Brownhills

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message.
This article has been tagged since January 2007.

Map sources for Brownhills at grid reference SK0405

Brownhills is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall in the West Midlands, the United Kingdom. It lies on the ancient Watling Street, but did not exist until the eighteenth century. It quickly grew around the coal mining industry, and became a centre of the canal and railway networks. The town was home to the first fingerpost in the United Kingdom, which now resides at the Earl Of Lichfield's house at Shugborough House.

Towns nearby include Cannock and Aldridge. Brownhills constituted an urban district in Staffordshire from 1894 to 1966 when it was joined with Aldridge to make Aldridge-Brownhills. Under the Local Government Act 1972 it became part of the Walsall Metropolitan Borough in West Midlands.

Some say the most infamous area of Brownhills is the estate of Brownhills West, known as "Da West" by the youngsters of the area, but other infamous areas include "The Avenues", "The Batters" and "The Green Box" - which is a television service connector on the High Street, which was painted bright pink for a short while to try and deter youngsters from gathering there. However, this was all in vain and the action failed; youngsters still gather there on a regular basis. Although Graffiti on the box is now nonexistent, thanks to a CCTV Camera. While the camera has done its job the graffiti have now been moved to less visible sites in the town. While obviously not ideal this is certainly better than it being on such an isolated and distinct item.

In an attempt to revive the area the local council is spending numerous amounts of money in a regeneration programme of the busy high-street. The famous and rather splendid "Minning Man" on a Brownhills road island is a success story of this programme, even appearing on postcards.It is known locally as 'Morris', witterly named after Morris Minor the car. see http://lloydyweb.com/blog/_gfx/060515_brownhillsminer.jpg

However many people, including several local designers, see the mining man as a blot landscape claiming that the man 'is too large for its location' and 'out of proportion'. There have also been worries by some members of the community that the miner almost appears 'communist' in appearance. It was originally supposed to mimick the angel of the north. However while this may be the case the towns one remaining mid rise flat, a relic of the 1960’s, dwarfs the miner. Recently two similar blocks have been demolished along with some low rise accommodation, considerably changing the skyline of Brownhills.

Even with this loss of accommodation the population was over 12,000 in the 2001 census, although the 07 Microsoft Encarta now places this figure between 15 and 20,000

The feeling of many locals is that Brownhills High Street is dilapidated and is in need of some TLC - Tender Loving Care. Perhaps the regeneration programme will be of some use.

This said the High Street does still have a Grocers, Butchers, Florist, Cobblers and two PC construction component and construction shops. Nearly all these shops face competition from the local Tesco, which is large enough to have its own petrol station. Tesco, which is just off the Mining Man roundabout, has owned the store since approximately 1992 when it bought out a rival supermarket. The significance of all this is that nearly all the high street shops are still in business even after a supermarket has been built.

Brownhills has its own junction off the M6 Toll Road.