Cradley Heath
Famous as the worls centre for the manufacture of chains of all sizes, the town also had its share of ironworks, brickworks and other manufacturers. In 1909 the conditions of the women chainmakers in their backyard workshops were highlighted by their strike which drew national attention. In 1928 the area produced 90% of Britain's chain. It is also renowned as the home of Cradley Heath speedway and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
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Oldbury
At the heart of Sandwell, Oldbury grew after the Wolverhampton to Birmingham canal was completed which enabled coal and iron products to be transported to markets. Engineering developed with boiler works, forges, the Oldbury Carriage and Wagon Works and Accles and Pollock's. The chemical industry also became an important employer with Albright and Wilson, established in 1851, making phosphorous for safety matches. Less well known is the fact that local man Jack Judge wrote the words to 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary' in 1912.
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Rowley Regis
'Ruh Leah' meaning rough, rugged open land, and its ownership by the King in the Middle Ages gave this part of the Black Country its name; while quarrying of the Basalt rock or "Hailstone" in Turners Hill was its main claim to fame. This hailstone is still used for road making today.
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Smethwick
'Here we saw a long iron bridge very beautifully made, spanning two railways and a canal, all down in one deep braod cutting. Smethwick is rather noted for containing Chance's glass works, the largest of the kind in the world. Here the real Staffordshire Black Country begins and the road passes through a succession of blast furnaces, foundries, coal and iron pits and huge heaps of slag ?' Extract taken from a child's record of a trip from Birmingham to Dudley in the 1870's.
Smethwick had been no more than a hamlet of farms and cottages, when manufacturing arrived, encouraged by Brindley's canal. Thereafter the town was transformed, its population of about one thousand had increased over fiftyfold by 1900, and its engineering had an international reputation.
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Tipton
Recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Tibbington; the town is famous for many things. In 1712 the first Newcomen steam engine was erected here, to pump water from a coal mine. The world's first iron steam ship, the Aaron Manby was built by the Horseley Iron Company, and Barrows and Hall was, at one time, the Black Country's largest producer of iron.
The comprehensive canal network earned Tipton the title 'Venice of the Midlands' and with thirteen railway stations, industrial activity expanded in many fields. In the sporting arena the 'Tipton Slasher' was a champion prize fighter of the 1850's and the Tipton Harriers has a long history of producing champions on the athletics fields - locals may recognise the names Jack Holden and Dennis Pearsall, both England internationls from the harriers!
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Wednesbury
Sometimes called 'Tube Town', Wednesbury is a very old settlement dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon god Woden, with its church built on the banks of a Celtic Iron Age fort. In the eighteenth century the most important industry was the manufacture of gun barrels and gun locks. After 1815 the demand for guns slumped but a new market developed for tubes, especially for the new gas mains systems. Cornelius Whitehouse invented a method of forging hollow tubes in 1825 and by the mid nineteenth century there were many firms producing tubes in the town. Iron works and engineering factories abounded, including the world famous Patent Shaft and Axletree Company and the town is still a centre of the iron trade.
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West Bromwich
The old Manor House and the Oak House, proud reminders of an earlier time, are rare examples of half timbered buildings remaining in the Black Country but uncharacteristic of this industrial boom town. The first known blast furnace in the Black Country was erected in West Bromwich in 1590, but the area did not develop until the discivery of coal and ironstone on the open heath to the South of the village centre. The town became famous for spring manufacture, holloware and architectural cast ironware but is best known today for its football team, West Bromwich Albion, referred to locally as "the baggies"!
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