50-583: Darlaston is an industrial and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall in the West Midlands of England. It is located near Bilston , Walsall , Wednesbury , West Bromwich , Willenhall and Wolverhampton . It was historically part of Staffordshire . Darlaston is situated between Wednesbury and Walsall in the valley of the River Tame in the angle where the three major head-streams of
100-544: A Greater Manchester Combined Authority as an indirectly elected, top tier, strategic authority for Greater Manchester . In 2014 similar indirectly elected combined authorities were established for the metropolitan counties of South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, and two combined authorities were established which each covered a metropolitan county and adjacent non-metropolitan districts: the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority for Merseyside and
150-601: A reform of local government in England and Wales. They were the top tier of a two-tier system of counties and metropolitan boroughs , and were created to govern large urban areas. In 1986 their county councils were abolished, and since then the metropolitan counties have had no local government role. The local government functions were largely taken over by the metropolitan boroughs, with joint boards created to co-ordinate some county-wide services. The metropolitan counties are all ceremonial counties which share their borders. All of
200-454: A council house on the New Moxley housing estate collapsed down a disused mineshaft, its occupant, an elderly man had complained of creaking and groaning in the house to neighbors who alerted the authorities. They in turn instructed him to leave. A few hours later it collapsed down the mine. The adjoining house also had to be demolished. The ancient origins of the town are now very obscure due to
250-603: A decade after they were established, the mostly Labour -controlled metropolitan county councils (MCCs) and the Greater London Council (GLC) had several high-profile clashes with the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher about overspending and high rates . Government policy on the issue was considered throughout 1982, and the Conservative Party put a "promise to scrap the metropolitan county councils", and
300-403: A result of the recession. The town is served by one large secondary school, Grace Academy , which until 2009 was known as Darlaston Comprehensive School. According to the 2021 Census, Darlaston's built-up area population was 21,545 residents. Of the findings, the ethnicity and religious composition of the wards separately were: The religious composition of the built-up area at the 2021 Census
350-602: Is operated by Diamond Bus West Midlands . Service 65 is operated by Walsall Community Transport. Local operator Thandi previously had a large presence in Darlaston up until 2023 when the business closed their commercial bus services. The 7 Mile Walsall Canal runs through the town forming part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations. Since the early 1970s, the town centre has been bypassed by St Lawrence's Way, which runs between The Green and Great Croft Street Island by
400-782: The Borough of Halton unitary authority, and the North East Combined Authority for Tyne and Wear and the unitary authorities of County Durham and Northumberland . In 2017 the West Midlands Combined Authority was established for the West Midlands county. Many of these new combined authorities have elected or are in the process of electing authority-wide regional mayors. Since 1995, the cities of Birmingham, Bristol , Leeds , Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle , Nottingham and Sheffield have assembled together in
450-516: The Great Lakes region of the country, often referred to as the Rust Belt , referring to the declining industry and overall economy of many cities in the region. "The industrial city" as a nickname, though, most frequently refers to South San Francisco , where the term is inscribed on a hillside sign . In Europe, where industries more frequently arose within existing cities, industrialization affected
500-820: The Lieutenancies Act 1997 they remain as ceremonial counties (sometimes called 'geographic counties') which have an appointed Lord Lieutenant . They are also used in certain government statistics, although they no longer appear on Ordnance Survey maps, which show the individual metropolitan boroughs. Some local services are still run on a metropolitan county-wide basis, administered by statutory joint boards and special joint arrangements; these include policing (by joint police authorities ), fire services , public transport (by passenger transport executives ) and waste disposal (in Merseyside and Greater Manchester). These joint boards are made up of councillors appointed by
550-751: The Local Government Act 1985 ; the MCCs and the GLC were abolished at midnight on 31 March 1986. The last elections to the councils were held in May 1981; elections that would have been held in 1985 were abandoned under the Local Government (Interim Provisions) Act 1984 ; the original plan had been for councillors' terms to expire in April 1985, and for councillors to be replaced by nominees from borough councils until 1986. While
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#1732838066114600-638: The North East Combined Authority . The six metropolitan counties and their metropolitan districts are: The idea of creating administrative areas based upon the large conurbations outside London , modelled on the County of London or Greater London , was mooted several times in the 20th century. In 1948, the Local Government Boundary Commission proposed several new counties, including ' South East Lancashire North East Cheshire ' ("Selnec"), and ' South West Lancashire North West Cheshire '. In
