Dudley is today a large town in the West Midlands of England (historically as shown, in Worcestershire) and is 6 miles (9.7 km) south-east of Wolverhampton and 10.5 miles (16.9 km) north-west of Birmingham While Dudley Castle is in Staffordshire, historically the main town was always an enclave in the county of Worcestershire. With the administrative changes made by the UK Government in 1974, it was incorporated into the county of West Midlands Dudley covers an area of the South Staffordshire Coalfield, which contributed heavily to its growth and industrialization during the 18th century Industrial Revolution Dudley has a history dating back to Anglo-Saxon times, its name deriving from the Old English "Duddan Leah", meaning "Dudda's clearing" One of its churches was named in honor of the Anglo-Saxon King and Saint, Edmund Mentioned in the Domesday Book as Dudelei, in the hundred of Clent in Worcestershire, the town was listed as being a medium-sized manor in the possession of Earl Edwin of Mercia prior to the Norman Conquest, with William FitzAnsculf as Lord of the Manor in 1086 Dudley Castle, constructed in 1070 by William's father Ansculf de Picquigny after his acquisition of the town, served as the seat of the extensive Barony of Dudley, which possessed estates in eleven different counties across England. The castle provided the center from which the town and borough grew, with early coal and iron workings helping establish Dudley as a major market town during the Middle Ages, selling not only agricultural produce, but also iron goods at a national level During the English Civil War Dudley served as a Royalist stronghold, with the castle besieged twice by the Parliamentarians and later partly demolished on the orders of the Government after the Royalist surrender Dud Dudley, an illegitimate son of Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley and Elizabeth Tomlinson, devised a method of smelting Iron ore using coke at his father's works in Cradley and Pensnett Chase, though his trade was unsuccessful due to circumstances of the time. Abraham Darby was descended from Dud Dudley's sister, Jane, and was the first person to produce iron commercially using coke instead of charcoal at his works in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire in 1709. Abraham Darby was born near Wrens Nest Hill near the town of Dudley and it is claimed that he may have known about Dud Dudley's earlier work Dudley's population grew dramatically during the 18th and 19th centuries because of the increase in industry, with the main industries including coal and limestone mining. Other industries included iron, steel, engineering, metallurgy, glass cutting, textiles and leather-working With the decline of industry in Dudley since the end of WWII, the area has had an extremely high level of unemployment, resulting in the closure of many businesses in the town