Coseley

Coseley
Coseley  Coseley shown within the West Midlands
- London	113.3 miles
Metropolitan borough	Dudley
	Wolverhampton
Metropolitan county	West Midlands
Region	West Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BILSTON
Postcode district	WV14
Post town	DUDLEY
Postcode district	DY1
Dialling code	01902 or 0121
Police	West Midlands
Fire	West Midlands
Ambulance	West Midlands
EU Parliament	West Midlands
List of places: UK • England • West Midlands

Coseley is a town located mostly within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the English West Midlands. Part of the Black Country, it lies south east of Wolverhampton and north of Dudley.

Coseley railway station is on the West Coast Main Line and is served by London Midland. It is within the Bilston WV14 and Tipton DY4 postal districts.

Contents 1 History 2 Transport 3 Notable residents 4 Sports facilities 5 Neighbourhoods 6 Schools 6.1 Current secondary schools in Coseley 6.2 Former secondary schools in Coseley 6.3 Current primary schools in Coseley 6.4 Former primary schools in Coseley 7 References

History

Coseley was originally a village area in the ancient manor of Sedgley. In 1867, it, with the village areas of Brierley, Woodsetton, and Ettingshall, broke away from the parish of Sedgley and, together, formed Lower Sedgley Local Board District. In 1875, the name was changed to Coseley Local Board District by order of the Council and, in 1895, became Coseley Urban District. At this stage, most of the Coseley area was occupied by industrial and agricultural land.

Coseley Urban District Council built several thousand council houses and flats over a 40-year period from the mid-1920s which changed the face of the area. Most of these were built around Woodcross, Lanesfield, Wallbrook and Brierley.

1966 saw some of the urban district become part of Dudley County Borough, and since 1974 has been part of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. However, the north of the Brierley area (pron. "Brearley" not to be confused with Brierley Hill), and most of the Ettingshall area were incorporated into Wolverhampton County Borough instead, while a smaller area (the south of the Brierley area) bordering Tipton was transferred into the expanded borough of West Bromwich, in turn becoming part of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough in 1974. This area has been designated as being part of the town of Tipton rather than Coseley since 1966.

The Coseley Urban District Council Offices were opened in 1897 on the corner of Green Street and School Street, and remained in that building until the dissolution of Coseley Urban District Council in April 1966. They were demolished in about 1970.

Coseley has been served by a railway station since 1852, although the station didn't move to its current site until 1902. For more than 150 years, the people of Coseley have had a direct rail link to Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

The town centre gained a cinema, on the corner of Mason Street and Birmingham New Road, during the 1930s, part of the Clifton chain, but this closed in January 1963 as a result of the postwar decline in cinema audiences brought on by the rising popularity of home television. The building was later demolished and a veterinary surgery now occupies the site.

Since 1927, Coseley has also had a direct road link with Birmingham and Wolverhampton. The Birmingham New Road, a dual carriageway, was laid out at this time and on its completion was one of the finest new roads in the area, although it has become plagued with traffic congestion in recent years.

Bean Cars opened a factory at Coseley in 1919, with another being in operation at Dudley. The new factory was situated in the south-east of the town near the border with Tipton, and a subsequent second phase of the factory (at the other side of a now-defunct railway line) was actually situated in Tipton. Bean ceased production of passenger cars in 1929, and for the next two years switched to commercial vehicles. After 1931, Bean switched ventures again - this time to making car parts. It was a key supplier for the largest independent British carmaker - British Motor Corporation, British Leyland, Austin Rover, Rover Group and most recently MG Rover - until the business closed due to financial problems in late 2005. The Tipton part of the Bean site was demolished shortly afterwards and developed for housing, but the Coseley section was not demolished until the summer of 2008. The land has yet to be developed.

Cannon Industries, famous for producing gas and electric cookers, was based in Coseley from 1861 until the closure of its Havacre Lane factory in 1993. However, the bulk of the factory buildings were retained as Cannon Business Park, a mix of industrial and commercial ventures.^[1]

The main "high street" in Coseley is Castle Street. Most of the current buildings have been built since the 1960s. A by-pass was opened on 23 August 1989, incorporating a widened section of Green Street to relieve congestion in the town centre.

Transport

Coseley is served by Coseley railway station, formerly called Deepfields & Coseley Station. It is situated on the West Coast Main Line, and the station is in between Wolverhampton and Tipton stations. Bus services travel to Sedgley, Dudley, Wolverhampton, Tipton and Bilston on a regular week day schedule.

