Tipton

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For other uses, see Tipton (disambiguation).
Map sources for Tipton at grid reference SO9592
Map sources for Tipton at grid reference SO9592

Tipton is a town in the Sandwell borough of the West Midlands, England, with a population of around 47,000.

Tipton is located about halfway between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. It is a part of the West Midlands conurbation, and is a part of the Black Country.

Tipton was an urban district council in Staffordshire, until 1938, when it became a municipal borough. The vast majority of Tipton borough was transferred into West Bromwich County Borough in 1966, although the Tividale part of the town became part of Warley. Along with the rest of West Bromwich and Warley, Tipton became part of the Sandwell Metropolitan Borough in 1974 and remains within this local authority to this day.

Around half of all households in Tipton do not own a car. Around 40 per cent of residents have incomes of less than £20,000 a year. The British National Party have performed well in local elections in the town in the past and currently have three elected councillors.

Tipton was once one of the most heavily industrialised towns in the Black Country. But most of its factories closed during the 1980's and new housing estates have been built on the site of many former factories, the new private homes have seen an upturn in Tipton's fortunes by rising house prices.

The British National Party are popular among voters in the town; there are elected BNP councillors in the Princes End, Great Bridge and Tividale areas.

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[edit] History

Until the 18th century, Tipton was a collection of small hamlets. Industrial growth started in the town when ironstone and coal were discovered in the 1770s. A number of canals were built through the town, and later railways, which greatly accelerated the pace of industrialisation.

The engineer James Watt built his first steam engine in or very near Tipton in the 1770s, which was used to pump water from the mines. In 1780, James Keir and Alexander Blair set up a chemical works there, making vast quantities of alkali and soap.

The massive expansion in iron and coal industries led to the population of Tipton expanding rapidly through the 19th century, going from 4,000 at the beginning of the century to 30,000 at the end. Tipton gained a reputation as being "the quintessence of the Black Country" because chimneys of local factories belched heavy pollution into the air, whilst houses and factories were built side by side. Most of the traditional industries which once dominated the town have since disappeared.

The Black Country Living Museum in nearby Dudley re-creates life in the early 20th century Black Country, in original buildings which have been painstakingly rebuilt and furnished. There is a residential canal basin at the Museum - Tipton was once known as the Venice of the Midlands because it had so many canals, although some of the 'minor' canals in the town were filled in during the 1970's. The canals today form a vital cycling, wildlife and leisure facility.

The area has a distinctive spoken dialect, different from the Birmingham accent. The richest of Tipton speech is very similar to that which Shakespeare, or even Chaucer, would have spoken. Those who grew up here can often tell the difference between Tipton speech and the speech of people from other Black Country towns.

The town has retained a traditional horse-keeping culture; private horses are kept freely on public land, and are occasionally 'trotted' on roads (pulling a rider on a lightweigh racing cart). There are also tatters (i.e. rag-and-bone men), who also have links to the horse culture. Despite persistent Council attempts to clear horses off public land, horses still appear in parks and on canal banks from time to time.

[edit] Outsiders opinion of Tipton

The Newcastle-based adult comic Viz used Tipton as a perennial butt of jokes throughout the 1990s, involving a fictitious councillor, Hugo Guthrie. Guthrie may, however, have been based on the real inter-war figure of Councillor Doughty who forbade any more pubs to open until one was opened carrying his name — now renamed the Pie Factory — and apparently when asked by his Town Clerk whether the then Council should buy a urinal for the town park, instructed him to buy two so we can breed from them.

Tipton was described by the BBC during the 2000 West Bromwich West by-election as; "one of the few places in Britain with no middle-class".

[edit] Famous people

Several famous people were born in Tipton.

