Smethwick

Related Topics:
Smethwick

Smethwick (pronounced 'Smethick') is a town adjacent to Birmingham and West Bromwich in England.

Local government

Originally the area was an Urban District and from 1894 a Municipal Borough in the county of Staffordshire. In 1907 it became a County Borough, independent of county control, although remaining in Staffordshire for police purposes. In 1966, Smethwick was merged with the boroughs of Oldbury and Rowley Regis to form the new County Borough of Warley. This in turn was merged with West Bromwich in 1974 to form the metropolitan borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands county.

Communications

Smethwick is served by trains on both the "Jewellery Line" and the West Coast Main Line. The Jewellery Line links Birmingham Snow Hill station with Worcester, Stratford-upon-Avon and Leamington Spa. The West Coast Main Line links Birmingham New Street railway station, Coventry and Wolverhampton, with onward connections. The station on the West Coast Main Line is called Smethwick Rolfe Street. The former Smethwick West Station on the old Stour Valley line was replaced by a new facility opened at the same time as the Jewellery Line, serving both routes, which is called Smethwick Galton Bridge.

History

Smethwick has previously been suggested to mean 'smiths' place of work' however a more recent interpretation has suggested the name means "The settlement on the smooth land". Smethwick was recorded in the Domesday book as Smedeuuich. Until the end of the 18th century it was an outlying hamlet of the south Staffordshire village of Harborne.

From the 18th century, three generations of canal were built through Smethwick, carrying coal and goods between the nearby Black Country and Birmingham.

James Brindley built the first in 1769
his design was improved upon by John Smeaton in 1790
Thomas Telford built a more direct, route, in deeper cutings and without locks, in 1829.

Grade I listed Galton Bridge spans the canal and railway. When built in 1829 by Telford, it was the longest single-span bridge in the world. Its name commemorates Samuel Galton, a local landowner and industrialist. It is identical to Telford's bridge at Holt Fleet over the River Severn built in 1828 and opened in 1830.

Matthew Boulton and James Watt opened their Soho Foundry in the North of Smethwick in the late 18th century. In 1802, William Murdoch illuminated the foundry with gas lighting of his own invention. The foundry was later home to weighing scale makers W & T Avery. It should not be confused with the nearby Soho Manufactory, arguably the world's oldest factory, founded earlier by Boulton and of which only faint archaeological traces remain.

The world's oldest working engine, made by Boulton and Watt, the Smethwick Engine originally stood near Bridge Street, Smethwick. It is now at Thinktank, the new science museum in Birmingham.

Other former industry included railway rolling stock manufacture, at the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company factory; screws and other fastenings from Guest Keen and Nettlefolds, engines from Tangye, tubing from Evered's, steel pen nibs from British Pens and various products from Chances Glassworks, including lighthouse lenses and the glazing for the Crystal Palace. The London works, in North Smethwick, has, interestingly, manufactured the metalwork for the Crystal Palace.

The Ruskin Pottery Studio, named in honour of the artist John Ruskin, was in Oldbury Road. Many English churches have stained glass windows made at Hardman Studios in Lightwoods House, or, before that, by the Camm family.

Former Prime Minister John Major's parents married at Holy Trinity Church, Smethwick there while they were on tour with a music hall variety act. Actor Julie Walters and comedian Frank Skinner are both from Smethwick.

In 1966, Smethwick ceased to be a single County Borough and was absorbed into the new County Borough of Warley, geographically although not administratively in Worcestershire.

In the 1960's, a large council estate in the west of Smethwick was built. It was officially known as "Galton Village" but as all of the homes were concrete blocks the estate was known locally as the 'concrete jungle'. The estate quickly became unpopular and was redeveloped in the early 1990s with modern low-rise housing.

Politics

The town has often enjoyed a somewhat turbulent polical history. Smethwick was created as a separate parliamentary constituency in 1918, having previously been part of Handsworth. At that year's general election, Christabel Pankhurst, standing as a Coalition candidate, was defeated by Labour.

Labour held the seat until 1931, from 1926 the MP being Sir Oswald Mosley, future founder of the British Union of Fascists. Mosley resigned the Labour whip in March 1931 but continued to represent the constituency until it was taken by the Conservatives at that year's general election.

Labour won in the UK general election, 1945 on 26 July. However, the victorious MP, Alfred Dobbs, was killed in a car crash the very next day. He is the shortest-serving Member of Parliament in British history, if one discounts a few cases of people being elected posthumously. In the ensuing by-election, Patrick Gordon Walker won for Labour.

In the UK general election, 1964, Gordon Walker, who was Shadow Foreign Secretary, was defeated in controversial circumstances in the constituency by Conservative candidate Peter Griffiths. Smethwick had been a focus of immigration from the Commonwealth in the economic and industrial growth of the years following World War II and Griffiths ran a campaign critical of the government's policy. There were rumours that his supporters had covertly circulated the slogan If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Liberal or Labour. Hardly had the heat of the election subsided when, on February 12, 1965, U.S. black activist Malcolm X visited the region just nine days before his assassination. He fueled further controversy when he told the press:

Malcolm X's visit to Smethwick had been organised by a BBC News journalist with a view to X having a debate with the Peter Griffiths outside Smethwick council house. Griffiths declined at late notice and so an interview with X was conducted on the streets of Smethwick. This was to be X's last TV interview before his assassination nine days later. It was never aired.

Labour candidate, actor Andrew Faulds, defeated Griffiths in the UK general election, 1966 and was MP for the constituency until his retirement in 1997. (The constituency was renamed Warley East in 1974.)

Neighbourhoods

Galton Village
Bearwood
West Smethwick
Cape Hill
Abbey

External links

Sandwell Council
Smethwick Local History Society
Smethwick: Economic history, A History of the County of Staffordshire: Volume XVII: Offlow hundred (part) (1976), pp.107-18

Towns in the West Midlands