Amblecote
Encyclopedia
Amblecote is an urban village in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley
in the West Midlands
, England
. It lies immediately north of the historic town of Stourbridge
, extending about one and a half miles from it. As such, it is on the southwestern edge of the West Midlands urban area
. Historically, Amblecote was in the parish of Oldswinford
, but (unlike the rest of the parish) was in Staffordshire
. This meant that the township of Amblecote was administered separately from the rest of the parish.
In 1966, the part of the Urban District to the east of the railway line became part of Brierley Hill, which became part of the County Brough of Dudley, while the rest was added to the Municipal Borough of Stourbridge. This is reflected in the postcodes in the area with part of Amblecote being covered by the DY8 postcode area, which is used for Stourbridge addresses, and the north eastern part of Amblecote over the railway line having the DY5 (Brierley Hill) postcodes.
near the River Stour
which formed the border with the county of Worcestershire
. It was originally part of the parish of Oldswinford
, which was otherwise in Worcestershire
. It was a separate division for rating purposes from those Stourbridge and Oldswinford (the two Worcestershire divisions of the parish). Since rates were separately collected for it, it became a civil parish in 1894. In 1894, under the Local Government Act 1894
, the parish of Amblecote became part of Kingswinford Rural District
, but became an urban district
by itself in 1898. The urban district council of Amblecote used to meet in the former "Fish Inn" public house which is now a Chinese restaurant and historic relics of this time remain at the building, such as the civic clock. This civic clock has recently been restored and opened up by Pat Martin, ward councillor in 2009.
From the 17th century, there have been glassworks in Amblecote, including Thomas Webb
and Dennis Hall, and together with the adjoining village of Wordsley, formed the main centre of the Stourbridge glass industry, now known as "The Glass Quarter". The glass tradition was brought by Hugenot immigrants to the area. Glass is still produced to this day in albeit much reduced numbers following the deindustrialisation of the area in the 1980s and 1990s which saw the closure of many of the larger companies.
Other important industries included
Agriculture continued well into the 20th century. The ancient Manor House of Amblecote Hall went back to Norman times, and had a farm attached to it. The Hall was probably rebuilt, and perhaps relocated, several times over the intervening centuries, the last Hall was lived in by a number of prominent people throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The Gittens family lived there until the Hall was demolished in 1952 due to mining subsidence. The farm disappeared when the whole area to the east of the Western Fault was open cast mined to extract the coal in the mid-1960s.
The parish church of Holy Trinity was begun in 1841, and the church completed in 1842 and consecrated in 1844, being made a separate ecclesiastical parish (a perpetual curacy
) in 1845 and then a vicarage in 1868. Amblecote Parish Church of the Holy Trinity is almost unique (as is nearby Quarry Bank Church) because it is constructed completely of yellow fire bricks, made by local brickworks (William King and Co) from the local fire clay which, together with thick coal seams, forms the main strata of Amblecote in the east, whilst the new red sandstone underlies Amblecote to the west of the railway line. Local benefactors, such as the Foster Rasterick Ironworks, supplied the iron railings around the perimeter of the church and Amblecote was one of few to retain these railings following World War II
when many churches did not keep them.
Amblecote was the location up until 2007 of the Corbett Hospital, presented to the local people by the local born (at The Delph) businessman John Corbett. He made his fortune from extracting brine to make salt in his works at Stoke Prior
near Droitwich, and who became known as the 'Salt King'. John Corbett visited France extensively in the course of his business, and in Paris he met and wed Anna O'Meara, daughter of an Irish father and French mother. He purchased the Impney Estate, just outside Droitwich Spa
, and built a chateau-styled mansion to try and assuage her home-sickness. "The Chateau Impney
" was finished in 1875 and cost £247,000 to build. In 1893 he gave "The Hill" to the local people of Amblecote in perpetuity as a hospital, to augment the dispensary in Stourbridge Town Centre, which still remains on the junction of New Road and Worcester Street, which had been the mainstay of local public health before this time. Corbett Hospital was much extended over the years and catered for all hospital functions, becoming a general hospital. It was allowed to become run down in the mid-1980s, as a new hospital Russells Hall Hospital
was built in Dudley to cater for all health-care issues in the Dudley MBC area. The Corbett Hospital was demolished in 2006 and replaced with a new Out-Patients Centre containing a wide range of services and also a new children and family centre.
