The guildhall is situated in the High-street, one wing of which is the Dragon inn, and the other is a large room where the corporation assemble to transact business, and is called the mayor's parlour, under which is the prison for the town.
The ancient wooden staves belonging to the corporation are still deposited in the hall, and are curious relics of antiquity, being ornamented with heads of various animals, rudely carved.
The sheriff of the county, by his deputy, holds a court in this town, at the Castle inn, every third Monday, for the recovery of debts, under forty shillings; but the expenses are excessive to both debtor and creditor, and if the latter loses his cause, his expenses alone will amount to six or seven pounds.
In the year 1452, Thomas Mosely, of Moxhull, in Warwickshire, being then lord of Bascote, in that county, gave it in trust to William Lyle and Thomas Magot, for the use of the town of Walsall. In 1539, the inhabitants were summoned by the bellman to repair to the church, where a dole was distributed, amounting to the sum of seven pounds, ten shillings, and nine-pence. Some time after, an attempt was made to discontinue this dole, which caused the populace to assemble, who forced the same to be continued; at which time it was distributed to about fourteen thousand people, nine thousand of whom were supposed to reside in Walsall.
The church is a vicarage, dedicated to St. Matthew, or All Saints: it is an ancient pile of building, singular in its appearance, being in the form of a cross, the transept of which is composed by large side chapels, whose roofs lie east and west, parallel to the body of the church. The tower, which is situated at the south-west angle of the west front, is strong, plain, and far from inelegant, being built with coarse lime stone, on which a new spire was erected since 1775, when a set of eight musical bells were fixed there, by Mr. Rudhall, of Glocester; the weight of the tenor being more than twenty-three hundred, and the key note E flat.
The following inscriptions are round the bells:—
1. "When us you ring, we'll sweetly sing."
2. "Fear God, honour the king."
3. "Prosperity to the parish."
4. ditto ditto.