Brierley Hill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Map sources for Brierley Hill at grid reference SO915868
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Brierley Hill is a town in Dudley Metropolitan Borough, West Midlands, England. It is best known as the location of the Merry Hill shopping centre and is also well known for is glass making on the site of the Round Oak Steelworks.
Like most of the larger Black Country towns, it is heavily industrialised, best known for glass and steel manufacturing, although the industry has declined considerably since the 1970s.
Originally part of Staffordshire, Brierley Hill became an urban district in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894. It expanded vastly in 1934 when it took in the Kingswinford Rural District and the Quarry Bank urban district. It remained an independent urban district until 1966, when it became part of Dudley County Borough and then in 1974 the Metropolitan Borough. It is in the DY5 postal district.
The Merry Hill Centre was built on the grounds of the last working urban farm within the Midlands. The Waterfront office complex was built on the site of the town's Round Oak steelworks, a site which was also developed in the 1980s for a railway freight terminal. From 1850 to 1962, Brierley Hill was served by a railway station for passengers on the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line, when passenger services were withdrawn. This was before Richard Beeching brought the axe down on many local railway lines. The railway line from Stourbridge through Brierley Hill is still is use for goods trains but since 1993 it has been closed beyond Round Oak Steel Terminal, although that section of line is set to reopen in 2012 as an extension to the Midland Metro that will run to Wednesbury. Goods trains will also be allowed to use the full length of the line to Walsall.
Brierley Hill Town Hall, situated on Bank Street in the town centre, hosted several of Slade's first gigs during the early 1970s, although none of the members were actually from Brierley Hill.
The town's Police Station was built during the mid 1960s, and was originally going to be the local council offices, but this never happened due to Brierley Hill becoming part of the Dudley borough.
[edit] Neighbourhoods
- Brockmoor
- Pensnett
- Withymoor Village
- Chapel Street Estate
- Quarry Bank
- Caledonia Estate
- Hawbush Estate
[edit] Notable residents
- Industrialist John Corbett was born in the town.
- Don Richardson, the man who developed the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, was born in the town, just streets away from the land that he developed for mass commercialisation more than 50 years later.
[edit] External links
Ceremonial county of West Midlands | |
|---|---|
| Metropolitan districts | City of Birmingham • City of Coventry • City of Wolverhampton Metropolitan Borough of Dudley • Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell • Metropolitan Borough of Solihull • Metropolitan Borough of Walsall |
| Cities and towns | Aldridge • Amblecote • Bilston • Birmingham • Blackheath • Bloxwich • Brierley Hill • Brownhills • Coseley • Coventry • Darlaston • Dudley • Halesowen • Hampton-in-Arden • Oldbury • Rowley Regis • Sedgley • Smethwick • Solihull • Stourbridge • Sutton Coldfield • Tipton • Walsall • Wednesbury • Wednesfield • West Bromwich • Willenhall • Wolverhampton See also: List of civil parishes in West Midlands |
| Rivers | River Blythe • River Cole • River Penk • River Rea • River Sherbourne • River Sowe • River Stour • River Tame |
| Topics | Birmingham Canal Navigations • Black Country • Centro • History of West Midlands County |
| West Midlands conurbation • Coventry/Bedworth Urban Area • Category:West Midlands | |
eo:Brierley Hill
