Rowley Regis
Coordinates: 52°29′N 2°04′W / 52.48°N 2.06°W
| Rowley Regis | |
 Rowley Regis
Rowley Regis shown within the West Midlands |
|
| OS grid reference | SO9687 |
|---|---|
| Metropolitan borough | Sandwell |
| Metropolitan county | West Midlands |
| Region | West Midlands |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ROWLEY REGIS |
| Postcode district | B65 |
| Dialling code | 0121 |
| Police | West Midlands |
| Fire | West Midlands |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| EU Parliament | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament | Halesowen and Rowley Regis |
| List of places: UK • England • West Midlands | |
Rowley Regis is a town in the Sandwell metropolitan borough of the West Midlands county and a part of the Black Country in the United Kingdom. Being part of the Black Country, locals speak with the traditional dialect, though in a form regarded by many as the quickest and the hardest to understand.
Contents |
[edit] History
The history of Rowley Regis began centuries ago when a small village grew around the parish church of St Giles approximately two miles south-east of Dudley. It began to develop as a town between the two world wars, when thousands of privately owned and local authority houses were built in the surrounding area. During that time, Rowley Regis became a borough and incorporated the neighbouring communities of Blackheath, Old Hill and Cradley Heath. These places were all within the ancient parish of Rowley Regis, which (despite being in the county of Staffordshire) was in the diocese of Worcester. The parish contained the manors of Rowley Regis and Rowley Somery, the latter being part of the barony of Dudley, but the extents of these manors and the relationship between them are not clear.
The village sits on Rowley Hill, which makes up part of the Rowley Hills famed for the quarrying of Rowley Rag Stone.
The present St Giles Church on Church Road is not the first church. It was designed by Holland W. Hobbiss and A. S. Dixon and was built in 1923.[1] The previous church, built in 1904, was burned down in 1913 by Suffragettes campaigning for the vote in extreme ways. Prior to that, the second church, built in 1840, was found to be unsafe and condemned in 1900.
In 1966, Rowley Regis borough merged with the borough of Oldbury and Smethwick county borough to form Warley County Borough and became part of Worcestershire. Eight years later, in 1974, on the formation of the West Midlands Metropolitan county, Warley merged with West Bromwich County Borough to form Sandwell Metropolitan Borough. It is now right in the core of the West Midlands conurbation.
Rowley Regis railway station opened in 1867 in the south of the then village, and remains in use to this day.
The town's grammar school was opened on Hawes Lane in September 1962. The school's well-known former pupils include Pete Williams (original bass player with Dexys Midnight Runners) and actress Josie (born Wendy) Lawrence. In 1974, when grammar and secondary modern schools were replaced with comprehensive schools in Sandwell, the grammar school became Rowley Regis Sixth Form College. The last intake of grammar school pupils having been inducted the previous year. In 2003, it became an annexe of Dudley College but this arrangement last just one year before the buildings fell into disuse. It was demolished three years later and the site was redeveloped as the new Rowley Learning Campus under Sandwell's Building Schools for the Future programme,[2] comprising St Michael's Church of England High School, Westminster Special School and Whiteheath Education Centre, which opened in September 2011.
[edit] Neighbourhoods
- Rowley Village
- Blackheath
- Whiteheath
- Portway
- Ross
- Brickhouse Farm
- Lodgefields
- The Green
[edit] Famous residents
- Josie Lawrence - British actress, was educated at Rowley Regis Grammar School (1970–75).
- Pete Williams - Bass player with Dexys Midnight Runners between 1978 and 1981, was educated at Rowley Regis Grammar School (1971–1976).
- John Haden Badley, centinarian and founder of Bedales School grew up spending time at his families country home "Foxcote" and visiting his uncle and cousins at Haden Hill; Carlton Palmer - Former England and Sheffield Wednesday F.C. footballer (photographed below when he was Stockport County's player-manager in the early 2000s).
George Smith 1805-1874. Hangman
Period in office – 1849-1872. George Smith was born in Rowley Regis in 1805 and was a prisoner himself at Stafford when he entered the “trade” as an assistant to Calcraft. His first job was assisting at the double hanging of James Owen and George Thomas outside Stafford Gaol on the 11th of April 1840. He learnt the job and was able to perform executions himself, principally in the Midlands. Smith’s most famous solo execution was that of the Rugeley poisoner, Dr William Palmer for the murder of John Parsons Cook, before a large crowd at Stafford prison on the 14th of June 1856. Smith was to hang a further 14 men and one woman at Stafford, the last in August 1872. He assisted Calcraft at the first private hanging in England (of Thomas Wells see below) in August 1868. He was renowned for his long white coat and top hat which he wore at public hangings. Smith's son, also George, assisted at 3 executions at Stafford prison. Initially, it is said that he was hired by the Under Sheriff of Staffordshire to save the cost of bringing Calcraft up from London. With the advent of a good rail network, Smith, like Askern and Calcraft, could operate much further a field in later years. George Smith carried out two private executions, the last at Stafford on the 13th of August 1872, when he hanged 34 year old Christopher Edwards for the murder of his wife.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
|
|||||||||||||||||
