Brownhills
Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Featured article Template:Infobox UK place Brownhills is a historic market and industrial town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall of the West Midlands county, England. The town is located south of Cannock Chase and close to the large Chasewater reservoir, it is Template:Convert northeast of Walsall, a similar distance southwest of Lichfield and Template:Convert miles north-northwest of Birmingham. It is part of the Aldridge-Brownhills parliamentary constituency and neighbours the villages of Pelsall and Walsall Wood. It lies within the boundaries of the historic county of Staffordshire.
The town lies close to the route of the ancient Watling Street, and although there is no record of its existence before the 17th century, Ogley Hay – a district of the town today – is recorded as a settlement in the Domesday Book. Brownhills quickly grew around the coal-mining industry, especially after the town became linked to the canal and railway networks in the mid-19th century. By the end of the century, Brownhills had grown from a hamlet of only 300 inhabitants to a town of more than 13,000, of whom the vast majority were employed in the coal industry. Mining remained the town's principal industry until the 1950s; the subsequent closure of the pits led to a severe economic decline that has continued until now. The local authority instituted a regeneration programme in 2007, which was hoped would revive the town's fortunes, but there has been little subsequent development.
History
Brownhills is on the ancient Watling Street and there is evidence of early settlement in the area, including an ancient burial mound and a guard post believed to date from Roman times and later dubbed Knaves Castle.<ref name="Walsall" /><ref name="W2" /> The name Brownhills, however, is not recorded before the 17th century. The most popular suggestion for the origin of the name is that it refers to the early mining spoil heaps which dotted the area.<ref name="Reece10" />
The settlement is first recorded (as "Brownhill") on Robert Plot's 1680 map of Staffordshire, at which time it was a hamlet within the manor of Ogley Hay, which in turn was part of the parish of Norton Canes.<ref name="Reece10">Template:Cite book</ref> Ogley Hay itself had existed since at least the 11th century and is mentioned in the Domesday Book,<ref name="Walsall" /> although the 1801 census lists it as having a population of only 8 people.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Beyond Ogley Hay lay Catshill, another hamlet which pre-dated Brownhills and which lay within the parish of Shenstone.
During the 17th century, shallow mine workings began to develop in the area, and in 1759 a turnpike was erected in the Catshill area.<ref name="Walsall" /> A local legend claims that Dick Turpin once vaulted the barricade on his horse to avoid paying the toll,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> although this is demonstrably false as Turpin was executed in 1739, twenty years before the turnpike's construction. In 1794 Brownhills (now in the plural) was included in a list of local settlements mentioned in an Act of Parliament concerning canals in Staffordshire,<ref name="Reece19">Template:Cite book</ref> and three years later the Wyrley & Essington Canal, nicknamed the "Curly Wyrley" by the locals due to its winding course, was opened.<ref name="Walsall" /><ref name="Reece17">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1799 Norton Pool, later to be renamed Chasewater, was created to serve as a reservoir for the canals.<ref name="W2" />
Early in the 19th century, a horse-drawn tram system connected the mines to the wharves on the canal. In response to the growing population of the area open land in Ogley Hay, up until then merely heathland was enclosed and converted to farmland in 1838, the same year in which the area was first declared a parish, although no church was built for another 13 years.<ref name="W2" /> Charles Foster Cotterill, a former mayor of Walsall who had purchased the manor of Ogley Hay in 1836 upon the death of former lord Phineas Hussey, saw the potential of the area and sold off large tracts of his land for private farming and the construction of a flour mill and a foundry.<ref name="Reece6768">Template:Cite book</ref> The remaining land of the former manor was progressively sold off through a series of indentures of questionable legality until 1846 when Cotterill sold the last Template:Convert and moved to London.<ref name="Reece75">Template:Cite book</ref>
The South Staffordshire Railway reached Brownhills in 1850 and led to a huge expansion of the local mining operation and with it a population explosion in the area,<ref name="Reece102">Template:Cite book</ref> with the population increasing from 305 in 1801 to over 13,000 in 1891.<ref name="Walsall" /> In 1858 a branch line was constructed through the heart of what was then the hamlet of Brownhills, which led to a migration of the population eastwards, leading to the formation of mining slums in the Ogley Hay area. Eventually, a new town centre developed, complete with library and theatre.<ref name="W2">Template:Cite web</ref> This led to the gradual amalgamation of Brownhills, Ogley Hay, and Catshill into one town.<ref name="Reece11" />
