56-551: The Mercian Trail is the name given to a group of museums and historical sites in the West Midlands of England that will be used to display objects from the Staffordshire Hoard . The trail is organised by a partnership of Lichfield District , Tamworth Borough Council, Staffordshire County Council , Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Birmingham City Council , and features the following locations: Most of
112-686: A 100-foot deep crater, and is the UK's largest explosion, being caused by around 4,000 tonnes of high explosive , and may be the world's largest non-nuclear explosion . Birmingham was the third most bombed city in the UK after London and Liverpool ; Spitfires were built in Castle Bromwich, Lancasters at Austin's works in Longbridge at Cofton Hackett , and the Birmingham Small Arms Company at Small Heath produced
168-722: A minority of those in power espousing racial equality ; European media and leaders lamented loss of Empire , advocated ultranationalism and prized military physical advantage; Galton saw human eugenics as part of all means to do better . Much of the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom began in Birmingham and the Black Country area of West Midlands. The Industrial Revolution is thought to have begun when Abraham Darby substituted coke in
224-558: A site at Cooper's Bank , south of Gornalwood . Ditherington Flax Mill in Shrewsbury was the first iron-framed building in the world in 1797. Thomas Bolton & Sons of Froghall , Staffordshire, made the world's first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1857, having supplied a submarine cable across the English Channel in 1850. On 10 July 1890, a trunk circuit telephone line was opened between London and Birmingham by
280-461: A unitary authority in 2009) were Bromsgrove, South Staffordshire, Warwick, Wychavon, and Lichfield. At county level, the least deprived areas, in descending order, were Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Solihull, Staffordshire, and Shropshire. In March 2011 the region had the second highest overall unemployment claimant count in England at 4.7%, second to North East England . The highest in the region
336-612: A whole as measured by the 2011 census was as follows: For top-tier authorities in the West Midlands, Stoke-on-Trent has the highest teenage pregnancy rate. For council districts, Nuneaton and Bedworth in Warwickshire has the highest rate closely followed by Tamworth . For top-tier authorities, Shropshire has the lowest rate, and for council districts Malvern Hills has the lowest rate. The region, from studies of multiple deprivation, shows similarities with Yorkshire and
392-466: Is Warwickshire (its population is between 550,000 and 600,000 people). The other counties and metropolitan boroughs have none, their public education systems are comprehensive in intake. The grammar and independent schools tend to produce pass-rate examination results among the top twenty ranked regionally. Many pupils compete for entrance examinations to attend such long-established Grammar Schools and most have significant parent sponsorship. In 2016 two of
448-635: Is also the largest kind of boat race in the United Kingdom . The official representative body of the region is the West Midlands Leaders Board which has limited administrative functions such as regional planning and economic development. The board is not an elected body, but is made up of members appointed from local councils across the region and is known as a quango . It is based on Edward Street in Birmingham, near
504-570: Is geographically diverse, from the urban central areas of the West Midlands conurbation to the rural counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire which border Wales . The region is landlocked; however, the longest river in the UK, the River Severn , traverses the region south-eastwards, flowing through the county towns of Shrewsbury and Worcester, and the Ironbridge Gorge , a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Staffordshire
560-594: Is home to the industrialised Potteries conurbation, including the city of Stoke-on-Trent and the Staffordshire Moorlands area, which borders the south-eastern Peak District National Park near Leek . The region also encompasses five Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty : the Wye Valley , Shropshire Hills , Cannock Chase , Malvern Hills and parts of the Cotswolds . Warwickshire is home to
616-755: Is in Brierley Hill , near the headquarters of West Midlands Police , where the Child Support Agency (CSA) was headquartered. The region's Manufacturing Advisory Service was on Wolverhampton Science Park , north of the city centre; this function is now represented by Made in the Midlands , north of Wolverhampton. The DIT West Midlands for the region is based at the West Midlands Chambers of Commerce on Harborne Road , south of NHS West Midlands west of Five Ways. Most of
