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Oldbury, West Midlands
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Oldbury is a town in the West Midlands in England. It is a part of the Black Country and the administrative centre of the borough of Sandwell.
ury was part of the ancient parish of Halesowen, a detached part of Shropshire (surrounded by Worcestershire and Staffordshire) until Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844, when it was incorporated back into Worcestershire after an absence of nine-hundred years.
In 1966, Oldbury (which had become a municipal borough in 1934) merged with the County Borough of Smethwick and the Municipal Borough of Rowley Regis to form the County Borough of Warley, also taking in part of Tipton and a tiny fragment of Dudley.
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Encyclopedia
Oldbury is a town in the West Midlands in England. It is a part of the Black Country and the administrative centre of the borough of Sandwell.
Local government
Oldbury was part of the ancient parish of Halesowen, a detached part of Shropshire (surrounded by Worcestershire and Staffordshire) until Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844, when it was incorporated back into Worcestershire after an absence of nine-hundred years.
In 1966, Oldbury (which had become a municipal borough in 1934) merged with the County Borough of Smethwick and the Municipal Borough of Rowley Regis to form the County Borough of Warley, also taking in part of Tipton and a tiny fragment of Dudley. The county boundaries were also changed to include the whole of Warley as part of Worcestershire.
In 1974, Oldbury became part of the new Sandwell Metropolitan Borough (a merger between the county boroughs of West Bromwich and Warley) and is now in the West Midlands Metropolitan County. Sandwell's headquarters are situated in Oldbury Town Centre.
Oldbury comes within the B68 and B69 postal districts, the latter of which also covers part of Tipton.
Notable people
Jack Judge (christened John, born in Oldbury, Worcestershire born 3rd December 1872, died 25th July 1938, West Bromwich) was a song-writer and music-hall entertainer best remembered for writing the song It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary.
The comedian Frank Skinner was born in Oldbury at 181 Bristnall Hall Road. He attended Moat Farm Infants School, St Hubert's Roman Catholic Junior School and Oldbury Technical School, and has been a TV comedian since the late 1980s.
The Sadlers rose to become a preeminent family in Oldbury during the nineteenth century. Notable figures included John Sadler (1820-1910) ('the Grand Old Man of Oldbury') and Sir Samuel Alexander Sadler.
Oldbury has a local branch of the Learning Skill Council situated at Black Country House.
The boxer Pat Cowdell, who achieved stardom during the 1970s and 1980s, was born in Oldbury and is still living in the town.
Notable businesses
The first branch of Lloyds Bank was opened in Oldbury in 1864. The original building survives to this day, but was recently made redundant as a bank and is now a Subway fast food restaurant.
Transport links
For over thirty years there were three railway stations in the parish named Oldbury; only one is still open, but under a new name.
The oldest surviving one is on the Stour Valley line (former LMS Railway), at Bromford Road. It has been there since the 1850s. It was originally called Oldbury & Bromford Lane Station, then Oldbury Station, but it is now known as Sandwell and Dudley.
The second nearest railway station to the centre of Oldbury is at Langley Green, at Western Road, on the Stourbridge Extension Line, now the Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line. It opened in April 1867 and was originally called Langley Green & Rood End Station. However a short half-mile long branch line, the Oldbury Railway, was linked to the station with its own (third) platform. It opened in November 1884; and Langley Green & Rood End Station was then renamed Langley Green. The Oldbury Railway, which also linked to Albright and Wilson, had both a passenger station, called Oldbury railway station, on Halesowen Road; and a goods station, Oldbury Goods railway station, at the Birmingham Canal Navigations wharf in Oldbury. Passenger services ran to Oldbury Station until March 1915; and the line closed completely other than as a freight line for Albright and Wilson. All traces of its viaduct and embankment beyond Tat Bank Road were destroyed when the M5 motorway was built.
The M5 has served Oldbury since 1964 and passes the town on an elevated section built on reinforced concrete pillars. Access is from junction 2. This is also the closet junction to the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley.
Neighbourhoods
Schools
Etymology
The bury part of the town's name is a form of borough.
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