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Netherton, West Midlands |
Netherton is a town in the West Midlands within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. It lies around 1.5 miles (2 km) south of the town of Dudley and 1.5 miles (2 km) north of Cradley Heath. Netherton means 'lower farm' in Old English (the corresponding 'upper farm' may have been the original settlement in present-day Dudley).1
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For most of its history, Netherton was a small village centred around the point where a brook crossed the Baptist End Road, near the boundary of the former hunting park of Pensnett Chase.23 Netherton is shown in Joseph Browne's 1682 map of Staffordshire, although like its larger neighbour Dudley, it lay in a small 'island' of Worcestershire completely surrounded by Staffordshire.4 Netherton is mentioned in legal records dating from 1420 and the first mention of a Netherton nailor, an occupation that became very important locally in later years, is dated 1559.5 The village is called 'Nederton' in the earliest available documents.5 The Lords of Dudley once owned a manor house in Netherton. The property is mentioned in documents dating from the 15th-17th centuries.6 In 1684, King Charles II of England granted a charter to Netherton allowing the village to hold an annual market fair.5 Following the Enclosure Acts of the late 18th century, allowing building in Pensnett Chase, the present town centre took shape further up the hill than its original site.7 Netherton expanded rapidly in the industrial age and the thick seams of coal underlying the region were extensively mined. Blast furnaces were constructed in Netherton for steel making and the area became home to many industries including chain and anchor making, nail making, brick making, enamelling, and the construction of boilers.
In the mid-19th century, the area was notorious for its bad sanitary conditions. In 1852 an inquiry into the sewerage, drainage and supply of water was carried out, reporting to the General Board of Health. Its conclusions were very damning for Netherton. A typical comment was: 'Old Netherton Town, Mr. Thomas Woodall's buildings.- Drainage very horrible, with privies and piggeries as usual, and no pavement. Procure water from a horse-pit nearly half a mile, and it has to be carried up hill, mostly by girls, in little pails of about three gallons, on their heads. This was a bad place for cholera'.8
In 1844, Netherton became an ecclesiastical parish. It was made an Electoral ward of the Municipal Borough of Dudley in 1865, thereafter following the same pattern of local government reorganisations as the town of Dudley itself.
Netherton's parish church, St Andrew's, consecrated in 1830, is situated on Netherton Hill at the highest point in Netherton. It was originally just a chapel-at-ease to St Thomas's of Dudley, only becoming Netherton's parish church in 1844.9 The church is surrounded by the gravestones of many of the former residents of the area. The churchyard also contains the mass unmarked graves of the victims of cholera that struck Dudley in 1831 and 1832.10 Netherton's most notable public building is probably the Victorian era Netherton Arts Centre and Library at the top of Northfield Road. A fire station and a number of police houses were constructed at the same time on an adjacent site. These buildings are being transformed for commercial and community use.11
Another local landmark is a pub on the A459 Dudley-Halesowen Road called the Old Swan. It has been known as Ma Pardoe's since the interwar years, as its long-term landlady was Doris Clare Pardoe (born 1899) who owned it until her death in 1984, when she was 85 years old. It is one of only a handful of pubs in the West Midlands that still brews beer on its own premises.12 As well as for its beer, the pub is also known for its decor including a ceiling decorated with vitreous enamel tiles 13.
Two old landmarks of Netherton can now be viewed only in the Black Country Living Museum. These include Harold Emile Doo's chemist shop14 and Providence Church.15
The first school in Netherton was a Church of England establishment built in 1836 at the corner of Halesowen Road and Church Road.9 The school was rebuilt in 1907 following problems with subsidence and has now been converted into a furniture shop.
The town has a postwar comprehensive school, Hillcrest School and Community College, which was one of the worst secondary schools in the West Midlands during the 1990s but has improved dramatically under the management of new principal Maureen Brennan. She became Dame Maureen Brennan DBE in 2005 for her outstanding efforts which saw Hillcrest School become one of the most successful schools in the borough just five years after an OFSTED report had slammed its weak management and placed it in special measures. In 2002, it was mentioned in parliament for its substantial turn-around. Other schools in Netherton include Netherton CE Primary School on Highbridge Road, Northfield Road Primary School on Northfield Road and Netherbrook Primary School on Chester Road.
Netherton is also home to Saltwells Education Development Centre, the Dudley EDC which was Saltwells Secondary School until 1986.
Saltwells Nature Reserve stands on the Netherton - Brierley Hill border, next to Netherton Reservoir. It takes its name from Saltwells Wood, now just part of the reserve, named for its saline springs where people came to bathe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.7 Doulton's Claypit, a Geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, lies within the reserve.16
Netherton Park is located near the town centre and was laid out in about 1900 on an area that had once been colliery waste. Another old industrial area that has been reclaimed for public recreation is the Bumble Hole Local Nature Reserve.17 This region lies to the east of the town adjacent to the boundary with the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell. The Dudley No. 2 canal runs through the reserve and is the site for an annual narrowboat festival. A canalside visitor centre provides information on the reserve and on the adjacent Warrens Hall Local Nature Reserve, which is in Sandwell. A rare Timber Gallows crane, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, stood in the reserve but is currently (2008) undergoing restoration.
Netherton Cricket Club was founded in 1866. It is situated on Highbridge Road and celebrated its 140th anniversary in 2006.18
Netherton Reservoir stands approximately one mile to the south-west of the town centre, and is a popular resort for speedboat enthusiasts as well as scuba divers. A tragedy occurred at the reservoir when the body of Nigel Attwood, a missing 29-year-old local man, was found in the water one month after he was reporting missing.
The majority of Netherton's shops lie along or just off the A459 Halesowen Road. Most of the shops in the centre of Netherton are fairly small including a bakery and a butchers shop. There are also two convenience stores: a SPAR and a Costcutter. There are two medium-sized supermarkets to the south of the town centre (an Aldi and a Lidl). A post office and a Lloyds TSB bank also lie on the Halesowen Road. The most unusual shop in Netherton is probably one selling Western (ie. cowboy) outfits.19
Netherton's former triangular-shaped marketplace was situated in the fork of the junction of the Halesowen Road and Northfield Road. Old photographs show it to be still in use at the beginning of the 20th century.9 The area is now a small public garden.
There are no proper restaurants in Netherton but there are cafés, fish and chip shops, Chinese take-aways and an Indian take-away.
Netherton Health Centre, a clinic, is situated on the Halesowen Road. The Savoy Centre (named after Netherton's demolished cinema which used to occupy the site), which lies next to the Arts Centre on Northfield Road, provides training, adult education and conference facilities.
Age Concern, a charity that helps elderly people, has a prominent office and drop-in centre in the former pub, The Junction Inn, on the corner of Cradley Road and the Halesowen Road.20 On the Halesowen Road and near to the Age Concern office can be found the Netherton Labour Club & Workers Institute.
Netherton contains a number of churches and chapels. The most prominent, St Andrew's, an Anglican church has been described above. The other Church of England churches in Netherton are St Peter's, Darby End 21 and St John the Evangelist, Dudley Wood.22
Perhaps more characteristic of Netherton are the nonconformist chapels of which there are several.23 In St Andrews Street, near the town centre, can be found the Ebenezer Baptist Church. In St Giles Street, a former Baptist chapel has had its frontage altered and is now named the Champions Church. More evidence for Baptist activity in Netherton can be found on Cinder Bank where the burial ground for the Messiah Baptist church can be found (the church itself has been demolished). The Methodists have a church, The Trinity Methodist Church, on Church Road and another one, the Cole Street Methodist Church at Darby End. A former Methodist chapel, the Noah's Ark on Cradley road is presently (2008) being converted into apartments. On Chapel Street in the Primrose Hill locality one can find the Primrose Hill Congregational Church. The People's Mission have a chapel on Swan Street.
With the exception of the occasional canal boat, transport in Netherton today is exclusively by road. The major road link for the town is the A459 running from Dudley to Halesowen. This route was once a turnpike road, the Netherton toll gate being situated near to the junction with Swan Street.4
Frequent buses link Netherton directly with Dudley, Cradley Heath, Merry Hill, Old Hill, West Bromwich, Bilston and Brierley Hill.
The Dudley No. 2 Canal runs through Netherton, linking the Dudley No. 1 canal at Parkhead Junction with the south entrance of the Netherton Tunnel. When first constructed in 1798 it ran as far as Selly Oak where it connected with the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.
