Visit Smethwick Places

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The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Smethwick

  

Smethwick Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Smethwick

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Smethwick history

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It was suggested that the name Smethwick meant “smiths’ place of work”, but a more recent interpretation has suggested the name means “the settlement on the smooth land”. Smethwick was recorded in the Domesday Book as Smedeuuich, the d in this spelling being the Anglo-Saxon letter eth. Until the end of the 18th century it was an outlying hamlet of the south Staffordshire village of Harborne. Harborne became part of the county borough of Birmingham and thus transferred from Staffordshire to Warwickshire in 1891, leaving Smethwick in the County of Staffordshire. The world’s oldest working engine, the Smethwick Engine, made by Boulton & Watt, originally stood near Bridge Street, Smethwick. It is now at Thinktank, the new science museum in Birmingham. One notable company was The London Works, manufacturing base of the Fox Henderson Company which made the steel framework for the Crystal Palace. This was founded by Charles Fox, whose inventions included the first patented railway points. His notable employees included William Siemens, the notable mechanical and electrical engineer. The company was bankrupted in 1855 by the failure of an overseas railway to pay for work done. The site was later used by the GKN company. In 2015 the site was being cleared to build the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital which aims to combine the Sandwell General Hospital at West Bromwich and City Hospital, Dudley Road. Work at the site later came to a standstill because of a crisis in the construction industry. Other former industry included railway rolling stock manufacture, at the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company factory; screws and other fastenings from Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds (GKN); engines from Tangye; tubing from Evered’s; steel pen nibs from British Pens; and various products from Chance Brothers’ glassworks, including lighthouse lenses and the glazing for the Crystal Palace (the London works, in North Smethwick, manufactured its metalwork). Phillips Cycles, once one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in the world, was based in Bridge Street, Smethwick. Nearby, in Downing Street, is the famous bicycle saddle maker, Brooks Saddles. The important metalworking factory of Henry Hope & Sons Ltd was based at Halford’s Lane where the company manufactured steel window systems, roof glazing, gearings and metalwork. Council housing began in Smethwick after 1920 on land previously belonging to the Downing family, whose family home became Holly Lodge High School for Girls in 1922. The mass council house building of the 1920s and 1930s also involved Smethwick’s boundaries being extended into part of neighbouring Oldbury in 1928. The Ruskin Pottery Studio, named in honour of the artist John Ruskin, was in Oldbury Road. Many English churches have stained glass windows made by Hardman Studios in Lightwoods House, or, before that, by the Camm family. During the Second World War, Smethwick was bombed on a number of occasions by the German Luftwaffe. A total of 80 people died as a result of these air raids. After the First World War about 50+ Sikh families settled in Smethwick beginning in 1917, with a majority of the men being veterans of the war. After the Second World War, Smethwick attracted a large number of immigrants from Commonwealth countries beginning in 1945, the largest ethnic group being Sikhs from the Punjab in India, the majority of whom had served in the Second World War. The ethnic minority communities were initially unpopular with the white British population of Smethwick, prompting the election of Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) Peter Griffiths at the 1964 general election. In the election, the Labour Party MP was unseated following the use of the campaign slogan, “If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour” allegedly being used by supporters of the winning candidate. This came two years after race riots had hit the town in 1962; it was also set against a background of factory closures and a growing waiting list for local council accommodation. In 1961, the Sikh community purchased the Congregational Church on the High Street in Smethwick. Soon after, this was converted into a gurdwara. The Guru Nanak Gurdwara Smethwick is said to be the oldest and now the largest Gurdwara in Europe. Bearwood Primary School appointed Tony O’Connor as head teacher in 1967. He was the first black head teacher in the UK, having been born in Jamaica and moved to Britain with the RAF in 1943. This bought Smethwick more unwanted publicity when, the day after the announcement of his appointment, racist slogans and swastikas were daubed around the school. However, O’Connor was well liked by both parents and children; he retired in 1983. In the mid- to late 1960s, a large council estate in the west of Smethwick was built. It was officially known as the West Smethwick Estate, but as all of the homes were constructed from concrete the estate was known locally as the “concrete jungle”. The homes, mostly three or four storey townhouses, were prone to damp and other faults. By the 1980s, levels of crime and unemployment on the estate were high, and by the early 1990s, Sandwell Council had decided to demolish it. Between 1993 and 1997, the estate was redeveloped with modern low-rise housing and renamed Galton Village. Another housing estate called the Windmill Lane Estate, located near Cape Hill, met a similar fate. There is a collection of red brick turn-of-20th century terrace, 1930s semi-detached, newly built modern housing and a number of high rise blocks of flats. Other estates and areas include Black Patch, Cape Hill, Uplands, Albion Estate, Bearwood, Londonderry and Rood End. In July 2013, a major fire occurred at the Jayplas plastics and paper recycling plant on Dartmouth Road.