In 1966, Amblecote Rural District Council (Stourbridge part) was absorbed into the municipal borough
of Stourbridge in Worcestershire and the north-eastern part of the Borough, was incorporated within the County Borough of Dudley as part of Brierley Hill. In 1974, Amblecote and the rest of the Stourbridge borough and the former County Borough of Dudley became the Metropolitan District of Dudley under the two tier county of West Midlands and when the West Midlands County Council
was abolished in 1986, the Metropolitan District of Dudley became the unitary Metropolitan Borough of Dudley
in the metropolitan county
of the West Midlands
.
. Amblecote Cricket Club used to play on land off Church Avenue (now Cricketer's Green estate), to the rear of the Parish Church, before the land was sold to Hassall Homes for housing in the mid 1980s. Before this, the club used to play on part of "Peters Hill" to the rear of the Birch Tree Inn, until the early 1980s when it was sold to Tarmac Homes who constructed the "Broomhill Estate." Amblecote Cricket Club is still in existence and after a period of around 20 years playing at Dudley Kingswinford Rugby Club, their base is now at the Marsh Playing Fields in nearby Kinver. Due to the construction of massive new housing estates, the existing primary school at Amblecote was too small to cope with the influx of new residents. Many residents children on the Stourview estate had to attend schools some distance away, such as Thorns Primary. In 1974, the County Borough of Dudley responded by constructing the new Peters Hill Primary School, which rapidly expanded over time to eventually accommodate some 800 children.
Some of the northern part of Amblecote High Street was demolished in the early 1990s to make way for a major road widening scheme.
These developments, coupled with the nearby Withymoor Village development (classed as part of Brierley Hill), added almost 8,000 new homes between 1964 and 1998 on land formerly used for farming and rehabilitated former coal and fire clay mines, both bell pits and open cast mines, which completely changed the face of the area, and brick works which closed down. Many of the new homes were family dwellings, which saw the rapid expansion especially of Peters Hill Primary School, which more than quadrupled in size from around 200 when opened to over 800 on completion.
The development also changed Amblecote's nature as a settlement, from a clearly defined ancient village separated from Quarry Bank
and Stourbridge
by fields and pit workings etc. to a coalesced settlement, looking more like a suburban development and the development joined Stourbridge and Brierley Hill for the first time ever and Amblecote became the largest electoral ward in Dudley Borough, with a Conservative leaning, under first Dudley West and then Stourbridge Constituencies, until boundary changes in 2004 created Lye and Wollescote which took half of Amblecote and reduced the Amblecote ward.
Metropolitan Borough of Dudley
The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley is a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It was created in 1974, and is made up of the towns of Dudley , Stourbridge , Halesowen, Brierley Hill, Amblecote, Sedgley and Coseley...
in the West Midlands
West Midlands (county)
The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It lies immediately north of the historic town of Stourbridge
Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England. Historically part of Worcestershire, Stourbridge was a centre of glass making, and today includes the suburbs of Amblecote, Lye, Norton, Oldswinford, Pedmore, Wollaston, Wollescote and Wordsley The...
, extending about one and a half miles from it. As such, it is on the southwestern edge of the West Midlands urban area
West Midlands conurbation
The West Midlands conurbation is the name given to the large conurbation that includes the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton and the large towns of Dudley, Walsall, West Bromwich, Solihull, Stourbridge, Halesowen in the English West Midlands....
. Historically, Amblecote was in the parish of Oldswinford
Oldswinford
The name Oldswinford is now used for a small area of Stourbridge, close to the parish church.-History:Originally, it was an extensive ancient parish, covering the whole of the former Municipal Borough of Stourbridge, except Pedmore...
, but (unlike the rest of the parish) was in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
. This meant that the township of Amblecote was administered separately from the rest of the parish.
In 1966, the part of the Urban District to the east of the railway line became part of Brierley Hill, which became part of the County Brough of Dudley, while the rest was added to the Municipal Borough of Stourbridge. This is reflected in the postcodes in the area with part of Amblecote being covered by the DY8 postcode area, which is used for Stourbridge addresses, and the north eastern part of Amblecote over the railway line having the DY5 (Brierley Hill) postcodes.
