| Friar Park | |
|---|---|
 St. Francis Of Assisi Church | |
| Metropolitan borough | |
| Metropolitan county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | WEDNESBURY |
| Postcode district | WS10 |
| Dialling code | 0121 |
| Police | West Midlands |
| Fire | West Midlands |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
Friar Park is a residential area of Wednesbury, West Midlands, England. It is also a ward of Sandwell Council.
Originally in the borough of West Bromwich, it was developed by West Bromwich council in the late 1920s and early 1930s to rehouse families from town centre slum clearances. It is situated approximately one mile to the east of Wednesbury town centre and two miles to the north of West Bromwich town centre. Since the 1960s, it has been located near to the M6 motorway.
When the borough of West Bromwich was expanded in 1966 to include the former urban district of Wednesbury, Friar Park was placed within the boundaries of the Wednesbury township and has remained part of it ever since. However, an opposite reorganization took place in neighbouring Hateley Heath, which had previously straddled the borders of Wednesbury and West Bromwich, but now exists entirely within West Bromwich.
There have been some more recent additions to the estate, including Carisbrooke House multi storey council flats, that were built in the 1960s on the north-east of the estate. However, these flats were demolished in 2001 in a controlled explosion, one of many tower blocks in the West Midlands which have been demolished since the 1980s. The low-rise blocks of council flats in Friardale Close, which were built in the 1960s, were demolished in 2004. Over the years, the council has decided to modernise the older houses, which form the nucleus of the estate, rather than to opt for demolition. In the 1980s, a small development of houses and flats was built off Carisbrooke Road, on land adjacent to the Tame Valley Canal.
Joseph Edward Cox Infant and Junior Schools were built on the estate around 1930, to serve 5–11-year olds. The children were initially located in temporary buildings, before a permanent junior school opened in 1934 and an infant school in 1936. The schools have been completely rebuilt since the beginning of the 21st century and the name changed to The Priory Primary School. [1]
The Coronation public house was demolished in the 1990s and a Lidl supermarket now stands on the site. Most of the estate's shops around Carrington Road were demolished between 2010 and 2016 after standing empty since the 1990s.
Bus route 40 connects Friar Park to Wednesbury and West Bromwich and is jointly operated by National Express West Midlands and Diamond Bus.
During the middle of December 2022 the local convenience store Lally's suffered flooding resulting in the shop been closed for almost four months while repairs where carried out.
A tragedy struck the estate on 21 December 1977, when a house in School Road caught fire. The fire took place during a national firefighters strike, and the Auxiliary Fire Service had to deal with the emergency call. The occupant of the house, 31-year-old Mrs Maureen Brazier, managed to escape the fire, but her four children Denise (aged 12), Suzanne (aged 10), Lisa (aged 6) and Tony (aged 4) were trapped inside and burnt to death, despite the efforts to save them by the Auxiliary Fire Service, as well as several neighbours, including one man who attempted to tackle the blaze with a garden hose. Mrs Brazier was later rehoused at another council property nearby, where she lived until her death in September 2013. The house in School Road was demolished in 1978, leaving a gap in the middle of the terrace where it once stood. [2]
Unemployment rates in Friar Park have constantly been above the national average. the residential area was built during the Great Depression, and it had to endure another major economic blow in 1980, when the nearby Patent Shaft steelworks closed. Many other local factories were closed around the same time, as a result of the early 1980s recession. This coincided with a rise in crime and a host of other social problems on the estate during the 1980s.
At the time of the 2001 census, it was reported that unemployment in Friar Park stood at 9.9% – more than double the national average and slightly above the average for Sandwell. It rose again in 2008 and 2009, due to another recession, although, by 2014, unemployment in the area was falling. [3]
Crime rates in the Friar Park area have been very high for many years, with anti-social behaviour, drug abuse, burglary and violent crime being particularly widespread. The Coronation public house was the scene of regular violence and drug dealing, until its closure and demolition around 1990. A Lidl supermarket was later built on the site.
