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'Sedgley' is a town in the West Midlands of England, but historically in Staffordshire. 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 Coseley Urban District Council. 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 were placed in South Staffordshire, while small sections of Coseley became part of Sandwell and Wolverhampton.
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 metres 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.
House prices in Sedgley are slightly below the national average. A three-bedroom semi-detached house on a suburban private estate costs up to £170,000, while a similar house on a council estate can retail for as little as £100,000.
Famous current and former residents
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.
Former Walsall footballer Chris Marsh was born on the Brownswall Estate in 1969.
Snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan has a house in Sedgley on Tipton Road.
Local legends
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.
Another local legend is centred around an elderly man who lives on The Ridgeway in a modern but dilapidated detached house. Local people believe that this man is Elvis Presley. Their beliefs are supported by the fact that this man is of around a similar age to Elvis Presley, he moved to the area around the same time that Elvis "died", and that he owns a fishing lodge in Scotland - something supposedly beyond the reach of a man of his most recent alleged occupation as a "company director".
Notable events
Gornal Wood Garage Owner death
Tragedy struck Gornal Wood village on 10 July 2003 when local garage owner Henry Raybould, 75, was knocked down and killed by a stolen car on the forecourt of his garage in Louise Street. His son Paul was also run over but survived with minor injuries. Wolverhampton man Stuart Ferguson, 24, was found guilty of manslaughter at Stafford Crown Court five months later and sentenced to 10 years in prison, having stolen the Volkswagen Bora which killed Mr Raybould. An unnamed 16-year-old boy from Tipton received a detention and rehabilitation order for his lesser involvement in the crime, as he had been a passenger in the car. Two people who had been in another car stolen from the forecourt received non-custodial offences for car theft.
2002 Earthquake
The 2002 earthquake is commonly known as the 'Dudley earthquake' but the epicentre actually occurred in Brick Kiln Lane, 'Gornal Wood' near Himley Road. It measured at 5.0 on the Richter scale and lasted 20 seconds. Tremors were felt some 200 miles away in North Yorkshire, and damage was done to several buildings, but there were no deaths or serious injuries.
Girls suspended over short skirts
Dormston School in the town centre made the national headlines in March 1999 after 21 female pupils aged from 11 to 16 were suspended and a number of others removed from lessons because their skirts were deemed too short.
Woodsetton man jailed for prostitute murder
Woodsetton man Paul Brumfitt, 44, was sentenced to life imprisonment on 22 July 2000 for the murder of 19-year-old Wolverhampton prostitute Marcella Davies. Brumfitt murdered Ms Davis at his flat in Sedgley Road and dumped her body at a scrapyard several miles away. He was also found guilty of double rape (at knifepoint) against another prostitute. Brumfitt was cleared of raping a third prostitute.
After Brumfitt's trial, it was revealed that he had already been sentenced to life imprisonment at the Old Bailey in 1980 for beating to death a shopkeeper in Essex and strangling a bus driver in Denmark.
Brumfitt's case sparked a review into parole procedures for life sentence prisoners.
Local man found murdered in park
A murder investigation was launched on 15 April 2007 after the body of local man Andrew Owen, 42, was found in Coronation Gardens near the town centre. Two men were later arrested and charged with Mr Owen's murder, having also been suspected of a murder more than 20 miles away in Telford. [1]
Dormston School receives lottery grant
The Dormston School received a National Lottery grant in July 1996 to contribute towards the cost of building a high quality sports and arts centre on its site. Work began in early 1998, with the facilities opening in March 2000 and being officially opened on 1 December that year. Two years later, the Dudley News criticised the project as a "failure" as few people in the local area were making use of it and a number of people did not even know where it was.
Neighbourhoods
Bull Ring
The central area of Sedgley, so named because it was originally the site of bull baiting before the sport was declared illegal in 1835. All signs of the actual ring were destroyed in about 1930 on the construction of a traffic island, but the name "Bull Ring" is still very much alive in Sedgley.
The Bull Ring is now a congested traffic island. It is surrounded by a few significant public houses.
The Court House, built in the early 19th century, was once the town's magistrates' court. These law courts were relocated to a building at the nearby police station until the town's courts were declared redundant in 1988. The Court House is still open, and is part of the Mr Q's pub chain.
The Red Lion is approximately the same age as the Court House, and was once the village prison. It is still connected to the Court House by a (disused) underground passageway.
The Clifton was built in the 1920s as Sedgley's first cinema, and remained open until 1978. It was a bingo hall for about 20 years, before being taken over by JD Wetherspoon in the late 1990s and converted into a public house.
Monty's Wine Bar is located next door to the Clifton, and was originally a Lo-Cost supermarket before the store was closed in 1997.
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 mostly upmarket detached houses in Cotwall End Road and Catholic Lane. 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.
Brownswall Estate
Situated to the north of Cotwall End Valley, this private housing estate was developed by Coseley-based builders Joseph Webb during the 1950s, consisting of semi-detached and detached houses and bungalows with either two or three bedrooms. It is also served by a recreation ground which includes a large football pitch and until recently a children's play area, but the play area was finally dismantled in 2000 after years of vandalism which had already seen most of the equipment destroyed.
The top of the Brownswall Estate near Cotwall End features a row of shops with flats above them. There is a Costcutter convenience store (previously a privately-owned corner shop), a butcher's shop, a hair salon, an accountant's office and Cotwall End Stores (an off-licence).
Former Walsall footballer Chris Marsh was born on the estate in 1970.
Demand for properties on the estate is high, but many people who have moved to the area have had their lives blighted by a number of troublemakers living on the estate. In 2006, a local heroin addict robbed the homes of several neighbours (including a friend who was in hospital at the time) [2] and subsequently received a 16-month prison sentence. Another youth living on the estate was jailed for 18 months in 2003 after being found guilty of breaching an ASBO three times. [3]
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.
The centre of the Northway Estate features a shopping area, medical centre, supermarket and public house. It has been the target of extensive anti-social behaviour in recent years, including drug-taking.
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 'Bricklayer's Arms' - was controversially demolished in 2002 to make way for a McDonald's 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 Street 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 though once picturesque is now in need of upkeep.
Lower Gornal is perhaps most famous within the Black Country as the setting for the traditional tale of ''The Pig on the Wall''. According to local legend, in Victorian times a pig was seen to look over a yard wall to watch a brass band process by.
Gornal Wood
Situated west of Lower Gornal, with a busy village centre providing the local area with a wide range of shops, library etc...
It is within walking distance of 'Himley Hall' stately home; the former resisdance of the 'Earl of Dudley' now country park and golf course. Himley Hall grounds are used as a show ground for local events.
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.
Perhaps the most unusual sight in Gornal Wood is the ''Glynne Arms Public House'' known locally as the ''Crooked House''. The pub subsided into a mine shaft running beneath it, and had to have supporting walls erected. This has left the building listing at quite a severe angle. One trick, performed on request in the pub, is an 'optical illusion' where a ball bearing is seen to roll ''uphill'' along the back of a bench. Until recently the pub employed 'guard geese', though these have sadly now gone.
When leaving the Glynne Arms, on the opposite side of the Himley Road on the corner of Brick Kiln Lane, can be seen the 'Old Toll House', that used to charge travellers for the use of the road west.
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 and named the Beacon Estate. It is now one of the most deprived and crime-ravaged housing estate in the Black Country.
More details and photos of the Beacon can be found at The Ancient Manor of Sedgley website
Local legend - 'Pig on the wall'
One, not entirely apocryphal, episode from Lower Gornal's past occurred when Enoch & Eli (Aynock and Ayli in the local dialect - the two fictional characters to which local jokes are usually attributed) "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 in the Upper Gornal area of the town called the "Pig on the Wall". It was originally called the Bricklayer's Arms and know locally as Hammond's after the long time owners, but took up its new name in 1985. It was however demolished and replaced with a McDonald's restaurant in late 2002.
More details of the 'Pig' and its urban legend at The Ancient Manor of Sedgley website
Primary schools
★ Queen Victoria Primary School - built in 1897, situated in the town centre. Since the reconstruction of Roberts Primary School in 2000 it has been the oldest school building still being used for education.
★ Cotwall End Primary School - built in 1962, situated about half a mile west of the town centre. It provides a one-form entry for pupils of primary school age. It became a two-form entry school in 1971 following the completion of a new infants school building. Cotwall End was originally a separate infant and junior schools, but merged in 1981 to form a single primary school
★ Alder Coppice Primary School - built in 1963, situated about a mile north-west of the town centre on the Northway Estate. The current headteacher is Dr Duncan Jones, who arrived in January 2006 to replace the retiring Mr David Cox, who had been at the school since 1999. His predecessor was Mrs Barbara Carter. The school's previous headteacher, Mr Colin Gould, left in about 1996 for disciplinary reasons. Alder Coppice was put into special measures in December 1999 after OFSTED inspectors criticised the school's weak management of resources and lack of direction, but it came out of special measures 18 months later and is successful again.
★ St Chad's R.C Primary School - is a Roman Catholic primary school built in the 1960s, although, a significant number of non-Catholic children are in attendance. It is situated about a quarter of a mile south of the town centre.
★ Straits Primary School - built in the 1960s to serve the (then) new Straits housing estate. It is situated about two miles south-west of the town centre. The current headmaster is Mr Adrian Slack, who has been at the helm since September 1997. On his arrival, the school had been placed into special measures by OFSTED inspectors who had criticised the school heavily under its previous management. It came out of special measures in 1999 and is now one of the strongest performing primary schools in the whole Dudley Borough.
★ Roberts Primary School - original building opened in 1894 as Roberts Street School, taking its name from the street in which it was located. The old school buildings were replaced by a new, larger, building in 2000 to accommodate growing pupil numbers which followed extensive house building in the surrounding area during the 1990s. It is situated about two miles south of the town centre on the border with Dudley.
★ Redhall Primary School - built in the 1890s, situated about two-and-a-half miles south of the town centre
★ Bramford Primary School - built in the 1950s, situated about a mile and a half east of the town centre
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
Former schools
★ Flax Hall Primary School - closed in 1989
★ Tudor County Primary School - closed in 1986
All Saints' Church
All Saints' Church is a parish church which is situated in the town centre. The first All Saints' Church was built during the 12th century but the current structure was completed in 1805 and has a capacity to seat more than 1,300 people. The organ which was fitted in the church on its completion had originally been in Westminster Abbey.
At the time, it was the only parish church in the large but relatively lightly populated parish of Sedgley, but the parish was later divided into five ecclesiastical districts - Sedgley, Lower Gornal, Upper Gornal, Ettingshall and Coseley. Each of these newly-created parishes had their own church.
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.
★ Sedgley Local History Society website Sedgley Local History Society (SLHS) aims to promote an interest in the history of Sedgley and the surrounding areas through a programme of talks and a developing website.
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