South Staffordshire

South Staffordshire is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. The district lies to the north and west of Wolverhampton and the West Midlands, bordering Shropshire to the west and Worcestershire to the south. It contains no towns of major size and many of the settlements within the district are dormitory villages for Stafford, Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Telford.

The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by the merger of Cannock Rural District (in the north) and Seisdon Rural District (in the south).

Its council is based in Codsall,^[1] one of the larger settlements in the district, along with Brewood, Cheslyn Hay, Great Wyrley, Kinver, Landywood, Penkridge, Perton and Wombourne. Other villages in the district include Coven, Essington, Featherstone, Gospel End, Huntington, Lower Penn, Pattingham, Seisdon and Trysull.

The district covers a similar geographic area to South Staffordshire parliamentary constituency, although the north of the district is covered by the Stafford (UK Parliament constituency). Sir Patrick Cormack of the Conservative Party held the South Staffordshire seat, and its predecessors, between 1970–2010, when he retired and the seat was won by Gavin Williamson for the Conservative Party.

Countryside

There are many beauty spots within the South Stafforshire district, for example the village of Wombourne has the Wom Brook Walk and the Bratch Locks on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal in the nearby village of Bratch. Other sites include: South Staffordshire Railway Walk a five and a half mile walk along a disused railway line. Baggeridge Country Park: a large and diverse country park located between Wombourne and Sedgley (a town in the borough of Dudley, which has won the national Green Flag Award for 11 years,^[2] Bluebell Woods in Perton an internationally important site for Bluebells,^[3] Highgate Common a large area of heathland, Kinver Edge, a National Trust property, located in the south of the district which features the Holy Austin Rock Houses^[4] and Shoal Hill Common a 180-acre (0.73 km²) site of lowland heaths and woodlands which can be found to the extreme north of the district.

Bunkers Tree Wood is also in the area and contains a large Corvid roost.

Council affiliation

As of March 2011, it was as follows^[5]-

References