Currently the most famous person born in the town is Steve Bull, who was born on the town's Moat Farm estate (locally known as the Lost City) on 28th March 1965. He joined West Bromwich Albion on leaving school in 1981 but did not break into the first team until the 1985-86 season. After just one year and a handful of league appearances for the club, he was transferred to Wolverhampton Wanderers in a £64,000 deal and became a legend in 13 years at the Molineux club. He scored over 300 league goals, won two successive promotions and was capped 13 times by the England team, although he never played any higher than the new Division One. Less famous footballers born in Tipton included Isaac Clarke (born 1915) and Joe Mayo (born 1953).

In Victorian times, the most famous person was William Perry, the bareknuckle boxer who was Champion of England from 1850-57. There is a statue to Perry, know as 'the Tipton Slasher' in the Coronation Gardens park in central Tipton.

Norman Kendrick was a resident of Princes End Tipton. He was an early pioneer of the Coach Travel Industry, and a civic leader for over 50 years up to his death at 75. Known as 'Ten Men' Kendrick because of 6'7" 300 lb (136 kg) frame.

Another famous athlete was the athlete Jack Holden (1907-2004) who lived to the age of 97, ran for Tipton Harriers until he was in his 40's and competed for England at the 1948 Olympic Games when 41 years old.

Another emerging Tipton-born talent is Shaun Perry, Rugby Union player for Bristol Shoguns and England A. The ex-Dudley Kingswinford scrum half is looking like a player likely to figure in the Rugby World Cup, France 2007.

A local hero was Arthur Hooper. A top class amateur sprinter with Tipton Harriers, and a member of the England Schoolboys team. His amateur days were cut short when he became a professional footballer with Wolverhampton Wanderers amongst others. As a professional sprinter and footballer he was highly regarded.

[edit] Tipton Three

Shafiq Rasul, Ruhal Ahmed and Asif Iqbal were inmates of Guantanamo Bay from 2002 to 2004. They are popularly known as the "Tipton Three", following a meme whereby victims of an alleged miscarriage of justice have come to be known by the name of a city or town, followed by a number. See Birmingham Six and Guildford Four. In 2006, a Michael Winterbottom film claiming to be a historically accurate representation of the their torture and imprisonment was released, called The Road to Guantánamo.

Although they were released without charge, they allege that people in their home town of Tipton still think they're terrorists, and that there's too much racism in Tipton for them to be able to return. [1]

[edit] Peake Drive murders

Tipton hit the headlines once again on 27 September 2004 when a fire at a house in Peake Drive, Dudley Port, claimed the lives of four members of an Asian family. A fifth member of the family survived the blaze after jumping out of an upstairs window.

Gurmej Rai, the estranged husband of one of the victims, was found guilty on four charges of murder and a charge of attempted murder on 20 February 2006. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum term of 35 years, although he had not actually started the blaze. He had paid two other men, Rajiv Sahonta and Ravinder Bedhan, to douse the house with petrol and set it alight, as well as giving them a key to enter the house.

[edit] Neighbourhoods

[edit] Secondary Schools

[edit] Primary Schools

  • Tipton Green Junior School - located in Park Lane West, Tipton Green. Current building was constructed in 1976, replacing a late 19th century building in Sedgley Road West.
  • Victoria Infant School - located in Queens Road, Tipton Green. Was opened in 1995 to replace the interwar Manor Road Infant School.
  • Summerhill Primary School - located in Central Avenue, Tibbington, on the merger of Locarno Primary School and Princes End Primary School.
  • Westminster Special School - located in Upper Church Lane, Princes End, and previously known as the Fitzwarren School.
  • Meadows Special School - located in Regent Road, Tividale, and previously known as the Regent School.
  • Tividale Primary School - located in Dudley Road West, Tividale.
  • Great Bridge Primary School - located in Mount Street, Great Bridge.
  • Ocker Hill Primary School - located in Gospel Oak Road, Ocker Hill.
  • Glebefields Primary School - located on the Glebefields Estate, Princes End.
  • Sacred Heart Primary School - located in Victoria Road, Tipton Green, and is Tipton's only catholic school.
  • Wednesbury Oak Primary School - located off Wednesbury Oak Road

[edit] External links

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