Mining was to remain the principal industry of Brownhills until the last pit closed in the 1950s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During the 18th and 19th centuries the area known as Coppice Side was the hub of the mining industry, and the census of 1841 showed that over 80% of the population of the area which makes up modern Brownhills lived and worked there,<ref name="Reece11">Template:Cite book</ref> with up to ten pits active in the area at any one time.<ref name="Reece89">Template:Cite book</ref> As in other mining areas, several men lost their lives in the Brownhills pits. Seven miners, including a boy aged 11, died in an accident in 1861, and in October 1930 an explosion at the Grove Colliery killed fourteen miners, ten of them from Brownhills.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Reece111"/>
In 1877 the town of Brownhills was officially recognised for the first time after a new Act authorised the amalgamation of rural districts into larger local government areas. An order was issued on 29 September stating:<ref name="Reece32">Template:Cite book</ref>
After the First World War, the Urban District Council, which was based at the Council House and had replaced the District Board in 1894, began a programme of urban improvement. Large areas of open farmland were purchased for the building of council houses, and a notorious slum area, Ogley Square, which had been declared unfit for human habitation, was demolished after a long legal dispute and the tenants rehoused. The final farmland within the boundaries of Brownhills was sold for redevelopment in 1952.<ref name="Reece7980">Template:Cite book</ref>
By the time of the Second World War the mines of Brownhills, being amongst the oldest in the area, were largely exhausted,<ref name="J1">Template:Cite book</ref> and following the nationalisation of the mining industry the final pit on the Common was closed in the 1950s. Following the demise of the coalfield the town experienced a severe economic slump, with many high street shops closing down. A wave of new development in the 1960s and 1970s saw a new shopping precinct planned, which it was claimed would incorporate a cinema, bowling alley, hotel, and bus station and would completely revitalise the town. Despite the developers' grandiose claims, the project was not a success and ultimately consisted solely of shopping units, many of which stood empty for up to five years.<ref name = "Gerald_Reece">Template:Cite book</ref> There was little further development in the 1980s and 1990s, and the feeling of the local council is that the town centre needs improvement. In 2007, the council created a "Townscape Masterplan" for the redevelopment of the town,<ref name="regen">Template:Cite web</ref> but more than a decade later the most problematic areas had seen little redevelopment.<ref name=raven />
Governance
Brownhills is represented by two tiers of government, Walsall Borough Council ("local") and UK Parliament ("national").
The Brownhills District established in 1877 remained in existence until 1894 when it was superseded by Brownhills Urban District. In 1966 the Urban District merged with that of Aldridge to form the Aldridge-Brownhills Urban District, in accordance with a recommendation of the Local Government Commission for England. The district was amalgamated in 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, into the newly formed Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, under whose jurisdiction the area remains to this day. As a result of this amalgamation Brownhills also became part of the West Midlands county, having previously been part of Staffordshire.<ref name="Reece33">Template:Cite book</ref> Today Brownhills constitutes a ward within the Borough of Walsall and has three seats on the Borough Council. As at the 2019 local elections two of these seats were held by the Conservative Party and one by Labour.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Wendy Morton, representing the Conservative Party, has been the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Aldridge-Brownhills since 2015. Before the creation of the Aldridge-Brownhills seat in 1974, the town had been part of the Walsall North constituency since 1955, when it had been transferred from the now-defunct Cannock constituency.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Brownhills was part of the Walsall council counting area of the West Midlands European Parliament constituency, which elected seven MEPs to the European Parliament. In the 2019 election the Brexit Party gained 42.7% of the vote in this counting area, followed by Labour with 21.5%.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Geography
Brownhills is located at Template:Coord on the edge of Cannock Chase and lies mostly at a height of approximately 150 metres (492 ft) above sea level, although there is a sharp incline to nearly 180 metres (590 ft) at the eastern end of the town.<ref name="OS">Template:Cite map</ref> The highest point of Cannock Chase, standing at 244 metres (801 ft) above sea level,<ref name="ring">Template:Cite book</ref> lies approximately Template:Convert from the town.<ref name="OS" /> Although a small river called Crane Brook flows slightly to the east of Brownhills,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the only significant bodies of water in the area are human-made, namely the canal and the Template:Convert reservoir Chasewater, which lies to the north, between Brownhills and Cannock Chase.<ref name="OS" /> The reservoir was constructed in the 18th century and reshaped by reclamation schemes as recently as the 1970s.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Immediately to the west of the town is Brownhills Common, a Template:Convert heathland which once formed part of Cannock Forest (also known as "Canke Wood").