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#1732775651073672-548: Is now North Somerset . High Duty Alloys at Redditch constructed (forged) the compressor and turbine blades for Whittle's first engines, and many of the early jet engines; it made Concorde 's airframe from the Hiduminium R.R.58 aluminium alloy . Maxaret , the world's first ABS braking system, was invented in Coventry by Dunlop in the early 1950s for aircraft; John Boyd Dunlop was a Scottish vet who had first produced
728-564: Is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of International Territorial Level for statistical purposes. It covers the western half of the area known traditionally as the Midlands . The region consists of the counties of Herefordshire , Shropshire , Staffordshire , Warwickshire , West Midlands and Worcestershire . The region has seven cities: Birmingham , Coventry , Hereford , Lichfield , Stoke-on-Trent , Wolverhampton and Worcester . The West Midlands region
784-538: Is the oldest working engine in the world. Smethwick was a main centre for making lighthouse lanterns . Valor Fires in Erdington developed the first radiant gas fire in 1967, a balanced flue fire in 1973, and a natural flame gas fire in 1978. The Erdington site, owned by Iceland's BDR Thermea , closed in May 2012. The company also built gas cookers ; since 2011 the company has been part of Glen Dimplex , who have
840-529: The M1919 Browning machine gun . Boulton Paul Aircraft had their main aircraft factory in the north of Wolverhampton. RAF Defford , in the south of Worcestershire between Pershore and Croome Park , was where many important airborne radars were developed, such as H2S (radar) and anti-submarine radars. Thomas Wedgwood , son of Josiah Wedgwood, discovered the first photo-sensitive (light-sensitive) chemicals – silver nitrate and silver chloride in
896-555: The National Indoor Arena . From March 2010, the funding decisions at regional level were taken over by Advantage West Midlands , the Regional Development Agency . The West Midlands is the second most ethnically diverse region of the UK (London being the most diverse). This is in large part due to the West Midlands conurbation , which is highly diverse. The ethnic makeup of the West Midlands as
952-567: The National Telephone Company ; for the first time this allowed phone calls between the London and the north. The world's first coaxial cable was laid between London and Birmingham in 1936 to give 40 channels for telephone traffic. and brought into use in 1938, later extended to Manchester in 1940. Alexander Parkes invented the first man-made plastic ( thermoplastic ) in Birmingham in 1856. Princess Square, Wolverhampton,
1008-485: The Perrott's Folly . Philip Larkin came from Coventry. Rowland Hill (stamps) was from Kidderminster. The writer George Eliot came from Nuneaton . Anthony E. Pratt from Birmingham invented Cluedo . Frederick Gibberd of Coventry designed Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral . Edward Cave from Rugby made Britain's first magazine in 1731 – The Gentleman's Magazine . Philip Astley from Newcastle-under-Lyme invented
1064-633: The Peugeot 206 , closed at the end of 2006, with production moving to Trnava in Slovakia, and some to a plant at Kolín in the Czech Republic . Alfred Herbert of Coventry was the largest machine-tool manufacturer in the UK for many decades; it was brought down in the 1970s by advancing technology overseas, and complacent strategic decisions of the management, finally closing in 1982; many Midlands manufacturing companies followed similar fates in
1120-697: The Shropshire Council Unitary Authority area. It is divided into three parish wards : Coalport & Jackfield (2 councillors), Ironbridge Gorge (3 councillors) and Lightmoor (3 councillors). The Gorge Parish Council has its offices and holds its meetings at the Maws Craft Centre in Jackfield. The population of this civil parish at the 2011 census was 3,275. Women in the Ironbridge Gorge ward had
1176-569: The 1790s. Sir Norman Lockyer of Rugby discovered helium in 1868, for which he used electromagnetic spectroscopy . Edward Weston of Oswestry, who emigrated to the US, built the first accurate voltmeter in the late 1880s, and the Weston cell in 1893. Francis W. Aston of Harborne, educated at the University of Birmingham, developed mass spectrometry in 1919, which helped him to identify
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#17327756510731232-442: The 1970s and 1980s. Henry Wiggin & Co of Hereford developed the metal alloys necessary for other Midlands' (and beyond) automotive and aerospace companies – Inconel , Incoloy and Nimonic . It was the lack of vanadium for high-melting point alloys , caused by Royal Navy action, that prevented German Me 262 engines being serviceable; had German Second World War engineers had a greater supply of vanadium and molybdenum ,
1288-469: The BBC election exit poll . 6 ft 9 Daniel Kawczynski , a Shropshire MP, is the tallest MP ever. Although having a slightly smaller percentage of the vote than the neighbouring East Midlands , the geographic area of the West Midlands is more Conservative, due to Labour's vote now consigned to the urban areas of Birmingham, Coventry and Stoke-on-Trent. The number of seats is more favoured towards Labour than