Netherton has had no rail service since the 1960s when the line, sometimes called the Bumble Hole Line, which linked the town with Dudley and Old Hill was taken out of service. The line had stops at Baptist End,24 Windmill End and Darby End. A small branch line from Baptist End led to Withymoor Goods Station, which was near where the Dudley No. 2 canal crosses the Halesowen Road.
There were once many industrial and mineral rail lines running through the Netherton area but these have been long closed. For example, the steel firm Grazebrook's had a line running from their factory on Pear Tree Lane to an interchange on the Great Western Railway mainline near the former Blowers Green railway station to the south of Dudley. A branch of the Earl of Dudley's extensive private railway network, which is usually known as the Pensnett Railway, ran through the Saltwells locality.
To the north of the town centre lies the locality of Baptist End. This area is thought to encompass the site of medieval Netherton.7 The Messiah Baptist Church was built here in 1654 (probably near the junction of Baptist End Road with Swan Street) and it is thought that the locality was so named because of its association with Baptist activities. The church itself was destroyed during riots in 1715 and a new church was built on the nearby Cinder Bank.25
Other localities in Netherton include Darby End which may have been named after the nailmakers from Derbyshire who settled there,26 Windmill End, Primrose Hill, Dudley Wood, Bowling Green and Mushroom Green.
Sited as it was on top of what was later called the South Staffordshire coal field with its numerous coal seams interspersed with layers of iron ore, fire clay and brick clay,27 Netherton was probably always destined to become an area dominated by industry.
Mining in the Netherton area has taken place since at least the 1300s.7 According to the Rent Rolls of Lord Dudley and Ward, the income from coal mining on Knowle Hill (the former name for Netherton Hill) formed a large fraction of the total income of the Dudley Estate in 1701.28 In the 19th century, mining in the Netherton area was particularly extensive. Some of the collieries were: the Baptist End, Dudley Wood, Netherton, Netherton Old, Saltwell and Yew Tree Hill.29 Coal mining was still being carried out in the 1960s when coal was removed from Netherton Hill by the open cast method.7
Nailmaking in Netherton has been recorded since the 16th century.5 Netherton became one of the centres in the Black Country of the hand-made nail trade which reached its peak around 1830.30 As the hand-made nail trade went into decline, mainly due to the availability of cheaper machine-made nails, wages for nailmakers were decreased leading to industrial unrest such as the events known as the 'Blackcountry Nailer's Riots' of 1842,31and the Nailmakers' Strike of 1852.5 Eventually some nail-makers in the area turned to chain-making. A working chainshop is preserved in the Mushroom Green locality of Netherton.
Once located in Netherton, was a firm of chainmakers called N. Hingley & Sons, which was famous for making the anchors for the Titanic ocean liner.32 The works were set up by Noah Hingley in 1852 on the banks of the Dudley No. 2 canal.33 The main anchor for the Titanic weighed fifteen and a half tons and, on completion, was hauled from the factory to the rail head at Dudley Port by 20 shire horses.34 Hingleys also produced anchors for the Lusitania and a number of other ocean liners.33 Hingleys' success in international markets and their use of the Netherton name for their trademarked wrought iron products (eg. Netherton Crown Special Best Best Iron) caused the name of Netherton to be known more widely both in the UK and overseas.33 A sculpture of an anchor stands at the junction of Castleton Street and Halesowen Road commemorating the local anchor and chain industry35 and the anchor motif can be found in a number of places around Netherton (eg. on the metal park benches in Netherton Park). Immediately adjacent to the works of N. Hingley & Sons on the Dudley No. 2 canal was Lloyds Proving House where chain was subjected to a variety of tests to show it was of suitable quality.36
One of the earliest manufacturing firms established in Netherton was Samuel Lewis & Co Ltd which was set up in 1750.5 Other notable firms were: Danks, which made boilers; John Barnsley and Co., specialists in cranes and hoists; and Grazebrook's, which had furnaces for iron-making.9
Although not of the scale of previous times, industrial firms can still be found in Netherton; for example, in the Washington Centre between the Halesowen Road and Cradley Road or in the Blackbrook Business Park, Narrowboat Way.
Netherton was the birthplace of spring-jumping champion Joe Darby, born in 1861. A statue showing the athlete in a crouched position, about to leap, stands on the junction of the Halesowen Road and Church Road.37
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