West Smethwick Park | |
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Type | Public park |
Location | Smethwick, England |
Coordinates | 52°29′46″N1°59′28″W / 52.4960555°N 1.991063°W |
Created | 7 September 1895 |
Operated by | Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council |
West Smethwick Park is a public park in the St Pauls ward of Smethwick, England. [1] It opened on 7 September 1895.
Smethwick – and thus the park – was traditionally in Staffordshire, but has been administered by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, as part of the West Midlands county, since 1974.
In June 2015, it was announced that a £4.8 million Heritage Lottery Fund grant had been reserved for the park, subject to final approval. It would allow for the restoration of the pavilion, bandstand and memorials. [2]
The park features a memorial, in brick and terracotta, with a bronze bust, to Sir James Timmins Chance, a partner in the nearby glass-making firm, Chance Brothers. Chance purchased the land for the park. Beneath the bust is a plaque reading:
James T. Chance M.A J.P. D.L. For fifty years a partner in the firm of Chance Brothers & Co. at the Glass Works Smethwick and the Alkali Works, Oldbury He purchased the land for the park, laid it out and endowed it and on September 7th 1895 opened it A gift to the public for ever. He also made the roads on its East and West boundaries.
A stone drinking fountain commemorates John Chance, chairman of Chance Brothers, who died in November 1900. [3] There is also a memorial to Flight Sergeants Cox and Preston, who crashed nearby on 31 July 1944, during World War II.
The Black Country is an area of England's Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall Metropolitan Boroughs. The towns Dudley and Tipton are generally considered to be the centre.
Soho Foundry is a factory created in 1775 by Matthew Boulton and James Watt and their sons Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt Jr. at Smethwick, West Midlands, England, for the manufacture of steam engines. Now owned by Avery Weigh-Tronix, it is used for the manufacture of weighing machines.
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.
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. Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council defines the borough as the six amalgamated towns of Oldbury, Rowley Regis, Smethwick, Tipton, Wednesbury and West Bromwich. Rowley Regis includes the towns of Blackheath and Cradley Heath.
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.
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council was created in 1974 to administer the newly formed Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands county of England.
Warley was a short-lived county borough and civil parish in the geographical county of Worcestershire, England, forming part of the West Midlands conurbation. It was formed in 1966 by the combination of the existing county borough of Smethwick with the municipal boroughs of Oldbury and Rowley Regis, by recommendation of the Local Government Commission for England. It was abolished just 8 years later in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, with its area passing to the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell.
Sandwell Valley Country Park is a country park, run by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, in Sandwell Valley, on the River Tame in the middle of the urban conurbation between Birmingham and West Bromwich in West Midlands, England.
Great Barr is now a large and loosely defined area to the north-west of Birmingham, England. The area was historically in Staffordshire, and the parts now in Birmingham were once known as Perry Barr, which is still the name of an adjacent Birmingham district. Other areas known as Great Barr are in the Metropolitan Boroughs of Walsall and Sandwell.
Warley is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. The constituency was established in 1997, and has been represented since that date by John Spellar, a member of the Labour Party.
Bearwood is the southern part of Smethwick, Sandwell, West Midlands, England, and north of the A456 Hagley Road. Bearwood Hill was the original name of the High Street from Smethwick Council House to Windmill Lane. The border at the Shireland Brook where Portland Road (Edgbaston) becomes Shireland Road (Sandwell) is signed "Bearwood".
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.
Chance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands, in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology.
Lightwoods Park is a public park in Bearwood in the West Midlands, England. It lies on the north-west side of Hagley Road, which here forms the boundary between Birmingham and the borough of Sandwell.
Warley Woods is a 100-acre (40 ha) public park in the Warley district of Smethwick, in Sandwell, in the West Midlands of England, originally laid out by Humphry Repton. It has been grade II listed by English Heritage in their Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest since September 1994.
Sandwell Community History and Archives Service (CHAS) is the archive service for the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell in the West Midlands of England. The service is based within Smethwick Library. It collects and preserves original archives and published material relating to the history of Sandwell. It is a local authority archive service, run and funded by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council.
Sir James Timmins Chance, 1st Baronet, was an English industrialist, philanthropist, director of the London and North Western Railway, and an expert in lighthouse optics. He served in public office, including as a Justice of the Peace for Staffordshire and Worcestershire in 1851, Deputy Lieutenant of Staffordshire in 1856 and for Worcestershire in 1859, and High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1868.
Smethwick Council House is a municipal building in Smethwick, West Midlands, England. The building, which is located on High Street and was once the headquarters of Smethwick Borough Council, is now a Grade II listed building.