HANDSWORTH, a town, a township, a parish, and a sub-district, in West Bromwich district, Stafford. The town stands contiguous to Warwickshire, on Hockley Brook, near the Birmingham and Wolverhampton railway; is suburban to Birmingham, and averagely 2½ miles NNW of the centre of that borough; partakes of the industry and general character of Birmingham; is the seat of the famous Soho manufactory; and has a post office‡ under Birmingham, and two stations with telegraph, the one called Soho, the other called Handsworth-Smethwick, on the Birmingham and Wolverhampton railway. The township bears the name of Handsworth-with-Soho. Pop. in 1851, 7, 047; in 1861, 10, 398. Houses, 2, 003. The parish includes also the hamlet of Perry-Barr, and comprises 7, 680 acres. Real property, £48, 532. Pop. in 1851, 7, 879; in 1861, 11, 459. Houses, 2, 179. There are five livings, -H. ST. Mary, H. ST. James, H. ST. Michael, Birchfield, and Perry-Barr; and the first is a rectory, the others vicarages, in the diocese of Lichfield. Value of St. Mary, £1, 500;* of St. James and PerryBarr, each £200;* of St. Michael, £300; of Birchfield, not reported. Patron of St. Mary, the Rev. J. Peel, D.D.; of Perry-Barr, Lord Calthorpe; of the others, the Rector of Handsworth. St. Mary's church was ancient, but has been mostly rebuilt; includes a recent chapel, with a statue of Watt, by Chantry; and contains a bust of Boulton by Flaxman, and several old monuments. St. James' church was built in 1840; and had assigned to it, in 1854, a definite territory, the pop. of which, in 1861, was 3, 691. St. Michael's church was built in 1858, at a cost of about £6, 000; and is in the decorated English style. Birchfield church was built in 1864. There are chapels for Independents, Wesleyans, and Roman Catholics, a convent of sisters of mercy, a middle school, national schools, and charities £1 99. The convent is a large edifice in Hunters lane, and the chapel connected with it is very elegant. The middle school was built in 1862, at a cost of £3, 200.—The sub-district is conterminate with the parish.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))