Kingswinford St. Mary's Church, Kingswinford, parts of the tower date back to the 11th century. It remained the church of the huge parish of Kingswinford until it was threatened by mining activities in 1831. It re-opened in 1846 to serve a much smaller parish.

It is said that Kingswinford can trace its history back to Roman times, certainly the earthwork at Ashwood, a mile west of Wall Heath, has been recognised as a Roman Camp since at least 1686.

The ancient parish of Kingswinford, whose boundaries were probably little altered for a thousand years until the end of the eighteenth century at the time of the "Industrial Revolution", covers a wide area.

Kingswinford is mentioned in the Domesday Book as having 19 inhabitants. This figure would actually be just adult males and taking wives and children into account the true population at this time is likely to have been around 100.

Nothing more is known of Kingswinford till King John visited the Staffordshire manor of Kinfare in 1206. Soon after King John gave Kingswinford to Baron Dudley, Ralph de Somery. At this time and for many years afterwards only a small portion of the land in the parish was cultivated the greater part was woodland.

Records show that by 1291 coal was being mined in the area and in the 1600's there are entries to show the mining of ironstone and coal pits being sunk.

Events at the beginning of the seventeenth century made Kingswinford famous in English history with the involvement of John Littleton of Holbeche in the Gunpowder Plot During this century entries in the Kingswinford registers of scythesmiths, colliers and nailers show some evidence of the changes which were to put an end to its rural character Though most of the men were still engaged in farming the parish was becoming industrialised.

The population of the parish increased rapidly during the eighteenth century and from the beginning of the nineteenth century at the time of the "Industrial Revolution" the inhabitants began to regard themselves as belonging to individual townships that had been built up and in the 1840s with the division of the parish into six ecclesiastical parishes it can be said that this was the end of the old parish of Kingswinford.

The districts of Kingswinford and Wall Heath, today refer to an area approximately one mile radius from "The Cross" being the cross roads from Dudley to Kidderminster (A4101) and Stourbridge to Wolverhampton (A491).

Rapid house building in the late 1950 and 1960s brought into being a large residential area and the demise of most of the old shops in Market Street (including 'Townswend House' the home of John Pearson and later his son Dr. Alfred William Pearson) and High Street. New schools at the Portway, Maidensbridge and Valley Fields were required to supplement the old Church schools in High Street, Kingswinford and Wall Heath.

The Parish Church, St. Mary's, retains its dignity overlooking the village green where the pound can still be seen and the "Old Court House" where years ago most of the parish business was transacted. 

Methodist Chapels at Moss Grove (the land for this Church had been purchased with a loan given by John Pearson, who later gave the money back to the Churches Trustees when they tried to repay him) and Cot Lane have been replaced by the "modern" Church in Stream Road.

St. Mary’s is the original church with part of the original twelth century Norman Tower still in existence and served the large parish (some 12sq. miles), within the diocese of Lichfield, until St. Michael’s at Brierley Hill was built and became active in 1766.

Brierley Hill Parish originally included Quarry Bank and Brockmoor. Brockmoor (Badgers moor) is one mile N.W. of Brierley Hill, towards Kingswinford. In the 1650’s Brierley Hill was no more than waste common land.

A new parish church, Holy Trinity in Wordsley, was built after the Napoleonic wars, following the Earl of Dudley's decision to mine coal under the original parish church of St. Mary's,and took over as Parish church in November 1831, St. Mary’s continued as a ‘Chapel-at-ease. The parish was finally split up during the 1840’s into six small parishes. In 1563 the whole Kingswinford parish consisted of 29 households, totalling some 150 –160 people, by 1665 this had risen to 283 households or some 1,400 people.

This whole area is at the heart of what was known as the ‘Black Country’. A part of South Staffordshire, it was integral to the industrial revolution of the late 18th. and throughout the 19th. centuries. All the essential ingredients for iron making, coal, iron ore and limestone were readily available in the district. Coal was first recorded as being dug in the area as early as 1273, Glass working was brought to the area by immigrants from Lorraine in 1574 settling in the Stour valley. The Lorraine families Henzey, Tyzach and D’Haux became well established in the Kingswinford area. The oldest glass works in Brierley Hill are those of Royal Brierley Crystal founded in 1776. With the coming of better transport, particularly canals and improved roads, coal mining was greatly developed during the later 1700’s.

It was dangerous work, with frequent accidents, so much so that the Parish awarded endowments of £10 to miner’s widows. The local landowners, for example, the Earl of Dudley financed and developed the coal mines, the quarries and the iron works. In 1829 the Shut End railway was constructed and opened on the Dudley estate to carry Kingswinford coal to the Staffs and Worcester canal. Lord Dudley built the line starting at Ashwood basin on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal to land near Kingswinford Church. It was a standard gauge mineral line carrying coal from collieries on Pensnett Chase. The Kingswinford Railway is of particular historical interest in that the motive power was provided by the "Agenoria" the Black Country's first steam locomotive, built by Foster Rastrick & Co. of Stourbridge. In 1885 it was presented to the Kensington Science Museum and today can be seen in pride of place at the National Railway Museum in York.

By 1855 the large, Earl of Dudley owned, Round Oak works employed 600 men working 27 Puddling furnaces and 5 Rolling mills, much of the ironwork for the Crystal Palace was produced there.

Coal in 1864 sold for about 8d per cwt.( 3.3p per 50Kg), Puddlers were paid by the ton of iron produced, approx 9/6d per ton ( 47.5p per 1000Kg) They averaged 51 tons a week, so for a weeks work received about £2 12s (£2.60p) The work was heavy, strenuous and dangerous, Puddlers, Shinglers and Roll Turners had to handle hot heavy weights and there were many accidents of burns, eye injuries, splinters and dislocations.

The area was also heavily engaged in Nail and Chain making, these were largely family operated cottage industries.

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