West Bromwich, Sandwell, England, United Kingdom

:ENG: West Bromwich is a large market town in the borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is 6.4 miles north-west of Birmingham. West Bromwich is part of the area known as the Black Country, in terms of geography, culture, and dialect.

West Bromwich's growth corresponded with that of the Industrial Revolution, owing to the area's natural richness in ironstone and coal, as well as its proximity to canals and railway branches. It led to the town becoming a centre for coal mining, brick making, the iron industry, and metal trades such as nails, springs, and guns. The town's primary economy developed into engineering, manufacturing, and the automotive industry through the early 20th century.

The town is known for its football club, West Bromwich Albion, who have play in the town. It is also home to parts of Sandwell Valley Country Park and Sandwell Valley RSPB nature reserve. The town has enjoyed something of an economic revival with the New Square shopping and entertainment complex adjoining the Queen's Square shopping centre. Hundreds of jobs have been created and the town has attracted retailers including Next, JD Sports, Primark and Bank Fashion, as well as an Odeon cinema, several food and drink outlets, and a Tesco Extra superstore.

Features The town's football club is West Bromwich Albion. The club was founded in 1878 and in 1888 it became one of the 12 founder members of the Football League. It won the league championship in 1920 and has won the FA Cup five times, most recently in 1968, and won the League Cup in 1966. Albion were based in and around the centre of West Bromwich during their formative years, but moved further out of the town in 1900 when they switched to their current ground, The Hawthorns. All traces of the original structures are long gone; the present structures were added to the stadium in 1979, 1994 and most recently 2001. At an altitude of 551 feet, The Hawthorns is the highest football ground (above sea level) in the country.

Engineering and chemicals are important to the town's economy, as it played a crucial part in the Industrial Revolution during the 19th century and still retains many manufacturing jobs to this day, despite a steady nationwide decline in this sector since the 1970s.

Sandwell General Hospital (on the site of the former Hallam Hospital) is located near the town centre. It is currently part of the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the United Kingdom.

William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth had his seat at Sandwell Hall. Legge was unusual as an aristocrat of this period by being a Methodist and attending the Wednesbury Methodist meetings, where fellow Methodists – many of them colliers and drovers – knew him as "Brother Earl".

West Bromwich Town Hall, situated in the centre of the High Street, is a Grade II listed building. It was built between 1874 and 1875 in brick and stone to an Italian Gothic design, and its interior reflects the Victorian interest in Gothic and Medieval architecture. Its Grand Organ, built in 1862, is considered to be of historic importance for its musical and technical qualities.

West Bromwich Manor House, Hall Green Road, was built by the de Marnham family in the late 13th century as the centre of their agricultural estate in West Bromwich only the Great Hall survives of the original complex of living quarters, agricultural barns, sheds and ponds. Successive occupants modernised and extended the Manor House until it was described in 1790 as "a large pile of irregular half-timbered buildings, black and white, and surrounded with numerous out-houses and lofty walls". The Manor House was saved from demolition in the 1950s by West Bromwich Corporation which carried out an extensive and sympathetic restoration of this nationally important building.

The Oak House is an historic building in the Greets Green area. Its exact date of origin is uncertain, but in 1634 it was owned by the Turtons. John Wesley preached there twice in the late 1700s. Reuben Farley gave it to the town as a museum, with the formal opening on 25 July 1898. In 1949 it was protected as a Grade II* Listed Building.

In August 2009, The Public arts centre designed by architect Will Alsop fully opened. By 2013, the venue was attracting nearly 400,000 visitors a year and was bringing leading national and international artists to the town. Originally beset by problems before opening, in May 2013, it was revealed that Sandwell Council were considering borrowing a substantial amount of money to repurpose the £70 million building and lease it to Sandwell College to provide a new sixth form centre to complement the recently opened Central Campus in the town.

A large portion of the town centre was procured by Tesco for the development of a Tesco Extra store and shopping centre called New Square, West Bromwich which has been built on top of the old hospital. In the early 2000s the tenants of homes and businesses have slowly moved out of the site to make way for the development. Cronehills Primary School (staff and pupils) relocated to the newly built Eaton Valley Primary School, which opened in September 2009. The police station relocated to a brand new building the other site of the ring road. Major works started on the site during October 2011 and the development was completed by late spring 2013.

Dartmouth Park, opened in 1878 by William Legge, 5th Earl of Dartmouth, lies to the east of the town. Beyond Dartmouth Park is Sandwell Valley, which contains Sandwell Valley Country Park and Sandwell Valley RSPB nature reserve. The 660 acre country park is located on the River Tame, in the middle of the urban conurbation between Birmingham and West Bromwich. The RSPB nature reserve is adjacent, and attracts over 150 different bird species. There are also two farms on the site that are open to the public: Sandwell Park Farm and Forge Mill Farm.

Religion West Bromwich is a culturally diverse area with many places of worship for several different religions.

