Amblecote's rich mineral resources first became a matter of record in the 12th century. In 1372 a lease for property in Amblecote mentions coal and ironstone mining rights, whilst in 1382 various 'customs' are mentioned relating to Amblecote mines.

Clay enters the written record some two hundred year later, though with such vigour there can little doubt its extraction had been going on for years. Indeed, these early records concern efforts to ban outsiders (from as far way as Wollaston and Stourbridge) digging the stuff without permission. Attempts were also made to control coal mining in the area, which was being carried out in a wildly unplanned manner. It must be remembered that a 'mine' meant an open pit, and legislation by magistrates in the 1500's tried to persuade local miners to fill their holes in after them! We are left with the delightful image of surly 'proto-Blackcountrymen' besmeared from head to foot in sticky clay and coal dust, digging away for all they were worth before the law arrived! Of course, the higher scrub-land of Withymoor (or Whitmoor or Wormwood Bank) where much of this low level extraction would have taken place was quite remote from the more 'civilised' valley area, and a gang of men could no doubt dig for several days without detection - especially if they carried big sticks. Such was Amblecote during 'Merrie England'.

By the early 17th century the local combination of fine clay, coal and abundant sand had been put together to produce glass. The banning of charcoal for glass manufacture and the arrival of highly skilled protestant French refugee glassmakers from Lorrain boosted this industry. By the 1620's there was an established glasshouse at Holloway End. Within a few years additional glass manufactories had sprung up all over Amblecote.

The glass industry dominated of course, with all manner of items produced in dozens of works. Amblecote is nowadays rightly celebrated for its decorative cut glass products, but the late 1700's saw the manufacture of bottles, sheet glass and much more. Apothecary's phials were an important product, whilst James Kier (1738-1820) a chemist, managed a glass house at Holloway End that made glass tubes essential for thermometers - a small but vital tool in enabling industrial progress. Kier went on to become a manager at Bolton & Watt's famous Soho factory in Handsworth (itself a corner of Staffordshire projecting into Warwickshire) and a leading member of the Lunar Society. Meanwhile the tradition of glass tube manufacture for scientific use at Holloway End continued well into the 20th century.

Interestingly the area's lead crystal tableware became internationally famous under the name of 'Stourbridge' glass, whereas in fact most of the factories producing it were in Amblecote or Wordsley. The fact that neither glass masters nor workers appear to have objected to this probably reflects the non-partisan outlook individuals living across hazy borders tend to adopt; as well as indicating the acknowledged predominance of Stourbridge as the regional centre, despite it being in a different county.

With the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, Amblecote's glass and other industries expanded rapidly. In common with many West Midland towns, Amblecote held a peculiar advantage not only in terms of mineral wealth - but administrative confusion. The new industrial centres were situated at the confluence of several counties, and none were County Towns. A situation further complicated by a number of fluctuating county 'islands' whereby various detached portions of adjacent counties stood isolated within another. Birmingham and its industrial environs spanned Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire and even at one time a detached portion of Shropshire, whilst Dudley was an island of Worcestershire in Staffordshire, and Amblecote part of a confused Staffordshire 'corridor' between Stourbridge (in Worcestershire) and Brierley Hill (in Staffordshire). In addition Amblecote was in the Parish of Old Swinford (Diocese of Worcester) and Brierley Hill in that of Kingswinford (Diocese of Lichfield). The result was an inability by the ancient systems of County and Parish government to control the expansion of the new manufacturing towns. Local industrialist took full advantage, and in an atmosphere of manic commercialism that combined unfettered capitalism, minimal human rights and an absolute disregard for the environment, the first Industrial Revolution burst in black fury upon the once green English Midlands. To what extent this altered not only the landscape, but also the very condition of central England, may be illustrated by the changed perception of the North/South road on which Amblecote stands. This did, and still does, link Worcester and Lichfield; yet few would now see it as an ancient route between ecclesiastical cities. Instead the road became an important local thoroughfare, supplemented by railways and canals, linking the eastern edge of the Black Country with other new trading and transport centres.

Amblecote with its rich mineral resources and long glass making tradition stood poised to take full advantage of this vital turning point in history and the story of the town in the 18th and 19th centuries is one of great manufacturing, if not exactly social, achievement.

Amblecote stood on the very southern edge of the South Staffordshire coalfield, the famous 'Thirty Foot Seam' that ran from Cannock Chase to Himley. In Amblecote the coal was very shallow indeed, with outcrops originally occurring on the surface. However, by the time of the Industrial Revolution all of this surface coal had disappeared and the area of Amblecote Bank was a warren of 'walk down' pits or drift mines, reached by sloping roadways leading a few yards underground. Later on conventional pit shafts were established, but Amblecote coal mining was always a shallow affair, resulting in numerous cave-ins and subsidence that made the area of Amblecote Bank dangerous not only for miners but buildings and even ordinary surface dwellers, animal and human! Finally in the 1960's and 70's, the remaining coal was taken in a massive opencast project that swept away both the old workings and much of Amblecote's past along with it. The very geography of the area of Amblecote Bank was changed, and the reclaimed land that resulted was used to build the largest private housing development in Europe.

Of all the materials to be extracted from Amblecote's mineral rich earth it was clay that proved the most vital. True, Amblecote's coal and iron-ore were important in their time, but it was the special qualities of Amblecote clay that made it a vital component of the glass industry, and of other industrial processes that required refractory products. By virtue of a fortuitous geological process nature had conspired to produce, ready made, a chemically modified material that after minimal processing could be shaped into vessels and bricks that provided everything required for furnace linings.

It was the robust Amblecote clay that first drew glass makers to the area, providing them with a means of firing furnaces with coal rather than precious (or even banned) charcoal. Whilst in later years as transport improved, Amblecote firebricks were exported by the million to line furnaces of every description across Britain, the Empire and the world. Even the steam ships that carried them as cargo were driven by engines contained finance linings of Amblecote clay.