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Sedgley
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Sedgley is a town in the West Midlands of England, but historically in Staffordshire. It was originally a manor composed of a series of villages: Sedgley, Cotwall End, Upper Gornal, Lower Gornal, Gospel End, Gornal Wood, Woodsetton, Ettingshall, Coseley and Brierley (now called Bradley, not to be confused with Brierley Hill).
897, the villages of Coseley, Ettingshall and Brierley broke away from the Manor of Sedgley to form the Coseley Urban District Council.
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Encyclopedia
Sedgley is a town in the West Midlands of England, but historically in Staffordshire. It was originally a manor composed of a series of villages: Sedgley, Cotwall End, Upper Gornal, Lower Gornal, Gospel End, Gornal Wood, Woodsetton, Ettingshall, Coseley and Brierley (now called Bradley, not to be confused with Brierley Hill).
History
In 1897, the villages of Coseley, Ettingshall and Brierley broke away from the Manor of Sedgley to form the Coseley Urban District Council. At the same time, Sedgley Urban District Council was formed to include the rest of the manor, apart from Gospel End - which then became part of Seisdon, although it is still part of the Sedgley DY3 postal district. The entire area was part of the Wolverhampton Parliamentary Borough, created in 1832.
Sedgley Urban District Council survived until 1966 when the majority of the area became part of Dudley County Borough, which at the same time also took in the urban district councils of Coseley and Brierley Hill. Some parts of Sedgley were placed in South Staffordshire and Wolverhampton, while small sections of Coseley became part of Sandwell and Wolverhampton.
Sedgley really developed from a village into a town after World War I when thousands of residential and commercial properties were developed across the area by the council and by private developers. Most of the houses in Sedgley were built in the 1950s and 1960s, in response to the development of Baggeridge Colliery which closed on March 2 1968. The land was bought by Seisdon Rural District Council and it was granted country park status in 1970. On January 12 1981, full reclamation of the land commenced.
Many pre-1900 buildings in Sedgley survive to this day. They include Queen Victoria Primary School (1897), All Saints' Church (1805) and the early 19th century Court House which was originally the local court of law but is now a public house.
Sedgley Beacon Hill is above sea level and is the second-highest point in the West Midlands. It is well-known for fossils. The hill was once the site where beacons were lit to warn local people of invaders. Sedgley Beacon Hill provides views across The Black Country, Cannock Chase and Birmingham to the east, and to the Wrekin, Clee Hills and Malvern Hills to the west, and on very clear days it is possible to see the hills of North Staffordshire and Derbyshire, as well as the mountains of both North and South Wales.
Notable events
2002 Earthquake
The 2002 earthquake is commonly known as the Dudley earthquake but the epicentre actually occurred in Brick Kiln Lane, Gornal Wood near Himley Road. It measured at 4.7 on the Richter scale and lasted 20 seconds. Tremors were felt some 200 miles away in North Yorkshire, and damage was done to several buildings, but there were no deaths or serious injuries.
Dormston School lottery grant
The Dormston School received a National Lottery grant in July 1996 to contribute towards the cost of building a high quality sports and arts centre on its site. Work began in early 1998, with the facilities opening in March 2000 and being officially opened on 1 December that year. Two years later, the Dudley News criticised the project as a "failure" as few people in the local area were making use of it and a number of people did not even know where it was.
Neighbourhoods
Bull Ring
The central area of Sedgley, so named because it was originally the site of bull baiting before the sport was declared illegal in 1835. All signs of the actual ring were destroyed in about 1930 on the construction of a traffic island, but the traffic island is still know as the "Bull Ring".
The Bull Ring is now a congested traffic island. It is surrounded by a few public houses. The Court House, built in the early 19th century, was once the town's magistrates' court. These law courts were relocated to a building at the nearby police station until the town's courts were declared redundant in 1988. The Court House is still open, and is part of the Mr Q's pub chain. The Red Lion is approximately the same age as the Court House, and was once the village prison. It is still connected to the Court House by a passageway, though this has long fallen into disuse. The Clifton was built in the 1920s as Sedgley's first cinema, and remained open until 1978, when it closed and was converted into a bingo hall before being taken over by JD Wetherspoon and converted into a public house in 1998.
The Bull Ring is shown below in a photographed taken in about 1900.
High Arcal Estate
Situated to the south of the town centre. It was developed in phases on part of a public open space between 1990 and 1996, and consists of around 300 Housing Association houses, flats and bungalows. Three-bedroom houses are the most frequent type of property in the area. Some residents on the estate are tenants of their homes, while others have shared ownership or full ownership. High Arcal is the largest post-1970s housing development in Sedgley. It is shown below in an aerial photograph takes in the mid 1990s, when the development was in its final stages of construction.
Cotwall End
Situated around the rural Cotwall End Valley. A few pre-1900 buildings still exist, but the face of the area has changed dramatically since the Second World War by the construction of mostly upmarket detached houses in Cotwall End Road and Catholic Lane. Cotwall End Primary School has served the area since 1962. There is also a nature reserve which was previously owned by Dudley MBC and had free admission, but has since been sold to a private landowner and admission fees now have to be paid.
