46-653: The Stourbridge Extension Canal was a short canal built to serve a number of mines in the Kingswinford area of Staffordshire in England . Although connected to the Stourbridge Canal , it was independent from it. It opened in 1840, and was abandoned in 1935. A short section of it is still used as moorings for boats using the Stourbridge Canal. In the 1820s, a number of coal mines opened up in
92-526: A chapel of ease , before regaining parochial status (with a smaller parish). It is the parish church for the Kingswinford Team of Anglican churches. The building is now a Grade II listed building . The churchyard contains Commonwealth war graves of four service personnel of World War I and six of World War II . In addition to the parish church, Kingswinford is also home to several churches of other denominations, including: Kingswinford
138-402: A nursing home although as of August 2023 is boarded up. It was here in 1605 that most of the men who had attempted to blow up Parliament with Guy Fawkes were cornered, and a bloody gunfight ensued, resulting in the deaths of at least four of the conspirators , including their leader Robert Catesby . Bullet holes can still be seen in the house's walls, but it is not open to the public. Many of
184-554: A boundary fence were constructed by British Waterways on the north bank of the stub in 2004. 52°29′14″N 2°08′14″W / 52.4872°N 2.1373°W / 52.4872; -2.1373 Kingswinford Kingswinford is a town of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the English West Midlands , situated 5 miles (8 km) west-southwest of central Dudley . In 2011 the area had
230-546: A branch to Shipston-on-Stour . The main line opened in 1826, whilst the branch to Shipston opened in 1836. The tramway was used to carry Black Country coal to the rural districts of southern Warwickshire via the Stratford-on-Avon Canal , and limestone and agricultural produce northwards. The northern part of the tramway had fallen into disuse by the early 1900s and was dismantled in 1918. The southern section between Moreton-in-Marsh and Shipston-on-Stour
276-682: A ford for the King's swine (Kingswin(e)ford) – Latin Swinford Regis. The ancient parish of Kingswinford spanned Wordsley , Brierley Hill and Quarry Bank . The parishes of Kingswinford and Amblecote formed the Kingswinford rural district in 1894, and gave its name to the Kingswinford Parliament constituency from 1885 until 1950. However, Amblecote became its own urban district in 1898, leaving Kingswinford one of
322-413: A further licence costing £12 per annum, to carry passengers. By 1829, the tramway was making an operating profit, although the profits were not sufficient to pay off the considerable debts which the tramway had accrued. The steam hauled Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OW&WR) opened in 1853 serving Moreton-in-Marsh with a new railway station , which severed the terminal buildings from
368-690: A minority of single-parish rural districts in England. Kingswinford rural district was added to the Brierley Hill Urban District in 1934, which became part of the County Borough of Dudley in 1966, now the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. However, the rural part of the parish was removed to Kinver in 1933, becoming part of Seisdon Rural District in 1966 and since 1974 part of South Staffordshire . In 1951
414-482: A notable collection of British glass, much of it made locally, from historic 18th-century pieces to contemporary works from Britain's leading glass artists. Plans to retain the collection at Broadfield House were shattered and the museum eventually closed in September 2015, to make way for a new glass museum in nearby Wordsley. Near Kingswinford is Holbeche House , a small country house which has now been turned into
460-615: A population of 25,191, down from 25,808 at the 2001 Census. The current economic focus of Kingswinford is education and housing for commuters. Positioned at the far western edge of the West Midlands Urban Area it borders on a rural area extending past the River Severn ; but its position at the edge of the Black Country and its long standing in the area means it has had significant industrial influence in
506-717: A public footbridge, and is still known as the Tramway Bridge . One of the horse-drawn wagons, which belonged to Thomas Hutchings of Newbold Lime Works, is preserved a short distance north of the Tramway Bridge, near the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon, which sits on a short stretch of preserved tramway track on stone blocks. Newbold Lime Works would have been at Newbold on Stour . Another old coal wagon from
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#1732790383894552-408: A secondary school, which work closely with each other. The area known as Campus 21 has benefitted from investment including the building of The Brier School (SEN 5–19) and a new sports hall. The area has three major secondary schools: Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley , owned the manor of Kingswinford and was largely responsible for developing the mining industry in the area. George Saxby Penfold
598-470: A threat. The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway was active in the area, and in 1845 applied for an act of Parliament to authorise a number of routes, one of which would run along the banks of the canal. An agreement was reached, whereby the railway company would buy the canal if the act was granted. It was, as the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway Act 1845 ( 8 & 9 Vict. c. clxxxiv), and
644-402: Is served by these local newspapers: Kingswinford serves 5–11 year olds with eight primary schools, one of which is a special school. Bromley Hills, The Brier School and secondary school, The Crestwood School, sit together on a site located on Bromley Lane, Kingswinford. They are part of a project that involves a standard Primary School and a Special Educational Needs (SEN) school, and
690-508: Is well served by buses that connect it to Dudley , Stourbridge , Wolverhampton , Merry Hill and Brierley Hill . There has never been an official rail connection in Kingswinford, but there were halts on the now-disused Wombourne Branch Line . The nearest stations were the Gornal Halt , Himley , and Pensnett Halt . It was linked by rail to Oxley, and the colliery at Baggeridge. The halts and stations closed to passengers in 1932, and
736-465: The Severn Valley and into Wales . The Kingswinford DY6 postal district covers the entirety of Kingswinford and its suburban village of Wall Heath , as well as nearby rural areas such as Hinksford and Ashwood . Broadfield House Glass Museum , on Compton Drive, was housed in a Grade II listed building set in its own grounds, and formed part of the historic Stourbridge Glass Quarter. It had
782-615: The Shipston-on-Stour branch of the Great Western Railway. The sharp curves of the tramway alignment made it a slow journey. A passenger service of four trains each way per-day operated until 8 July 1929. Goods operation continued until closure on 2 May 1960. The most prominent remaining piece of infrastructure, is the tramway's brick arch bridge across the River Avon at Stratford, which remains in use as
828-717: The South Staffordshire Railway Walk . Today, the nearest active railway stations are in Wolverhampton and Stourbridge. When the West Midlands Metro extension from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill is completed, its nearest stops to Kingswinford will be Brierley Hill and Merry Hill. In 2019, PMOL announced plans to reopen the South Staffordshire Line from Stourbridge to Merry Hill with the possibility of reopening
874-531: The 11th century, although much of the main body of the building is from the 17th century. It contains a notable Norman carving of St. Michael slaying the dragon . The church is also home to a well-regarded two manual Nicholson and Lord pipe organ . It remained the church of the huge parish of Kingswinford until it was closed because of mining activities in 1831, when a new parish church was built, Holy Trinity Church in Wordsley . It reopened in 1846, initially as
920-598: The 1850s, the canal served two brickworks, four collieries, and six ironworks, which operated a total of seventeen blast furnaces. When the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway became part of the West Midland Railway and then the Great Western Railway , the canal also had new owners. Despite its short length, and the fact that much of the traffic travelled less than a mile on the canal,
966-623: The Birmingham Canal Navigation, and the company were unable to raise the £125,000 capital required for the project. Consequently, when they obtained an act of Parliament , the Stourbridge Extension Canal Act 1837 ( 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. liii), in June 1837, to authorise the work, it was for a much smaller scheme, running from Brockmoor to Oak Farm, just beyond Shutt End. One concession made
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#17327903838941012-619: The Kingswinford area, which was just to the north-west of the Fens branch of the Stourbridge Canal. Although a survey was carried out by Samuel Hodgekinson for a canal or a railway to service the mines, no definite proposals emerged. Gibbons and Co. , owners of the first mine to open, built a tramway to Brockmoor in 1825, and a railway from the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal was constructed by Lord Dudley, which opened in 1829, but there were further plans for both canals and railways to
1058-586: The Stourbridge Canal and run via the mines at Shutt End to Straits Green and Cotwallend, before passing through a 1-mile (1.6 km) tunnel at Bloomfield to reach the Birmingham Canal Navigations main line near Factory Junction, where Thomas Telford 's new main line left the old one. This did not meet with general approval, with opposition from Lord Dudley, the Dudley Canal company, the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and
1104-538: The Wombourne Branch Line to Pensnett, a mile away. Plans had previously been forestalled by the discovery of an ancient ant colony in the area designated for development. Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West Midlands and ITV Central . Television signals are received from either the Wrekin or Sutton Coldfield TV transmitters. Local radio stations are covered by: The town
