This article includes a list of general references, but it remains largely unverified because it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(October 2012) |
Woodside | |
---|---|
Location within the West Midlands | |
OS grid reference | SO923883 |
Metropolitan borough | |
Metropolitan county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | DUDLEY |
Postcode district | DY2 |
Post town | BRIERLEY HILL |
Postcode district | DY5 |
Dialling code | 01384 |
Police | West Midlands |
Fire | West Midlands |
Ambulance | West Midlands |
UK Parliament | |
Woodside is a residential area of Dudley in the West Midlands of England.
It was originally a separate manor from Dudley in a once rural area south-west of the town in the direction of Brierley Hill, but development along the main Dudley to Stourbridge towards the end of the 19th century saw it merged into Dudley County Borough. In 1890, the Earl of Dudley gave land for the establishment of Woodside Park and building Woodside Library. The Library was opened in 1896 and closed in 2008. [1]
It grew substantially after World War I, with significant private housing developments taking place along Stourbridge Road, as well as council housing in the 1920s and 1930s to rehouse families from slums. These including 220 "Homes for Heroes" which were built in the mid-1920s when council housing development in Dudley was in its early stages.
Since the mid-1980s, the main roads around Woodside have been plagued with congestion due to its close proximity to the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, and the fact that the centre's road links are very much the same to how they existed at the time of its opening.
The footballer William Ball was born at Woodside in 1886.
Duncan Edwards, who played for Manchester United and England, and died in the Munich air disaster of 1958, was born in a house on Malvern Crescent on 1 October 1936, but grew up two miles away on the Priory Estate.
Woodside was also the location of the Cochrane and Co. Ironworks and Foundry, which was responsible for much of the ironwork used in the construction of The Crystal Palace created for the Great Exhibition of 1851, as well as the production of the early Penfold-design pillar boxes. [2]
Harts Hill railway station, on the South Staffordshire line and the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway, opened in 1852, but closed to passengers in 1916 due to World War I and never reopened. The South Staffordshire line remained open to freight traffic until 1993.
Dudley is a large industrialised market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, 6 miles (9.7 km) south-east of Wolverhampton and 10.5 miles (16.9 km) north-west of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley and in 2011 had a population of 79,379. The Metropolitan Borough, which includes the towns of Stourbridge and Halesowen, had a population of 312,900. Dudley is the capital of the Black Country.
Tipton is an industrial town in the West Midlands in England with a population of around 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) northwest of Birmingham.
Smethwick is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England, historically in Staffordshire. It lies four miles west of Birmingham city centre, and borders West Bromwich and Oldbury to the north and west. Formerly a Staffordshire county borough, Smethwick is situated near the edge of Sandwell metropolitan borough and borders the Birmingham districts of Handsworth, Winson Green, Harborne, Edgbaston and Quinton to the south and east, as well as the Black Country towns of West Bromwich and Oldbury in the north and west.
Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 2011 UK census recorded the town's population as 63,298.
Brierley Hill is a town and electoral ward of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough in the West Midlands of England, and is situated approximately 2.5 miles south of central Dudley and 2 miles north of Stourbridge. Part of the Black Country and in a heavily industrialised area, it has a population of 13,935 at the 2011 census. It is best known for glass and steel manufacturing, although industry has declined considerably since the 1970s. One of the largest factories in the area was the Round Oak Steelworks, which was closed down and redeveloped in the 1980s to become the Merry Hill Shopping Centre. Brierley Hill was originally in Staffordshire.
Sedgley is a town in the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands, England.
Kingswinford is a town of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the English West Midlands, situated 5 miles (8.0 km) west-southwest of central Dudley. In 2011 the area had a population of 25,191, down from 25,808 at the 2001 Census.
Amblecote is an urban village and one of the most affluent areas in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England. It lies immediately north of the historic town of Stourbridge, extending about one and a half miles from it, and is on the southwestern edge of the West Midlands conurbation. Historically, Amblecote was in the parish of Oldswinford, but unlike the rest of the parish it was in Staffordshire, and as such was administered separately.
Coseley is a village in the north of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough, in the English West Midlands. Part of the Black Country, it is situated approximately three miles north of Dudley itself, on the border with Wolverhampton. Though it is a part of Dudley for statistical and administrative purposes, it is divided between the Bilston and Tipton postal districts, and mostly falls within the Wolverhampton South-East parliamentary constituency.
Wombourne is a large village and civil parish located in the district of South Staffordshire, in the county of Staffordshire, 4 miles (6 km) south-west of Wolverhampton and just outside the county and conurbation of the West Midlands.
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.
Wordsley is a suburban area of Stourbridge in the West Midlands, England. It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley and falls into the Stourbridge (DY8) postcode and address area, being just north of the River Stour. Wordsley is part of the Dudley South Parliamentary constituency. It is bordered by open countryside to the west, Kingswinford to the North, Brierley Hill to the East and Stourbridge to the South.
The County Borough of Dudley was a local government district in the English Midlands from 1865 to 1974. Originally a municipal borough, it became a county borough in 1889, centred on the main town centre of Dudley, along with the suburbs of Netherton and Woodside. Although surrounded by Staffordshire, the borough was associated with Worcestershire for non-administrative purposes, forming an exclave of the county until 1966, when it was transferred to Staffordshire after an expansion of the borough boundaries. Following local government reorganization in 1974, Dudley took in the boroughs of Halesowen and Stourbridge to form the present-day Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the newly formed West Midlands county.
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.
Dudley Railway Station was a railway station in Dudley, West Midlands, England, built where the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line and the South Staffordshire Line diverged to Wolverhampton and Walsall and Lichfield respectively.
Brettell Lane railway station was a station on the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line built to serve the communities between Brierley Hill and Stourbridge in England.
Blowers Green railway station was a station on the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line in Dudley, West Midlands, England.
Wednesbury Town railway station was a station on the South Staffordshire Line.
Old Hill is a village in the metropolitan borough of Sandwell in the West Midlands, England, situated around 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Halesowen and 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Dudley.
The Dudley, Stourbridge and District Electric Tramways Company operated an electric tramway service between Dudley and Stourbridge and also other lines in the neighbourhood between 1899 and 1930.