Moden Hill, photographed below, is one of the oldest addresses in the area and is still predominantly rural in character.
Brownswall Estate
Situated to the north of Cotwall End Valley, this private housing estate was developed by Coseley-based builders Joseph Webb during the 1950s, consisting of semi-detached and detached houses and bungalows with either two or three bedrooms. It is also served by a recreation ground which includes a large football pitch and until recently a children's play area, but the play area was finally dismantled in 2000 after years of vandalism.
The top of the Brownswall Estate near Cotwall End features a row of shops with flats above them.
Former Walsall F.C. footballer Chris Marsh was born on the estate in 1970.
Demand for properties on the estate is high, but many people living in the area have had their lives blighted by several criminals living nearby. These include a heroin addict, jailed in 2006 after being convicted of a string of burglaries on the estate. In 2003, another local tearaway was jailed for 18 months after breaching an ABSO on three occasions; he had many convictions for crimes including shoplifting and criminal damage.
Northway
Situated north of Cotwall End towards the border with Wolverhampton. The first houses in this area were built just after the Second World War, but the vast majority of the area consists of private houses built during the 1960s and 1970s. Alder Coppice Primary School was opened on the Northway estate in 1963. Adjoining the estate is Sedgley Hall Park.
The centre of the Northway Estate features a shopping area, medical centre, supermarket and public house.
Upper Gornal
Situated south of Sedgley town centre on the main road towards Dudley. Many older buildings are still standing in the area, though hundreds of private and council houses have been added since 1920. The locally famous Pig on the Wall public house - previously the Bricklayer's Arms - was controversially demolished in 2002 to make way for a McDonald's drive-thru restaurant. The pub was called the Pig on the Wall after a Black Country urban legend regarding a postcard with a picture of a pig peering over a wall and the phrase Who put the pig on the wall at Gornal to see the band go by. Was it Billy the Boy, Jimmy the Go, Clockweight, Billy on Tho'b, The Pokey Mon or Jacko, Tasso, Cogger, Blossom, Jackery? The postcard was the source of a long running 'mystery' in the magazine The Black Country Bugle in the latter part of the 20th Century, in which the phrase had the additional words No, it was Johhny Longstomach. added at the bottom.
Lower Gornal
Situated about two miles south of Sedgley town centre, around the Five Ways traffic island. The local area takes in Roberts Street Primary School, Redhall Primary School and Ellowes Hall Secondary School; the latter of which was built in the 1960s on the site of a former mansion of the same name. It is surrounded by isolated woodland which though once picturesque is now in need of upkeep.
The biggest development around Lower Gornal is the Stickley Estate, built before the Second World War and partly expanded in the 1950s and 1960s.
Gornal Wood
Situated west of and below Lower Gornal, with a busy village centre providing the local area with a wide range of shops and a library. It is within walking distance of Himley Hall stately home; the former residence of the Earl of Dudley now country park and golf course. Himley Hall grounds are used as a show ground for local events.
Another Georgian building in Gornal Wood was the 'Straits House', a former mansion which became a public house serving the postwar private housing estate that occupies the surrounding land. Within recent years the building began development for a block of apartments, and is almost finished in construction. A primary school was built on the Straits Estate during the 1960s.
The Glynne Arms Public House is known locally as the Crooked House. The pub subsided into a mine shaft running beneath it, and had to have supporting walls erected. This has left the building listing at quite a severe angle. One trick, performed on request in the pub, is an optical illusion where a ball bearing is seen to roll uphill along the back of a bench. The pub used to employ 'guard geese', although these have now gone. When leaving the Glynne Arms, on the opposite side of the Himley Road on the corner of Brick Kiln Lane, can be seen the Old Toll House, that used to charge travellers for the use of the road west.
Woodsetton
Situated two miles east of Sedgley town centre, on the main road towards Tipton - although it curiously has a Dudley DY1 postcode. The original parish of Woodsetton takes in Dudley Castle, hence a famous local history question: 'What is the oldest building in Sedgley?' Famous buildings in Woodsetton include Holdens Brewery and the Park Inn public house. Since the 1950s, children in Woodsetton have had a primary school in their local community - Bramford Primary School.
One of the most familiar sights in the Black Country was the wooden cobbler's hut on the corner of Sedgley Road and Birmingham New Road, which was set up by cobbler Jim Hughes during the 1950s. He remained at the site until the late 1980s, when he closed his business down and the shed was demolished.
Sedgley Beacon
Sedgley Beacon is one of several Beacon hills in England. From Sedgley Beacon, you can see another Beacon hill - Barr Beacon, some 15 miles away. A council housing estate was built at the foot of Sedgley Beacon in the interwar years and named the Beacon Estate.
