Visit Kates Hill Places

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

  

Kates Hill Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Kates Hill

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Kates Hill history

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Kates Hill was the scene of chaos in 1648 when parliamentarians used it as their base in the Civil War against King Charles I. As a result, many roads in the area are named in honour of parliamentary figures from that era and afterwards; these include Oliver Cromwell (Oliver Close and Cromwell Street) and Robert Peel (Peel Street). It is believed that from Cromwell Street, parliamentary leader Oliver Cromwell fired his cannons at the royalist garrison that was Dudley’s Norman Castle. Kates Hill was not developed as a residential area until around the 1830s, when a large number of houses were built to accommodate people moving to the Black Country in hope of landing jobs in the ever-growing number of factories and coalpits that were being created in the region at this time. In 1840, St John’s Parish Church was opened and an adjoining church school was built soon afterwards to serve the growing community. Despite hundreds of houses being built around St John’s Church during the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, as recently as World War II, Kates Hill was surrounded by a substantial amount of farmland. There is still standing a historic grade II listed farm house, dating from the 17th century, at the top of Watsons Green Road; it is now solely a residential property as its farmland has long since been built on. This largely rural scene disappeared after 1915, as hundreds of council houses were built in the Watson’s Green Road, Highfield Road, Corporation Road and Bunns Lane areas to accommodate families who were being rehoused. These included the very first council houses to be built in Dudley, built on the Brewery Fields Estate, land which was purchased by the council in 1915 and which was completed by 1918 consisting of more than 300 houses. Most of the roads on this development were named after prominent British historical figures of the Great War; these include Kitchener Road (Herbert Kitchener), Cavell Road (Edith Cavell) and Haig Road (Douglas Haig). More houses were built in Watson’s Green Road, Bridgewater Crescent and on the eastern side of Bunns Lane in the mid 1920s. Wolverton Road and the western section of Corporation Road were added at the beginning of the 1930s, and the Rosland estate which includes Green Park Road and Lupin Road was added in the late 1930s. Some of the oldest houses on Kates Hill were demolished in the late 1930s, and by 1978 almost all of the 19th century houses in the area to the east of St John’s Road had been demolished. The Rosland Estate was expanded in the late 1970s when several houses, along with warden-controlled bungalows and flats for elderly residents, were built in Iris Close. In the early 1980s, similar bungalows and houses were built between St John’s Road and Peel Street. Many of the newer properties on Kates Hill – notably blocks of four flats with two houses adjoining, with garages underneath the flats – are unique to the area, having been designed by an architect who received an award for designing the area’s new homes which were built in 1976/77. They were built around the Peel Street area of Kates Hill, and a network of alleyways runs among the flats. This was initially popular with the estate’s first tenants, as planners hoped to re-create the old-fashioned sense of community that had existed on Kates Hill earlier in the century. But this proved to be unsuccessful as initially the alleyways were popular with drug addicts, vandals and muggers. They also provided an illegal shortcut for motorcyclists. These problems have been gradually reduced since the late 1990s. From the 1950s, Kates Hill was a popular destination for Commonwealth immigrants, mainly Pakistani Muslims. Racial tension in the area culminated in a string of violent clashes between white and Asian youths in August and September 1991. The original Kates Hill Council School on Peel Street was built during the second half of the 19th century when the residential area was first being developed. Part of the school was damaged by fire on 24 June 1969; shortly afterwards plans for a new school nearby were unveiled, and the new Kates Hill Primary School was completed during 1972, being officially opened on 2 May 1973 by Alderman Morris, Mayor of Dudley. The new school incorporated a nursery unit for 4-year-olds (and from the mid-1980s also 3-year-olds), meaning that it served the 3–12 age range until July 1990, after which it was redesignated as a 3–11 school. St John’s Primary School moved to new buildings in Hillcrest Road on its merger with St Edmund’s Primary School, also during the 1970s. But the old St John’s school buildings are still standing and have since been used by several different businesses as well as local community groups. Rosland Secondary School was opened on Beechwood Road in 1932, and it merged with the Blue Coat School on Bean Road in 1970; with the Blue Coat School existing entirely within the Rosland buildings after 1981. It closed in 1989 on a merger with The Dudley School, which saw the formation of Castle High School in the town centre. It remained open for a year as an annexe to Castle High, as there was inadequate space for pupils at the Dudley School site until September 1990. In 1991, the Blue Coat buildings were converted into St Thomas’s Community Network, which remained there until its closure in September 2015. The buildings were demolished a year later to make way for a new housing. Kates Hill has changed dramatically since the early 20th century, yet still retains many pre-1900 buildings; these include St John’s Church and St John’s School (though now in use as offices), as well as many late 19th-century houses situated around St John’s Road. A few of the area’s newer buildings have also been demolished. The Freebodies public house, built in St John’s Road in the late 1970s, was demolished in 2014 after standing empty for six years. Several 1930s council houses in Cypress Road were demolished in the 1970s due to mining subsidence; flats and bungalows were later built on the site. An independent small press, The Kates Hill Press, was established in the area in 1992 and continues to function in Dudley.

You can visit Kates Hill places with Walkfo Kates Hill to hear history at Kates Hill’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Kates Hill has 109 places to visit in our interactive Kates Hill 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 Kates Hill, 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 Kates Hill places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Kates Hill & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 109 audio facts unique to Kates Hill places in an interactive Kates Hill map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Kates Hill Places Map
109 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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

  

Best Kates Hill places to visit

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

Mushroom Green Mushroom Green is a hamlet in the Dudley Wood/Netherton area of Dudley, UK . It is known for its traditional chain making shop .

Sandwell Sandwell is a metropolitan borough of the West Midlands county in England . The borough is named after the Sandwell Priory and spans a densely populated part of the Midlands conurbation . At the 2011 census, the borough had a population of 309,000 and an area of 86 square kilometres (33 sq mi) In 2019 Sandwell was ranked 12th most deprived of England’s 317 boroughs .

Portway Hill Portway Hill is part of the Rowley Hills, near Rowley Regis in West Midlands. It is the site of a nature reserve of the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country.

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.

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.

Round Oak Steelworks Round Oak Steelworks was an important steel production plant in Brierley Hill, West Midlands (formerly Staffordshire), England. It was founded in 1857 by Lord Ward, who later became, in 1860, The 1st Earl of Dudley, as an outlet for pig iron made in the nearby blast furnaces. During the Industrial Revolution, the majority of iron-making in the world was carried out within 32 kilometres of Round Oak.

Saltwells Local Nature Reserve Saltwells Local Nature Reserve is situated in the Netherton area of Dudley Metropolitan Borough in West Midlands. The reserve, created in 1981, covers 247 acres and includes part of Netherton Hill within its boundaries.

Church of St Andrew, Netherton The Church of St Andrew, Netherton is an Anglican parish church. It is situated in Netherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. The building was designed by Thomas Lee and it opened in 1830.

Visit Kates Hill plaques