1150-469: The area of Shutt End. The Stourbridge Canal company then proposed an extension of their canal to Shutt End, but the scheme was opposed by Lord Dudley, and was not pursued. In 1836, the Stourbridge, Wolverhampton and Birmingham Junction Canal was proposed by a group of businessmen, including some of the Stourbridge Canal shareholders, who formed a separate company. This would have started near Fens Pool on
1196-475: The area. It was centred on Townsend House, the family seat of the Badley family from the 17th until the early 20th century. The Georgian house was demolished in the 1950s to build a shopping precinct. John Badley of Townsend (1678–1768) was an ancestor of John Badley , F.R.C.S. and John Haden Badley the centenarian educator and founder of Bedales School . The parish church of St. Mary [1] dates back to
1242-506: The branch. This had compelled the OW&;WR to take over the tramway on a perpetual lease from 1 May 1847. The OW&WR itself became part of the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1863. The OW&WR upgraded the line all the way to Stratford to carry main-line wagons, albeit still horse-drawn, as the original act of Parliament forbade the use of steam locomotives; although this enabled some through traffic to operate, it did not do much to improve
1288-463: The canal passed into the hands of the railway company on 27 March 1847. Unlike many such takeovers, the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway Act 1845 specified that the canal was to be well maintained, that tolls were not to be raised so that the canal became uncompetitive, and gave powers to the Treasury or other government departments to intervene if the railway company did not run the canal in
1334-610: The canal still made a profit, and it was not until the early 1900s that traffic started to decline. The canal was finally abandoned in 1935. Most of the canal was filled in after its abandonment. A trading estate covers most of the northern end of the Sandhill Branch, and housing has been built over the middle section. A short stub, from the Brockmoor Junction with the Stourbridge Canal to the stop lock at Bromley has been retained in water, and mooring facilities with
1380-443: The entire line from Wolverhampton to Kingswinford was closed to freight traffic in the 1960s, although the stub near Pensnett Halt served the nearby Pensnett Trading Estate until 1994, when the entire stub to Kingswinford Junction was closed. Portions of the track remain in situ, however, as well as the platforms as far as Pensnett Halt. Gornal Halt has since been replaced by residential development, and Himley station now forms part of
1426-418: The fortunes of the line, and in 1859 the OW&WR opened a branch to Stratford from Honeybourne which took most of the through traffic, and which ended any hopes of the tramway becoming a financial success. Although the tramway continued to carry some traffic, by 1904, the northern section of the tramway to Stratford had become disused, and the tracks were lifted in 1918 as a wartime economy measure. The line
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1472-505: The heart of Kingswinford on the corner of Moss Grove and the High Street lies The Cross Inn. The building was Grade II listed in the 1970s. First recorded in the 1750 parish map, it was owned in the early 19th century by Diana Briscoe of Summerhill House. The pub was purchased from a previous owner by Wetherspoons in 2019. There is an area at the end of Kingswinford which has been known as Townsend dating back to 19th century maps of
1518-438: The parish had a population of 27,757. On 1 April 1966 the parish was abolished and merged with Dudley, Stourbridge , Himley and Kinver, part also went to form Warley . Recent house building, commencing in the 1950s and 1960s, has largely destroyed the original rural character of Kingswinford, the result being the complete absorption of the former village into the adjoining urban area. Until its closure in 2012, Kingswinford
1564-851: The past. This is illustrated by the influence in creating local workhouses, which shows a population of 15,000 plus in the 1831 census. Kingswinford has historically been in Staffordshire. The larger Kingswinford manor mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 was located in the hundred of Seisdon in Staffordshire, with exclaves in Oldswinford in the ancient hundred of Clent in Worcestershire. Rural manors perpetuated noncontiguous holdings to allow diverse agriculture production and decrease risk of catastrophic crop failure due to natural disasters. The name Kingswinford relates to
1610-459: The public interest. The railway company paid £49,000 for the canal, and it provided one of the two sources of income to the new company, the other being the Stratford and Moreton Tramway , which they leased under the powers of the act. The canal thrived, carrying an average of 502,013 tons per year between 1850 and 1859, and seeing its profits trebling from £1,331 to £3,532 over the same period. By