Education
Primary schools
- Queen Victoria Primary School - built in 1897, situated in the town centre. Queen Victoria was one of the first primary schools to take part in a government-sponsored initiative to extend school hours with additional programs beyond the traditional school day, aimed at making better use of public resources for community benefit. New classrooms were built in 2006 to replace mobile classrooms that had been at the school since the 1970s. The original 1897 building is still in existence, and another building dating from 1931 is also still standing. Since the reconstruction of Roberts Primary School in 2000, Queen Victoria has been the oldest school building in Sedgley still being used for education.
- Cotwall End Primary School - built in 1962, situated about half a mile west of the town centre. It provides a one-form entry for pupils of primary school age. It became a two-form entry school in 1971 following the completion of a new infants school building. Cotwall End was originally a separate infant and junior schools, but merged in 1981 to form a single primary school
- Alder Coppice Primary School - built in 1963, situated about a mile north-west of the town centre on the Northway Estate. The current headteacher is Dr Duncan Jones, who arrived in January 2006 to replace the retiring Mr David Cox, who had been at the school since 1999. His predecessor was Mrs Barbara Carter. The school's previous headteacher, Mr Colin Gould, left in about 1996 for disciplinary reasons. Alder Coppice was put into special measures in December 1999 after OFSTED inspectors criticised the school's weak management of resources and lack of direction, but it came out of special measures 18 months later and is successful again.
- St Chad's R.C Primary School (Sedgley)|St Chad's R.C Primary School - is a Roman Catholic primary school although, a significant number of non-Catholic children are in attendance. St Chad's Catholic School was first opened in 1870 in a building attached to the church. Two teachers taught about 68 children. In 1876, the Victorian School was completed, but eventually became overcrowded. In 1954, work started on the New School. The first three classrooms opened in 1956. Later in 1962 the hall was added. After 1969, the old school became the Dining Room. Further classrooms were added in 1969 and 1973. All three school buildings remain on site. It is situated about a quarter of a mile south of the town centre.
- Straits Primary School - built in the 1960s to serve the (then) new Straits housing estate. It is situated about two miles south-west of the town centre. The current headmaster is Mr Adrian Slack, who has been at the helm since September 1997. On his arrival, the school had been placed into special measures by OFSTED inspectors who had criticised the school heavily under its previous management. It came out of special measures in 1999 and is now one of the strongest performing primary schools in the whole Dudley Borough.
- Roberts Primary School - original building opened in 1894 as Roberts Street School, taking its name from the street in which it was located. The old school buildings were replaced by a new, larger, building in 2000 to accommodate growing pupil numbers which followed extensive house building in the surrounding area during the 1990s. It is situated about two miles south of the town centre on the border with Dudley.
- Redhall Primary School - built in the 1890s, situated about two-and-a-half miles south of the town centre
- Bramford Primary School - situated about a mile and a half east of the town centre, it was opened during the 1950s to serve the expanding Woodsetton area, and was expanded in 2004 to include a new sports hall and several classrooms.
Secondary schools
- Dormston School - built in the 1935, situated in the town centre
- High Arcal School - built in 1961, situated about half a mile east of the town centre
- Ellowes Hall School - built in the 1960s, situated about a mile and a half south-west of the town centre
Former schools
- Flax Hall Primary School - closed in 1989
- Tudor County Primary School - opened in the late 19th century, served the community of Upper Gornal until its closure in July 1986. The school buildings were used as an adult education centre until their demolition in 1996.
- Sycamore Green Primary School- closed in 2006
All Saints' Church
All Saints' Church is a parish church which is situated in the town centre. The first All Saints' Church was built during the 12th century but the current structure was completed in 1805 and has a capacity to seat more than 1,300 people. The organ which was fitted in the church on its completion had originally been in Westminster Abbey. The church is located on the corner of Vicar Street and Dean Street, with the modern vicarage and church hall on the opposite side of Vicar Street.
At the time, it was the only parish church in the large but relatively lightly populated parish of Sedgley, but the parish was later divided into five ecclesiastical districts - Sedgley, Lower Gornal, Upper Gornal, Ettingshall and Coseley. Each of these newly-created parishes had their own church.
Transport
Sedgley has never had a train link, due its location on a series of hills. For the same reason, there are no canals in the town. During the 19th century, however, a small canal known as the Foxyards Canal did pass through the Woodsetton area of the town, linking nearby Mons Hill with the Birmingham Canal.
It does, however, have bus links with many neighbouring towns. The town centre has direct bus links with Wolverhampton, Dudley, Coseley, Bilston and Tipton. Until 2006, there was also a link with the Merry Hill Shopping Centre.
The Lower Gornal area of the town has bus links with Kingswinford, Stourbridge, Brierley Hill, Cradley Heath and Blackheath. Before 2007, there was also a link with Halesowen. Unusually, none of these areas have direct bus links with Sedgley town centre.
Notable residents
- Former BBC newsreader Sue Lawley was born in Dudley in 1947 and grew up in Lower Gornal.
- Phil Parkes, a former West Ham United and England goalkeeper, was born in Sedgley in 1950.
- Former Walsall footballer Chris Marsh was born on Brownswall Road in 1969 and later lived on Warren Drive.
- Former Chesterfield goalkeeper Andy Beasley was born at Sedgley in 1964.
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