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Sedgley

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Template:GBthumb Sedgley is a town in the West Midlands of England. It was originally a manor composed of a series of villages: Sedgley, Cotwall End, Upper Gornal, Lower Gornal, Gospel End, Gornalwood, Woodsetton, Ettingshall, Coseley and Brierley (not to be confused with Brierley Hill).

In 1897, the villages of Coseley, Ettingshall and Brierley broke away from the Manor of Sedgley to form the Urban District Council of Coseley. At the same time, Sedgley Urban District Council was formed to include the rest of the manor.

Sedgley Urban District Council survived until 1966 when it became part of Dudley County Borough, which at the same time also took in the urban district councils of Coseley and Brierley Hill. Some parts of Sedgley and Coseley became part of Wolverhampton County Borough.

Sedgley really developed from a village into a town after the Second World War when thousands of residential and commercial properties were developed across the area. Most of the houses in Sedgley were built in the 1950s and 1960s.

Many pre-1900 buildings in Sedgley survive to this day. They include Queen Victoria Primary School (1897), All Saints' Church (1805) and the early 19th century Court House which was originally the local court of law but is now a public house.

Sedgley Beacon Hill is 237 m (777 ft) above sea level and is the second-highest point in the West Midlands. It is well-known for fossils. The hill was once the site where beacons were lit to warn local people of invaders. Sedgley Beacon Hill offers outstanding views across The Black Country, Cannock Chase and Birmingham to the east, and to the Wrekin, Clee Hills and Malvern Hills to the west, and on very clear days it is possible to see the hills of North Staffordshire and Derbyshire, as well as the mountains of both North and South Wales.

A £4million lottery grant made up most of the £5.5million spent on building an arts/sports complex at the town's Dormston School. The complex was opened in 2000, housing a theatre, sports hall, gymnasium and art gallery. Dormston School was opened in 1935 and although the main building survives, several more modern buildings have been built to accommodate the ever increasing number of pupils.

Local people and ongoings

Former BBC newsreader Sue Lawley was born in Sedgley in 1947.

Phil Parkes, a former West Ham United and England goalkeeper, was born in Sedgley in 1950.

The legend that Elvis Presley is alive and well is rife in Sedgley, with a local man living on The Ridgeway known as Elvis among local people.

The notorious Toaf graffiti tag originates from Sedgley. It was first scrawled in the town sometime during 2001 and over the next two years spread to numerous other towns and cities across England. It has even been sighted at the French port of Calais! The same gang of graffiti artists were responsible for the tag Boris. Other local graffiti tags include 2RANK, Base and CNF. The identities of the people responsible for these tags are unknown.

It is a local legend that the Red Lion and Court House pubs in Sedgley town centre are connected underground by a passageway. A former barmaid at the Court House insisted that the Red Lion was once a prison and when the Court House was first built in about 1800 the prisoners were led through the passageway after being sent down.

Neighbourhoods

Cotwall End

Situated around the rural Cotwall End Valley. A few pre-1900 buildings still exist, but the face of the area has changed dramatically since the Second World War by the construction of many large private houses as well as two modern housing estates, the Brownswall and Sandyfields. Cotwall End Primary School has served the area since 1962. There is also a nature reserve which was previously owned by Dudley MBC and had free admission, but has since been sold to a private landowner and admission fees now have to be paid.

Northway

Situated north of Cotwall End towards the border with Wolverhampton. The first houses in this area were built just after the Second World War, but the vast majority of the area consists of private houses built during the 1960s and 1970s. Alder Coppice Primary School was opened on the Northway estate in 1963. Adjoining the estate is Sedgley Hall Park.

Upper Gornal

Situated south of Sedgley town centre on the main road towards Dudley. Many older buildings are still standing in the area, though hundreds of private and council houses have been added since 1920. The locally famous Pig on the Wall public house - previously the Bricklayers Arms - was controversially demolished in 2002 to make way for a McDonalds drive-thru restaurant. Tudor County Primary School served Upper Gornal until its closure in 1986. It was used as an adult education centre for several years afterwards but has now been demolished. A cul-de-sac occupied by privately-owned bungalows - Board School Gardens - now occupies the site of the old school.

