In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described West Bromwich like this:
West Bromwich, parl. and mun. bor. and par., Staffordshire, 4¼ miles NW. of Birmingham by rail, 5719 ac., pop. 56,295; 2 Banks, 2 newspapers. West Bromwich appears in Domesday Book as Bromwic, and in the 12th century was made the seat of a Benedictine priory. It is, however, entirely of recent growth, having at the close of the 18th century been only a rural village amid a barren heath. It is one of the Black Country towns, owing its prosperity to the rich local mines of ironstone and coal, and to the numerous branches of canals and railways by which it is inter-sected. ...
It carries on mfrs. in all departments of Birmingham hardware; it has furnaces for the smelting of iron ore, foundries, forges, slitting mills, and anchor and chaincable works; also breweries, brass foundries, boat yards, limekilns, brick yards, cement works, &c. The public buildings erected in 1875 comprise a town hall, market hall, free library, public baths, &c. West Bromwich was included in the parl. bor. of Wednesbury in 1867; it was made a mun. bor. in 1382, and a parl. bor. in 1885; it returns 1 member.
A Vision of Britain through Time includes a large library of local statistics for administrative units. For the best overall sense of how the area containing West Bromwich has changed, please see our redistricted information for the modern district of Sandwell. More detailed statistical data are available under Units and statistics, which includes both administrative units covering West Bromwich and units named after it.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of West Bromwich, in Sandwell and Staffordshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
Date accessed: 19th February 2017
Click here for more detailed advice on finding places within A Vision of Britain through Time, and maybe some references to other places called "West Bromwich".