History
Amblecote was a village in StaffordshireStaffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
near the River Stour
River Stour, Worcestershire
The Stour is a river flowing through the counties of Worcestershire, the West Midlands and Staffordshire in the West Midlands region of England. The Stour is a major tributary of the River Severn, and it is about in length...
which formed the border with the county of Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
. It was originally part of the parish of Oldswinford
Oldswinford
The name Oldswinford is now used for a small area of Stourbridge, close to the parish church.-History:Originally, it was an extensive ancient parish, covering the whole of the former Municipal Borough of Stourbridge, except Pedmore...
, which was otherwise in Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
. It was a separate division for rating purposes from those Stourbridge and Oldswinford (the two Worcestershire divisions of the parish). Since rates were separately collected for it, it became a civil parish in 1894. In 1894, under the Local Government Act 1894
Local Government Act 1894
The Local Government Act 1894 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level under the Local Government Act 1888...
, the parish of Amblecote became part of Kingswinford Rural District
Kingswinford Rural District
Kingswinford was a rural district in Staffordshire, England from 1894 to 1934. It was created by the Local Government Act 1894, and originally consisted of the two parishes of Amblecote and Kingswinford. Amblecote became a separate urban district in 1898, leaving Kingswinford the only parish in...
, but became an urban district
Urban district
In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....
by itself in 1898. The urban district council of Amblecote used to meet in the former "Fish Inn" public house which is now a Chinese restaurant and historic relics of this time remain at the building, such as the civic clock. This civic clock has recently been restored and opened up by Pat Martin, ward councillor in 2009.
From the 17th century, there have been glassworks in Amblecote, including Thomas Webb
Thomas Webb (glassmaker)
Thomas Webb was an English glassmaker and the founder of Thomas Webb & Sons, makers of fine English glass and crystal. Webb entered the glass industry in 1829 when he became a partner in the Wordsley glassworks of Webb and Richardsons...
and Dennis Hall, and together with the adjoining village of Wordsley, formed the main centre of the Stourbridge glass industry, now known as "The Glass Quarter". The glass tradition was brought by Hugenot immigrants to the area. Glass is still produced to this day in albeit much reduced numbers following the deindustrialisation of the area in the 1980s and 1990s which saw the closure of many of the larger companies.
Other important industries included
- Coal and fire clay mining, especially in the north-east of the village;
- Fire brick and house brick manufacturing; (William King and Co and Pearsons)
- Ironworks, particularly the Stourbridge Ironworks of John Bradley & Co, which included the engineering works of Foster, Rastrick and CompanyFoster, Rastrick and CompanyFoster, Rastrick and Company was one of the pioneering steam locomotive manufacturing companies of England. It was based in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, now West Midlands....
, which made the Stourbridge LionStourbridge LionThe Stourbridge Lion was a railroad steam locomotive. It was not only the first locomotive to be operated in the United States, it was also one of the first locomotives to operate outside of England, where it was manufactured in 1828....
, the first train to run on American railways and the Agenoria, another important early locomotive.
Agriculture continued well into the 20th century. The ancient Manor House of Amblecote Hall went back to Norman times, and had a farm attached to it. The Hall was probably rebuilt, and perhaps relocated, several times over the intervening centuries, the last Hall was lived in by a number of prominent people throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The Gittens family lived there until the Hall was demolished in 1952 due to mining subsidence. The farm disappeared when the whole area to the east of the Western Fault was open cast mined to extract the coal in the mid-1960s.
The parish church of Holy Trinity was begun in 1841, and the church completed in 1842 and consecrated in 1844, being made a separate ecclesiastical parish (a perpetual curacy
Perpetual curate
A Perpetual Curate was a clergyman of the Church of England officiating as parish priest in a small or sparsely peopled parish or districtAs noted below the term perpetual was not to be understood literally but was used to indicate he was not a curate but the parish priest and of higher...
) in 1845 and then a vicarage in 1868. Amblecote Parish Church of the Holy Trinity is almost unique (as is nearby Quarry Bank Church) because it is constructed completely of yellow fire bricks, made by local brickworks (William King and Co) from the local fire clay which, together with thick coal seams, forms the main strata of Amblecote in the east, whilst the new red sandstone underlies Amblecote to the west of the railway line. Local benefactors, such as the Foster Rasterick Ironworks, supplied the iron railings around the perimeter of the church and Amblecote was one of few to retain these railings following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
when many churches did not keep them.
