Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Tamworth

TAMWORTH, a municipal borough and market-town of England, on the borders of Staffordshire and Warwickshire, chiefly in the former, is situated at the junction of the Tame with the Anker, and on branches of the London and North-Western and Midland Railway lines, 7 miles south-east of Lichfield, 20 north-west of Coventry, and 110 north-west of London. The castle, situated on a height above the Anker near its junction with the Tame, is now chiefly of the Jacobean period, but is enclosed by massive ancient walls. It was long the residence of the Saxon kings, and, after being bestowed on the Marmions by William the Conqueror, remained for many years an important fortress. Through the female line of the Marmions it has descended to the Marquis Townshend. Formerly the town was surrounded by a ditch called the King’s Dyke, of which some trace still remains. The church of St Editha, originally founded in the 8th century, was rebuilt, after being burned by the Danes, by Edgar, who made it collegiate, but the present building in the Decorated style was erected after a fire in the 14th century. Since 1870 it has been undergoing restoration at a cost of £10,000. The free grammar school, refounded by Edward VI., was rebuilt in 1677, and again in 1867–68 at a cost of £3000. The other public buildings are the swimming bath and boys’ institute (1885), the town-hall (1701), and the arcade, formerly used as a covered market, but recently obtained by the Salvation Army. The charities include Guy’s almshouses, endowed in 1678 by Thomas Guy, founder of Guy’s Hospital, London, and the cottage hospital with twenty-one beds. Waterworks have recently been erected at a cost of over £25,000. On the "moors" burgesses have rights for cattle. Coal, fireclay, and blue and red brick clay are dug in the neighbourhood; and there are also market gardens. The town possesses a clothing factory, paper-mills, and manufactories of small wares. The population of the municipal borough (area

200 acres) in 1871 was 4589, and in 1881 it was 4891,—that of the parliamentary borough (area 11,602 acres) in the same years being 11,493 and 14,101. Tamworth ceased to be a parliamentary borough in 1885.

Tamworth is situated near the old Roman Watling Street, and occupies the site of a fort which, from the beginning of the 8th century, was the chief royal residence in Mercia. The town, after being burnt by the Danes, was rebuilt and fortified by Ethelfleda, daughter of Alfred the Great. From the reign of Edward the Martyr to that of William Rufus it was a royal mint, and some of the coins struck at Tamworth are still in existence. The town was incorporated in the 3d year of Elizabeth, from whom it obtained the grant of a fair and the confirmation of various privileges bestowed by Edward III. The Elizabethan charter was superseded by one conferred by Charles II., which continued to be the governing charter of the town till the passing of the Municipal Act. The town, with occasional intermissions, returned members to parliament from the reign of Henry I. till 1885. Among its more distinguished representatives have been Thomas Guy and Sir Robert Peel.