Architecture

The oldest surviving building in Smethwick is the Old Church which stands on the corner of Church Road and the Uplands. The Grade I listed Galton Bridge spans the New Line canal and railway. Rolfe Street public baths were among the first public swimming baths in the country when opened north of the town centre in 1888.

Political history

Smethwick was created as a separate parliamentary constituency in 1918, having previously been part of the Handsworth constituency. From 1926, the MP was Sir Oswald Mosley, future founder of the British Union of Fascists. Mosley resigned the Labour whip in March 1931, but continued to represent the constituency until it was taken by the Conservatives at that year’s general election. Christabel Pankhurst narrowly failed to become one of Britain’s first woman Members of Parliament.

Civic history

Smethwick was originally a hamlet within the parish of Harborne, Staffordshire. It was made into an urban district in 1894, and later incorporated as a municipal borough in 1899, and county borough in 1907. In 1966, it was merged with the boroughs of Oldbury and Rowley Regis to form the County Borough of Warley. This in turn was merged into the Sandwell Metropolitan Borough, which was incorporated into the new West Midlands county.

Transport history

Smethwick has a long association with canals, which were the town’s first major transport links from a time before decent roads and of course railways. The Birmingham Canal Navigation Old and New Main Line Canals run through the industrial areas and right past the High Street, running parallel to the Stour Valley Line: all three end up in Wolverhampton. James Brindley was the engineer charged with building the canal, a man who gives his name to the busy district in the centre of Birmingham near the International Convention Centre, National Indoor Arena and Broad Street. The old main line was completed through Smethwick by 1769. It required 12 locks to climb over the hill through the town; Brindley had found the earth too soft to dig a cutting through at the time. Water was supplied by two steam engines. One of them was located on the Engine Arm which led to the Smethwick Engine on Rabone Lane and the other was near Spon Lane. New Smethwick Pumping Station next to Brasshouse Lane was added later in 1892. Because of the locks, the canal through Smethwick became a bottleneck and Thomas Telford was commissioned in 1824 to look at alternatives. The new main line through Smethwick was completed by 1829 and completely bypassed all six remaining locks of the summit with a deep cutting. The Engine Arm and Stewarts aqueducts were built to carry their respective canals over the new mainline. The cutting was built through the land of the local businessman Samuel Galton and thus this cutting created the Galton Valley and Galton Bridge was named in his honour. The bridge was the longest single-span iron bridge in the world at the time. The canals of the new and old main line diverged at one end at Smethwick Junction near Bridge Street and rejoined at Bromford Junction near Bromford Road in Oldbury. Today Galton Valley is a nature area and of more historical interest than commercial, and used mainly for leisure rather than transporting commercial goods. The LNWR was the first to construct a railway through Smethwick in 1852 from New Street towards Wolverhampton and the North West, Rolfe Street and Spon Lane opened that year followed by Soho in 1853. In 1867 the Stourbridge Railway opened a link between the Great Western Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Dudley Railway (of 1852) near the current Hawthorns and Stourbridge with a station at Smethwick West and a link to the Stour Valley line towards New Street called Smethwick Junction, the Stourbridge Railway was merged into the Great Western in 1870. Not until 1931 was a railway station was constructed at the Hawthorns, although it was a ‘halt’ primarily for the football ground; this station closed in 1967. From 1854 the Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company was based in Smethwick until its closure in 1963. The company not only built trains, but also London Underground stock, buses and a military equipment. Soho railway station closed in 1949, followed by Spon Lane station in 1968. In 1972 the section of line between Smethwick West and Birmingham Moor Street, as well as the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Dudley railway, was closed, with the exception of a single line between Smethwick West and Coopers Scrap Metal in Handsworth; and all Stourbridge services were diverted into Birmingham New Street. In 1995 the line between Birmingham Snow Hill and Smethwick West was restored and a new station called Smethwick Galton Bridge was constructed over both the Snow Hill and Stour Valley lines to provide an interchange. Smethwick West was due to close when Galton Bridge opened, but due to a legal error British Railways had to maintain a parliamentary train service to the station. Most local trains from Stourbridge to Birmingham were diverted into Snow Hill although it was not until 2004 that the last regular service used the route into Birmingham New Street via Smethwick Junction. Soho TMD is located next to Soho rail junction; road access is just off Wellington Street. It is the principal train depot for West Midlands Trains’ Class 323 train fleet, which are often seen providing local train services in the area. The town of Smethwick has a long association with buses. From 1914 the famous Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Company (BMMO or Midland Red) was based on Bearwood Road on the site of the current Bearwood Shopping Centre until 1974. The garage later saw use as an indoor market until it was demolished in 1979. Smethwick never had its own Corporation Transport Department, like West Bromwich or Birmingham. Most bus services until the earlier 1970s were provided by the Midland Red, West Bromwich and Birmingham. In the early 1970s, all local bus transport was taken over by the WMPTE until deregulation in the 1980s. Since then, National Express West Midlands has been the primary operator in the West Midlands. Steam trams started through Smethwick in 1885 operated by Birmingham and Midland Tramways. These were replaced by electric trams in 1904 and then merged into the Birmingham Corporation Tramways in 1906 and trams eventually ran from both the Dudley Road and Hagley Road direction. Dudley Road trams operated to Cape Hill and then diverged to either take the route towards Dudley (Route 87) via the High Street or towards Bearwood (Route 29) via Waterloo Road, terminating near the site of current Bearwood Bus Station and Kings Head public house. Route 34 from Birmingham to Bearwood along the Hagley Road and terminated at the top of Bearwood Road next to the route from Cape Hill, despite terminating so close to each other there was no physical link between route 29 and 34 in Bearwood. Route 34 was the first route in Smethwick to disappear, in 1930; the last tram route was closed in 1939 and replaced by motor buses. Both the current National Express West Midlands routes 82 and 87 are former tram routes and the 87 in fact uses the same number. The West Midlands Metro, opened in 1999, is more of a light railway than a tramway. It follows the former Great Western Railway track bed from Birmingham Snow Hill station to the former Wolverhampton Low Level via West Bromwich until Priestfield in Wolverhampton. After that, it becomes a tramway proper and runs along the Bilston Road into Wolverhampton city centre. From late 2015 the service was extended from its former terminus at Snow Hill through the city centre to Grand Central. The metro can be caught at the Hawthorns railway station.

