Priory Estate

The Priory Estate is a housing estate in Dudley, West Midlands, England, which has largely been developed since 1929.

History

The Priory Estate is so named because it is located near the Priory ruins and Priory Park. It stands on land which once straddled the border of Dudley County Borough and Sedgley Urban District, which were in the counties of Worcestershire and Staffordshire respectively.

The borders were moved back several hundred yards in 1926 when Dudley Council purchased the land with a view to building council houses to rehouse more than 2,000 families from town centre slums. Several hundred council houses had already been built in Dudley since 1920, mostly in the Kates Hill area and on small developments around Netherton, but the Priory Estate was to be the largest council housing development yet in the area as the town's slum problem was still far from being solved.

The boundary changes also meant that Dudley Castle was finally transferred to the borough of Dudley after centuries in Sedgley.^[1]

The foundation stone of the very first house, 9 Oak Road, was laid on 16 July 1929.

The first houses were occupied in 1930 and by the end of the decade more than 2,000 houses had been built on the estate. There were also private houses for owner-occupiers built mostly on the south side of the estate near Priory Park, around Priory Road, Hazel Road, Woodland Avenue, Chesnut Avenue, Somery Road, Forest Road, Paganel Drive and Gervase Drive.

Four public houses served the estate: the Wren's Nest in Priory Road (built in the mid-1930s), the King Arthur on the corner of Birmingham New Road and Priory Road, the Washington in Wrens Nest Road (built around the same time as the Wren's Nest), and the Caves in Wrens Hill Road (built in the 1950s).

Priory Park was laid out in 1932, with iron railing around the perimeter, (these were removed during the war for the metal to be used in the war effort.) the same year that Priory Road was fully opened to give Dudley a direct road link with the Birmingham New Road in Coseley - incorporating the Priory Ruins as well as Priory Hall (former home of Sir Gilbert Claughton). Priory Hall is currently in use as Dudley Registry Office, and has been based there since the office's relocation from a building in Ednam Road in about 1990.

Most of the people living in the council houses on the Priory Estate were rehoused from town centre slum clearances. They were generally pleased with living in new houses which had gardens. Hot & cold running tap water, bathrooms next to the kitchen] A solid fuel fed boiler for doing the washing of clothes etc. in the kitchen and a larder with a concrete block shelf. Gas lighting was converted to electric about the early 1950s, Plumbing|outdoor toilets refurbished in the 60s to indoor with upstairs bathrooms and toilet.and gardens.

But the Priory Estate quickly ran into problems, with vandalism, litter, graffiti, vehicle crime, burglary and drug dealing becoming widespread, particularly on the north side of the estate, by the 1980s. The homes of elderly people were targeted most frequently; in 1991, a plank of wood was hurled through the window of a room in which a 90-year-old woman was sleeping.

The most famous former resident of the Priory Estate is Duncan Edwards, who was born two miles away at Holly Hall but moved to 31 Elm Road as a small child and went on to play 18 times for England as well as winning two Football League championships with Manchester United before he died in 1958 at the age of 21 from injuries sustained in the Munich air disaster. As a child, he had attended Priory Primary School and then Wolverhampton Street School. After his death, a stained glass window was dedicated to Edwards at St Francis parish church at the junction of Laurel Road and Poplar Crescent. The church was founded during 1931 and originally based at Priory Hall before the church building on the newly developed housing estate was opened on 10 May 1932.^[2]

The estate was served by a secondary school from 1965, when Mons Hill School opened on Wrens Hill Road (running between the Priory and the neighbouring Wren's Nest Estate) to replace Wolverhampton Street School. This school closed in 1990 due to falling pupil numbers, with the remaining pupils split between Castle High and The Coseley School. The Mons Hill buildings then became part of Dudley College.

North Priory redevelopment

A picture of Dudley's Priory estate in 2010.