<ref name="CW" /> Although the forest was felled in the 15th and 16th centuries, the spread of heather and the grazing of sheep led to the creation of a huge area of heathland. The area was affected by mine workings but has now returned to a more natural state, and lizards and dragonflies may be observed.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The area now supports various habitat types, with the heathland mixing with marshy grassland, with scattered scrub and pools.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1926, when ownership of the Common was transferred to the local Council, a large area of barren land at the eastern end, closest to the town, was landscaped, with new trees planted.<ref name="Reece50">Template:Cite book</ref> Lying south of the Common, Birch Coppice is a large area of predominantly oak and birch woodland, which, although crossed by a now-dismantled railway line, mostly escaped the destruction caused to other wooded areas by mining and other industry.<ref name="Reece111">Template:Cite book</ref>
To the south, Brownhills is separated from the nearby village of Clayhanger by Clayhanger Common, which is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and considered "one of the best wetland sites in the county".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2007, a new £445,000 bridge was erected across the canal at Brownhills, providing pedestrian, disabled and cycling access to the Common and to the village of Clayhanger beyond.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> To the east lies the village of Stonnall and a large area of green belt land.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The geology of Brownhills comprises mainly red clay marl overlying Triassic sandstone and deposits of coal.<ref name="CW">Template:Cite web</ref> The town is on several fault lines, the main one being the Vigo Fault, a branch of the larger Eastern Boundary Fault, which runs from Birmingham to Rugeley. On the western side of the fault, in the area of Brownhills Common, the marl is over Template:Convert thinner than on the eastern side, bringing the coal seams significantly closer to the surface.<ref name="Reece7">Template:Cite book</ref> The presence of the faults and the effects of mining mean that subsidence has been a major problem in the area for many years.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="J2">Template:Cite book</ref>
Since the 19th century, trade in Brownhills has been centred on the High Street. As the canal and Clayhanger Common lie immediately to the south of the High Street, the town's housing areas are mainly to the north and at the eastern and western ends of the town.<ref name="Reece39">Template:Cite book</ref> In 2011, Brownhills had 5,173 residential dwellings, of which 49.4% were semi-detached houses.<ref name="key">Template:NOMIS2011</ref> In late 2020 the average selling price of a domestic property in the town was £182,700, compared to £112,000 ten years earlier, a rise of 63%.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Two housing associations, Walsall Housing Group (whg) and WATMOS Housing Co-operative (WATMOS), manage those properties formerly owned as council houses by Walsall Council.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In the West Midlands, the warmest time of the year is July and August, when maximum temperatures average around 21 °C (70 °F); the coolest months are January and February, when minimum temperatures average around 1 °C (39 °F).<ref name="metpenk">Template:Cite web</ref> The area's average maximum and minimum temperatures are almost exactly in line with the national average.<ref name="metengland">Template:Cite web</ref> The average annual rainfall is about Template:Convert, the wettest months being September to January.<ref name="metpenk"/> This is lower than the national average annual rainfall of 838 mm (33 inches).<ref name="metengland"/>
Demography
At the 2021 census, the Brownhills ward profile population was 13,441. Of the findings, the ethnicity and religious composition of the ward was:
| Brownhills: Ethnicity: 2021 Census<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | |||||||||||||
| Ethnic group | Population | % | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | 12,517 | 93.1% | |||||||||||
| Asian or Asian British | 337 | 2.5% | |||||||||||
| Mixed | 276 | 2.1% | |||||||||||
| Black or Black British | 225 | 1.7% | |||||||||||
| Other Ethnic Group | 79 | 0.6% | |||||||||||
| Arab | 4 | 0.1% | |||||||||||
| Total | 13,441 | 100% | |||||||||||
The religious composition of Brownhills ward at the 2021 Census was recorded as:
| Brownhills: Religion: 2021 Census | |||||||||||||
| Religious | Population | % | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christian | 6,788 | 53.4% | |||||||||||
| Irreligious | 5,516 | 43.4% | |||||||||||
| Muslim | 156 | 1.2% | |||||||||||
| Sikh | 127 | 1% | |||||||||||
| Other religion | 61 | 0.5% | |||||||||||
| Hindu | 47 | 0.4% | |||||||||||
| Buddhist | 25 | 0.2% | |||||||||||
| Jewish | 3 | 0.1% | |||||||||||
| Total | 13,441 | 100% | |||||||||||
Economy
Template:Multiple image At the 2011 census, 5,769 people in Brownhills were employed, with the largest percentages in retail (19.8%) and manufacturing (15.8%).<ref name=key /> This represented a shift from a decade earlier, when manufacturing had been the largest sector, employing 28.5% of the workforce.<ref name=C2001>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2011, 2.7% of usual residents aged 16 to 74 were classified as long-term unemployed.<ref name=key />
