Parish records
Walsall Local History Centre does not hold any original parish registers. Under the provisions of the Parochial Records and Registers Measure (1978) original registers of the ancient county of Staffordshire are kept at the Staffordshire Record Office or at the parish church. The Local History Centre has microfilmed copies of most local parish registers. Where microfilmed copies finish at 1900 the subsequent registers are at Stafford if they have been transferred by the church or still at the church if not.
The registers of St. Matthews Church, Walsall are still kept at the church, but the Local History Centre does have microfilmed copies of the registers except the first (1570-1649) up to 1986. There is no burial nor marriage register for the period 1649-1662. The Local History Centre also has printed transcripts, 1570-1649 and typed, indexed transcripts of baptisms to 1837, burials to 1852 (except for October 1746-May 1749), (these are on the microfilm of the registers but have not been transcribed), and marriages, 1662-1837. There is also a card index of baptisms, 1831-1835 and marriages, 1754-1837 based on the bishop's transcripts but checked against the parish registers.
Walsall parish was divided into the borough and the foreign. The borough was the area in the centre of Walsall whilst the foreign covered a larger area including places such as Bloxwich and Caldmore. Shelfield and Walsall Wood were detached parts of the parish. The foreign was abolished in 1835. A number of other places were parts of larger parishes and did not become proper parishes until about the 1840s and some or all of the relevant records therefore may be with the so-called mother parish. The areas affected are in brackets as follows with the mother church first: Aldridge (Great Barr); Bilston St. Leonard (part of Moxley); Darlaston St. Lawrence (part of Moxley); Norton Canes (part of Brownhills, though not Ogley Hay); Shenstone and, from 1823, Stonnall (the Ogley Hay area of Brownhills); Walsall St. Matthew (Blakenall, Bloxwich and Walsall Wood); Wednesbury St. Bartholomew (The Delves, King's Hill, part of Moxley); and Woverhampton St. Peter (Bentley, Pelsall, Short Heath and Willenhall).
This page was last updated on 14 October 2009