On 2 March 2006 a consultation firm employed by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council recommended the demolition of between 40 and 100 per cent of 260 homes on the northern part of the estate. The consultation firm had studied four scenarios. The first had been refurbishment of all the existing properties, many of which were currently in disrepair as well as being unsuitable for elderly and disabled occupants. But this scenario would not alter the estate's "isolated" position, highlighted by just two out of the six road links to the estate being accessible for vehicles. Nor would it make any difference to the narrow roads in the estate, one of which is now one-way. The second option had been 20% redevelopment along Pine Road, which would include refurbishment of the remaining properties but no major alterations to the road layout. The third option had been 40% redevelopment, which would have seen the demolition of all homes in Pine Road and Berry Road, as well as some in Thornhill Road. The fourth and final option was total redevelopment.^[3]

The planned demolition was deemed necessary as most of the houses in this area were in a poor state of repair, with low demand for properties, a high demand for moves away from the area, and the environment has been plagued by vandalism, arson attacks, litter, graffiti and urban decay. The report also criticised the "isolated" layout of the estate, which is accessible from six points but only two of those points are accessible by motor vehicles. Most of the roads on the estate are relatively narrow (including one which is one-way) compared to roads on other parts of the Priory, which was less of a problem when the area was first developed – as virtually none of the local residents owned a car when the estate was built during the 1930s. The rising level of car ownership in recent years had led to many local residents parking their cars on pavements and even gardens, mainly due to the narrow streets.

Four properties on Pine Road had been demolished in the late 1990s due to mining subsidence, which also affected several other properties in the area, and another four properties on the road had been converted into community facilities.

The plans for total redevelopment were backed by council officials on 4 December 2006 despite being opposed by residents.

31 homes in North Priory had been bought from the council under the right to buy scheme.

The redevelopment of the estate will see a mixture of rented and privately owned homes being built on the site, as well as the re-opening of the exit onto the Birmingham New Road via Castle Mill Road, which was closed in 1993 for road safety reasons. Some residents in the condemned area expressed concern that they would not be able to move back once the redevelopment was complete, as the rebuilt neighbourhood would include fewer rented homes than before and few of the current residents would be able to afford the new private houses.

The new-look North Priory, when completed, will include the shortening of Primrose Crescent with a public park on the south side and housing on the north side, the re-routing of Castle Mill Road at its most eastern point to join onto Pine Road, with defunct vehicle exit onto Birmingham New Road being re-instated, while Fern Road, Berry Road and Heather Road to be extended to join up with Pine Road. Heather Road and Berry Road will gain a vehicular link to Priory Road, while a residential square surrounding public gardens will be developed from current corner of Pine Road and Thornhill Road. There will also be a home-zone running parallel with Thornhill Road and joining up to form a crossroads at the current Forest Road junction.

A signalled crossroads may be erected on Birmingham New Road, also incorporating Woodcroft Avenue on the nearby Foxyards Estate.

Commercial units and flats to be built on site of current homes on Priory Road, between the junctions with Castle Mill Road and Fern Road.

Dudley council had hoped to complete the rehousing programme by Christmas 2008, but that deadline was missed and when the initial demolition work (on Pine Road) commenced in April 2009, one house on the estate remained occupied (on Berry Road). The final house was not vacated until nearly two months later. Demolition was completed in October 2009.

There has also been speculation that other parts of the Priory Estate are due for redevelopment once North Priory's regeneration is completed, but council officials have denied this; public spending cuts have meant that any regeneration in the area in the foreseeable future will take place in the form of improvements to existing properties rather than their demolition and replacement.

