Priory Estate

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The Priory Estate is a housing estate in Dudley, West Midlands, England. Most of the buildings in the area were built during the 1930s.

Contents 1 History of the estate 2 North Priory redevelopment plans 3 Reaction to the regeneration 4 Crime on the Priory Estate 5 The BNP Era 6 Public transport links 7 References

[edit] History of the estate

The Priory Estate is so named because it is located near the Priory ruins and Priory Park. It stands on land which once straddled the border of Dudley County Borough and Sedgley Urban District. The borders were moved back several hundred yards in 1926 when Dudley Council purchased the land with a view to building council houses. The first house was occupied in 1930 and by the end of the decade more than 2,000 houses had been built on the estate. There were also private houses for owner-occupiers built at the south side of the estate near Priory Park. Three public houses served the estate: the Wren's Nest in Priory Road, the King Arthur on the corner of Birmingham New Road, and the Caves in Wrens Hill Road.

Priory Park was laid out in 1932, incorporating the Priory Ruins as well as Priory Hall (former home of Sir Gilbert Claughton). Priory Hall is currently in use as Dudley Registery Office, and has been based there since the office's relocation from a building in Ednam Road in about 1990.

Most of the people living in the council houses on the Priory Estate were rehoused from town centre slum clearances. They were generally pleased with living in new houses which had running water, electricity, indoor toilets, bathrooms and gardens.

But the Priory Estate quickly ran into problems, with vandalism, litter, graffiti, vehicle crime, burglary and drug dealing becoming widespread, particularly on the north side of the estate around Thornhill Road. The homes of elderly people were targeted most frequently; in 1991, a plank of wood was hurled through the window of a room in which a 90-year-old woman was sleeping.

The most famous former resident of the Priory Estate is Duncan Edwards, who grew up in Elm Road and went on to play 18 times for England as well as winning two Football League championships with Manchester United before he died in 1958 at the age of 21 from injuries sustained in the Munich air disaster.

[edit] North Priory redevelopment plans

On March 2, 2006, a consultation firm employed by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council recommended the demolition of between 40 and 100 per cent of 260 homes on the northern part of the estate. The consultation firm had studied four scenarios. The first had been refurbishment of all the existing properties, many of which were currently in disrepair as well as being unsuitable for elderly and disabled occupants. But this scenario would not alter the estate's "isolated" position, highlighted by just two out of the six road links to the estate being accessible for vehicles. Nor would it make any difference to the narrow roads in the estate, one of which is now one-way. The second option had been 20% redevelopment along Pine Road, which would include refurbishment of the remaining properties but no major alterations to the road layout. The third option had been 40% redevelopment, which would have seen the demolition of all homes in Pine Road and Berry Road, as well as some in Thornhill Road. The fourth and final option was total redevelopment.^[1]

The planned demolition was deemed necessary as most of the houses in this area are in a poor state of repair, there is a low demand for houses in the area, a large number of tenants have asked to be rehoused, and the environment has been plagued by vandalism, arson attacks, litter, graffiti and urban decay. The report also criticised the "isolated" layout of the estate, which is accessible from six points but only two of those points are accessible by motor vehicles. Most of the roads on the estate are relatively narrow (including one which is one-way) compared to roads on other parts of the Priory, which was less of a problem when the area was first developed - as virtually none of the local residents owned a car during the 1930s. The rising level of car ownership in recent years had led to many local residents parking their cars on pavements and even gardens, mainly due to the narrow streets.

The plans for total redevelopment were backed by council officials on December 4, 2006.

More than 30 homes in North Priory have been bought off the council under the right-to-buy scheme. They are set to be placed under compulsory purchase orders while the council tenants (who make up the majority of householders in the area) will be given priority for relocation. The redevelopment of the estate will see a mixture of rented and privately-owned homes being built on the site, as well as the re-opening of the exit onto the Birmingham New Road via Castle Mill Road, which was closed in about 1992 for road safety reasons. Some residents in the condemned area expressed concern that they would not be able to move back once the redevelopment was complete, as the rebuilt neighbourhood would include fewer homes than before and few of the current residents would be able to afford the new private houses.

The new-look North Priory, when completed, will include the following changes:

• Re-routing of Thornhill Road to join up with Forest Road at the southern side.
• Primrose Crescent to be reduced from 180 degrees to 90 degrees, with a public park on the south side and housing on the north side.
• Castle Mill Road to be re-routed at its most eastern point to join onto Pine Road, with defunct vehicle exit onto Birmingham New Road being re-instated.
• Fern Road, Berry Road and Heather Road to be extended to join up with Pine Road.
• Heather Road and Berry Road to gain vehicular link to Priory Road.
• Residential square surrounding public gardens to be developed from current corner of Pine Road and Thornhill Road.
• Re-opening of vehicular link with Birmingham New Road.
• Creation of a signalled crossroads on Birmingham New Road which will also incorporate Woodcroft Avenue on the nearby Foxyards Estate.
• Commercial units and flats to be built on site of current homes on Priory Road.

The increasing number of vacant households around North Priory has resulted in an escalation of the area's already serious problem with criminal damage. A Renault Clio parked on the driveway of an empty property on Priory Road was set alight in early October 2007. There has also been extensive vandalism to derelict properties.

By February 2008, more than half of the homes on the estate had been vacated. Bromford Housing Group will be responsible for the development of the new housing, with demolition of the old properties expected to start in March 2009 and 329 homes to be completed by the end of 2012.[1]

[edit] Reaction to the regeneration

The regeneration of North Priory has sparked a mixed reaction among residents.

Local resident and community worker Martin Blatchford, of Berry Road, who has lived on the estate for his whole life, was upset at the redevelopment plans because he feared that a close-knit community could be torn apart. But at the same time, he insisted that the area needed improvement and local residents needed to have access to better facilities. Mr Blatchford and his wife Lorraine had lost their 18-year-old daughter Sarah just weeks before the demolition plans were announced; she had died from cystic fibrosis, which had left her wheelchair-bound towards the end of her life, and the local council had failed to adapt the house for Sarah's needs. Mr Blatchford, a local youth community worker, spoke on behalf of many local residents, including those who complained that the nearby children's playground had been dismantled and never replaced.

Homeowner Ernie Claridge, also of Berry Road, has also lived on the estate for his whole life. His mother and brother both lived nearby, and his late grandparents were amongst the first tenants on the estate when it was built some 70 years earlier. His father Ernie Claridge senior, who lived in Thornhill Road, died in March 1998 having spent years campaigning for improvements on the estate. Mr Claridge was angry that the area had deteriorated to such an extent that demolition was now an option, and suggested that the council could still improve the estate without knocking it down. He also spoke of his fears that he would have to move further afield and not be able to live close to his relatives. Mr Claridge's mother and brother have both since moved out of their homes.

Bill and Pat Millard, who had lived in Thornhill Road since the 1970s, said that they had enjoyed many good times living on the estate, but in recent years they had been embarrassed to tell people that they lived there. Mr Millard is on dialysis and unable to maintain his garden, as well as having difficulty getting up the stairs. They spoke of their hope that plans for a rebuilt North Priory would include bungalows, but these are not included. Mr and Mrs Millard have since been rehoused.

A young couple living in Pine Road with their two children were in favour of demolitions plans, as several recent faults with the house had caused them to see it as a "death trap" for their children. They were also unhappy at the prospect of their children growing up in an area that was plagued by urban decay and crime, and have since been rehoused.

A 21-year-old female tenant also living on Pine Road said that her house was in a dangerous condition and she feared for the safety of her two-year-old daughter. But she was against the idea of knocking down the estate, as her father was living nearby, and wanted the council to renovate her house. She has yet to be rehoused.

Mother-of-two Melanie Millward, of Primrose Crescent, later criticised the local council for not offering tenants the chance to move to homes elsewhere on the Priory Estate, stating that no less than ten had been available when rehousing began in March 2007. She and other tenants waiting to be rehoused had been given a list of properties in other areas that they could move into - including Kates Hill, Coseley and even Pensnett, all of which were between one and four miles away.

