DUDLEY, a parliamentary borough and market-town of Worcestershire (in a detached portion of it, surrounded by the county of Stafford), 8 miles W.N.W. of Birmingham. Pop. (1851) 37,962. Registered electors (1851-52) 912, returning one member to parliament. The town of Dudley is generally well-built, the houses are neat, and the streets clean and well paved. The parish church of St Thomas is a handsome modern Gothic structure, with a lofty spire. The other churches are St Edmund's, St James's, St John's, and St Andrew's; and there are also various dissenting places of worship. The free grammar-school, founded by Queen Elizabeth, has endowments of upwards of £300 a year, and educates about 40 scholars; besides which there are several well-endowed charity and other schools. It has also a mechanic's institute, savings-bank, subscription library, dispensary, and various charitable institutions. Dudley is a principal seat of the iron trade, the vicinity furnishing abundant supplies of coal and iron-ore. The principal manufacture is iron-ware, including chain-cables, grates, fire-irons, and iron utensils generally; but nails constitute its staple production. It has also extensive glass-works. The numerous forges and furnaces in Dudley and the vicinity illuminate the sky by night in a remark-
able manner. The limestone quarries around Dudley are very extensive, the excavations being carried more than a mile and a half under the hill on which the castle stands. The stratification of this district is highly interesting to the geologist, and the organic remains are very numerous. On a hill to the north are the remains of an ancient castle, founded about A.D. 700 by a Saxon prince named Dudo, from whom the town is supposed to have taken its name. Near the castle are some remains of an ancient priory. In the vicinity of Dudley there are some chalybeate springs. Market-day, Saturday.