Bloxwich Anvil Stones

Despite living in the same area since we married over 30 years ago, the local history has somewhat passed us by.  I'm sure that is due to focus on work and other 'important' things.  Now I have more time I tend to walk rather than drive locally and today we passed a memorial in Bloxwich Park.

The memorial is a formation of about 70 stones mounted on a concrete mound. Many of the stones have square holes of varying sizes and depths, which held the base of metal working stakes (cast iron blocks which function like small anvils).  A small plaque sits adjacent to the memorial which reads


"These glacial stones were positioned in the early 1900's as a monument to the bitties and tackies of Bloxwich, who constructed needles and awl blades for use in the leather industry."


Awl blades, (think of a bradawl) are thin spikes used in the leather industry to make holes.  Bitties and tackies were the bit-makers and tack-makers whose trades started to flourish in Bloxwich from the late eighteenth century. By the early nineteenth century metalwork had become more important to the area than agriculture. White's Directory of Staffordshire in 1834 records 80 Bloxwich firms in involved in bit-making at that time.