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West Bromwich West Midlands

Approximate Population: 136,940

West Bromwich is famous for its football club, West Bromwich Albion.   The club was founded in 1878 and in 1888 it became one of the twelve founder members of the Football League.   It won the league championship in 1920 and has won the FA Cup five times, most recently in 1968.   The club recently won the Coca Cola Championship in 2008.   Albion were based in and around the centre of West Bromwich during their formative years, but moved further out of the town in 1900 when they switched to their current ground, The Hawthorns.

Engineering and chemicals are important to the town’s economy, as it played a crucial part in the Industrial Revolution during the 19th century and still retains many manufacturing jobs to this day, despite a steady nationwide decline in this sector since the 1970s.

Sandwell General Hospital is located near the town centre.   It is part of the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the United Kingdom.  William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth had his seat at Sandwell Hall.   Legge was unusual as an aristocrat of this period by being a Methodist and attending the Wednesbury Methodist meetings, where fellow Methodists - many of them colliers and drovers - knew him as “Brother Earl”.

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West Bromwich West Midlands

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Solihull West Midlands

Approximate Population: 94,753

Residential development in Solihull comprises a variety of housing types, but features a notable preponderance of semi-detached, detached and town houses, with little or no true terraces.   Many of the larger developments were constructed between 1950 and 1970.   One of the earlier large scale developments centred around Beechwood Park Road and Stonor Park Road with new detached houses selling for £4,000 in 1952.   Chelmsley Wood to the north of Solihull town centre is a large 1960s overspill estate for Birmingham, and is currently marketed under the name of “North Solihull”. In the early to mid-1980s, the new Monkspath district constructed east of Shirley (and close to the M42 motorway) was the UK’s single largest housing development of that decade.

Solihull offers a variety of shopping facilities.   It has an open-air 1960s-style shopping centre called Mell Square.   In recent years, the town has undergone much development, and the High Street has been pedestrianised since 1994. On July 2, 2002, a large new shopping centre, Touchwood, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II.

Solihull is the home of the four wheel drive car manufacturer Land Rover and a range of other major companies.

The National Exhibition Centre, commonly thought to be in Birmingham, is in fact within the borough of Solihull, as is almost all of Birmingham International Airport and the ever-expanding Birmingham Business Park.

Railway Sleepers Solihull West Midlands

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Birmingham West Midlands

Approximate Population: 1,010,200

Birmingham is the fourth most visited city by foreign visitors in the UK.   In 1998, Birmingham hosted the G8 summit at the International Convention Centre, on the site of Bingley Hall, the world’s first purpose-built exhibition hall, and remains a popular location for conventions today along with the National Exhibition Centre in nearby Solihull.

In 2007, Birmingham was ranked as the 55th most livable city in the world and the second most in the UK after London, according to the Mercer Index of worldwide standards of living.

People from Birmingham are known as ‘Brummies’, a term derived from the city’s nickname of Brum.   This comes in turn from the city’s dialect name, Brummagem, which is derived from one of the city’s earlier names, ‘Bromwicham’.   There is a distinctive Brummie dialect and accent, both of which differ from the adjacent Black Country.

Railway Sleepers Birmingham

West Midlands

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Wolverhampton West Midlands

Approximate Population: 239,100

Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough of the West Midlands, England.   In 2004, the local government district had an estimated population of 239,100; the wider Urban Area had a population of 251,462, which makes it the 13th most populous city in England.

Historically a part of Staffordshire, and forming part of the metropolitan county of the West Midlands from 1974, the city is commonly recognised as being named after Lady Wulfruna, who founded the town in 985: its name coming from Anglo-Saxon Wulfrūnehēantūn = “Wulfrūn’s high or principal enclosure or farm”.  Alternatively, the city may have earned its original name from a local Danish leader who was called Wulfere.  Nevertheless, the name Wulfruna is commonly used in the city - for example, for the Wulfrun Centre or for Wulfrun Hall.

The city’s name is often abbreviated to “W’ton” or “Wolves”.  The city council’s motto is “Out of darkness, cometh light”.   People from Wolverhampton are known as Wulfrunians.

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Wolverhampton West Midlands

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Sutton Coldfield West Midlands

Approximate Population: 105,452

At the turn of the 18th century, Sutton Coldfield was introduced to industry. The manufacture of blades, gun barrels, spades and spade handles as well as the grinding of knives, bayonets and axes, further helped the town prosper. Mills were set up along the pools in Sutton Park and on the banks of Ebrook. A cotton spinning machine was tested at Powells Pool Mill (demolished in 1936) by John Wyatt with the help of Lewis Paul.

These mills were not the first in Sutton Coldfield, as there had been windmills at Maney Hill and Langley Hall, but these were the first mills constructed for industrial purposes in the town.   It has been claimed that the first all-steel garden fork was produced in the town.   Pools that had been drained during the 17th century for rich meadow land were recreated in the 18th century, as well as new pools such as Blackroot Pool and Longmoor Pool.

