24-451: Old Hill is a village in the metropolitan borough of Sandwell , West Midlands , England , situated around 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Halesowen and 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Dudley . It is part of the West Midlands conurbation . Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire, 1896 has the name as Oldhill and states that it is an ecclesiastical parish formed on 26 August 1876 from
48-493: A Victorian gentleman's residence and Haden Old Hall are set in a municipal park to the south of the town centre. Both are in the ownership of Sandwell Borough Council and are open to the public. The Church of the Holy Trinity and a former butcher's shop at 191 Halesowen Road are grade II listed. The latter's listing in 2005 concludes: The front of the shop and the interior with its complete tilework and fittings together with
72-513: A building on the corner of Lawrence Lane and Clyde Street, built after several other congregations amalgamated. St James Wesleyan Reform Union church is on Highgate Street. Spring Meadow Baptist Church (or Chapel) was established in 1841, thus preceding Holy Trinity Parish Church, and greatly extended in 1864. A number of members and congregation from Spring Meadow left in 1902 to form the Ebenezer Strict Baptist Chapel, and opened
96-724: A new church building on Station Road in 1904. Former The Macefield Mission building in Claremont Street has a datestone of 1904. The Mission had vacated the building prior to February 2022. Metropolitan borough A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district ) is a type of local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 , metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts within metropolitan counties . All of
120-597: Is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status located in the Old Hill area of Cradley Heath , West Midlands , England. Heathfield High School was built in the 1970s when two local schools Cradley Heath Secondary School, in the Lomey Town area of Cradley Heath, and Macefield Secondary School, in Old Hill, merged. The name of the school was coined from the names of the two schools. The new building programme of 2007
144-551: Is built on the site of Trinity Hall. A newspaper report shows the hall to have opened by May 1880. An estimated 1,200 concertgoers attended a performance by the Old Hill Choral Society in January 1890. Besides concerts the hall was used for political rallies and lectures. A series of Gilchrist lectures held in autumn 1894 attracted some eminent speakers. Astronomer Sir Robert Ball presented the first, entitled "An Evening with
168-548: Is the birthplace of cricketer Eric Hollies and his father Billy Hollies , one of the last of the underarm bowlers in League cricket. Comedian/comic actress Josie Lawrence , star of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and EastEnders , who has also topped the bill in London's West End, was also born here. Holy Trinity Parish Church stands at the junction of Lawrence Lane and Halesowen Road (the main street). The Grade II listed church building
192-575: The Dudley Canal passes to the east of the town. Former Trams ran from Old Hill to Blackheath along a single line track with passing place loops owned by Rowley Regis Urban District Council. Perry Park Road with its 100-foot incline and hairpin bend was laid specifically for the tramway to avoid the steeper gradient up Waterfall Lane. The service was operated by Dudley, Stourbridge and District Electric Traction Company and commenced on 19 November 1904. The service continued until 30 June 1927. Old Hill
216-519: The Telescope". Later speakers included geologist Charles Lapworth on "Our Midland Coalfields" and Wesleyan minister-cum-scientist Dr William Dallinger on "Spiders: Their work and their wisdom". Old Hill's commercial centre was by-passed with the construction of a new single-carriageway road (Heathfield Way) which opened on 7 December 1990, relieving the centre of some of its heavy congestion. A rerouted section of Highgate Street, completed in 1988, formed
240-476: The borough of Sandwell in the newly created West Midlands county . Along with neighbouring Cradley Heath , Old Hill was a centre of the chain-making industry from the mid-nineteenth century. Much production was by outworkers who set up chain-shops in buildings at the rear of their homes. The Eliza Tinsley Company's business in Old Hill was in earlier days based on outworkers making nails and chains. In 1876, between 1,800 and 2,000 outworkers were used. However, as
264-483: The civil parish of Rowley Regis in the Kingswinford division of Staffordshire . Old Hill was historically in the urban district and later county borough of Rowley Regis , in the county of Staffordshire . However, local government reorganisation in 1966 saw it become part of the new County Borough of Warley , and transferred into the county of Worcestershire . This arrangement lasted until 1974, when it became part of
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#1732848325472288-468: The company started to set up its own work-shops and move production in-house, numbers reduced. By 1934 there were 72 chain-works and chain-shops in Old Hill; almost a third of the total for Great Britain. Outworking declined after the Second World War and died out in the 1950s. Eliza Tinsley Group disposed of its Reddal Hill Road manufacturing and storage site in 2005. The Trinity Centre shopping parade
312-617: The first phase of the by-pass. Old Hill Cricket Club 's ground is found next to Haden Hill Park . Haden Hill Leisure Centre offers a range of sporting facilities including a gym, swimming pools and squash courts. Old Hill Wanderers F.C. was an association football club active in the 1890s. In 1945 prefabs were built in Cherry Orchard and Spring Meadow to house young families. Although meant to be temporary they were much loved family homes for twenty years or more, until replaced by more modern housing. The Riddins Mound council estate
