Walsall is an industrial town located in the English West Midlands, northwest of Birmingham. It has a population of approximately 172,600 (262,000 in the metropolitan borough)
Walsall is famous for making leather goods, and the local football team Walsall F.C are known as The Saddlers. Walsall Leather Museum is one of its key attractions, as is the new Walsall Art Gallery, commissioned for the millennium, and of national significance.
Coal mining was a major industry in Walsall until the 1930s. The writer Jerome K. Jerome was born here in 1859.
Willenhall is famous for lock-making, and has a lock museum.
Pork scratchings are the most famous local snack, although they are not universally popular throughout the rest of the UK. Traditionally, these are made by deep frying pork rind (pork fat), and then adding salt. Walsall's heart- attack rate is one of the highest in the UK.
The modern Metropolitan Borough of Walsall was created in 1974, from the historic towns of: