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Stourbridge

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Stourbridge
PopulationExpression error: "54,661 (1991 Census)" must be numeric
OS grid referenceSO899844
Metropolitan borough
Metropolitan county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townSTOURBRIDGE
Postcode districtDY7, DY8, DY9
Dialling code01384, 01562
PoliceWest Midlands
FireWest Midlands
AmbulanceWest Midlands
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
West Midlands

Stourbridge is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England.

Historically part of Worcestershire, Stourbridge was a centre of glass making, and today includes the suburbs of Amblecote, Lye, Norton, Oldswinford, Pedmore, Wollaston and Wollescote.

The population, as recorded in the United Kingdom Census 1991, was 54,661. Much of the population is now made up of commuters to the City of Birmingham and the Black Country. Stourbridge is included in the Stourbridge constituency and is currently held by the Labour party through Lynda Waltho.

The apse and north chancel screen at St Thomas's Church were added by W. H. William Bidlake.[1]

Geography and administration

Stourbridge is a part of the West Midlands metropolitan county and conurbation, in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. Stourbridge is located to the south-west of Birmingham at the very edge of the industrial midlands, roughly between Kidderminster and Dudley.

Much of the town is made up of suburban streets, broken by green spaces. Stourbridge borders on green belt land, and is often surprisingly close to unspoiled countryside - for example Stourbridge is closer to Shropshire than it is to Birmingham City centre. Good examples are Clent Hills, Kinver Edge and large areas of farmland to the south and west. It has been said that you could go west from Stourbridge and not encounter another built-up area until past the border with Wales, or even further.

The town and surrounding area is at the south western extremity of the Black Country and the majority of the working-class population retain the region's accent and dialect, although there is a larger middle-class population than nearby towns such as Dudley or Halesowen.

Civic history

For centuries, Stourbridge was in the ancient parish of Oldswinford, Worcestershire and was known as Bedcote. Since 1974 it has been part of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley.

Stourbridge takes its name from the River Stour, which flows through the town and for centuries formed the border between Worcestershire and Staffordshire. But the border was moved a couple of miles north in 1966, when Amblecote Urban District (previously in Staffordshire) was incorporated into the Borough of Stourbridge. This arrangement lasted eight years until the ascent of the Local Government Act 1972 in 1974, when Stourbridge was amalgamated into the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley and became part of the wider West Midlands county.

There have been numerous[citation needed] campaigns to re-instate Stourbridge into the ceremonial county of Worcestershire (or the previous Hereford and Worcester) since 1974.[citation needed]

Stourbridge Glass

The town gives its name to local glass production, which has been manufactured since the early 1600s. However most of the glass industry was actually located in surrounding areas including Wordsley, Amblecote and Oldswinford. The rich natural resources of coal and fireclay for lining furnaces made it the perfect location for the industry. It was probably the presence of fireclay that attracted glassmakers to the area. The canals also facilitated the importing of large amounts of fine sand from Ireland. Stourbridge glass is recognised as amongst the finest in the world. The glass has been used countless times as gifts for royalty and visiting dignitaries. However, the glass industry in the area has been all but destroyed by the effects of globalisation, with the factories moving abroad where cheaper workers are available.

What is thought to be the only complete remaining Glass Cone of its kind, the Red House Glass Cone stands on the Stourbridge Canal at Wordsley. It is the site of the Red House Glass Museum and there are regular demonstrations of "blowing" glass in the traditional way.

Transport

Stourbridge lies on the River Stour and is linked to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and the Dudley No 1 Canal by the Stourbridge Canal. This places the town on the Stourport Ring, a popular route with holidaymakers which is navigable by narrowboat.

Stourbridge Junction, the town's main railway station, is on the former Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line. Just past the station is the spectacular Stambermill Viaduct over the River Stour and the A491 road. However, the railway no longer carries passengers on the Dudley line, as it closed in 1962, and is now used solely as a freight line. Instead, the line now runs to Birmingham via the stations of the Black Country.

The town is served by an unusually short railway branch line (The shortest in Europe), the Stourbridge Town Branch Line, with a shuttle service from nearby Stourbridge Junction (the town's main station) on the Birmingham - Kidderminster line to Stourbridge Town station in the town centre. The line formerly continued to an interchange basin with the Stourbridge Canal. The old Stourbridge Town station, when demolished, was recovered and materials used for buildings at Birmingham Railway Museum. Until recently, on Sundays, as part of a pilot scheme, a gas-powered Parry People Mover operates on the line. This has ceased but may restart when the UK rail franchise for the local train operating company Central Trains expires and is rebid.