Notable residents

• Thomas Barratt - posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross in the First World War. His Victoria Cross is on permanent display at the Museum of the Staffordshire Regiment.
• Abraham Darby - inventor of the coke fuelled iron blast furnace that started the industrial revolution.
• Daniel Hunt - Classical and Jazz pianist.
• Kelly Groucutt - the late bass-guitarist/singer from the band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).
• Joseph Nicholds - nineteenth-century composer of sacred music, best known for his oratorio Babylon.
• George Andrews - former Walsall, Shrewsbury Town and Cardiff City footballer.

Sports facilities

In October 2006, a volleyball club was started in Coseley which competes in the West Midlands Volleyball League. Coseley Volleyball Club initially trained and played matches at Dudley Leisure Centre, but from February 25, 2007 moved to Coseley Leisure Centre.

Coseley also has a cricket club which has been in existence on a site on Church Road since 1870. They currently have 3 teams playing in the Staffs Club Championship on a Saturday and two teams that play in the Worcester Borders Sunday League. A Youth section has also been recently introduced.

Coseley Swimming Pool closed in August 2009, after a report by engineers found that roof was structurally unsound and would require repairs estimated by the council to be in excess of £1m.

Football teams included Image Wheel Kestrels F.C. who use to play at Highfields primary school, clayton park and Cannon Drive Coseley between 2002-2008 and competed in the Bilston partnership youth football league and the Stourbridge youth league. At its high point Image had six teams from under 10's up to the adults team which competed in the dudley and cradley heath football league

Neighbourhoods

• Roseville - central area of Coseley which is situated on the main Birmingham New Road (opened in 1927). Local landmarks include Silver Jubilee Park, St Chad's Church, the Old Windmill and Coseley Canal Tunnel.
• Hurst Hill - situated in the west of Coseley near the border with Sedgley, contains many housing types of different ages.
• Wallbrook - situated in the east of Coseley near the border with Tipton.
• Highfields Estate - situated in the north of Coseley near the border with Bilston, and was mostly developed between 1920 and 1970.
• Foxyards Estate - a housing estate in the south of Coseley on land which straddled the border with Tipton. It was mostly developed in the mid 1960s. Foxyards Primary School has served the estate since 1971. George Andrews, who scored Walsall FC's winning goal against Newcastle United in a 1975 FA Cup giant-killing feat, lives on the estate.
• Deepfields - Area of Coseley near the Coseley school. Local landmarks include coseley school, Coseley Station (previously Coseley and Deepfields), Christ Church and Coseley tunnel North portal. The first bridge Wolverhampton-side of the tunnel is named 'Deepfields footbridge'

Lanesfield, Woodcross and Ettingshall were all part of Coseley until 1966, when being incorporated into the borough of Wolverhampton. Part of Princes End was also in Coseley until this date, then being transferred into the borough of West Bromwich (Sandwell from 1974) and the township of Tipton.

Schools

Current secondary schools in Coseley

• Coseley School - opened off Ivyhouse Lane in 1969.

Former secondary schools in Coseley

• Mount Pleasant Senior School - was a secondary school built in 1913. The school was merged into the new Coseley School in 1969 and survived as that school's annex until July 1972, but the buildings have been used since March 1992 as the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley's records office and archive service.^[2]
• Manor Secondary School - opened in 1933, on Ettingshall Road in the Woodcross area of the town, which was then in its first stages of development, growing rapidly after the end of World War II.^[3]However, the growth of the surrounding area after 1945 put pressure on places at the Manor, and by the late 1950s Coseley UDC had decided to build a new secondary modern school on Lawnswood Avenue in the extreme north of the town. The school, Parkfield Secondary Modern School, opened in April 1962 (with infant and junior pupils aged 5-11 occupying the old Manor school buildings from September that year). The school came under control of Wolverhampton council as a result of boudnary changes in April 1966 and survives to this day as the South Wolverhampton and Bilston Academy.^[4]