You can visit Smethwick places with Walkfo Smethwick to hear history at Smethwick’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Smethwick has 154 places to visit in our interactive Smethwick 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 Smethwick, 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 Smethwick places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Smethwick & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 154 audio facts unique to Smethwick places in an interactive Smethwick map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Smethwick Places Map
154 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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

  

Best Smethwick places to visit

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

Hockley Tunnels Hockley Tunnels are two tunnels used by the railway and tram in Birmingham, England . Tunnel No. 1 is 136 yards (124 m) long and tunnel No. 2 is 160 yards (150m) long .

St Peter’s Church, Spring Hill St Peter’s Church, Spring Hill is a Grade B listed former Church of England parish church in Birmingham . It was built in the 1960s and is now on Spring Hill .

Key Hill Cemetery Key Hill Cemetery opened in 1836 as a nondenominational cemetery (in practice nonconformist) It is the oldest cemetery, not being in a churchyard, in Birmingham . The cemetery contains the graves of many prominent members of Birmingham society in the late 19th century .

Dhamma Talaka Pagoda Dhamma Talaka Peace Pagoda was opened in Birmingham UK in 1998 and is the only such building in traditional Burmese style in the Western hemisphere . On its grounds there are now a monastery and the teaching hall of a planned Buddhist Academy .

Christ Church, Summerfield Christ Church is a Grade II listed parish church in the Summerfield district of Birmingham . It was built in the 1930s and is located in the summerfield district .

Perrott’s Folly Perrott’s Folly, grid reference SP047862, also known as The Monument, or The Observatory, is a 29-metre (96-foot) tall tower . It is a Grade II* listed building in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, United Kingdom .

Soho Manufactory The Soho Manufactory (grid reference SP051890) was an early factory which pioneered mass production on the assembly line principle, in Soho, Birmingham, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution . It operated from 1766–1848 and was demolished in 1853 .

St Faith and St Laurence’s Church, Harborne St. Faith and St. Laurence’s Church, Harborne is a parish church in Harborne, Birmingham . It is part of the Anglican Diocese of Birmingham, and a member of Inclusive Church .

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 .

West Midlands conurbation The West Midlands conurbation includes the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton and the towns of Sutton Coldfield, Dudley, Walsall, West Bromwich, Solihull, Stourbridge and Halesowen. According to the 2011 Census the area had a population of 2,440,986, making it the third most populated in the United Kingdom behind the Greater London and Greater Manchester Built Up Areas. Not to be confused with the region or metropolitan county of the same name.

Visit Smethwick plaques