Amblecote was the location up until 2007 of the Corbett Hospital, presented to the local people by the local born (at The Delph) businessman John Corbett. He made his fortune from extracting brine to make salt in his works at Stoke Prior
Stoke Prior
Stoke Prior may refer to:*Stoke Prior, Herefordshire*Stoke Prior, Worcestershire...
near Droitwich, and who became known as the 'Salt King'. John Corbett visited France extensively in the course of his business, and in Paris he met and wed Anna O'Meara, daughter of an Irish father and French mother. He purchased the Impney Estate, just outside Droitwich Spa
Droitwich Spa
Droitwich Spa is a town in northern Worcestershire, England, on the River Salwarpe.The town is situated on massive deposits of salt, and salt has been extracted there since ancient times. The natural Droitwich brine contains 2½ lbs...
, and built a chateau-styled mansion to try and assuage her home-sickness. "The Chateau Impney
Chateau Impney
Chateau Impney is an imposing 19th century house built in the style of an elaborate French château near Droitwich Spa in Worcestershire, England...
" was finished in 1875 and cost £247,000 to build. In 1893 he gave "The Hill" to the local people of Amblecote in perpetuity as a hospital, to augment the dispensary in Stourbridge Town Centre, which still remains on the junction of New Road and Worcester Street, which had been the mainstay of local public health before this time. Corbett Hospital was much extended over the years and catered for all hospital functions, becoming a general hospital. It was allowed to become run down in the mid-1980s, as a new hospital Russells Hall Hospital
Russells Hall Hospital
Russells Hall Hospital is an NHS-owned hospital located in Dudley, West Midlands, England.It is situated on the A4101 main road which connects Dudley with Kingswinford, and lies narrowly within Dudley's boundaries just outside Brierley Hill...
was built in Dudley to cater for all health-care issues in the Dudley MBC area. The Corbett Hospital was demolished in 2006 and replaced with a new Out-Patients Centre containing a wide range of services and also a new children and family centre.
In 1966, Amblecote Rural District Council (Stourbridge part) was absorbed into the municipal borough
Municipal borough
Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002...
of Stourbridge in Worcestershire and the north-eastern part of the Borough, was incorporated within the County Borough of Dudley as part of Brierley Hill. In 1974, Amblecote and the rest of the Stourbridge borough and the former County Borough of Dudley became the Metropolitan District of Dudley under the two tier county of West Midlands and when the West Midlands County Council
West Midlands County Council
The West Midlands County Council was, from 1974 to 1986, the upper-tier administrative body for the West Midlands county, a metropolitan county in England....
was abolished in 1986, the Metropolitan District of Dudley became the unitary Metropolitan Borough of Dudley
Metropolitan Borough of Dudley
The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley is a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It was created in 1974, and is made up of the towns of Dudley , Stourbridge , Halesowen, Brierley Hill, Amblecote, Sedgley and Coseley...
in the metropolitan county
Metropolitan county
The metropolitan counties are a type of county-level administrative division of England. There are six metropolitan counties, which each cover large urban areas, typically with populations of 1.2 to 2.8 million...
of the West Midlands
West Midlands (county)
The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...
.
Modern expansion
Located within Amblecote is the War Memorial Athletic Ground, home of Stourbridge Football Club (nicknamed the Glassboys) and Stourbridge Cricket ClubStourbridge Cricket Club
Stourbridge Cricket Club is an English cricket club based in Stourbridge, West Midlands. The club play at the War Memorial Athletic Ground in Stourbridge, and compete in the Crusader Worcestershire County Cricket League....
. Amblecote Cricket Club used to play on land off Church Avenue (now Cricketer's Green estate), to the rear of the Parish Church, before the land was sold to Hassall Homes for housing in the mid 1980s. Before this, the club used to play on part of "Peters Hill" to the rear of the Birch Tree Inn, until the early 1980s when it was sold to Tarmac Homes who constructed the "Broomhill Estate." Amblecote Cricket Club is still in existence and after a period of around 20 years playing at Dudley Kingswinford Rugby Club, their base is now at the Marsh Playing Fields in nearby Kinver. Due to the construction of massive new housing estates, the existing primary school at Amblecote was too small to cope with the influx of new residents. Many residents children on the Stourview estate had to attend schools some distance away, such as Thorns Primary. In 1974, the County Borough of Dudley responded by constructing the new Peters Hill Primary School, which rapidly expanded over time to eventually accommodate some 800 children.
