As the current Mayor of Walsall Cllr Kath Phillips prepares to bow out at the end of her year office a new incumbent, Cllr Marco Longhi, is preparing to be sworn in at the Annual Meeting this evening.

He will take on the onerous task of ensuring smooth proceedings at council meetings for the coming council year as well as the pleasanter functions of meeting and greeting at the many functions he will be invited to as the ceremonial head of the borough.

Cllr Longhi will be the latest in a long line of Walsall mayors stretching back to 1377.  Under the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act a new borough was established with aldermen and elected councillors. There was a mayor, town clerk and treasurer. From then onward the mayor’s office became more of a ceremonial post rather than the leader of the council.

Meetings were held in The guild hall which is said to have been rebuilt about 1773. By the end of the eighteenth century it included a mayor’s parlour. There was a mayor’s parlour also after the rebuilding of 1865-7. The present council house was built 1902-5.

Walsall Council House

Walsall Guild Hall