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The Oldbury Branch Railway was a short branch line which ran from Langley Green on the Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster line to the town of Oldbury. It also served the Oldbury Division of the manufacturing company, Albright and Wilson. It was owned and operated by the Great Western Railway.
The Dudley and Oldbury Junction Railway was incorporated on 21 July 1873 for a line from Langley Green, Dudley to Halesowen; there were also to be two branches. The company entered into a working agreement with the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1876, and on 11 August 1881 the name was altered to the Oldbury Railway. [1] The line was opened for goods in 1884, and to passengers the following year; services were operated by the GWR under the working agreement of 1876. The Oldbury Railway was fully absorbed by the GWR following an Act of 31 July 1894. [2]
The line was built in 1885 by the Great Western Railway and was built on a short stub of line near the present day, Halesowen Street. There was also a goods yard on an embankment via a bridge on Seven Stars Road, a short distance north of the station.
The station at Oldbury had a very short lifespan, closing in 1916 as a result of the first world war and never reopened, although the line remained in use for goods traffic to the local factories until 1960s when the section from Albright and Wilson Oldbury Division to the site of Oldbury was severed by the building of the M5 Motorway. This meant the stub north had been closed but the section near Langley Green remained open for freight traffic until 1996 when the entire line was put out of use.
Today, the station site at Oldbury has been redeveloped for both industrial use near the former goods yard and the station site is now a Mecca Bingo hall. The trackbed to Tat Bank Road near the former Albright and Wilson Oldbury Division has been blocked by the M5 Viaduct and the section built on by both housing and road realignments. There is still quite a lot of track still in situ around the former sidings at Albright and Wilson Oldbury Division and the bridge over the Titford Canal. The track has been dismantled and fenced off at the former Oldbury Platforms at Langley Green although still extant.
Tipton is an industrial town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell in the West Midlands County in England. It had a population of 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located northwest of Birmingham and southeast of Wolverhampton. It is also contiguous with nearby towns of Darlaston, Dudley, Wednesbury and Bilston.
Oldbury is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It is the administrative centre of the borough. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 13,606, while the 2017 population of the wider built-up area was estimated at 25,488. Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, which defines Oldbury Town as consisting of the wards of Bristnall, Langley, Oldbury, and Old Warley, gave the population as 50,641 in 2011.
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The Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway was a Welsh railway company formed to connect the upper end of the Rhondda Fawr with Swansea, with the chief objective of transporting coal and other minerals to Swansea docks. It was incorporated in 1882, but at first the connection to Swansea from Briton Ferry was refused.
Galton Village is a residential area of Smethwick, West Midlands, England. It takes its name from the iconic Galton Bridge that was named after local businessman Samuel Galton. The Birmingham Canal Navigations main line to Wolverhampton borders the north of Galton Village, as does the Stour Valley section of the West Coast Mainline. The Oldbury Road A457 runs through the area, which begins next to Smethwick’s Galton Bridge railway station and ends at Spon Lane, at a small shopping centre.
Oldbury was the terminal station on the Great Western Railway's, half mile (0.8 km) long, Oldbury branch running from Langley Green railway station.
The Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway (B&CDR) was a railway company through the Cotswolds in England that built a line between points near Banbury and Cheltenham. Its principal objective, as well as a general rural rail service, was the conveyance of iron ore from the East Midlands to South Wales.
The Halesowen Railway, also known as the Halesowen and Northfield Railway and the Halesowen Joint Railway, was a standard gauge railway in what is now the West Midlands of England. It connected the Great Western Railway's branch from Old Hill to Halesowen with the Midland Railway’s Birmingham to Gloucester line at Longbridge Junction near the present Longbridge station. The term "Halesowen Railway" is sometimes applied to the whole line between Old Hill and Longbridge but, strictly, it applies only to the portion south of Halesowen.
The Golden Valley Railway was a railway company which constructed a branch line from Pontrilas in Herefordshire, England, to Hay on Wye. Pontrilas was on the Great Western Railway main line between Newport and Hereford. The Golden Valley company opened the first part of its line from Pontrilas to Dorstone in 1881. It was constantly beset with shortage of money, but opened an extension to Hay in 1889. Its directors had grand ideas of extending further to Monmouth and forming part of a long-distance trunk route. It issued misleading promotional material which secured significant investment from the public, but exposure of the falsehoods resulted in collapse.
This article details a number of defunct schools that were once located in Sandwell in the West Midlands of England. For details of currently operating schools in Sandwell, please see: List of schools in Sandwell.
The Mitcheldean Road and Forest of Dean Junction Railway was an independent railway company incorporated in 1871, to provide a northerly outlet for iron ore and coal products from the Cinderford and Whimsey area in the Forest of Dean, to the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway line; mineral traffic to industrial centres in South Wales and the Midlands was foreseen.
Between the late 11th century and 1844, the English county of Shropshire possessed a large exclave within the present-day Black Country and surrounding area. This territory was gained from neighbouring Worcestershire, and the exclave's border corresponded with the medieval Manor of Hala. Shropshire (Detached) contained the townships of Halesowen, Oldbury, Warley Salop, Ridgacre, Hunnington, Romsley and Langley. The exceptions were Cradley, Lutley and Warley Wigorn, which were exclaves or enclaves still aligned with the original county. Bounded entirely by Staffordshire and Worcestershire, Hala was part of Brimstree hundred, and totally detached from the rest of Shropshire. Bridgnorth, the nearest town within the main body of Shropshire, is 16.8 miles (27.03 km) away from Halesowen, whilst the county town of Shrewsbury is 34.6 miles (55.62 km) away.
