Heath Town
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heath Town is a district of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, located ENE of the city centre. It is also a ward of Wolverhampton City Council. The ward forms part of the Wolverhampton North East constituency.
Heath Town ward borders the wards of Bushbury South and Low Hill, Fallings Park, Wednesfield North, Wednesfield South, East Park and St Peter's. As well as Heath Town, the ward covers parts of Park Village and Wednesfield. It is home to New Cross Hospital (the city's main Hospital), Wolverhampton Railway station, Heath Park Secondary school and a Royal Mail distribution centre.
Heath Town sprang up in the late 19th century, with many terraced houses being built in the shadow of factories near the main road to Lichfield.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Heath Town was almost totally redeveloped when the majority of the area's Victorian terraces were bulldozed to make way for many blocks of council flats - between 4 and 20 storeys high. These flats were praised on their construction for having modern facilities which their predecessors lacked, but by the 1980s Heath Town had become a notorious area ravaged by drugs, prostitution, race hate, vandalism, graffiti, anti-social behaviour, car crime and even several murders. In 1989 tensions between the police and some members of the local population culminated in a full-scale riot, which made international headlines.
Heath Town has a large percentage of Asian and Afro-Caribbean residents who migrated to England during the 1950s and 1960s and originally settled in the Victorian terraced before relocating to the modern council flats.
In recent years the quality of life around Heath Town has improved with some flats being demolished while most of the remaining flats have been renovated.
Previously, there was a primary school in Heath Town called Long Ley Primary School. The students there mostly went on to attend Wednesfield High School. It has since been closed down because of the shortage of council funding.