1344-642: The Dark Ages: Stafford's Anglo-Saxon Origins'. The Ancient High House exhibition, which runs from 28 June to 1 October, examines the coming of the Anglo Saxons and the emergence of the Kingdom of Mercia as well as telling the story of the Saxon burh founded in 913. The display cabinets include a selection of coins and artefacts including a wealth of domestic and personal items, these in contrast to
1400-802: The Ecology Party and then the Green Party in 1985. In the ONS International Territorial Levels (ITL), the West Midlands form a level-1 ITL region, coded "UKG", which is subdivided as follows: The region consists of the following administrative subdivisions: Key: †two-tier non-metropolitan county | * metropolitan county including the West Midlands Combined Authority and mayor The West Midlands' population accounts for almost 11% of England's overall population. 49.36% of
1456-748: The Humber , and is more deprived than the neighbouring East Midlands. From the Indices of deprivation 2007 , it can be seen that, in common with Northern England , the region has more Lower Area Super Output Areas in the 20% most deprived districts than in the 20% least deprived districts. The region's most deprived council districts, in descending order, are Birmingham (10th highest in England), Sandwell (14th), Stoke-on-Trent (16th), Wolverhampton (28th), Walsall (45th), Coventry (61st), and Dudley (100th). The least deprived districts in 2007 (before Shropshire became
1512-511: The UK's car industry would be centred in Coventry and Birmingham; most of this has now gone. Midland Motor Cylinder (part of Birmid Industries ) of Smethwick was the largest producer of automobile cylinder blocks in Europe. Fort Dunlop was Europe's largest tyre plant. Metro-Cammell in Birmingham made most of the 1970s and 1980s London Underground trains. MG Rover (a company of Rover) closed in 2005 (from 1885), The Ryton plant , which made
1568-650: The border with Powys , Wales. The region contains five Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), including the Shropshire Hills , Malvern Hills and Cannock Chase , and parts of the Wye Valley and Cotswolds . The Peak District national park also stretches into the northern corner of Staffordshire . Major towns and cities in the West Midlands region include: The West Midlands region contains several urban areas with populations of 100,000 or more in 2021, which include: The RAF Fauld explosion on 27 November 1944 in east Staffordshire produced
1624-544: The engine life (around 12 hours maximum, from entering service in April 1944 to the end of the war) of their jet engine would have increased much more, which would have been significant to the war's outcome. Bristol Siddeley developed the rocket engines for Black Arrow at Ansty; in fact all of R-R's rocket engines were developed and built there at R-R's Industrial and Marine Gas Turbine Division; Britain's smaller rocket engines for missiles were built by Bristol Aerojet in what
1680-630: The first isotopes , receiving the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1922. Dennis Gabor invented holography at British Thomson-Houston in Rugby in 1947, receiving the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1971. James Glaisher in 1862 took a record balloon flight with Henry Tracey Coxwell for the BAAS near Wolverhampton. They reached 29,000 feet (8,800 m) the composition of the Earth's atmosphere until then
1736-488: The first pneumatic tyres in 1889. Matthew Piers Watt Boulton , grandson of Matthew Boulton, and born in the area, invented the aileron , an important flight control surface in 1868, decades before the first actual flight. Triumph Engineering was a famous motorbike firm in Meriden. About a quarter of all British WWI planes were built in Coventry. The Jensen Interceptor FF was the first production four-wheel-drive car in
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1792-647: The geographic spread, with 35 Conservative seats and 24 Labour. All of Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire is now Conservative. The Green Party of England and Wales was formed at the Bridge Inn in Napton-on-the-Hill , Warwickshire, in February 1973, originating from an article by Paul R. Ehrlich about population growth in Playboy magazine. In 1975, it became
1848-658: The hills, forming the gorge and permanently diverting the Severn southwards. The Gorge is a civil parish within the borough of Telford and Wrekin and the ceremonial county of Shropshire . It covers the part of Ironbridge Gorge that falls within the Telford and Wrekin Council Unitary Authority area and includes the settlements of Coalbrookdale , Coalport , Ironbridge , Jackfield and Lightmoor , but not Buildwas or Broseley which are in
