Visit Priory Estate Places

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

  

Priory Estate Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Priory Estate

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Priory Estate history

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The Priory Estate is so named because it is located near the Priory ruins and Priory Park. It stands on the land which once straddled the border of Dudley County Borough and Sedgley Urban District, which were in the counties of Worcestershire and Staffordshire respectively. The borders were moved back several hundred yards in 1926 when Dudley Council purchased the land with a view to building council houses to rehouse more than 2,000 families from town centre slums. Hundreds of council houses had already been built across the Dudley Borough in the last decade, but the Priory Estate was to be the largest council housing development yet in the area as the town’s slum problem was still far from being solved. The boundary changes also meant that Dudley Castle was finally transferred to the borough of Dudley after centuries in Sedgley. The foundation stone of the very first house, 9 Oak Road, was laid on 16 July 1929. The first houses were occupied in 1930 and by the end of the decade more than 2,000 houses had been built on the Priory and Wren’s Nest estates. There were also private houses for owner-occupiers built mostly on the south side of the estate near Priory Park, around the southern section of Priory Road, Hazel Road, Woodland Avenue, Chesnut Avenue, Somery Road, Forest Road, Paganel Drive and Gervase Drive. The Broadway, a new link road from Dudley town centre to Sedgley, was also laid out to include more than 200 private houses. Three public houses served the estate: the Wren’s Nest in Priory Road (built in the mid-1930s), the King Arthur on the corner of Birmingham New Road and Priory Road (built in 1939) and the Caves in Wrens Hill Road (built in the 1950s). However, the Wren’s Nest (which was renamed the Duncan Edwards in 2001) was closed in late 2005 and was demolished a year later following a serious arson attack. The King Arthur closed in 2011 and after demolition following an arson attack, the building stood empty until Aldi opened on the site in 2016. The Caves is now the only remaining pub in the area. Shops were built on the estate, mostly in Priory Road, with smaller shops being erected in Lilac Road and Thornhill Road. However, the Lilac Road shops were converted into houses in the late 2000s, and the Thornhill Road shop was demolished in the 2009 as part of the North Priory redevelopment. Priory Park was laid out in 1932, with iron railing around the perimeter.(These were removed during the war for the metal to be used in the war effort.) The same year that Priory Road was fully opened to give Dudley a direct road link with the Birmingham New Road in Coseley – incorporating the Priory Ruins as well as Priory Hall (former home of Sir Gilbert Claughton). Priory Hall is currently in use as Dudley Registry Office, and has been based there since the office’s relocation from a building in Ednam Road in about 1990. The Park itself was restored between 2012 and 2013 through support from Dudley Council, Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund. Most of the people living in the council houses on the Priory Estate were rehoused from town centre slum clearances. They were generally pleased with living in new houses which had gardens, electricity, hot and cold running tap water, bathrooms, toilets, a solid fuel boiler, with kitchens and an adjacent pantry. But the Priory Estate quickly ran into problems, with vandalism, litter, graffiti, vehicle crime, burglary and drug dealing becoming widespread, particularly on the north side of the estate, by the 1980s. Unemployment in the area was also relatively high. However, the Priory Estate was not as severely affected by these issues as the neighbouring Wren’s Nest, or indeed several other parts of the Dudley borough and neighbouring Sandwell. The homes of elderly people were targeted most frequently by vandals and other criminals; in 1991, a plank of wood was hurled through the window of a room in which a 90-year-old woman was sleeping. The most famous former resident of the Priory Estate is footballer Duncan Edwards, who was born two miles away at Holly Hall but moved to 31 Elm Road as a small child, attending Priory Primary School (1941 to 1948) and then Wolverhampton Street School. Edwards went on to play 18 times for England as well as winning two Football League championships with Manchester United, before he died in 1958 at the age of 21 from injuries sustained in the Munich air disaster. After his death, a stained glass window was dedicated to Edwards at St Francis’ Parish Church at the junction of Laurel Road and Poplar Crescent. The church was founded in 1931 and was originally based at Priory Hall before the church building on the newly developed housing estate was opened on 10 May 1932. The estate was served by a secondary school from 1965, when Mons Hill School opened on Wrens Hill Road (running between the Priory and the neighbouring Wren’s Nest Estate) to replace Wolverhampton Street School. This school closed in 1990 due to falling pupil numbers, with the remaining pupils split between Castle High and Coseley School. The Mons Hill buildings then became part of Dudley College, which vacated most of the site in 2012. The redundant buildings were demolished in 2015. Dudley College vacated the remaining part of the site in 2018 and this building was reutilised as The Wenlock School.

You can visit Priory Estate places with Walkfo Priory Estate to hear history at Priory Estate’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Priory Estate has 100 places to visit in our interactive Priory Estate 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 Priory Estate, 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 Priory Estate places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Priory Estate & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 100 audio facts unique to Priory Estate places in an interactive Priory Estate map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Priory Estate Places Map
100 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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

  

Best Priory Estate places to visit

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

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.

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.

Visit Priory Estate plaques