Current primary schools in Coseley

• Christchurch Primary School - has one of the oldest school buildings in Dudley Borough, which is still used as a school, dating from the 19th century.
• Foxyards Primary School - situated on the Foxyards Estate, it was built in 1971 to serve the new Foxyards housing estate and its surrounding area. The first head teacher was Joseph Jones. Jones retired in about 1985 to be succeeded by Mr David Cox, the former deputy head of Cotwall End Primary School in Sedgley. Mr Cox was seconded to the local authority in September 1989 for an academic year, during which time Mrs Evans was acting head teacher. Mr Cox finally left in March 1999 to become head of Alder Coppice Primary in Sedgley. Mrs Pam Greenhalgh was acting head of one term before the appointment of Mrs Sandra O'Gorman, who has been at the helm ever since. Foxyards was built as a one-form entry school for pupils aged from 4 to 11 years, and a nursery unit was added in the mid-1980s. Due to a growing demand for places which saw more than 40 pupils in some year groups, it changed from one-form entry to vertical streaming (up to three classes in two years) in the early 1990s. There are still some mixed age classes in the school, and a new building at the school was opened in 2007 to accommodate growing pupil numbers.
• Hurst Hill Primary School - opened in November 1986 on a new site on Paul Street, it was formed from a merger of St Mary's Primary School and Mount Pleasant Primary School. The school's first head was Mr Harvey, with his deputy Mr Eric Tibble. Mr Tibble became head some years later on Mr Harvey's retirement and was finally succeeded himself by Mrs Joy Powell. The school was officially opened on 2 March 1987 by Neil Kinnock, leader of the Labour Party.
• Wallbrook Primary School - located in Bradley's Lane, in the east of the town near the border with Tipton. There are an estimated 275 pupils aged from 3 to 11 on the school roll. The majority of Wallbrook pupils move to Coseley School on leaving. The school was established in 1954 under headmaster A R Gowland - who was succeeded by L Clarke. The current head is Mrs C Longden.

Former primary schools in Coseley

• Highfields Primary School - opened in September 1972 as a one-form entry primary school to serve the north-eastern part of Coseley. The last head teacher of the school was Leonard Hazelhurst, appointed in September 2003 to replace Mrs Angela Hambrook. The school closed in July 2006 after Dudley MBC decided that falling numbers on the school roll made it no longer viable, and most of the school's remaining pupils were transferred to Wallbrook Primary School. The building has been retained, however, and since March 2008 has housed Rosewood Special School which relocated from the Russells Hall Estate in Dudley.[5]
• Mount Pleasant Primary School - its history can be traced back to October 1879 when a 500-pupil Board School was opened on Mount Pleasant Street by Sedgley School Board. It moved onto a neighbouring site in 1904, with the old infant and junior schools becoming a senior school, but by the early 1980s these buildings were becoming outdated and plans were unveiled to build a new primary school in the area to replace both this and nearby St Mary's Primary School. The school finally closed in November 1986 when Hurst Hill Primary School opened. There were initial plans to retain the Mount Pleasant buildings for community use, but it was ultimately demolished in late 1990 after standing empty for four years. Private housing was built on the site.
• St. Chad's Mixed Infant School - was a Church of England school located on Portland Place, at the top of Oak Street near to St. Chad's Church.
• St. Mary's Primary School - was a Church of England school built during the 19th century to serve the expanding Hurst Hill area of Coseley, and was twinned with the local parish church. Located on Horace Street, it was very outdated by the early 1980s and plans were announced for a new school to be built nearby to replace both St Mary's and Mount Pleasant schools. Hurst Hill Primary School opened in November 1986 as the replacement and the St Mary's buildings were demolished soon afterwards to be redeveloped for private housing.

References

Ceremonial county of West Midlands Metropolitan districts City of Birmingham City of Coventry City of Wolverhampton Metropolitan Borough of Dudley Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough of Solihull Metropolitan Borough of Walsall Major settlements Aldridge Bilston Birmingham Blackheath Bloxwich Brierley Hill Brownhills Coseley Coventry Cradley Heath Darlaston Dudley Fordbridge Halesowen Oldbury Rowley Regis Smethwick Solihull Stourbridge Sutton Coldfield Tipton Walsall Wednesbury Wednesfield West Bromwich Willenhall Wolverhampton See also: West Midlands Rivers River Blythe River Cole River Penk River Rea Smestow Brook River Sherbourne River Sow River Sowe River Stour River Tame Canals Birmingham Canal Navigations Shropshire Union Canal Staffordshire & Worcestershire Worcester & Birmingham Topics Black Country Centro Conservation areas Coventry/Bedworth Urban Area History of West Midlands County Museums West Midlands conurbation