Explore Sandwell through its six historic towns - Oldbury, Rowley Regis, Smethwick, Tipton, Wednesbury and West Bromwich. They all have their own local character, traditions and attractions.
Oldbury
In the 19th century black pit banks and spoil heaps, grey chemical mounds, red marl holes and the silver threads of the canals crept over the green fields of Oldbury andLangley.
They brought prosperity and work opportunities that drew people to the vibrant town, whose railway wagons, boilers, chemicals, edge tools, tubes and hosts of other products became famous worldwide.
A thousand years ago, Oldbury, Langley and Warley were small communities in the Anglo-Saxon manor of Hales.
Oldbury was ancient even then, called ‘ealdanbyrig’ (old shelter). Oldbury was controlled by the Abbots of Hales Abbey from the Abbey’s foundation in 1215 to its dissolution in 1538.
Although Oldbury became a separate manor in the 16th century, with its own Lords of the Manor, it remained part of Hales Owen parish until 1841. By then it was a flourishing industrial town.
In 1894 it became an Urban District, and in 1935 it gained its Charter of Incorporation, becoming a Municipal Borough. This lasted until 1966 when it was included in the new Borough of Warley, and in 1974 it became one of the six towns of Sandwell.
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Rowley Regis
Home to Sandwell’s only mediaeval market, the ‘rugged pasture land’ of the Anglo-Saxon ‘Ruh Leah’ saw
hamlets developed at Blackheath, Cradley Heath, Old Hill, Rowley and Tividale as settlers were attracted to fertile farmland and abundant natural resources of stone, coal, clay and iron.
In 1605 Rowley Hall gained notoriety as the hiding place for Robert Winter and Stephen Lyttleton, two of the fleeing conspirators involved
in the Gunpowder Plot, later charged with high treason and hung, drawn and quartered. Rowley became internationally renowned for nail
making and for the manufacture of Jew’s Harps (primitive musical instruments) whilst Cradley Heath achieved world wide fame for its
chain-making.
The 1800s brought major employment via the nut and bolt works and manufacture of pottery. However, it was in the many coal mines and stone quarries of the area
that people found their main employment, and it is these activities for which Rowley of old is remembered, activities that have left both a lasting
imprint on the appearance of the area and in the character of its inhabitants.
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Smethwick
Canals scything through a scattered hamlet of nailmakers and blacksmiths created a Victorian boom town from
where steam engines, stained glass, ceramics and lighthouses were sent to all four corners of the world. The people of
Smethwick today are as richly diverse as the engineering products of their proud industrial heritage.
To the local Anglo Saxon farmers this was “the level land where cows graze”. Mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1086, metalworkers were busy
here in the 16th century. The canals of the Industrial Revolution attracted large-scale manufacturing, bringing with it a population explosion.
Smethwick
called itself “the workshop of the world”, and amongst its huge range of products were Tangye’s pumps and hydraulic engines, Guest, Keen &
Nettlefolds screws, nuts and bolts, Phillips’s bicycles, Camm’s stained glass windows, Ruskin art pottery, Scribans’s cakes and biscuits, Mitchells &
Butler’s beer and Mason’s pop. Chance Brothers made 1.25 million ft2 (140,000 m2) of glass for the Crystal Palace which housed the Great Exhibition
of 1851, as well as the glass for the clock face of Big Ben at the Houses of Parliament.
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Tipton
The tiny ancient hamlet which the Domesday Book recorded as having ‘land for five ploughs’ grew in the industrial revolution to a place ‘palpitating to the beat and throb of a thousand steam engines’ where ‘iron is manipulated and fashioned to the service of man in every conceivable way that human ingenuity can devise’
The abundance of coal, iron ore and limestone in the locality led to the establishment of iron making. This grew rapidly after the construction of the Birmingham canal in 1770 which allowed finished products to be efficiently transported to worldwide markets. Such was the growth of the canal system in Tipton that the town became known as the Venice of the Midlands with over thirteen miles of waterway within the parish.
As well as making top quality iron, Tipton became especially well known for its heavy engineering trades such as the production of large castings, forgings, structural ironwork, steam engines, boilers, chains and anchors.
Technical innovation and achievement were prolific.
In 1712 the world’s first successful steam engine was erected at Coneygree, then in 1776 James Watt’s first commercial engine was put to work at Bloomfield.
The first iron steamship in the world was built by the Horseley Ironworks in 1822 and the world’s largest anchor made by H P Parkes in 1866.The 1830s saw Joseph Hall develop the wet puddling method of ironmaking which revolutionised the industry. In 1937
the world speed record breaking car Thunderbolt was built at Beans Foundry.
Tipton’s contribution to the industrialised world can never be underrated.
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Wednesbury
Potters, enamellers and gunsmiths, crafting their wares in the shadow of a site once sacred to the Saxon god Woden, exploited a mineral rich
terrain turning a tenth century rural landscape into an important centre of Black Country industry whose products helped build an empire
and were of international renown.
Named after the Saxon god of War (Woden) and the probable site of an iron age fort (burgh) or hill (barrow) Wednesbury is reputed to have been fortified by Ethelflaed,
daughter of King Alfred, in 916 to protect the borders of the kingdom of Mercia from Viking raiders. The Domesday Book of 1086 describes ‘Wednesberie’ as a manor consisting of
ploughland and meadows surrounded with dense woodland. ‘Colepits’ are known to have been dug by 1315 and the industrial development of the town ensued.
With ‘Wednesbury Forge’ established in 1597 and pottery, including the renowned ‘Wedgebury’ ware, produced in bulk from the 1400s Wednesbury was perhaps the most
important and wealthiest manufacturing town in the West Midlands before the Industrial Revolution.
Industrial development occurring in the 18th and 19th centuries has
hidden the evidence of its earlier wealth and importance which is only now being rediscovered through a series of extensive archaeological excavations throughout the town.
When granted its Charter of Incorporation, by Queen Victoria in 1886, the Council suitably honoured its inhabitants withthe chosen motto ‘Arte, Marte, Vigore’ (By Skill, By Iron, By Energy)..
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West Bromwich
From the original yellow of furze bushes and heathland, through the black and fiery reds of industrialisation, to the vibrant pink and
silver of recent building, West Bromwich today presents a vibrant and living kaleidoscope of people and buildings sharing a fascinating past and
inspiring future.
Named after the “Broom” bush and Wic meaning heath, “Broom Wic” was a Saxon settlement to which West was later added in about 650 AD to distinguish it from other
Bromwiches. Saxon and Mediaeval farmland was gradually replaced in the 1500s and 1600s as industries like nailmaking and gunlock filing flourished. Small iron works
sprang up and mines were dug to exploit iron and coal. The opening of a canal in 1769 and the first railway station in 1837 together with new and improved roads made the
transport of raw materials and finished goods easier and increased the importance of West Bromwich asa prosperous and wealthy industrial town.
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The Sandwell slave trade connection
Slavery and the slave trade cemented the relations between Africa, Europe and the Americas into one of inequality. The industrial revolution in England lies at the heart of this change, and places like West Bromwich and Smethwick were an important part of it
Download Guns, Shackles and Chains pdf
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