The famous Stourbridge Lion locomotive, was built in Stourbridge at the foundry of Foster, Rastrick and Co in 1828. It arrived in New York on May 13, 1829 and became the first steam locomotive to run on a commercial line in the United States. The locomotive is quite famous in the USA, but surprisingly few people in Stourbridge have ever heard of it. A clock has recently been unveiled in the town to celebrate the engine. It is currently on display at the B&O Railroad Museum Baltimore MD, on loan from the Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC.

The town is served by National Route 54 of the National Cycle Network.

Education

Stourbridge is home to two colleges - the prestigious King Edward VI College founded in 1552 and Stourbridge College of Further Education. In addition there is a 6th form centre at Old Swinford Hospital founded in 1667.

Stourbridge boasts a number of secondary schools including Redhill School, Old Swinford Hospital School, Pedmore Technology College (previously known as The Grange School)and Ridgewood School as well as Elmfield Rudolf Steiner School (includes: kindergarten, plus classes 1 to 11)

Sport

Stourbridge Football Club and Stourbridge Cricket Club both share the War Memorial Athletic Ground in Amblecote, and Stourbridge Rugby Club play at Stourton Park in nearby Stourton.

Music

During the 1980s and the early 1990s, four Stourbridge bands, Diamond Head; The Wonder Stuff; Pop Will Eat Itself and Ned's Atomic Dustbin, all enjoyed chart success. Robert Plant performed in the town many times before becoming the front man of Led Zeppelin.

In recent years it seemed that much of the talent had dried up until 2006 when singer-songwriter Andy Richards was signed by London-based record label Daddy Fresh Music. His debut release Rhymes of Reason shot to number one in the labels download chart and held the position for thirty-five consecutive weeks. Then in March 2007 rock band Midas went to number three in the UK Indie Chart and fifty-ninth in the overall UK Singles Chart with their release Don't Dance. This has coincided with a general rise of local talent in Stourbridge once again, with bands such as The Fight and Minimum excelling once more.

Stourbridge has a thriving underground DJ community and a number of successful bands and individual musicians that play to audiences in and around the Black Country, Birmingham, and internationally such as Ian Parker, Clint Mansell, Adam Mole, Tim Parks, John Cook, DJ Aries, Flat Stanely, Dead Soon, DJ Gold, Deep Sonix, Brothers Bud, DJ Daze, DJ Andy B, DJ Benny, Robin Blunt, The Force, Front Line[citation needed].

Newspapers

From the 1860s until the late 1960s the area was covered by the County Express newspaper (archives are on microfilm in Stourbridge Library). Today Stourbridge is covered by the Stourbridge News, the Express & Star and to a lesser extent the Stourbridge Chronicle.

Radio

The Stourbridge area is served by commercial and BBC radio stations broadcasting from Wolverhampton, Birmingham as well as from within Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Shropshire.

Stourbridge FM was established in early 2001 to campaign for a commercial radio station broadcasting to and from the Stourbridge area. Stourbridge FM carried out three experimental broadcasts from the end of 2001 until early 2003. By February 2004, Stourbridge FM had disbanded and the remaining volunteers established a new steering group known as the Stourbridge Radio Group to apply for a non-profit making community radio licence for the area.

The group won a community radio licence on 11th October 2005, to be called The 'Bridge. The station has since encountered numerous obstacles in getting on-air but is expected to launch prior to October 2007.

Literary References

Stourbridge appears in two great works of poetry from the 20th Century: Finnegans Wake by James Joyce and The Cantos of Ezra Pound.

"Of course our low hero was a self valeter by choice of need so up he got up whatever is meant by a stourbridge clay kitchenette and lithargogalenu fowlhouse for the sake of akes (the umpple does not fall very far from the dumpertree)" - James Joyce Finnegans Wake, part 1, Episode 6. Page 184

"and i went in a post chaise Woburn Farm, Stowe, Stratford, Stourbridge, Woodstock, High Wycombe and back to Grosvenor Sq" - Ezra Pound, Canto LXVI, line 30, Page 380.

Joyce's interest in Stourbridge is self evident from the passage quoted above and Stourbridge found its way into Pound's Cantos via John Adams the second President of the United States, who's diary entry from 1786 Pound translated into his own epic poem.

Reserve Forces

Landmarks

Notable people

References

  1. ^ The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, Nikolaus Pevsner, 1968 p268

Template:Settlements on the River Stour

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