At the time of writing (2023), The Church of England provides the most places of worship across the geographically wider West Bromwich Deanery (taking in West Bromwich, Hill Top, Stone Cross, Carter's Green, Holy Trinity, All Saints, St Andrew's, St Francis, Friar Park and others) which contains nine Anglican churches. Other Christian denominations are present, including Roman Catholic, Seventh-day Adventist, Methodist, Baptist, Elim Pentecostal, Assemblies of God and other independent churches. The deanery of West Bromwich is under the Anglican Diocese of Lichfield.

West Bromwich has four mosques. With two on Dartmouth street, one serving the Bangladeshi sunni community and the other, the Pakistani sunni community. The reason for the separate mosques is due to historic differences in opinions between imams of the berelvi community (Pakistani) and other sunni denominations. The largest mosque in West Bromwich is the Madinatul Uloon Al-Islamiyah Madrasa on Moor street which accommodates all Muslim Sunni denominations and follows the Deobandi school of thought. The fourth mosque opened in 2016 and follows the Bangladeshi fultoli teachings.

The Bangladeshi mosque on Dartmouth street (the Jami Masjid and Islamic Centre) is currently fundraising to rebuild a purpose-built mosque to accommodate more worshippers. Currently, they have obtained the land they require for this rebuild but are lacking crucial funding required for the ambitious multi-million pound rebuild. The Jami Masjid and Islamic Centre was the first mosque in the area, of Bangladeshi origin. Madinatul Uloom Al-Islamiyah, located at Moor street is based at an abandoned church and was converted into a functioning mosque in 2001. The mosque also functions as a madrasa, meaning that it offers taught classes and hosts Islamic events including an annual jalsa (Islamic gathering). It currently (and since 2003) offers Islamic evening classes to hundreds of children and has plans in the future to offer higher education to adults who desire to pursue Islamic studies at a higher level. The premises consists of two large prayer halls and an assortment of classrooms. This mosque is regularly attended by mostly people of Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Arab ethnicity (in order of proportions of worshippers from each ethnicity) – but what sets this mosque apart from others in West Bromwich, is that it is used regularly by people of many ethnicities, unlike other mosques in West Bromwich which are primarily used by people of one ethnicity.

There are also a large number of Sikhs in the area. There are many Gurudwaras. Sikhs have settled in the area since 1950, when the first influx of immigrants came. The oldest Gurdwara in West Bromwich is the Gurdwara Guru Har Rai Sahib Ji on High Street. Other Gurdwara's include Guru Nanak Gurdwara on Edward Street and Gurdwara Sachkhand Ishar Darbar on Vicarage Road.

Hindus have had a formal place of worship in West Bromwich since the opening of the Shree Krishna Mandir in 1974, in a converted church once called Ebenezer Congregational Chapel, which had closed in 1971. It was damaged by fire on 8 December 1992, the same date that a Mandir in Birmingham and another in Coventry were damaged in arson attacks. It was believed to have been connected to religious violence in India that was spreading into communities in Britain.

In 1875, being locked out of a packed Evangelist meeting in Birmingham caused John Blackham of Ebenezer Congregational Church to start the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Movement.

Transport:Rail West Bromwich railway station was opened by the Great Western Railway on its route between Birmingham Snow Hill and Wolverhampton Low Level on 14 November 1854. The trackbed of that line is now served by the West Midlands Metro light rail (tram) system with West Bromwich having seven tram stops: The Hawthorns, Kenrick Park, Trinity Way, West Bromwich Central, Lodge Road West Bromwich Town Hall, Dartmouth Street and Dudley Street Guns Village. The nearest main-line railway station is now Sandwell & Dudley railway station, approximately one mile (two kilometres) away in Oldbury town centre. Though services to Stourbridge Junction, Worcester Shrub Hill, Worcester Foregate Street, Birmingham Snow Hill and Birmingham Moor Street call at The Hawthorns railway station. There was previously a railway station on Newton Road, which was located a mile away from the town centre; it was on the Grand Junction Railway that ran from Birmingham New Street to Stafford via Wolverhampton High Level and Walsall. This station closed in 1945 and, although it moved twice between 1863 and 1902, only the line remains in use for the services from Walsall to Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Liverpool Lime Street.

Transport:Road The M5 motorway between the West Midlands and the West Country and its junction with the M6 motorway passes through the town, making West Bromwich at the hub of Britain's motorway network. Improvements were made at the A41 junction by West Bromwich town centre after a £25 million project grant was awarded to the area to cut congestion for commuters. The junction, which is where The Expressway meets All Saints Way (A4031), currently carries over 60,000 vehicles a day and is close to junction 1 of the M5. The project involved the creation of a dual carriageway underpass beneath an improved roundabout; this work began in June 2010 and was completed in autumn 2012.

