Visit Tipton Places

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

  

Tipton Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Tipton

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Tipton history

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The town of Tipton was recorded as Tibintone in the Domesday Book, meaning Tibba’s estate. The present spelling of Tipton derives from the 16th century. Until the 18th century, Tipton was a collection of small hamlets. Industrial growth started in the town when ironstone and coal were discovered in the 1770s. A number of canals were built through the town and later railways, which greatly accelerated its industrialisation. James Watt built his first steam engine in Tipton in the 1770s, which was used to pump water from the mines. In 1780, James Keir and Alexander Blair set up a chemical works there, making alkali and soap on a large scale. The 1801 census records 834 houses with 872 families living in Tipton: 46 houses were stated as being empty. An adult population of 4,280 is recorded with males numbered at 2,218 and slightly fewer females at 2,062. Iron making and mining were the main employment for the population. Trades and manufacturing provided work for 1,740 people and other jobs totalled 2,484. Between Tipton and Dudley there were a few farms listed, which gave employment to 56 people. Expansion in the iron and coal industries led to the population of Tipton expanding rapidly through the 19th century, going from 4,000 at the beginning of the century to 30,000 at the end. Tipton gained a reputation as being “the quintessence of the Black Country” because chimneys of local factories belched heavy pollution into the air, whilst houses and factories were built side by side. Most of the traditional industries which once dominated the town have since disappeared. The Black Country Living Museum in nearby Dudley re-creates life in the early 20th century Black Country, in original buildings which have been rebuilt and furnished, many of them being transported from – or based on – sites originally located in Tipton. There is a residential canal basin at the museum, reflecting Tipton’s former status in popular local culture as the Venice of the Midlands. Some of the town’s canals were infilled during the 1960s and 1970s. The towpaths of the remaining canals, the Old and New BCN Main Lines are a today cycling, wildlife and leisure facility. The landscape of Tipton began to change further from the late 1920s when new housing estates were built by the town’s council, in response to the growing need to replace slum housing. Among the first council estates to be built were the Shrubbery Estate at Tipton Green, the Tibbington Estate near Princes End, (Princes End came under Coseley at the time) the Moat Farm Estate at Ocker Hill (which earned the nickname “Lost City” due to its isolated location) and the Cotterill’s Farm Estate at Ocker Hill, The Glebefields Estate at Ocker Hill and Great Bridge. Private houses were also built on smaller developments around the same time. The “Lost City” was integrated with the rest of Tipton as further housing developments sprang up around it namely The Glebefields Estate and The Gospel Oak Estate. During the Second World War (1939–1945), there were a number of air raids on the town. On 19 November 1940, three people were killed by a Luftwaffe bomb which was dropped in Bloomfield Road and destroyed several buildings including the Star public house; it was rebuilt after the war but demolished in 1996. Just before Christmas in 1940, an anti-aircraft shell fired from the hills at Rowley Regis fell down the chimney of the Boat Inn, Dudley Road East, Tividale; fatally injuring 12 people at a wedding reception (including the bride, while the groom lost both legs) as well as the resident of an adjacent house. On 17 May 1941, six people died in an air raid in New Road, Great Bridge. Tipton Tavern and New Road Methodist Church were destroyed and a number of nearby houses were damaged. Tipton Tavern landlord Roger Preece was trapped in the rubble but survived with minor injuries. Tipton Tavern was rebuilt in the 1950s and became the Hallbridge Arms during the 1990s and more recently became the Pearl Girl, the world’s first licensed pearl bar. It closed in 2016 and has since been converted into a day nursery for young children. The last major council housing development by Tipton council was the Glebefields Estate part of Ocker Hill and not Princes End as many suggest, due to Princes End not being part of Tipton at this time, and built during the first half of the 1960s. A stretch of the Wednesbury Oak Loop Canal was filled in to make way for it. The last major private housing development to be built in the Municipal Borough of Tipton was the Foxyards Estate, on land straddling the borders with Dudley and Coseley, in the mid 1960s. Until 1966, the town had its own council. The urban district council of Tipton was formed in 1894, then received County Borough status in 1938. The headquarters were originally based in a 19th-century building on Owen Street until 1935 when it relocated to the former Bean offices site on Sedgley Road West, straddling the border with Coseley. The council remained at that site for the next 31 years, until the dissolution of the borough council in April 1966. The building was later taken over by Dudley College, who retained it until 1993. It has since been occupied by businesses and training scheme providers. The bulk of the Tipton borough was absorbed into an expanded West Bromwich borough, although a fragment of the town near the border with Coseley (including the former council offices and the bulk of the new Foxyards housing estate) was absorbed into Dudley and most of the Tividale area became part of the new County Borough of Warley. In this reorganisation, the township of Tipton was expanded around Princes End to take over a section of the former Coseley urban district. Since 1974, Tipton has been split between the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, which was created by a merger of the former West Bromwich and Warley boroughs, and the neighbouring Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. By the end of the 1970s, most of the housing in Tipton built before 1890 had been demolished. Owen Street, the town’s main shopping area, was redeveloped between 1979 and 1982, with a reduced number of shop units as well as new low-rise council houses and flats. Tipton’s first gasworks was opened in 1958 and redeveloped as a state-of-the-art Naphta Gas plant by 1965, but owing to the emergence of North Sea gas, the gasworks closed in 1975 and stood empty for a decade before demolition. The site of the gas plant was redeveloped as the Standbridge Park housing estates in the 1990s. In 1956, one of Britain’s first comprehensive schools, Tividale Comprehensive School, was opened in Tipton near the border with Oldbury, in the area which became part of Warley a decade later and was not included in the modern Tipton DY4 postal district. Tipton has two railway stations, the main railway station at Owen Street and another station at Dudley Port. There were several other stations in the town on three different railway lines, but these were gradually closed between 1916 and 1964 as passenger trains were phased out on these lines. The Dudley-Wolverhampton railway line, which straddled Tipton’s border with Coseley, closed in 1968. The Princes End Branch Line, which was only two miles long, closed in 1981. The South Staffordshire Line through Tipton, which led to Walsall northwards and Dudley southwards, closed in 1993. The part of the line between Wednesbury and Brierley Hill is scheduled to re-open in 2023 as a part of Midland Metro line 2. Most of the archive collection for Tipton is held at Sandwell Community History and Archives Service, although some items have been retained by the town’s library.