Sutton Coldfield’s economy witnessed a boom in that the residents were now experiencing new luxuries, such as seafood.   Products for sale in the town were 10% more expensive than in the neighbouring villages.   In 1791, following the Priestley Riots in Birmingham, William Hutton, whose home had been attacked by protesters, travelled to Sutton Coldfield to stay for the summer. Rioting was supposedly due to spread to Sutton Coldfield.   It was believed that John Horsfall’s home at Penns, in the south of Sutton, was a target for the protesters and so cavalry arrived to protect it.   No rioting took place. Despite this, Hutton was forced to move to Tamworth when local residents objected to his arrival, fearing his presence would encourage the rioters to come to the town.

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Sutton Coldfield West Midlands

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Coventry West Midlands

Approximate Population: 306,000

Coventry is near the M6, M69, M45 and M40 motorways.   It is also served by the A45 and A46 dual carriageways. Coventry has a much used inner ring road opened in the 1960s (approx.).   Phoenix Way, a dual carriageway running north – south opened 1998 (approx.), has improved traffic flows through the city.

For rail, Coventry railway station is served by the West Coast Main Line, and has regular rail services between London and Birmingham (and stations beyond). It is also served by railway lines to Nuneaton via Bedworth. There is a line linking it to Leamington Spa and onwards to the south coast. Coventry also has two Suburban Rail stations in Canley and in Tile Hill.

Bus service operators in Coventry include National Express Coventry, Travel De Courcey and Stagecoach in Warwickshire. Pool Meadow Bus Station is the main bus and coach interchange in the city centre.  The nearest major airports are Birmingham International Airport, some 17 km (11 miles) to the west of the city and Coventry Airport in Baginton, located 8 km (5 miles) south of the city centre.  The Coventry Canal terminates near the city centre at Coventry Canal Basin and is navigable for 61 km (38 miles) to Fradley Junction in Staffordshire.

Railway Sleepers Coventry West Midlands

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Dudley West Midlands

Approximate Population: 194,919

The town is home to Dudley Zoo, and the Black Country Living Museum. Visitors to the museum may also take a narrowboat trip from the adjacent canal, through the Dudley Tunnel.   The ruined Dudley Castle is within the grounds of the zoo, and there is an extensive wooded ridge that runs north from the castle.

Dudley Zoo is to be regenerated under proposals by Dudley Zoo in partnership with Dudley Council, St Modwen and Advantage West Midlands, which will see a former freightliner site redeveloped with a tropical dome, Asiatic forest, two aquatic facilities and walkthrough aviaries. It is expected to cost £38.7 million.

Dudley is home to a former Odeon Cinema and a former music hall, the Dudley Hippodrome, both from the Art Deco period in the 1930s.   The Dudley Hippodrome was built on to the side of the now-demolished Opera House (built in 1900 and burnt down in 1936) and is now a bingo hall.   There is a Showcase Cinema in a retail park between the zoo and museum.

Railway Sleepers Dudley West Midlands

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Walsall West Midlands

Approximate Population: 174,994

Walsall  is a large industrial town in the West Midlands of England.   It is located northwest of Birmingham and east of Wolverhampton.   Historically a part of Staffordshire, Walsall is a component area of the West Midlands conurbation, and is sometimes described as part of the Black Country. Walsall folk (informally known as ‘Walsallians’) generally object to being referred to as Brummie, preferring instead to promote their own proud heritage to people outside the West Midlands conurbation.

Walsall is the administrative headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall.  In the 2001 census, the town had a population of 170,994 with the wider borough having a population of 253,500.   Neighbouring towns in the borough include Willenhall, Bloxwich and Aldridge.

The Walsall dialect is often referred to as “Yam-Yam.”   The accent is also equally, and (incorrectly) referred to, as a Brummie accent by those who live outside the West Midlands.

Railway Sleepers Walsall West Midlands

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Shrewsbury West Midlands

Approximate Population: 70,689

Shrewsbury is home to the Ditherington Flax Mill, the world’s first iron-framed building, which is commonly regarded as “the grandfather of the skyscraper”. Its importance was officially recognised in the 1950s, resulting in it becoming a Grade I listed building.  Shrewsbury in the Industrial Revolution was also located on the Shrewsbury Canal which linked it to the Shropshire Canal and wider canal network of Great Britain.

Shrewsbury has also played a unique part in Western intellectual history, by being the town in which the naturalist Charles Darwin was born and raised. Darwin later published his seminal text On the Origin of Species and developed the theory of natural selection.   Nearby is the village of Wroxeter, 5 miles (8 km) to the south-west, where the now ruined Roman city of Viroconium Cornoviorum lies. Viroconium was the fourth largest civitas capital in Roman Britain. As Caer Guricon it may have served as the early Dark Age capital of the kingdom of Powys.

The town avoided bombing in World War II and so many of its ancient buildings remain intact and there was little redevelopment during the 1960s and 1970s, which arguably destroyed the character of many historic towns in the UK. However, a large area of half timbered houses and businesses was destroyed to make way for the Raven Meadows multi-story car park, and other historic buildings were demolished to make way for the brutalist architectural style of the 1960s.  The town was saved from a new ‘inner ring road’ due to its challenging geography.

Railway Sleepers Shrewsbury West Midlands