Some of the northern part of Amblecote High Street was demolished in the early 1990s to make way for a major road widening scheme.
| Estate | Developer | Construction period |
|---|---|---|
| Stourview | A&J Mucklow and Company | 1960s |
| Stourvale | A&J Mucklow and Company | 1970s/80s |
| Qunicy Rise | William Whittingham and Company | 1980s |
| Lemonshawe | Tarmac Homes | 1980s |
| Clent View | Midland and General Limited | 1980s |
| Broomhill | Tarmac Homes | 1980s |
| Stourcroft Park/Tiffany Circle | Midland and General Limited | 1980s |
| Tudor Hill | Tarmac Homes | 1980s |
| Lakeside/Tudor Meadows | Bovis Homes | 1980s/1990s |
| The Ridgeway | Tarmac Homes | 1980s |
| Beechwood Park | Tarmac Homes | 1980s |
| Fox Hollow | Tarmac Homes | 1980s |
| The Parklands | Midland and General Homes | 1980s |
| Ravensitch and Ravens Park | Maxim Homes | 1970s/80s |
These developments, coupled with the nearby Withymoor Village development (classed as part of Brierley Hill), added almost 8,000 new homes between 1964 and 1998 on land formerly used for farming and rehabilitated former coal and fire clay mines, both bell pits and open cast mines, which completely changed the face of the area, and brick works which closed down. Many of the new homes were family dwellings, which saw the rapid expansion especially of Peters Hill Primary School, which more than quadrupled in size from around 200 when opened to over 800 on completion.
The development also changed Amblecote's nature as a settlement, from a clearly defined ancient village separated from Quarry Bank
Quarry Bank
Quarry Bank is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England, which exists within the Brierley Hill DY5 postal district.Locally, the name is often pronounced, "Quarry Bonk"...
and Stourbridge
Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England. Historically part of Worcestershire, Stourbridge was a centre of glass making, and today includes the suburbs of Amblecote, Lye, Norton, Oldswinford, Pedmore, Wollaston, Wollescote and Wordsley The...
by fields and pit workings etc. to a coalesced settlement, looking more like a suburban development and the development joined Stourbridge and Brierley Hill for the first time ever and Amblecote became the largest electoral ward in Dudley Borough, with a Conservative leaning, under first Dudley West and then Stourbridge Constituencies, until boundary changes in 2004 created Lye and Wollescote which took half of Amblecote and reduced the Amblecote ward.
Notable residents
- H. Jack Haden - Writer of several books about the local history of Amblecote and Stourbridge.
- John CorbettJohn Corbett (industrialist)John Corbett was an English industrialist, philanthropist and Liberal Party politician of the Victorian era. He is particularly associated with salt mining in Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire.- Family background :...
- Owner of "The Hill" and founder of the Corbett Hospital. Salt merchant and future Droitwich MP and owner of the Chateau ImpneyChateau ImpneyChateau Impney is an imposing 19th century house built in the style of an elaborate French château near Droitwich Spa in Worcestershire, England...
. - James FosterJames Foster (ironmaster)James Foster was a prominent Worcestershire ironmaster and senior partner in the important iron company of John Bradley & Co., Stourbridge, taking its name from his elder half-brother. As well as the Stourbridge ironworks, the business owned a number of coal and ironstone mines, furnaces, forges...
, ironmaster whose firm Foster, Rastrick and Company made the Stourbridge LionStourbridge LionThe Stourbridge Lion was a railroad steam locomotive. It was not only the first locomotive to be operated in the United States, it was also one of the first locomotives to operate outside of England, where it was manufactured in 1828....
steam locomotive, the first of which ever to run in the USA and now in the Smithsonian Museum and its sister locomotive, the Agenoria. - John Simpson - Former Councillor for Amblecote Ward, Lye and Wollescote Ward, Mayor of Dudley and the first Alderman of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. Died 2009.