650-508: The Thames Gateway ) was also proposed. The metropolitan counties were created by the Local Government Act 1972 . The county councils were first elected in 1973, and were formally established in April 1974. The metropolitan counties were first created with a two-tier structure of local government. Local government functions were divided between the metropolitan district councils as lower tier authorities and metropolitan county councils as
700-470: The 1960s the Local Government Commission for England proposed such an arrangement for Tyneside and draft proposals considered it for Selnec. For the West Midlands conurbation , the commission proposed instead a group of contiguous county boroughs with no overall metropolitan authority. The Redcliffe-Maud Report of 1969 proposed the creation of three large "metropolitan areas" based upon
750-733: The County Archives in Stafford. The Bishop's Transcripts are to be found at Lichfield Record Office. A generous grant from the UK Heritage Lottery Fund enabled the complete redecoration of the church's interior in 2018. Buses which serve Darlaston Town Centre stop at Darlaston Town Bus Interchange. Services run to Lodge Farm , Bentley , Willenhall , The Lunt , Bilston , Wolverhampton , Moxley , Walsall , Pleck , Wednesbury , and West Bromwich . Services 34, 37, 39 and 79 are operated by National Express West Midlands . Service 310
800-479: The GLC, in their manifesto for the 1983 general election . The exact details of the reform caused problems. In October 1983, Thatcher's government published a white paper entitled Streamlining the cities which set out detailed plans for the abolition of the MCCs, together with the abolition of the GLC. The bill was announced in the Queen's Speech and was introduced into Parliament soon afterwards. It became
850-555: The Rose family whose fortune had been made by astute enclosure of common land . Upon the death of Richard Rose in 1870 his estate was valued at over £877. He bequeathed the land to his wife Hannah. His brother was James Rose, shown in the 1871 census as a latch, bolt, and nut maker, employing 39 people, including 19 children. By the time of the 1881 census, James Rose was 55 and his business had expanded to employ 90 people. James Rose died in 1901. In 1894, Darlaston became an urban district , and
900-822: The Town's Asda. No motorway runs through the town, but a section of the M6 between J9 and J10 may be considered to be in Darlaston. Also the A462 from Wednesbury runs through the town on its way to Willenhall, the A454/A463 Black Country Route have a Junction on the Darlaston/Willenhall Border and the A4444 Black Country New Road meets the A41 London - Ellesmere Port Road and A4038 near to Moxley War Memorial and
950-631: The Walsall Canal. The A4038 runs through the Town as the Moxley Road, Pinfold Street and Walsall Road and has a junction with the A462 near to Darlaston Library. The A4038 links the A4444 Black Country New Road and the A41 Black Country New Road and Moxley High Street to Walsall Via Darlaston and Pleck Since 1999, there has been a West Midlands Metro stop at Bradley Lane in the Moxley area of
1000-496: The abolition of the GLC was highly controversial, the abolition of the MCCs was much less so. The Liberal Party leader David Steel had supported abolition of the MCCs in his 1981 conference speech. The government's stated reasons for the abolition of the MCCs were based on efficiency and their overspending. However the fact that all of the county councils were controlled by the Labour Party led to accusations that their abolition
1050-410: The archive record being relatively recent. Any archaeological evidence has been largely destroyed due to intensive coal mining during the 18th and 19th centuries. A possible Saxon castle probably existed at Darlaston, which eventually became a timber castle. No remains exist today. Between the 12th and 15th centuries, the de Darlaston family were the landowners, When the de Darlaston family died out,
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#17328380661141100-522: The boroughs. Since 2000, the metropolitan counties have been used as the areas of joint local transport plans . In 1999, following a successful referendum, the Labour government under Tony Blair legislated to create a strategic authority for London (the Greater London Authority ). Despite some talk of doing so, no bodies were established to replace the MCCs. The Blair government instead pursued
1150-399: The club went out of business in 2013. Industrial town An industrial city or industrial town is a town or city in which the municipal economy, at least historically, is centered around industry, with important factories or other production facilities in the town. It has been part of most countries' industrialization process. Air pollution and toxic waste have contributed to
1200-555: The conurbations surrounding Manchester , Liverpool and Birmingham (Selnec, Merseyside , and West Midlands ), which were to have both metropolitan councils covering the entire areas, and district councils covering parts. Harold Wilson 's government published a white paper broadly accepting these recommendations, and adding South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire as metropolitan areas. The proposals were radically altered when Edward Heath 's Conservative government came to power in 1970. The Conservatives' local government white paper
1250-502: The county borough of Southport , was added to Merseyside in the bill, at the local council's request. Several other proposals for metropolitan counties were made during the bill's passage, including a revival of the proposal for Hampshire (either the southern part or all of it) and central Lancashire . A Thamesside metropolitan county, covering areas of north Kent and south Essex on the Thames Estuary (and now considered part of