When complete, the rebuilt North Priory estate is expected to consist of 329 homes, with an approximate 50:50 split between private and rented homes. There will be a more varied type of housing than before. The old North Priory estate consisted of 262 houses (built in the 1930s) with either two or three bedrooms and a block of four flats (built in 1974), but the new estate will also included bungalows as well as three-storey apartment blocks and townhouses. Construction of the new homes began in March 2011 and the first residents will move there later in the year.^[4]

Crime

In October 2003, arsonists set fire to a pigeon loft in the garden of a house in Linwood Road and killed nine pigeons.^[5] On another part of the estate, anti-social behaviour was creating so much trouble that one family gave an interview to the Express and Star regional newspaper openly criticising the local council for failing to respond to their demands for a transfer.^[6]

In March 2004, Dudley Registry Office (located in Priory Park) was set alight by arsonists. It took 100 firefighters a whole night to defeat the blaze.^[7]

Also in March 2004, a 90-year-old widow on the Estate criticised a judge for failing to hand out a prison sentence to the heroin addict and career criminal who broke into her house and stole £80 from her purse.^[8]

In April 2006, an arson attack caused severe damage to the Duncan Edwards public house in Priory Road. The pub had been refurbished just five years earlier and renamed in honour of Duncan Edwards, but had been closed a short time earlier in spite of its popularity in the local community.^[9] The building has since been demolished and plans have already been unveiled for the site to be developed for housing and retail, but construction work has yet to start.

The rehousing of North Priory residents in preparation for demolition resulted in empty properties being scoured by scrap metal dealers in the hope of finding items of value, despite council workers having already stripped these properties of tanks and copper piping. Most of the empty properties were vandalised in some way, while several were damaged in arson attacks.

The BNP Era

On 1 May 2003, the British National Party gained a councillor in Castle and Priory (which includes the Priory Estate) in the council elections. The area had previously been controlled by three Labour Party councillors, and the successful BNP councillor representing Castle and Priory was Simon Darby.

Mr Darby had gained 26.2% of the vote in Castle and Priory a year earlier, and in 2003 he gained a huge 45% of the vote. It was surprising that a BNP councillor had gained a seat in Castle and Priory, especially as the area is 97% white and the BNP are often popular among white people living in areas with high numbers of ethnic residents.

In 2003, Castle and Priory was the most deprived ward in the whole Dudley borough, and among the 7% most deprived wards in England. A number of asylum seekers had been housed on the Priory Estate, much to the dismay of many white British neighbours. At the time, just 23 patriations of asylum seekers were living on and around the Priory Estate, but they were already attracting resentment from British neighbours because Dudley MBC had been providing furnishings, televisions and refrigerators for free to all asylum seekers living in the borough, and this was making them appear wealthier than British people.

Many local people also saw the BNP as the answer to the Priory Estate's many problems that were nothing to do with asylum seekers nor any other ethnic minorities. House repairs weren't being carried out efficiently, the local youth centre was rarely open and the estate office had closed - leaving many people (mostly pensioners) without cars to walk a long distance to pay their rent. There was also anger that the European Union had spent millions of pounds on upgrading the neighbouring Wren's Nest Estate (which traditionally had an even worse reputation than the Priory).

However, Simon Darby was not popular with voters once they had elected him. He lost his council seat the following year, and once again Castle and Priory is a Labour stronghold.^[10]

Public transport links

• Wolverhampton city centre (National Express West Midlands 126, 525, 544, 581)
• Birmingham city centre (National Express West Midlands 126)
• Dudley town centre (National Express West Midlands 125, 126, 206, 207, 283, 525, 544, 81)
• Coseley town centre (National Express West Midlands 125, 126, 525, 544, 581)
• Merry Hill Shopping Centre (National Express West Midlands 81)
• Wren's Nest estate (National Express West Midlands 206, 207, 544, 581)
• Netherton town centre (National Express West Midlands 283)
• Lodge Farm estate (National Express West Midlands 283)
• Bilston town centre (National Express West Midlands 525)
• Wednesfield town centre (National Express West Midlands 525)
• Willenhall town centre (National Express West Midlands 525)

References

Coordinates: 52°31′20″N 2°5′16″W / 52.52222°N 2.08778°W / 52.52222; -2.08778