336-620: The former Zion's Hill Methodist Church Sunday School building. Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church was founded in the 1920s in a disused button factory, utilised until a new church was built in the late 1970s. The new church was blessed by the Most Reverend Maurice Couve de Murville , Seventh Archbishop of Birmingham, on 13 October 1988 and was consecrated by the Right Reverend David McGough, Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham, 1 November 2008. The Methodists meet at
360-616: The latter having a directly elected metropolitan mayor . The term "metropolitan borough" was first used for administrative subdivisions of the County of London between 1900 and 1965. There were 28 of these metropolitan boroughs, which were replaced by a new system of larger London boroughs in 1965, when the County of London was replaced by Greater London . The current metropolitan boroughs originated as metropolitan districts created in 1974 as subdivisions of new metropolitan counties, created to cover
384-557: The metropolitan districts have been granted or regranted royal charters giving them borough status (and in some cases, they also have city status ). Metropolitan boroughs have been effectively unitary authority areas since the abolition of metropolitan county councils by the Local Government Act 1985 . Metropolitan boroughs pool much of their authority in joint boards and other arrangements that cover whole metropolitan counties, such as Local enterprise partnerships and Combined authorities and combined county authorities , with most of
408-525: The outhouses give a surprisingly complete impression of the functioning of a high street butcher's premises in late Victorian Britain. The shop is a rare survival of a late C19 butcher's shop with an elaborately tiled shop, original metalwork and associated outhouses. It is the sort of building which was once more common along British High Streets but is now rare, especially in this intact state.[. . .] Ormiston Forge Academy , (formerly Heathfield Foundation Technology College, and previously Heathfield High School)
432-468: The responsibility of county councils . Many metropolitan districts were boroughs from their establishment on 1 April 1974; others gained borough status later. In 1986 the metropolitan county councils were abolished under the Local Government Act 1985 and most of their functions were devolved to the metropolitan boroughs, making them, to a large extent, unitary authorities in all but name. At
456-666: The same time some of the functions of the abolished metropolitan county councils were taken over by joint bodies such as passenger transport authorities , and joint fire , police and waste disposal authorities. The metropolitan districts are administered by metropolitan district councils. They are the principal local authorities in the six metropolitan counties and are responsible for running most local services, such as schools, social services, waste collection, and roads. The 36 metropolitan boroughs are: Ormiston Forge Academy Ormiston Forge Academy (formerly Heathfield Foundation Technology College and Heathfield High School)
480-627: The six largest urban areas in England outside Greater London. The new districts replaced the previous system of county boroughs , municipal boroughs , and urban and rural districts . Metropolitan districts were originally parts of a two-tier structure of local government, and shared power with metropolitan county councils. They differed from non-metropolitan districts in the division of powers between district and county councils. Metropolitan districts were local education authorities , and were also responsible for social services and libraries . In non-metropolitan counties these services were (and are)
504-451: Was built during the 1970s on Wright's Lane and is the only secondary school in Old Hill and Cradley Heath. A new technology block and a sports hall had been added by 1988. Old Hill has three primary schools: Old Hill is served by Old Hill railway station on the main line from Birmingham, Snow Hill to Stourbridge. Buses run to Halesowen , Dudley , Walsall , West Bromwich , Birmingham and Merry Hill Shopping Centre . A branch of
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#1732848325472528-619: Was built near the Halesowen Road railway overbridge in the 1960s. The estate provided 547 homes, 288 of which were in three 16-storey tower blocks, with the remainder spread across seven three-storey blocks of flats, nine maisonette blocks and four bungalows. However, the estate had fallen into decline by the early 1990s, and in August 1996 one of the tower blocks was demolished in a controlled explosion. The remaining properties have been refurbished and community facilities improved. Haden Hill House ,
552-576: Was completed circa 1875 and is built of snecked rock-faced red sandstone. The church was founded by a group of worshippers who preferred a more Protestant liturgy and evangelical style of worship than the High Church form practiced at St Luke's, Cradley Heath. Almost opposite the parish church on Halesowen Road are the Kingdom Hall of Jehova's Witnesses and the Old Hill Masjid, the latter occupying
576-672: Was completed, with a new hair and beauty salon, seminar rooms, catering rooms and a new sixth form study centre. As of 2011, the school became an academy sponsored by the Ormiston Academies Trust . The school was then renamed Ormiston Forge Academy. Today, the school serves pupils living in the Cradley Heath, Old Hill and Rowley Regis areas of Sandwell . The school has a mountain centre located in Dinas Mawddwy , Gwynedd , North Wales . The building, previously an old school,
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