1300-478: The end of the nineteenth century the shape and functions of most cities, along with social relations and groving industries, naturally rebuilted Manchester , England, is considered to be the archetype of the industrial city on the basis of Friedrich Engels ' observations. In the Chinese-speaking world , the term "industrial city" refers to cities in which the municipal economy is led by heavy industries or
1350-488: The hall continues to be used for public meetings, concerts of music and other entertainments. Darlaston had its own windmill from as early as 1695, when it appears on a map of that date. The mill continued to be in use until about 1860. The fine looking Grade-II listed St Lawrence's church as we see it today is largely late nineteenth century – the work of A. P. Brevitt – but the site dates back to early medieval times. The church registers date back to 1539 and may be viewed at
1400-450: The heavy industry is a significant impression of the city to people other than its local residents. Metropolitan county Metropolitan counties are a subdivision of England which were originally used for local government . There are six metropolitan counties: Greater Manchester , Merseyside , South Yorkshire , Tyne and Wear , West Midlands and West Yorkshire . The metropolitan counties were created in 1974 as part of
1450-622: The idea of elected regional assemblies , although after an unsuccessful referendum in the most positive region, the North East, this idea now has few proponents. The idea of city regions has been proposed subsequently, although the 2006 local government white paper had no firm proposals for formal recognition of this concept. This changed in 2010 when the Government accepted a proposal from the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities to establish
1500-449: The internal structure of many of them. Potential needs such as raw materials, transportation and labor required for the establishment of industrial zones require consultation of the local and general public. Therefore, special policies are needed. This situation causes industrial zones and industrialists to take on an additional role in terms of policy. Since the industrial revolution, these subsidiaries remain important similarly. With this by
1550-431: The lady of the manor. In the first year, he sold 3,000 sacks of coal and later went into partnership in his own business. Rapid industrial growth in the early decades of the 19th century brought with it problems of housing, poverty, and deprivation. In December 1839, the parish rector reported approximately 1,500 homes in the parish of Darlaston, most of which were in poor condition and owned by working-class people. In 1841
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1600-470: The local board became Darlaston Urban District Council. On 1 April 1966 the district was abolished and merged with the County Borough of Walsall and the County Borough of Wolverhampton . The parish was also abolished on 1 April 1966 and merged with Walsall and Wolverhampton. In 1961 the parish had a population of 21,839. In 1974 it became part of the metropolitan county of the West Midlands . Darlaston
1650-465: The lower life expectancy in some industrial cities. Industrial cities are distinguished from port cities or other transportation hubs , which deal in services. In countries with strong central planning, such as China, India , a city could be created on paper, and then industry found to locate there. In the United States, which had much sparsely populated land, the industry typically preceded
1700-552: The manor was taken over by the Hayes family and was known as Great Croft. Darlaston's location on the South Staffordshire coalfield led to the early development of coal mining and associated industrial activities. At first such activity was relatively small scale requiring only a copyhold permission from the lord of the manor. So, for example, in 1698 Timothy Woodhouse was manager of the coal mines belonging to Mrs. Mary Offley, then
1750-510: The metropolitan boroughs belong to combined authorities , which are statutory bodies introduced in 2011 that allow local authorities to voluntarily pool responsibilities and collaborate. The combined authorities for Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire cover the same areas as the metropolitan counties; the boroughs of Merseyside are part of the Liverpool City Region , and those of Tyne and Wear are part of
1800-528: The metropolitan county councils was as follows: The metropolitan counties are sometimes referred to as "former metropolitan counties", although this description is not entirely correct. The county councils were abolished, but under the Local Government Act 1972, the counties themselves remain in existence, although they no longer exist in ISO 3166-2:GB as extant administrative subdivisions. By virtue of
1850-533: The original parish church, now St Lawrence's Church. Darlaston Town Hall was designed by the Birmingham architect Jethro Anstice Cossins (1830–1917), and it was opened in 1888, built on the site of one of the town's two workhouses. It comprised municipal offices, a public library and a public hall. Between 2006 and 2008 the building was restored by Walsall Borough Council at a cost of about £400,000. The main building now houses local Social Services departments, while
1900-844: The river converge. It is located on the South Staffordshire coalfield and has been an area of intense coal-mining activity. The underlying coal reserves were most likely deposited in the Carboniferous Period . Disused coal mines are found near Queen Street in Moxley, behind Pinfold Street JMI School, near Hewitt Street and Wolverhampton Street, in George Rose Park, and behind the police station in Victoria Park. Mining subsidence , which has taken its toll on many buildings across central England, has also made its mark in Darlaston. In 1999,
