Visit Brownhills Places

Welcome to Visit Brownhills Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Brownhills

  

Brownhills Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Brownhills

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Brownhills history

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Brownhills is on the ancient Watling Street and there is evidence of early settlement in the area, including an ancient burial mound and a guard post believed to date from Roman times and later dubbed Knaves Castle. The name Brownhills, however, is not recorded before the 17th century. The most popular suggestion for the origin of the name is that it refers to the early mining spoil heaps which dotted the area. The settlement is first recorded (as “Brownhill”) on Robert Plot’s 1680 map of Staffordshire, at which time it was a hamlet within the manor of Ogley Hay, which in turn was part of the parish of Norton Canes. Ogley Hay itself had existed since at least the 11th century and is mentioned in the Domesday Book, although the 1801 census lists it as having a population of only 8 people. Beyond Ogley Hay lay Catshill, another hamlet which pre-dated Brownhills and which lay within the parish of Shenstone. During the 17th century, shallow mine workings began to develop in the area and in 1759 a turnpike was erected in the Catshill area. A local legend claims that Dick Turpin once vaulted the barricade on his horse to avoid paying the toll, although this is demonstrably false as Turpin was executed in 1739, twenty years before the turnpike’s construction. In 1794 Brownhills (now in the plural) was included in a list of local settlements mentioned in an Act of Parliament concerning canals in Staffordshire, and three years later the Wyrley & Essington Canal, nicknamed the “Curly Wyrley” by the locals due to its winding course, was opened. In 1799 Norton Pool, later to be renamed Chasewater, was created to serve as a reservoir for the canals. Early in the 19th century, a horse-drawn tram system connected the mines to the wharves on the canal. In response to the growing population of the area open land in Ogley Hay, up until then merely heathland was enclosed and converted to farmland in 1838, the same year in which the area was first declared a parish, although no church was built for another 13 years. Charles Foster Cotterill, a former mayor of Walsall who had purchased the manor of Ogley Hay in 1836 upon the death of former lord Phineas Hussey, saw the potential of the area and sold off large tracts of his land for private farming and the construction of a flour mill and a foundry. The remaining land of the former manor was progressively sold off through a series of indentures of questionable legality until 1846 when Cotterill sold the last 135 acres (0.55 km) and moved to London. The South Staffordshire Railway reached Brownhills in 1850 and led to a huge expansion of the local mining operation and with it a population explosion in the area, with the population increasing from 305 in 1801 to over 13,000 in 1891. In 1858 a branch line was constructed through the heart of what was then the hamlet of Brownhills, which led to a migration of the population eastwards, leading to the formation of mining slums in the Ogley Hay area. Eventually a new town centre developed, complete with library and theatre. This led to the gradual amalgamation of Brownhills, Ogley Hay and Catshill into one town. Mining was to remain the principal industry of Brownhills until the last pit closed in the 1950s. During the 18th and 19th centuries the area known as Coppice Side was the hub of the mining industry, and the census of 1841 showed that over 80% of the population of the area which makes up modern Brownhills lived and worked there, with up to ten pits active in the area at any one time. As in other mining areas, several men lost their lives in the Brownhills pits. Seven miners, including a boy aged 11, died in an accident in 1861, and in October 1930 an explosion at the Grove Colliery killed fourteen miners, ten of them from Brownhills. In 1877 the town of Brownhills was officially recognised for the first time after a new Act authorised the amalgamation of rural districts into larger local government areas. An order was issued on 29 September stating: The Local Government Board have proposed to declare the Parish of Norton under Cannock, the Chapelry of Hammerwich, the Parish of Ogley Hay, and parts of the Parish of Shenstone and of the Township of Walsall Foreign to be a Local Government District under the name of the Brownhills District. After the First World War, the Urban District Council, which had replaced the District Board in 1894, began a programme of urban improvement. Large areas of open farmland were purchased for the building of council houses, and a notorious slum area, Ogley Square, which had been declared unfit for human habitation, was demolished after a long legal dispute and the tenants rehoused. The final farmland within the boundaries of Brownhills was sold for redevelopment in 1952. By the time of the Second World War the mines of Brownhills, being amongst the oldest in the area, were largely exhausted, and following the nationalisation of the mining industry the final pit on the Common was closed in the 1950s. Following the demise of the coalfield the town experienced a severe economic slump, with many high street shops closing down. A wave of new development in the 1960s and 1970s saw a new shopping precinct planned, which it was claimed would incorporate a cinema, bowling alley, hotel and bus station and would completely revitalise the town. Despite the developers’ grandiose claims, the project was not a success and ultimately consisted solely of shopping units, many of which stood empty for up to five years. There was little further development in the 1980s and 1990s, and the feeling of the local council is that the town centre is in need of improvement. In 2007, the council created a “Townscape Masterplan” for the redevelopment of the town, but more than a decade later the most problematic areas had seen little redevelopment.

Brownhills culture & places

Attractions and landmarks

The town is home to what is reputed to be the oldest fingerpost in the UK. Chasewater in Staffordshire lies on the edge of Brownhills, with the area surrounding it designated as a country park. The town’s most prominent landmarks are a 46 feet (14 m) stainless steel sculpture of a coal miner.

Cultural events and venues

Brownhills holds an annual canal festival in June with stalls, entertainment and boat trips. At one time the town had two cinemas, but the last of these closed in the 1960s. The town had a weekly market for many years, but it closed down in 2010 due to lack of traders and the site was redeveloped for housing.

Sport

Brownhills Community Colts Football Club fields teams in various age groups up to under-17. In the 1950s Ogley Hay F.C. were a strong local team, reaching the final of the Walsall Senior Cup on three occasions. The Canoe and Outdoor Centre opened in 2006, funded by British Waterways.

Media

Brownhills has no dedicated local newspaper, but is covered by newspapers published in Wolverhampton and Walsall. The most popular paid-for local newspaper is the Express & Star.

Brownhills geography / climate

Brownhills is located at 52°38′49.20″N 1°55′58.80″W / 52.6470000°N 1.9330000°W. The highest point of Cannock Chase, standing at 244 metres (801 ft) above sea level, lies approximately 4 miles (6 km) from the town. The geology of the town comprises mainly red clay marl overlying Triassic sandstone and deposits of coal. The average selling price of a domestic property in the town was £182,700, compared to £112,000 ten years earlier.

You can visit Brownhills places with Walkfo Brownhills to hear history at Brownhills’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Brownhills has 29 places to visit in our interactive Brownhills map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Brownhills, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Brownhills places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Brownhills & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 29 audio facts unique to Brownhills places in an interactive Brownhills map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Brownhills Places Map
29 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Brownhills historic spots	Brownhills tourist destinations	Brownhills plaques	Brownhills geographic features
Walkfo Brownhills tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Brownhills

  

Best Brownhills places to visit

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Brownhills has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Brownhills’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Brownhills’s information audio spots:

Little Wyrley Little Wyrley is part of Norton Canes civil parish and Cannock Chase district. In 1870-72 it had a population of 61 as recorded in the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales. It borders the village of Landywood to the west (the Southern area of the larger village of Great Wyrley)

Forest of Mercia The Forest of Mercia lies within the northernmost boundary of the more ancient and well-known Forest of Arden. It covers an area of 92 square miles (23,000 hectares) and is focused around the town of Cannock in South Staffordshire.

Visit Brownhills plaques