1656-543: The streets of the Charterfields housing development, built during the 1970s, adopted the names of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, such as Catesby Drive ( Robert Catesby ), Digby Road (Sir Everard Digby ), Keyes Drive ( Robert Keyes ), Tresham Road ( Francis Tresham ), Ambrose Crescent ( Ambrose Rokewood ), Monteagle Drive ( Lord Monteagle – William Parker ) and Rokewood Close ( Ambrose Rokewood ). Located in
1702-550: The tramway is preserved at the National Railway Museum at York . This dates from c. 1840, and was formerly used by Thomas James, Coal Merchant, Shipston-on-Stour. In 2020, as a result of more people walking and cycling during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Community Interest Company called Old Tramway Revived was set up with the aim to reopen more of the old tramway route south from Stratford-upon-Avon alongside
1748-666: Was Rector of Kingswinford from December 1831 until his death in 1846, but held other livings as well. William Robertson Coe , insurance, railroad and business executive, emigrated to the US. Frederick Augustus Coe , Iron works manager Stratford and Moreton Tramway The Stratford and Moreton Tramway was a 16-mile (25-km) long horse-drawn wagonway which ran from the canal basin at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire to Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire , with
1794-483: Was all on one level, with a stop lock at its junction with the Stourbridge Canal, and the length of the main line was about 2 miles (3.2 km). It was completed in 1840, opening on 27 June, and had cost £49,000, including £3,000 to purchase the tramway, which was paid for in 1841. The Sandhills Branch, which ran for 0.6 miles (0.97 km) from the main line to wharves and limekilns on the Kinswinford to Sandhills,
1840-597: Was built as part of an early and ambitious scheme known as the Central Junction Railway promoted by William James, to link the Midlands with London via canal between Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon, tramway to Oxford , and finally by river barge down the River Thames to London. However, only part of this route, to Moreton-in-Marsh, and one of the three planned branches was ever built. It
1886-528: Was built with the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) Stephenson gauge , adopted by George Stephenson in the north-east of England. The branch to Shipston-on-Stour, was authorised by the Stratford and Moreton Railway (Shipston-upon-Stour Branch) Act 1833 ( 3 & 4 Will. 4 . c. lxx) on 10 June 1833, and opened on 11 February 1836. Goods traffic was conveyed by licensed carriers in their own wagons . They could also purchase
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1932-460: Was converted into a steam railway in 1889 and continued in use as a minor branch line until 1960. The act of Parliament for the line, the Stratford and Moreton Railway Act 1821 ( 1 & 2 Geo. 4 . c. lxiii), was passed in 1821 and construction was completed in 1826, the route having been surveyed by the railway promoter William James and engineered by John Urpeth Rastrick . The tramway
1978-479: Was formally abandoned by an act of Parliament in 1926, exactly 100 years after it had been opened. The southern portion of the tramway between Moreton and Shipston-on-Stour however lasted longer: The GWR upgraded the line to allow it to be converted it into a conventional steam railway; to do this they had to obtain an act of Parliament to allow the use of steam locomotives. The line reopened in its new form on 1 July 1889 with locomotive operation, It therefore became
2024-551: Was home to food retailer Julian Graves ' head office and distribution centre. Kingswinford is a part of the West Midlands metropolitan county , West Midlands conurbation , and the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. It is situated on the extreme western edge of the conurbation, and to the north, east and south lie other suburban areas of the Black Country . However, the border to the west is green belt , which stretches for many miles through Staffordshire , Shropshire, beyond
2070-407: Was opened later in 1840. The 0.3-mile (0.48 km) Bromley Branch left the main line a little above the stop lock, and opened in 1841, although it was not authorised by the enabling act. The canal was a success, with good amounts of iron ore and limestone being carried to blast furnaces, and finished iron and coal being exported to the wider region. The canal was barely open, when the railways posed
2116-478: Was that they promised to buy the tramway which ran from Corbyn Hall to Brockmoor once the canal was operational. Construction of the canal began in June 1837 with William Fowler as the engineer, who was replaced by Benjamin Townshend in September 1838, who had himself been replaced by William Richardson by the time construction was completed. The main contractor was James Frost, who was from Wednesbury . The canal
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