1950-603: The town had a population of 6,000. Development was driven by the presence of excellent transport links: the Birmingham Canal Navigations and Grand Junction Railway . Much of the mining land was owned by the Birmingham Coal Company . Artist Thomas F. Worrall was born in the Woods Bank area in 1872, where his father worked as a blacksmith. Notable beneficiaries of nineteenth-century industrialisation were
2000-471: The town had closed and the town is now considered a ghost town , with an increasingly high level of unemployment. In 2011 a total of 15 derelict sites in the town were designated as enterprise zones offering tax breaks and relaxed planning laws to any businesses interested in setting up bases in the selected areas. These enterprise zones are expected to create thousands of jobs and ease the town's long-running unemployment crisis, which has deepened since 2008 as
2050-595: The town. An initial plan was for the Metro to have a stop in Picturdrome Way using the old Darlaston railway line but this was abandoned. The town has a few small open spaces such as the playing fields at Broadwaters Road and three parks: Kings Hill Park, George Rose Park and Victoria Park. The town is represented in football by Darlaston Town (1874) FC who currently compete in the West Midlands (Regional) League . The town's football club used to be Darlaston Town FC , but
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2100-415: The town; the town grew up around a factory, mine, or source of water power. As the industry grew, and it and its employees needed goods and services, the town grew with and often around it, until in some cases the town became a city. It is a capitalistic and typically unplanned expansion. Examples are Scranton, Pennsylvania , and the mill towns of New England . Many American industrial cities are located in
2150-673: The upper tier. The structure differed from the non-metropolitan counties in the allocation of powers between the county and district councils. The metropolitan districts had more powers than non-metropolitan districts , in that they were additionally responsible for education and social services, responsibilities allocated to county councils elsewhere. The metropolitan county councils were intended to be strategic authorities that ran regional services such as main roads, public transport, emergency services, civil protection, waste disposal, and strategic town and country planning . The metropolitan county councils functioned between 1974 and 1986. Just
2200-445: Was administered by Walsall borough and is now in the WS10 postal district which also includes neighbouring Wednesbury . However, since 1999 the council-owned housing stock has been controlled by Darlaston Housing Trust. In 2001 two of the town's four multi-story blocks of flats were demolished, and the remaining two were demolished in 2004. . By the end of the 1980s, most of the industry in
2250-474: Was motivated by party politics: the general secretary of the National and Local Government Officers' Association described it as a "completely cynical manoeuvre". Merseyside in particular put up a struggle against abolition. Most of the functions of the MCCs passed either to the metropolitan borough councils, or to joint boards. Some assets were given to residuary bodies for disposal. The split of functions from
2300-537: Was one of several country houses where in 1651 – after the Battle of Worcester – the future Charles II was sheltered, here by Colonel John Lane. The future king finally escaped disguised as the servant of Jane Lane , the colonel's sister. Bentley Old Hall grounds were redeveloped as a housing estate in the 1950s. The location of the manor house is believed to be congruent with the Asda supermarket car park, slightly south west of
2350-475: Was practicable, and the new white paper proposals generally reduced the metropolitan counties to the continuously built up area. Many areas on the edges were excluded from the metropolitan counties when the bill was passed: Easington , Harrogate , Knaresborough , Ellesmere Port , Neston , New Mills , Whaley Bridge and Glossop ; other areas were excluded during the bill's passage, such as Seaham , Skelmersdale and Holland , Poynton and Wilmslow . One area,
2400-653: Was published in February 1971, naming the metropolitan areas "metropolitan counties", and giving them as "Merseyside, south-east Lancashire and north-east Cheshire, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, and the Tyne and Wear area". The proposed counties were also far smaller than in the original proposals; they were trimmed at each successive stage. The Redcliffe-Maud Report had included Chester in Merseyside and Redditch and Stafford in West Midlands. The Conservative policy favoured retaining historic boundaries as far as
2450-458: Was recorded as: The tables show that Darlaston is an ethically diverse town and has several religions being followed. All Saints' Church, Darlaston (built 1872) was destroyed by enemy air raids in July 1942. A new church opened in 1952, designed by local architect Richard Twentyman . It is Grade 2 listed. Bentley Old Hall stood in the north of Darlaston until the early 20th century. Bentley Hall
2500-676: Was subject to several bombing raids in World War II . A Luftwaffe bombing on 5 June 1941 wrecked several council houses in Lowe Avenue, Rough Hay, and killed 11 people. The bomb had been aimed at Rubery Owen 's factory but missed by some distance. The houses were later rebuilt. Many Victorian terraced houses were demolished during the second half of the 20th century, and the Urban District Council of Darlaston built thousands of houses and flats to replace them with. From 1966 Darlaston
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