Speculation is rife that North Priory is not the only part of the estate earmarked for demolition. Residents living around Mayfield Road and Linwood Road have spoken of their fear that the council will redevelop their area once North Priory has been rebuilt. There have also been rumours that the area around Forest Road will also be redeveloped, as no homes in this area have been offered to people from North Priory, and the local council does not make "home loss payments" to the same resident twice. Dudley council has so far denied that there any further plans for redevelopment anywhere on the Priory Estate.[2]

[edit] Crime on the Priory Estate

In October 2003, arsonists set fire to a pigeon loft in the garden of a house in Linwood Road and killed nine pigeons.^[2] On another part of the estate, anti-social behaviour was creating so much trouble that one family gave an interview to the Express and Star regional newspaper openly criticising the local council for failing to respond to their demands for a transfer.^[3]

In March 2004, Dudley Registry Office (located in Priory Park) was set alight by arsonists. It took 100 firefighters a whole night to defeat the blaze.^[4]

Also in March 2004, a 90-year-old widow on the Estate criticised a judge for failing to hand out a prison sentence to the heroin addict and career criminal who broke into her house and stole £80 from her purse.^[5]

In April 2006, an arson attack caused severe damage to the Duncan Edwards public house in Priory Road. The pub had been refurbished just five years earlier and renamed in honour of Duncan Edwards, but had been closed a short time earlier in spite of its popularity in the local community.^[6] The building has since been demolished and plans have already been unveiled for the site to be developed for housing and retail, but construction work has yet to start.

[edit] The BNP Era

On 1 May 2003, the British National Party gained a councillor in Castle and Priory (which includes the Priory Estate) in the council elections. The area had previously been controlled by three Labour Party councillors, and the successful BNP councillor representing Castle and Priory was Simon Darby.

Mr Darby had gained 26.2% of the vote in Castle and Priory a year earlier, and in 2003 he gained a huge 45% of the vote. It was surprising that a BNP councillor had gained a seat in Castle and Priory, especially as the area is 97% white and the BNP are often popular among white people living in areas with high numbers of ethnic residents.

In 2003, Castle and Priory was the most deprived ward in the whole Dudley borough, and among the 7% most deprived wards in England. A number of asylum seekers had been housed on the Priory Estate, much to the dismay of many white British neighbours. Many of the local people were in favour of the BNP's desire to ban immigration to Britain to all foreigners barring white South Africans and Zimbabweans.

At the time, just 23 patriations of asylum seekers were living on and around the Priory Estate, but they were already attracting resentment from British neighbours because Dudley MBC had been providing furnishings, televisions and refrigerators for free to all asylum seekers living in the borough, and this was making them appear wealthier than British people.

Many local people also saw the BNP as the answer to the Priory Estate's many problems that were nothing to do with asylum seekers nor any other ethnic minorities. House repairs weren't being carried out efficiently, the local youth centre was rarely open and the estate office had closed - leaving many people (mostly pensioners) without cars to walk a long distance to pay their rent. There was also anger that the European Union had spent millions of pounds on upgrading the neighbouring Wren's Nest Estate (which traditionally had an even worse reputation than the Priory).

However, Simon Darby wasn't popular with voters once they had elected him. He lost his council seat the following year, and once again Castle and Priory is a Labour stronghold.^[7]

[edit] Public transport links

• Wolverhampton city centre (National Express West Midlands 126, 525, 544, 581)
• Birmingham city centre (National Express West Midlands 126)
• Dudley town centre (National Express West Midlands 125, 126, 206, 207, 283, 525, 544, 581)
• Coseley town centre (National Express West Midlands 125, 126, 525, 544, 581)
• Merry Hill Shopping Centre (National Express West Midlands 283)
• Wren's Nest estate (National Express West Midlands 206, 207, 544, 581)
• Netherton town centre (National Express West Midlands 283)
• Lodge Farm estate (National Express West Midlands 283)
• Bilston town centre (National Express West Midlands 525)
• Wednesfield town centre (National Express West Midlands 525)
• Willenhall town centre (National Express West Midlands 525)

[edit] References