1904-534: The hoard. On 23 March 2010 it was announced that the required sum had been raised, and that the hoard would be purchased by these two museums for display in the West Midlands. The Mercian Trail is not only intended to make the Staffordshire Hoard available for display to the public, but it is also intended to highlight the history and archaeology of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia , which
1960-692: The largely martial artefacts of the Hoard. The Staffordshire Hoard was discovered in a field in Hammerwich , near Lichfield in July 2009. After the hoard was declared treasure in September 2009, it was valued at £ 3.285 million, and a public appeal was launched to raise the money in order for Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery to jointly purchase
2016-542: The modern day circus in 1768 – Astley's Amphitheatre . The Castlemorton Common Festival in May 1992 near Malvern, led to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 . The Nowka Bais is a Bengali boat racing festival which takes place annually in Birmingham . It is a cultural event in the West Midlands, United Kingdom attracting not only the Bangladeshi diaspora but a variety of cultures. It
2072-496: The name is also used for the much smaller West Midlands county and conurbation which is in the central belt of the Midlands and on the eastern side of the West Midlands Region. It is also still used by various organisations within that area, such as West Midlands Police and West Midlands Fire Service . The highest point in the region is Black Mountain , at 703 metres (2,307 ft) in west Herefordshire on
2128-541: The number of seats, with 42% of the region's electorate voting Conservative, 33% Labour, 16% UKIP, 6% Liberal Democrat and 3% Green. The Conservatives gained 2 seats with virtually no swing from Labour to Conservative. In the 2017 general election , South Staffordshire ( Gavin Williamson ) had the second-highest Conservative vote proportion in the UK – 69.8%. David Firth , at the University of Warwick , invented
2184-544: The objects from the Staffordshire Hoard will be put on display at these four locations, although other locations may be included in the trail in the future. In addition a touring exhibition will take some objects from the hoard to other parts of the West Midlands, starting with the Shire Hall Gallery in Stafford . This exhibition will tie in with a display in the nearby Ancient High House Museum, entitled: 'Out of
2240-427: The onset of frozen food in the UK. Alfred Bird invented egg-free custard in 1837 in Birmingham – accidentally given to guests at his home, being created as his wife had an allergy to eggs; he then invented baking powder in 1843 as his wife also had an allergy to yeast . J. R. R. Tolkien grew up in Birmingham, Kings Heath, then part of Worcestershire, and was inspired by Moseley Bog and Sarehole , and perhaps by
2296-792: The place of charcoal to smelt iron, at his Old Furnace. The Black Country may be regarded as the world's first industrial landscape, while nearby Ironbridge Gorge claims to be the Birthplace of Industry. The world's first cast iron bridge in 1779 spans the Gorge. The first self-propelled locomotive to run on rails in 1803 at Coalbrookdale, was built by Richard Trevithick . The first iron rails for horse-drawn transport, were made at Coalbrookdale in 1768 by Richard Reynolds at Ketley Ironworks . Iron rails only became widely successful in 1820 when made out of wrought iron at Bedlington Ironworks in north-east England. Birmingham's industrial development
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2352-680: The region is covered by the Midlands Air Ambulance , except Warwickshire is covered by the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance , based at Coventry Airport ; both are charity-funded. Sir Anthony Bamford of Staffordshire is the richest British industrialist, at around £3.15bn in 2014; Sir James Dyson is second (£3bn). Selective schools are in low numbers as follows: Birmingham (8), Walsall (2), Wolverhampton (1), Warwickshire (6), Stoke-on-Trent (1), and Telford and Wrekin (2). The highest proportion per head therefore
2408-837: The region's population resides in the West Midlands county, 20.17% in Staffordshire, 10.49% in Worcestershire, 9.91% in Warwickshire, 8.56% in Shropshire, and 3.37% in Herefordshire. Business Link West Midlands was based on the Quinton Business Park in Quinton , next to Highways England . NHS West Midlands, the strategic health authority was in Edgbaston. The West Midlands Ambulance Service
2464-426: The rocks cut through by the gorge exposed commercial deposits of coal , iron ore , limestone and fireclay , which enabled the rapid economic development of the area during the early Industrial Revolution . Originally called the Severn Gorge , the gorge now takes its name from its famous Iron Bridge , the first iron bridge of its kind in the world, and a monument to the industry that began there. The bridge
2520-407: The sea at Bristol Channel . The gorge carries the River Severn south towards the Bristol Channel . It was formed during the last ice age when the water from the previously north-flowing river became trapped in a lake ( Lake Lapworth ) created when the Irish Sea ice sheet dammed the river. The lake level rose until the water flowed through the hills to the south. This flow eroded a path through