The decline of the mining industry in the 1950s caused a severe economic slump in Brownhills.<ref name = "Gerald_Reece" /> In 2007, the local authority created a "Townscape Masterplan" for the regeneration of Brownhills, which involved increased leisure provision, the improvement of the town centre's shopping facilities, a new transport interchange incorporating Park and Ride facilities and cycle links to the town centre and the National Cycle Route, and the refurbishment of run-down properties.<ref name="regen" /> The plan involved the potential construction of a bypass to relieve the heavily congested High Street.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Among the areas highlighted for redevelopment was the Ravens Court shopping precinct. After many years of legal wranglings, including the collapse of a plan to build a supermarket on the site, a planning application was submitted in 2017,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but by late 2018 the precinct was still disused and a frequent target for anti-social behaviour.<ref name=raven>Template:Cite web</ref>
The headquarters of the One Stop convenience store chain, a subsidiary of Tesco plc, is located in the town.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Brownhills was formerly home to the wirings manufacturer Electrium's last UK-based factory, but this has closed, with manufacturing shifted overseas and commercial staff moved to a new site in Cannock.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Transport
Roads and bus
Brownhills is served by the A5 and lies close to a junction of the M6 Toll motorway.<ref name="OS" /> National Express West Midlands bus services 936, 937, 937A connect the town with Kingstanding, Perry Barr and Birmingham. They also operate service 8 linking Brownhills with Walsall, Burntwood and Lichfield.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Chaserider operates service 3 to Norton Canes and Cannock. Previously this was operated by Arriva and extended to Walsall vis the current service 8 route.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Railway
Brownhills formerly had two railway stations. The first, on the South Staffordshire Line (later part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway), opened in 1849 but was closed as part of the Beeching Axe in 1965. The line remained open for freight until 1983, but the track was lifted in 1987.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The other, on the Midland Railway, was open for passengers between 1884 and 1930 and for freight until 1960, when the track was lifted.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands, put forward a 20-year plan for the improvement of the region's transport infrastructure in 2020 which included the re-opening of a station in Brownhills.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Canals
The Birmingham Canal Navigations' Wyrley and Essington Canal passes through Brownhills and meets the Daw End Branch Canal at Catshill Junction.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust has been involved in restoring the Lichfield Canal since its formation in 1988 and, in 2003, created an aqueduct over the M6 Toll road near Brownhills.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Education
The town's main secondary school is Brownhills Ormiston Academy (formerly Brownhills Sports College, Brownhills Community Technology College, Brownhills Community School and Brownhills Comprehensive), a mixed-gender school with approximately 1,000 pupils,<ref name="Ofsted">Template:Cite web</ref> which is part of the Ormiston Academies Trust.<ref name="Ofsted" /> In 2019, the school's progress 8 benchmark score was ranked "below average".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Watling Street Primary School, situated on the A5 at the western end of town, has approximately 200 students between the ages of 3 and 11 as of 2021.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2019, 77% of its Key Stage 2 pupils were deemed to have met the expected standard.<ref name="Primary">Template:Cite web</ref> There are four other primary schools in the town: St James' Primary School, St Bernadette's Catholic Primary School, Brownhills West Primary School, Millfield Primary School and one in Clayhanger, Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School.<ref name="Primary" />
Religious sites
Template:Multiple image Brownhills has a Church of England church (St James),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a Roman Catholic church (St Bernadette),<ref name="churchlinks">Template:Cite web</ref> two Methodist churches (including one in Clayhanger), two Spiritualist Churches,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and a Pentecostal church. Brownhills has had strong links with the Methodist faith since the 19th century.<ref name="V4"/> The current Silver Street Methodist church was built in the 1960s when two other churches were compulsorily purchased and demolished due to their sites being identified as prime locations for additional town-centre car parking under a council redevelopment scheme.<ref name="V4">Template:Cite book</ref>
Culture
Attractions and landmarks
One of Brownhills' most prominent landmarks is a Template:Convert stainless steel sculpture of a coal miner, erected in May 2006 on a roundabout at one end of the High Street, where the A4124 Pelsall Road and High Street A452 cross. The colossal sculpture, by John McKenna ARBS, commemorates the town's mining tradition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A competition was organised to choose an official nickname for the statue. The winning name was Jigger after Jack "Jigger" Taylor who died when the roof of Walsall Wood pit collapsed in 1951.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The town is also home to what is reputed to be the oldest fingerpost in the United Kingdom.<ref name="Walsall">Template:Cite web (PDF document)</ref>
