Brownhills is a historic market and industrial town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall of the West Midlands, England. The town is located south of Cannock Chase and close to the large Chasewater reservoir, it is 6 miles (9.7 km) northeast of Walsall, a similar distance southwest of Lichfield and 13 miles (20.9 km) miles north-northwest of Birmingham. It is part of the Aldridge-Brownhills parliamentary constituency and neighbours the villages of Pelsall and Walsall Wood. It lies within the boundaries of the historic county of Staffordshire.
Burntwood is a former mining town and civil parish in the Lichfield District of Staffordshire, England. It is approximately 4 miles (6 km) west of Lichfield and north east of Brownhills, with a population of 26,049 and forming part of Lichfield district. The town forms one of the largest urbanised parishes in England. Samuel Johnson opened an academy in nearby Edial in 1736. The town is home to the smallest park in the UK, Prince's Park, which is located next to Christ Church on the junction of Farewell Lane and Church Road. The town expanded in the nineteenth century around the coal mining industry.
Aldridge-Brownhills is a constituency in the West Midlands, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It has been represented since 2015 by Wendy Morton, a Conservative.
Pelsall is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England. Forming part of the borough's border with Staffordshire, Pelsall is located 4 miles north of Walsall, midway between the towns of Bloxwich and Brownhills and 4 miles northwest of Aldridge. The southern edge of Cannock Chase is 6 miles to the north. Pelsall is also 8 miles southwest of Lichfield and 8 miles northeast of Wolverhampton.
The South Staffordshire line is a partially mothballed and active former mainline that connects Burton-upon-Trent to Lichfield in Staffordshire and formerly then to the West Midlands towns of Walsall, Wednesbury, Dudley and Stourbridge. However, Dudley and Stourbridge were already joined to the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway's (OW&WR) line just north of Dudley Station. It in essence, continued to Stourbridge along with Wednesbury and Walsall.
Pelsall railway station is a disused railway station that served the villages of Pelsall and Shelfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England. It was on the South Staffordshire Line between Walsall and Lichfield.
The South Staffordshire Railway (SSR) was authorised in 1847 to build a line from Dudley in the West Midlands of England through Walsall and Lichfield to a junction with the Midland Railway on the way to Burton upon Trent, with authorised share capital of £945,000. It was supported by the newly-formed London and North Western Railway (LNWR) and the Midland Railway, giving each company access to important areas. It completed its main line in 1849. As collieries in the Cannock region rose in importance, it built a second main line from Walsall to Rugeley, as well as numerous short spurs and connections to lines it intersected. Colliery working in the Cannock area expanded enormously, and mineral traffic carryings increased in step.
Rushall is a historic village in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall in the West Midlands county of England. It is centred on the main road between Walsall and Lichfield. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book but has mostly developed since the 1920s. Rushall was historically a part of the county of Staffordshire before it was incorporated with much of the old Aldridge-Brownhills Urban District into the modern-day Walsall district.
Norton Canes is an industrial village, civil parish and ward of Cannock Chase District, in Staffordshire, England.
The Sutton Park line is a freight-only railway line running from Walsall to Castle Bromwich and Water Orton in the West Midlands, England. It is an important and strategic route, as it enables most freight trains to avoid congestion at Birmingham New Street station. It gets its name as it runs through Sutton Park at Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands.
The Midland Railway branches around Walsall were built to give the Midland Railway independent access to Wolverhampton, and to a colliery district at Brownhills. The Midland Railway had a stake in the South Staffordshire Railway giving it access to Walsall, and the Walsall and Wolverhampton Railway (W&WR) was opened in 1872. At first the W&WR was independent and neutral, but it was acquired by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR), and then sold by that company to the Midland Railway.
The current Cannock Extension Canal is a 1.8-mile (2.9 km) canal in England. It runs from Pelsall Junction on the Wyrley and Essington Canal, north to Norton Canes Docks and forms part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations. Historically, it ran to Hednesford, and served a number of collieries, which provided the main traffic. It opened in 1863, and the northern section closed in 1963, as a result of mining subsidence.
Walsall Wood is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the county of the West Midlands, England. It is located middway between the towns of Aldridge and Brownhills. As well as Walsall and Lichfield.
Pelsall Junction is a canal junction at the southern limit of the Cannock Extension Canal where it meets the Wyrley and Essington Canal main line, near Pelsall, West Midlands, England.
Clayhanger is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall in the West Midlands, England. The village is situated between Pelsall, Walsall Wood and Brownhills. The village has only one road running through it from Pelsall/Brownhills to Walsall Wood. The village has no other through roads and is predominantly residential.
Boaz Bloomer JP was a prominent industrialist from Holly Hall in Dudley, Worcestershire, England, who lived between 1801 and 1874. He owned and operated the Pelsall Ironworks, among other ventures, during the 19th Century. He died in Kensington, Middlesex.
The Aldridge to Brownhills Branch was a railway line opened by the Midland Railway in 1876 and completed in 1880, linking Aldridge with Brownhills Watling Street and the Cannock coal fields in Staffordshire as part of the Midland Railway branches around Walsall. The line was also linked to the South Staffordshire Line by a branch between Walsall Wood and Pelsall, Brownhills was also served by a station on the South Staffordshire line.
The Walsall Silver Thread Tapestries is a set of eleven artworks in tapestries, designed by the artist Hunt Emerson in conjunction with the various communities of Walsall, England and hand-stitched by local people there in 2016. They depict the people, places, history and wildlife of the towns and districts that, since 1974, have formed the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall.
The Cannock Chase Railways were mineral lines which served the collieries and many parts of Staffordshire. The branch lines and sidings branched off the local mainlines including the Grand Junction Railway, Chase Line, South Staffordshire Line and Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line. The main junction on the railways was Norton Junction. This junction connected the lines from Walsall and Hednesford to Wolverhampton and Rugeley Trent Valley for the local collieries and the mines in the towns of Brownhills, Burntwood, Chasetown, Penkridge and Cannock.
North Lanes (Lime Lane) is an area of Norton Canes, in the Cannock Chase District of Staffordshire, England. The area is rural, and forms a large part of Norton Canes's greenbelt. It is the location of the former colliery from where a canal basin of the Cannock Extension Canal is located, and sits above multiple mineshafts. The name is historically Lime Lane but appears as North Lanes on modern maps. The area is mostly made up of winding roads, farmland and common land. The Cannock Extension Canal here is a Cannock Extension Canal due to the presence of Floating Water Plantain. As well as its proximity to Little Wyrley, Brownhills West and Norton Canes. There are two lots of service stations as well as a social club and industrial estates.