Lower Gornal

Situated about two miles south of Sedgley town centre, around the Five Ways traffic island. The local area takes in Roberts Primary School, Redhall Primary School and Ellowes Hall Secondary School, the latter of which was built in the 1960s on the site of a former mansion of the same name. It is surrounded by isolated woodland which was once picturesque but parts of it have been ruined by fly tipping, vandalism and arson in recent years.

Gornal Wood

Situated west of Lower Gornal, with a busy village centre providing the local area with a wide range of shops. Is within walking distance of Himley Hall stately home. Another Georgian building in Gornal Wood is Straits House, a former mansion which is now a public house serving the postwar private housing estate that occupies the surrounding land. A primary school was built on the Straits Estate during the 1960s.

Woodsetton

Situated two miles east of Sedgley town centre, on the main road towards Tipton - although it curiously has a Dudley DY1 postcode. The original parish of Woodsetton takes in Dudley Castle, hence a famous local history question: What is the oldest building in Sedgley? Famous buildings in Woodsetton include Holden's Brewery and the Park Inn public house. Since the 1950s, children in Woodsetton have had a primary school in their local community - Bramford Primary School.

Sedgley Beacon

Sedgley Beacon is one of several Beacon hills in England. From Sedgley Beacon, you can see another Beacon hill - Barr Beacon, some 15 miles away. A council housing estate was built at the foot of Sedgley Beacon in the interwar years, it is called the Beacon Estate and is one of the most troubled housing estates in Dudley Borough. Vandalism, anti-social behaviour, fly tipping and neglect are just some of the many problems which have plagued the area for decades.

Housing estates

  • Beacon Estate
  • High Arcal Estate
  • Valley Road Estate
  • Stickley Estate
  • Straits Estate
  • Northway Estate
  • Brownswall Estate

Local legend - 'Pig on the wall'

One, not entirely apocryphal, episode from Lower Gornal's past occurred when they "put the pig on the wall to watch the band go by". Local legend has it, that once, a military band marched through the suburb, and caused such great excitement amongst the residents, that not only did many people flock to see it, but one person even put his pig on the wall to afford the animal a better view! This phrase has long been part of the local idiolect, but its origins still remain obscure. There was even a hotel called the "Pig on the Wall". (Originall called the Brickmaker's Arms and know locally as Hammond's after the long time owners) It was however demolished and replaced with a McDonalds restaurant in late 2002.

More details of the'Pig' and its urban legend at The Ancient Manor of Sedgley website

Sedgley in the headlines

Short skirts banned at Dormston

On 15th March 1999, Dormston Secondary School in Sedgley town centre made national headlines when more than 40 girls at the school were either sent home or withdrawn from lessons as punishment for wearing short skirts.

Gornalwood garage owner death

On 10th July 2003, tragedy struck in Gornalwood village when a 75-year-old man was knocked down and killed by a stolen car on the forecourt of his motor repair centre. Henry Raybould, a widower and father of two sons, died later the same day at the local Russells Hall Hospital after he tried to stop a thief from fleeing the forecourt in a stolen Volkswagen Bora. His son Paul Raybould was also hit by the car but survived minor injuries. The driver who killed Mr Raybould was later sentenced to 10 years in prison for manslaughter. Three other people - one of them a passenger in the car which killed Mr Raybould - were convicted of lesser offences relating to the tragedy but escaped with non-custodial sentences.

Woodsetton man jailed for prostitute murder

On 21st July 2000, a 44-year-old Woodsetton man called Paul Brumfitt was jailed for life after being convicted of murdering 19-year-old Wolverhampton prostitute Marcella Davies, who died in 1999. He killed her at his terraced house in Sedgley Road, Woodsetton, and burnt her body on a scrapyard he rented in Wolverhampton.

After Brumfitt's trial, it was revealed that he had been convicted at the Old Bailey in 1980 of battering to death an Essex shopkeeper and strangling to death a Danish bus driver.

Primary schools

Secondary schools

  • Dormston School - built in the 1935, situated in the town centre
  • High Arcal School - built in 1961, situated about half a mile east of the town centre
  • Ellowes Hall School - built in the 1960s, situated about a mile and a half south-west of the town centre

External links

  • The Ancient Manor of Sedgley Local History website This site has been designed to give Genealogists and local Historians an insight into the Staffordshire village of Sedgley, its parish and the surrounding hamlets and to the life and times of the people who lived there.
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