Cradley Heath
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Cradley Heath is a town in the Black Country, located in Sandwell metropolitan borough, England. The name is usually pronounced "Crayd-ley", not "Crad-ley"; in the Black Country accent it may even sound like "Craig-ley" Heath. Cradley Heath is often confused with neighbouring Cradley in Halesowen, although the two places have long been in separate local authorities.
Cradley Heath is one of several towns in central England still recognisable from their early 20th century appearance. Many of the shops and houses in the town's High Street are still standing after 100 years. Some of these were demolished in the mid-2000s to make way for a long-awaited by-pass, which finally opened in 2007 to relieve the town's severe congestion problem which had been getting worse for decades.
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[edit] History
Cradley Heath was originally an area of heath outside Cradley in the Staffordshire parish of Rowley Regis, in which the residents of Cradley had grazing rights, subject to an annual payment to the lord of the manor. As on other commons in the Black Country, cottages were built encroaching on the heath. These were occupied by nailmakers and other smiths. The anchor on the RMS Titanic was produced by chainmakers in Cradley Heath.
From the introduction of machine-based nail-making around 1830, Cradley Heath developed two prolific industries - chainmaking and nailmaking - which would remain strong for decades afterwards. It was only during the 1980s recession that the iron-working industries based in Cradley Heath began to decline.
The Papers of the Cradley Heath Chainmakers' Trade Union are housed at the University of Birmingham Special Collections.
The Workers Institute which stood in Lower High Street for almost 100 years will be rebuilt at the Black Country Living Museum. It is being demolished to make way for a bypass that was originally proposed in the 1960s.
The town is probably most famous nationally for the Cradley Heath Heathens, a Speedway team, which originally operated as Cradley Heath Cubs. They participated in British speedway until the 1980s, featuring World Champion riders such as Erik Gundersen and Bruce Penhall. The track was situated in Dudley Wood Road which was neither in Cradley or Cradley Heath and was reputed to be the hardest circuit to find in the UK. The site was lost to redevelopment but there are hopes a replacement venue will be found. Tony Mole, former owner of Workington Comets and who resurrected Birmingham Brummies last year, has submitted a planning application to Dudley Borough Council in a bid to return the sport to Cradley. The site he has proposed is a site on Oldnall Road. However, speedway teams, for example Buxton, Stoke, Edinburgh, Eastbourne, Mildenhall, operate some distance from the towns they are named after and the proposed location is not a valid impediment to calling the team Cradley Heath Heathens.
[edit] Cradley Heath today
Cradley Heath town is a traditional shopping centre, offering an alternative to modern malls. It has two markets and numerous privately owned shops and businesses. The Big Market has recently gained a new children's clothes stall. The Big Market has been there for over 100 years.
With the recent construction of a large Tesco Extra store (which opened in October 2007) many of the local businesses and stalls have been forced to close or take serious cutbacks to compete, it is expected that the neighbouring town of Halesowen will suffer similar consequences when ASDA opens a supermarket next to the now halved Cornbow shopping centre, to compete with the Cradley Heath Tesco Extra.
The Black Country Bugle newspaper is based in Cradley Heath. It has two main parks: Haden Hill and Mary McArthur memorial gardens (known locally as Lomie Town park).
The town is served by Cradley Heath railway station. Heathfield Foundation Technology College is the local secondary school, which has served the area since the 1960s.
An enterprise zone was developed in the deindustrialised eastern part of the town, near the border with Rowley Regis. Among the businesses based in this area is Footman James, part of the huge American AON group, that has been based on Waterfall Lane since its formation in 1983.
[edit] Neighbourhoods
- Old Hill
- Timbertree
- Newtown
- Haden Hill
- Lomie Town
