Sedgley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Map sources for Sedgley at grid reference SO917937
|
Sedgley is a town in the West Midlands of England, but formerly in Staffordshire. It was originally a manor composed of a series of villages: Sedgley, Cotwall End, Upper Gornal, Lower Gornal, Gospel End, Gornalwood, Woodsetton, Ettingshall, Coseley and Brierley (not to be confused with Brierley Hill).
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.
Sedgley Urban District Council survived until 1966 when it 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, while small sections of Coseley became part of Sandwell and Wolverhampton.
Sedgley really developed from a village into a town after the Second World War when thousands of residential and commercial properties were developed across the area. Most of the houses in Sedgley were built in the 1950s and 1960s.
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 237 metres 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 offers outstanding 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.
A £4million lottery grant made up most of the £5.5million spent on building an arts/sports complex at the town's Dormston School. The complex was opened in 2000, housing a theatre, sports hall, gymnasium and art gallery. Dormston School was opened in 1935 and although the main building survives, several more modern buildings have been built to accommodate the ever increasing number of pupils.
House prices in Sedgley are slightly below the national average. A three-bedroom semi-detached house on a suburban private estate costs up to £170,000, while a similar house on a council estate can retail for as little as £100,000.
Contents |
[edit] Local people and ongoings
Former BBC newsreader Sue Lawley was born in Sedgley in 1947.
Phil Parkes, a former West Ham United and England goalkeeper, was born in Sedgley in 1950.
Former Walsall footballer Chris Marsh was born on the Brownswall Estate in 1969. Appointed Manager of Sorrento FC (Perth, Western Australia) in the West Australian State League. (March 2007)
It is a local legend that the Red Lion and Court House pubs in Sedgley town centre are connected underground by a passageway. A former barmaid at the Court House insisted that the Red Lion was once a prison and when the Court House was first built in about 1800 the prisoners were led through the passageway after being sent down.
[edit] Neighbourhoods
[edit] 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 name "Bull Ring" is still very much alive in Sedgley.
The Bull Ring is now a congested traffic island. It is surrounded by a few significant 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 (disused) underground passageway.
The Clifton was built in the 1920s as Sedgley's first cinema, and remain open until 1978. It was a bingo hall for about 20 years, before being taken over by JD Wetherspoon in the late 1990s and converted into a public house.
Monty's Wine Bar is located next door to the Clifton, and was originally a Lo-Cost supermarket before the store was closed in 1997.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 which had already seen most of the equipment destroyed.
The top of the Brownswall Estate near Cotwall End features a row of shops with flats above them. There is a Costcutter convenience store (previously a privately-owned corner shop), a butcher's shop, a hair salon, an accountant's office and Cotwall End Stores (an off-licence).
Former Walsall footballer Chris Marsh was born on the estate in 1969.
[edit] 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. It has been the target of extensive anti-social behaviour in recent years.
[edit] 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 Bricklayers Arms - was controversially demolished in 2002 to make way for a McDonalds drive-thru restaurant. Tudor County Primary School served Upper Gornal until its closure in 1986. It was used as an adult education centre for several years afterwards but has now been demolished. A cul-de-sac occupied by privately owned bungalows - Board School Gardens - now occupies the site of the old school.
[edit] Lower Gornal
Situated about two miles south of Sedgley town centre, around the Five Ways traffic island. The local area takes in Robert's 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.
Lower Gornal is perhaps most famous within the Black Country as the setting for the traditional tale of 'The Pig on the Wall'. According to local legend, in Victorian times a pig was seen to look over a yard wall to watch a brass band process by.
[edit] Gornal Wood
Situated west of Lower Gornal, with a busy village centre providing the local area with a wide range of shops, library etc...
It is within walking distance of Himley Hall stately home; the former resisdance 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 is 'Straits House', a former mansion which is now a public house serving the postwar private housing estate that occupies the surrounding land. A primary school was built on the Straits Estate during the 1960s.
Perhaps the most unusual sight in Gornal Wood is the 'Glynne Arms Public House' 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, perfomed on request in the pub, is an optical illusion where a ball bearing is seen to roll uphill along the back of a bench. Until recently the pub employed 'guard geese', though these have sadly 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.
[edit] 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 Holden's 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.
[edit] 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. It is one of the most troubled housing estates in Dudley Borough. Vandalism, anti-social behaviour, fly tipping and neglect are just some of the many problems which have plagued the area for decades.
More details and photos of the Beacon can be found at The Ancient Manor of Sedgley website
[edit] Local legend - 'Pig on the wall'
One, not entirely apocryphal, episode from Lower Gornal's past occurred when Enoch & Eli (Aynock and Ayli in the local dialect - the two fictional characters to which local jokes are usually attributed) "put the pig on the wall to watch the band go by". Local legend has it, that once, a military band marched through the suburb, and caused such great excitement amongst the residents, that not only did many people flock to see it, but one person even put his pig on the wall to afford the animal a better view! This phrase has long been part of the local idiolect, but its origins still remain obscure. There was even a hotel in the Upper Gornal area of the town called the "Pig on the Wall". It was originally called the Bricklayer's Arms and know locally as Hammond's after the long time owners, but took up its new name in 1985. It was however demolished and replaced with a McDonalds restaurant in late 2002.
More details of the 'Pig' and its urban legend at The Ancient Manor of Sedgley website
[edit] Sedgley in the headlines
[edit] Short skirts banned at Dormston
On 15th March 1999, Dormston Secondary School in Sedgley town centre made national headlines when more than 40 girls at the school were either sent home or withdrawn from lessons as punishment for wearing short skirts.
[edit] Gornalwood garage owner death
On 10th July 2003, tragedy struck in Gornalwood village when a 75-year-old man was knocked down and killed by a stolen car on the forecourt of his motor repair centre. Henry Raybould, a widower and father of two sons, died later the same day at the local Russells Hall Hospital after he tried to stop a thief from fleeing the forecourt in a stolen Volkswagen Bora. His son Paul Raybould was also hit by the car but survived minor injuries. The driver who killed Mr Raybould was later sentenced to 10 years in prison for manslaughter. Three other people - one of them a passenger in the car which killed Mr Raybould - were convicted of lesser offences relating to the tragedy but escaped with non-custodial sentences.
[edit] Woodsetton man jailed for prostitute murder
On 21st July 2000, a 44-year-old Woodsetton man called Paul Brumfitt was jailed for life after being convicted of murdering 19-year-old Wolverhampton prostitute Marcella Davies, who died in 1999. He killed her at his terraced house in Sedgley Road, Woodsetton, and burnt her body on a scrapyard he rented in Wolverhampton.
After Brumfitt's trial, it was revealed that he had been convicted at the Old Bailey in 1980 of battering to death an Essex shopkeeper and strangling to death a Danish bus driver.
[edit] Primary schools
- Queen Victoria Primary School - built in 1897, situated in the town centre. Since the reconstruction of Roberts Primary School in 2000 it has been the oldest school building 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 Mr 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 - is a Roman Catholic primary school built in the 1960s, although, a significant number of non-Catholic children are in attendance. 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 Robert 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 - built in the 1950s, situated about a mile and a half east of the town centre
[edit] 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
[edit] Former schools
- Flax Hall Primary School - closed in 1989
[edit] External links
- The Ancient Manor of Sedgley Local History website This site has been designed to give Genealogists and local Historians an insight into the Staffordshire village of Sedgley, its parish and the surrounding hamlets and to the life and times of the people who lived there.
- Sedgley Local History Society website Sedgley Local History Society (SLHS) aims to promote an interest in the history of Sedgley and the surrounding areas through a programme of talks and a developing website.
