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.

1 History of the estate
2 North Priory redevelopment plans
3 Crime on the Priory Estate
4 Public transport links
5 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 Council. 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.

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 scehem. They are set to be placed under compulsory purchase 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.

[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.

[edit] Public transport links

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