Carters Green, High Street and the beginning of Birmingham Road formed the original main route through West Bromwich as part of Thomas Telford's London to Holyhead route in the early 19th century. This later formed part of the A41 road which links London with Merseyside, taking in the Midlands, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire on the way. However, the route through central West Bromwich was by-passed in 1973 on the completion of the Expressway, a two-mile (3 km) dual carriageway beginning at Carters Green and finishing at junction 1 of the recently completed M5 motorway on Birmingham Road. The original A41 road through the centre of West Bromwich was downgraded to an unclassified route.

Around this time, West Bromwich Ringway was opened which circulates the main shopping areas. The section of the Ringway, near the new Tesco, has since had traffic restrictions placed on it prohibiting use by private cars.

Further revolution came to the local road network in 1995, with the completion of the Black Country Spine Road which stretches from Carters Green to Bilston via Wednesbury, forming another new section of the A41.

Transport:Bus West Bromwich has a large bus station managed by Transport for West Midlands and served by a large number of routes, both locally to places such as Oldbury, Smethwick and Stone Cross as well as regional bus routes to places such as Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Walsall. Stands are lettered A to Z. The main bus operators serving the bus station are National Express West Midlands and Diamond West Midlands.

Transport:Air The nearest airport, which is approximately 16 miles (26 km) away, is Birmingham Airport, which can be reached by tram to Birmingham New Street and train to Birmingham International.

Education The largest educational provider in the town is the Central Campus of Sandwell College. This is housed in a £77 million building opened in February 2012. The college is capable of enrolling over 5,000 students each year across many curriculum areas. Central Sixth delivers the college's A-Level programme covering some thirty different subject areas. Facilities in the Central Campus include a Boeing 737 fuselage used for training air cabin crew and a dental surgery used to train dental nurses. Central Campus also offers a wide variety of apprenticeships and a small number of Higher Education programmes.

The town is served by five secondary schools: George Salter Academy, Health Futures UTC, the Phoenix Collegiate, Q3 Academy Great Barr and Sandwell Academy. A new secondary school, West Bromwich Collegiate Academy, opened in September 2019.

The town has 21 primary schools in total. Some of which are Lodge Primary School, St. John Bosco RC Primary School, Holy Trinity C of E Primary School, Ryders Green Primary School, All Saints' CofE Primary School, St Mary Magdalene, Hateley Heath and Eaton Valley.

Sandwell Academy serves the whole of West Bromwich (along with the rest of Sandwell), Phoenix Collegiate Academy serves the area around Hateley Heath, Tantany, Charlemont and Grove Vale and Stone Cross, West Midlands. George Salter Academy serves the west of the town near the border with Tipton. Q3 Academy serves the north-eastern part of the town around Great Barr.

The area was also served by Churchfields High School, approximately 1 mile (2 kilometres) north of the town centre. Due to constant closure rumours, less and less pupils began enrolling to attend the school and it was closed in July 2001. The site has since been redeveloped for housing.

Media Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West Midlands and ITV Central. Television signals are received from the Sutton Coldfield TV transmitter. Local radio stations are BBC Radio WM, Heart West Midlands, Capital Midlands, Smooth West Midlands, Hits Radio Birmingham and Greatest Hits Radio Birmingham & The West Midlands. The town is served by the local newspaper, Express & Star (formerly West Bromwich Chronicle).

Sport:Football The town's sport scene is dominated by West Bromwich Albion, a football club who were founded in the town in 1878 by workers from George Salter's Spring Works in West Bromwich. They played at a number of sites near the town centre until they moved to their current home, The Hawthorns on Birmingham Road (on the borders of Smethwick and Handsworth) in 1900.

West Brom were among the 12 founder members of the Football League in 1888 (the first professional football league in the world), along with their two fiercest local rivals, Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Albion have spent the majority of their existence in the top tier of English football.

The club has won nine major trophies; five FA Cups (1888, 1892, 1931, 1954, 1968), one league title (1920), one Football League Cup (1966), and two Charity Shields (1920, 1954). The victory that came in 1968 was their most recent major trophy, when they won the FA Cup with a 1–0 win over Everton at Wembley Stadium. They enjoyed further success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when they finished in the top five league positions three times in four seasons as well as reaching a UEFA Cup quarter-final. They currently play in the Championship, the second tier of English football, having been relegated from the Premier League in May 2021.

Notable former players of West Bromwich Albion include Ronnie Allen (who later had two spells as the club's manager), Bryan Robson (who was also later the club's manager), Laurie Cunningham (the first black player to play for the u-21 England national team, but died in 1989 at age 33), Tony Brown (the club's all-time leading goalscorer) and Jeff Astle (who scored the club's winning goal in the 1968 FA Cup final and remained a cult figure among Albion fans).

Cricket The local cricket team is West Bromwich Dartmouth Cricket Club, and is based in the town. The club was founded in 1834. It is a founder member of the Birmingham and District Cricket League, the oldest cricket league in the world. They play their home games at Sandwell Valley, opposite the Hawthorns.