History of the West Midlands
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The West Midlands region straddles the historic borders between the counties of Warwickshire (Birmingham and Coventry), Staffordshire in the north, and Worcestershire in the south.
Economic history
Birmingham and Coventry became important centres of the car industry from the early 20th century. The
Coventry became the centre of the British car industry, dominated by the Jaguar plant near Coundon, the Triumph plant at Canley, and the Rootes Group's Ryton plant just beyond the city's eastern boundary. However, the Canley plant was closed by British Leyland in 1980, followed more than 20 years later by the Jaguar plant, and finally the former Rootes plant (taken over by Peugeot at the end of the 1970s), meaning that there was virtually no vehicle production remaining in Coventry by 2007.
The coal and iron ore deposits of the Black Country area provided a ready source of raw material. The area grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution, and by the 20th century had grown into one large conurbation. However, the Black Country's coal mining industry was in decline by the early 20th century and the last coal pit in the area, Baggeridge Colliery at Sedgley, closed in 1968. Heavy industry began to decline in the 1970s and 1980s, with towns including Bilston, Darlaston, Wednesbury, Tipton and Brierley Hill being hit particularly hard by factory closures. However, new lighter industry began to develop in some of these areas, with a large retail park developing in the north of Wednesbury during the 1990s and a light industrial estate being built in the south of the town. Brierley Hill became home to the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, which developed between 1985 and 1990. Many of the former industrial sites in Tipton, however, have been mostly developed for new housing. Oldbury has retained a significant amount of manufacturing while also enjoying a significant growth in the retail sector, with a string of retail developments having appeared around the town since 1980.
Coventry was slower to develop, but by the early 20th century had become an important centre for bicycle and car manufacture, soon becoming Britain's most important area for car manufacturing. The city's population soared during the interwar years as a result, and expansion continued after
The growth of the area in the 19th century, which attracted thousands of families from rural communities, led to extensive building of houses across the region. Many villages grew into towns, while others swallowed up neighbouring communities. However, this led to overpopulation in many areas, with a large percentage of the region's population living in unfit housing by the early 20th century. This led to the extensive construction of
The region suffered significant air raid damage by the Luftwaffe during World War II, with thousands of buildings damaged and people killed or seriously injured in Birmingham and Coventry, while there was a lesser degree of bomb damage in towns including Dudley, Tipton and West Bromwich. Several of the less densely populated areas, including Sedgley, Stourbridge and Halesowen, suffered little or no bomb damage.
The rebuilding of the region continued after World War II. The region's first multi-storey flats were built in the 1950s, although these were mostly built in the larger towns where space for housebuilding was already very limited. Some of the region's population was rehoused in the
The area also became connected to the new motorway network in the 1960s, with the
.In 2003, Britain's first toll motorway, the M6 Toll, opened, bypassing the West Midlands to the north.
Sport
The West Midlands also has a strong association with professional sport.
Civic history
During the 20th century a number of attempts were made to improve the local government of the area.
The West Midlands was one of five "Special Review Areas" named in the
- "the duty of reviewing the organisation of local government... and of making such proposals as are hereinafter authorised for effecting changes appearing... desirable in the interests of effective and convenient local government."
The West Midlands Special Review Area was almost identical to the metropolitan county as created in 1974 (with the exception of the Meriden Gap and Coventry).
The commission's report lead to a substantial reform in the local government of the area in 1966 as the patchwork of
On 1 October 1969, West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority was established, which covered the county boroughs, the urban districts bordering these, as well as Cannock, Redditch and some surrounding rural districts.
The Redcliffe-Maud Report commissioned by Harold Wilson's Labour Party government recommended that a large "metropolitan area" be created around the Birmingham/Black Country conurbation, also including its rural hinterland. This was to have been divided into seven districts: Mid-Staffordshire (Tamworth, Rugeley, Lichfield, Cannock, Stafford), Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, West Bromwich-Warley (later Sandwell), Birmingham/Solihull, North Worcestershire (Bewdley, Kidderminster, Bromsgrove, Redditch).
In the event the Conservative government of Edward Heath was elected in 1970 and the original plans for local government reform were radically altered. The West Midlands county was created in 1974, under the Local Government Act of 1972.
This area was based on the seven county boroughs and four other non-county boroughs and urban districts around the fringe of the conurbation – Aldridge-Brownhills, Halesowen, Stourbridge, and Sutton Coldfield. The area was divided into seven new metropolitan boroughs – Aldridge-Brownhills was added to Walsall; Halesowen and Stourbridge to Dudley and Sutton Coldfield to Birmingham. A new borough of Sandwell was formed by the merger of West Bromwich and Warley, Solihull took in much of the suburban fringe to the east of Birmingham and the gap between Solihull and Coventry, whilst Wolverhampton and Coventry were also included, with their boundaries very much the same as they had been since the 1966 reorganisation.
This led to (apart from in the east, with Coventry and the Meriden Gap) quite a tightly defined metropolitan border, excluding such places as Burntwood, Bromsgrove, Cannock, Kidderminster, Lichfield and Wombourne which had been considered for inclusion in the West Midlands metropolitan area by the Redcliffe-Maud Report, but excluding only a small amount that was considered part of the contiguous built-up area of the West Midlands conurbation in 2001.
The inclusion of Coventry into the new county was at the time highly controversial, as many people felt that Coventry had more in common with the surrounding Warwickshire area then with the Birmingham conurbation. There have been calls for Coventry to be more integrated with the surrounding Warwickshire area – which to some extent have been heeded with the creation of a Coventry and Warwickshire NHS trust and a C&W chamber of commerce.
The 1974 reform created a West Midlands County Council that covered the entire area and dealt with strategic issues. A new West Midlands Police service was formed covering the entire area, with the West Midlands Constabulary and Birmingham City Police abolished, and also taking over responsibility from the county forces.
Margaret Thatcher's government abolished the metropolitan county councils with the Local Government Act 1985, in 1986, causing the seven metropolitan boroughs to become de facto unitary authorities. This move also saw the abolition of the Greater London Council as well as the metropolitan councils for Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Tyne and Wear, Humberside and Avon.
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