Joyriding was also a major problem in the 1980s and 1990s, but has since fallen, with traffic calming measures on Carrington Road having contributed to a fall in speed-related accidents. [4]
Rap group Credit to the Nation filmed the video for their 1994 hit Sowing the Seeds of Hatred at various locations on the Friar Park estate, as well as on a bridge over the Tame Valley Canal near to the estate. Carisbrooke House multi-storey flats and the maisonettes which stood nearby were seen in the video, several years before they were demolished. [5]
West Bromwich is a market town in the borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is 6+1⁄2 miles northwest of Birmingham. West Bromwich is part of the area known as the Black Country, in terms of geography, culture and dialect. West Bromwich had a population of 77,997 in the 2011 Census.
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Smethwick is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies 4 miles (6 km) west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire and then Worcestershire before being placed into then West Midlands County.
Wednesbury is a market town in Sandwell in the county of West Midlands, England. It is located near the source of the River Tame. Historically part of Staffordshire in the Hundred of Offlow, at the 2011 Census the town had a population of 37,817.
Sandwell is a metropolitan borough of the West Midlands county in England. The borough is named after the Sandwell Priory, and spans a densely populated part of the West Midlands conurbation. According to Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, the borough comprises the six amalgamated towns of Oldbury, Rowley Regis, Smethwick, Tipton, Wednesbury, and West Bromwich, although these places consist of numerous smaller settlements and localities.
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Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council was created in 1974 to administer the newly formed Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands county of England.
The West Midlands region straddles the historic borders between the counties of Warwickshire, Staffordshire in the north, and Worcestershire in the south.
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West Bromwich East is a constituency that is represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Nicola Richards of the Conservative Party, who was first elected at the 2019 United Kingdom general election.
Great Bridge is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell. It is situated in Tipton, near the border of West Bromwich, and it is within the metropolitan county of the West Midlands.
The Priory Estate is a housing estate in Dudley, West Midlands, England, which has largely been developed since 1929.
Tibbington is a residential area of Tipton, a town in the West Midlands of England. It takes its name from the original 11th-century name of Tipton – Tibbingtone.
Tipton Green is the central area of Tipton, a town in the West Midlands of England. It was heavily developed for heavy industry and housing during the 19th century, as Tipton was one of the most significant towns during the Industrial Revolution. Tipton Green is one of three electoral wards covering Tipton for Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council. The population of this Sandwell ward taken at the 2011 census was 12,834. It is represented by three Labour councillors.
The Phoenix Collegiate is a foundation secondary school and sixth form located in the Hateley Heath area of West Bromwich, a town in the West Midlands of England. The school was formed in September 2010 from the merger of Menzies High School and Manor High School, both located in the metropolitan borough of Sandwell. Originally operating from both former school sites, the Phoenix Collegiate has been based entirely at the former Menzies High School site in Clarke's Lane, West Bromwich. This follows the closure of the former Manor High School buildings on the Friar Park estate in Wednesbury due to asbestos.
Hateley Heath is a residential area of West Bromwich, West Midlands.The population of the Sandwell ward taken at the 2011 census was 14,227.
Stone Cross is a residential area of West Bromwich in the metropolitan borough of Sandwell in the West Midlands of England. It is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north of the town centre, and is situated around the A4034 road that links West Bromwich and Walsall. To the southwest is Charlemont and Grove Vale and to the north is Friar Park.
Galton Village is a residential area of Smethwick, West Midlands, England. It takes its name from the iconic nearby Galton Bridge that was named after local business man Samuel Galton whose land the new BCN Main Line canal was built through, the canal runs behind Galton Village as does the Stour Valley section of West Coast Mainline. The Oldbury Road runs through the area which begins next to Smethwick’s Galton Bridge railway station and ends at Spon Lane, next to a small shopping centre.
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