It is difficult to imagine in these days of career politicians on expenses and allowances that someone could combine the running of successful business enterprises with the promotion and provision of everyday services for fellow citizens. Such was the achievement of Reuben Farley who more than a hundred years after his death is remembered at every turn in West Bromwich by something named after him, or whose name appears on plaques and foundation stones throughout the town.

Pauline Lawley and Anne Wilkins have gathered together material from various sources – some items for the first time brought to the attention of a wider audience, otherwise going unnoticed in various documents. They have also assembled extracts from past writers such as newspaper columnist William Ellery Jephcott together with published pieces from present day historians Carl Chinn and Richard Trainor. The writers of this book have interwoven all these contributions with their own research and words to pay a worthy tribute to the man who made West Bromwich.