Tamworth

Tamworth: town hall

Tamworth, borough (district), administrative county of Staffordshire, England. It lies at the confluence of the Rivers Tame and Anker, on the northeastern periphery of West Midlands metropolitan county, which is centred on Birmingham. The town of Tamworth is the administrative centre of the borough.

The historic centre of Tamworth and the rest of the borough north of the Anker and west of the Tame lie in the historic county of Staffordshire. The part of the borough south of the Anker and east of the Tame belongs to the historic county of Warwickshire.

Offa, the 8th-century king of Anglo-Saxon Mercia, built a palace on the site of the present-day town. The castle there now, of Norman origin, was largely restored in the Jacobean period (1603–49). Tamworth town, a borough since Anglo-Saxon times, grew around its medieval market and was incorporated in 1560.

Present-day Tamworth is the centre of an agricultural and former coal-mining area, and its industries include agricultural engineering and the manufacture of textiles and aluminum ware. Area 12 square miles (31 square km). Pop. (2001) 74,531; (2011) 76,813.