2576-451: The third lowest life expectancy at birth, 74 years, of any ward in England and Wales in 2016. Green Wood Centre has spent over twenty years training new coppice and woodland workers, with the aim of reviving the coppicing industry. Severn Gorge Countryside Trust manages most of the woodland, grassland and other countryside within the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site, around 260 hectares (640 acres) in all. BTCV 's Green Gym works with
2632-412: The top ten such schools nationally were in Warwickshire, where in the CV37 postal district prices were 34% higher than the county as a whole. Ironbridge Gorge The Ironbridge Gorge is a deep gorge , containing the River Severn in Shropshire , England. It was first formed by a glacial overflow from the long drained away Lake Lapworth , at the end of the last ice age . The deep exposure of
2688-408: The towns of Stratford upon Avon , birthplace of writer William Shakespeare ; Rugby , the birthplace of Rugby football ; and Nuneaton , birthplace to author George Eliot . The official region contains the ceremonial counties of Herefordshire , Shropshire , Staffordshire , Warwickshire , West Midlands and Worcestershire . There is some confusion in the use of the term "West Midlands", as
2744-464: The world, designed by Major Tony Rolt , and built at their factory in West Bromwich. Cadbury launched Dairy Milk in 1905, Bournville in 1906, Fruit & Nut in 1928, Whole Nut in 1930, Cadbury Roses in 1938, and the Cadbury Creme Egg in 1971. George and Richard Cadbury built their factory in 1879 and Bournville in 1893, named after the Bourn brook . Iceland (supermarket) opened its first store in Oswestry in 1970 – heralding
2800-431: Was Wolverhampton at 7.7%, the joint second highest (with Manchester) unemployment rate in England. Next is Sandwell with 7.1%, Birmingham with 7.0%, and Walsall with 6.4%. The lowest rate in the region is the district of Stratford-on-Avon , with 1.6% – one of the lowest unemployment rates in England. In the 2015 general election , the Conservatives gained the largest share of the region by popular vote and took control of
2856-475: Was an early eugenicist rooted in improving animal breeding stock and examining heredity. He invented terms eugenics and nature versus nurture . His limited calls for human eugenics were widened by the German Society for Racial Hygiene in 1905 founded by Alfred Ploetz , which coupled with the racial superiority fallacies of Aryanism reached its nadir in genocidal antisemitism . Moral teachings and inherent repulsions towards human eugenics were overcome by
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#17327756510732912-455: Was built in 1779 to link the industrial town of Broseley with the smaller mining town of Madeley and the growing industrial centre of Coalbrookdale . There are two reasons the site was so useful to the early industrialists. The raw materials, coal , iron ore , limestone and clay , for the manufacture of iron , tiles and porcelain are exposed or easily mined in the gorge. The deep and wide river allowed easy transport of products to
2968-449: Was centred on the area corresponding to the modern county of Staffordshire . The exhibits of the treasure will attempt to relate the items to other archaeological objects, and promote a greater understanding of the items in their historical context. The organisers of the trail have stated that the trail will attempt to provide answers to the following questions. Download coordinates as: West Midlands (region) The West Midlands
3024-430: Was not understood; the altitude records for the UK have not been exceeded since; Project Excelsior in the US in 1960 would later reach 20 miles (110,000 ft). Philip Lawley of Burton upon Trent was first person to realise that chemical damage to DNA caused cancer (at the Chester Beatty Research Institute in London) in the early 1960s. Francis Galton (d. 1911) of the Darwin–Wedgwood family 's Birmingham branch
3080-470: Was the site of Britain's first traffic lights in 1927. Infrared cameras were developed at the Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern (with EMI Electronics) in 1967. The world's first Maglev train operated at Birmingham Airport in 1983. The tallest freestanding structure in the region was the chimney of Ironbridge power station at 673 ft. John Baskerville of Birmingham, a former stone carver, largely invented fonts, or typefaces , for printing. Much of
3136-428: Was triggered by discussions at the Lunar Society of Birmingham at Soho House , Boulton's house, and products were carried along the BCN Main Line canal. Soho Manufactory was the first man-made-powered factory in world. Chance Brothers of Smethwick built the glass for The Crystal Palace in 1851. Smethwick Engine , now at Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum , is the oldest working steam engine, made in 1779, and
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