Bentley, West Midlands
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Bentley is an area in Walsall located around Junction 10 of the M6 Motorway. It shares borders with the areas of Willenhall, Beechdale, Ashmore Park, Pleck and Alumwell.
[edit] History
Bentley is noted for its involvement in the English civil war, when in 1651 King Charles II took shelter with the Lane Family in Bentley Hall while attempting to escape to exile. Jane Lane famously helped the King escape by disguising him as a servant. Bentley Cairn marks the location of Bentley Hall upon the hill.
The Cairn has recently undergone improvements, carried out by the Bentley Cairn Restoration Group.
In addition to these improvements, the remains of another manor house near the Cairn were discovered during May 2006, and an archaeological survey will take place by the Bentley Cairn Restoration Group, funded by the Darlaston Local Neighbourhood Partnership, in order to confirm and restore the remains of the house.
[edit] Directions to Bentley Cairn
Leave the M6 motorway at Junction 10 and join the Black Country Route heading towards Bilston. Leave the Black Country Route at the first exit and turn right at the traffic lights into Bentley Mill Way.
Turn left at the following set of traffic lights at the end of the road, and immediately enter the right-hand lane to turn right at the next set of lights. At these lights, you should notice the Lane Arms pub to your left. Take the right hand turn here.
Follow the road and turn right at the fourth road; Cairn Drive.
Bentley Cairn stands on Cairn Drive, opposite the Bentley Emmanuel church, located just off Queen Elizabeth Avenue.
[edit] Local points of interest
Bentley is locally well known for its points of interest. They include Bentley Cairn, Bentley Emmanuel Church (denomination: Church of England), the ABC park, the lake and the dis-used railway line which runs through Bentley from Darlaston and into Willenhall.
More recently Bentley has become well known because of its proximity to the M6 motorway, a multi-screen cinema, casino, and a variety of restaurants.
Bentley was mostly developed during the late 1940s and early 1950s, when it came within the borders of Darlaston Urban District Council; this now-defunct authority built several hundred homes at the north side of the Walsall to Wolverhampton road.
Bentley hit the headlines in 1992 when the body of a man was found buried under the patio of a house in Pugh Crescent. The man's wife was found guilty of manslaughter the following year and sentenced to five years in prison, having told the jury that he had been abusive towards her during their marriage. This influenced a storyline in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, in which wife and child abuser Trevor Jordache was stabbed to death by his wife Mandy before being buried under the patio of their house.