Tipton etymology

Tipton gains its name from the Anglo-Saxon name ‘Tibba’ followed by ‘Tun’, the Old English word for farm or settlement.

You can visit Tipton places with Walkfo Tipton to hear history at Tipton’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Tipton has 102 places to visit in our interactive Tipton 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 Tipton, 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 Tipton places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Tipton & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 102 audio facts unique to Tipton places in an interactive Tipton map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Tipton Places Map
102 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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

  

Best Tipton places to visit

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

Bradley, West Midlands Bradley is in Bilston East ward of the City of Wolverhampton . Originally part of the ancient manor of Sedgley, originally part of Coseley Urban District Council . Bradley sprang up during the 19th century with several factories and farms surrounded by mostly terraced houses .

Sheepwash Urban Park Sheepwash Urban Park is a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) situated in Sandwell Metropolitan Borough, in the West Midlands conurbation of the United Kingdom. It forms part of the Black Country Urban Forest.

Horseley Ironworks Horseley Ironworks (sometimes spelled Horsley) was a major ironworks in the Tipton area in Staffordshire, now the West Midlands, England.

Oldbury United F.C. Oldbury United Football Club is a football club representing Oldbury, West Midlands, England. They are currently members of the Birmingham & District League Division Four.

Bustleholme F.C. Bustleholme Football Club is a football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands. They are currently members of the West Midlands (Regional) League Division One and play at York Road in Rowley Regis.

Princes End Princes End is an area of Tipton, West Midlands, near the border with Coseley. It was heavily developed during the 19th century with the construction of factories. The population of the Sandwell ward taken at the 2011 census was 12,981.

Old Park Farm Old Park Farm is a residential area of Dudley, West Midlands (formerly Worcestershire and Staffordshire) It was developed in the early 1950s by Dudley County Borough council as a council housing estate. Sycamore Green Primary School served the estate for some 50 years until its closure in 2006.

Black Country Geopark The Black Country UNESCO Global Geopark is a geopark in the Black Country, a part of the West Midlands region of England. Having previously been an ‘aspiring Geoparks’, it was awarded UNESCO World GeopARK status on 10 July 2020.

Wren’s Nest Estate The Wren’s Nest Estate is a housing estate in Dudley, West Midlands. It is located to the north west of the town centre of Dudley.

Wren’s Nest The Wren’s Nest is one of the most important geological locations in Britain. The site is home to a number of species of birds and locally rare flora. Caverns are also a nationally important hibernation site for seven different species of bat.

Visit Tipton plaques