Chasewater in Staffordshire lies on the edge of Brownhills, with the area surrounding it, which is designated as a country park, officially falling within the Brownhills postal area.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The reservoir supports a variety of activities including water-skiing, sailing, angling and bird watching. The Chasewater Railway operates a heritage rail service on the line of the former mineral railway around Chasewater between Brownhills and Chasetown, north of the former Brownhills Watling Street station. The railway's main station is designated Brownhills West.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
On the opposite side of the A5, Brownhills Common, where a wide variety of birds can be observed, is a designated nature reserve,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as is Shire Oak Park, approximately Template:Convert from the town centre.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Holland Park, on the edge of the Common, has a skate park and multi-sports area, which were created as part of a £95,000 environmental regeneration project and opened in 2002.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Cultural events and venues
One of the major concerns of the local council in 2007 was that the town was "particularly lacking in leisure provision".<ref name="regen" /> At one time the town had two cinemas, but the last of these closed in the 1960s and a plan to build a new one never came to fruition.<ref name="V1">Template:Cite book</ref> Although the town's theatre had closed down many years prior, the Brownhills Academy's theatre has staged productions by local groups such as the Aldridge Musical Comedy Society and the Walsall Gilbert and Sullivan Society.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Brownhills holds an annual canal festival in June with stalls, entertainment and boat trips,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and there is an active Community Association which organises a range of events and activities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The town had a weekly market for many years, but it closed down in 2010 due to lack of traders and the site was subsequently redeveloped for housing.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Brownhills has several public houses. Although some older ones, such as the Victorian-era Jolly Collier in Coppice Side, were demolished in the 1980s,<ref name="V2">Template:Cite book</ref> several dating from the 19th century still stand comparatively unchanged, including the Shoulder of Mutton, which still bears windows etched with the emblem of the brewery which owned it in the 1850s.<ref name="V3">Template:Cite book</ref> The Station Hotel in the High Street hosted concerts, including an appearance by Black Sabbath in 1968.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Sport
Brownhills does not have a Saturday men's football team; in the 1990s Brownhills Town F.C. competed in the Midland Football Combination but folded during the 2003–04 season.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During the 1950s Ogley Hay F.C. were a strong local team, reaching the final of the Walsall Senior Cup on three occasions.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Brownhills Community Colts Football Club fields teams in various age groups up to under-17.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Brownhills Canoe and Outdoor Centre opened in 2006, funded by British Waterways with the assistance of partners such as Sport England, the European Regional Development Fund and Walsall Council, and offers canoeing and kayaking lessons on the canal, close to the centre of town.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Nearby Chasewater is a prominent watersports site, with the Watersports Centre offering a variety of water skiing facilities,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the sailing club providing year-round windsurfing and dinghy sailing.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Media
Brownhills has no dedicated local newspaper, but is covered by newspapers published in Wolverhampton and Walsall. The most popular paid-for local newspaper is the Express & Star.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Free newspapers with significant circulation in the town include the Walsall Chronicle, Walsall Advertiser, and Walsall Observer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Similarly, the town has no dedicated local radio station but receives the stations broadcast from the Sutton Coldfield transmitting station.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Notable people
- Erin O'Connor (born 1978), fashion model, grew up in Brownhills.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Sport
- Brothers George Dorsett (1881–1942) and Joe Dorsett (1888–1951) played for West Bromwich Albion and Manchester City.<ref name="Roy">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Cecil Poynton (1901–1983), footballer who played over 150 games, mainly for Tottenham Hotspur
- Dicky Dorsett (1919–1999) played over 250 times for Aston Villa and also for Wolverhampton Wanderers in the 1939 FA Cup Final.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Roy Horobin (1935–2012), footballer who played over 250 games, mainly for Notts County