931 had risen to some 13,000 just after the Second World War; this figure remained fairly static until the late 1960s when a major expansion plan was implemented. Although not officially a "New Town", Tamworth's expansion resembled the development of many new towns. As part of this plan the town boundaries were expanded to include the industrial area around Wilnecote to the south. The 1961 population of the new enlarged area was 25,000. In 1971 it was 40,000; in 1981, 64,000; in 1991, 68,000 and in 2001, 74,000, meaning that the town's population had almost doubled within 30 years.

A high profile murder took place at Tamworth in June 1972. The victim was Judith Roberts, the 14-year-old daughter of a local school headmaster. Andrew Evans (18) was found guilty of her murder at Birmingham Crown Court in April 1973 and sentenced to life imprisonment. He remained in prison for 25 years until his conviction was quashed in the High Court on 4 December 1997. [1] Evans later received compensation totalling almost £1million for his wrongful conviction and imprisonment.

The town of Fazeley merges almost completely into the town to the southwest, but belongs to the Lichfield District area rather than Tamworth Borough. It became a town, by holding a referendum, to prevent efforts from Tamworth to absorb it. [ citation needed].

Tamworth was historically split between Staffordshire and Warwickshire, with the county boundary running through the town centre. Staffordshire was made to include the entire borough in 1888.

The A5 £26,000,000 5 mile dual-carriageway Fazeley, Two Gates and Wilnecote Bypass opened in July 1995, acting both as a bypass of Watling Street, and as a fast route for traffic into the town. This was further extended to meet the M6 Toll and A38 in 2005. The road's official name is Thomas Guy Way.