Tipton Green
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Tipton Green is the central area of Tipton, a town in the West Midlands of England. It was heavily developed for industry during the 19th century, as Tipton was one of the most significant towns during the Industrial Revolution.
Tipton Green's main shopping area has always been Owen Street, which was a busy and popular shopping area for approximately 100 years leading up to the 1960s, when many of its key retailers were relocated or liquidated. The area was almost completely redeveloped a decade later, with the historic "Fountain Inn" public house being one of the few old buildings to survive.
Tipton Green has been home to the town's railway station since the mid 19th century, giving it direct passenger train links with Birmingham and Wolverhampton. There was a second station in the area at Five Ways (on the border with Coseley between 1850 and 1962, but this station was one of the first victims of the Beeching Axe and the line upon which it was situated (between Dudley and Bilston) closed in 1968.
The parish church for Tipton Green is St Matthew's. It was opened in 1880 and the original church survives to this day. The vicarage is also intact, but it is now a nursing home as a new vicarage was constructed in the late 1980s.
Mad O'Rourke's famous "Pie Factory" public house is located in Tipton Green on the corner of Sedgley Road West and Hurst Lane. It was built in 1923 as the Doughty Arms and took on its present name in 1987 upon a takeover by The Little Pub Company. The Pie Factory is significant for its "cow pies" and the fact that comedian Frank Skinner performed some of his first gigs there.
Tipton Green was home to several key factories until recently. Bean Industries occupied a large site - which straddles the border with Coseley - in the area from the 1930s until the firm went bankrupt in 2005. Most of the buildings are still existing, though the section in Tipton was recently redeveloped for a housing estate called Birchfields. The section of old railway between Sedgley Road West and Birmingham New Road was redeveloped for housing in 2002. The new development was constructed by Kendrick Homes Ltd and is known as Fox's Hollow.