Tipton

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Tipton is an industrial town in the

Until the 18th century, Tipton was a collection of small

James Watt built his first steam engine^[4] 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"^[5] 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.

In March 1922, 19 girls - as young as 13 - and young women were killed in an explosion at an unlicensed factory that was dismantling surplus World War I ammunition, in an event dubbed the Tipton Catastrophe.^[6]

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 today a 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

Tipton Tavern was rebuilt in the 1950s and became the Hallbridge Arms during the 1990s and, more recently, 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.[7]

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 Municipal Borough status in 1938.^[8] 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

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.

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'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.

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

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.

Local industry

Tipton was one of the key towns in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. Even during the 18th century it had established its first key industries. This included the world's first successful steam pumping engine, which was erected at Conygre Coalworks in 1712 by industrialist Thomas Newcomen. A full-size replica of the engine now exists at the Black Country Living Museum just over Tipton's borders in Dudley.^[4]

In 1800, Tipton was a predominantly rural area, with a few coal mines and some 4,000 residents. Mass building of factories and digging of coal mines then took place, and resulted in Tipton becoming a heavily built-up and industrialised area with more than 30,000 residents by the end of the 19th century. The town's population grew further in the 20th century after new housing developments, mostly by the local council but with a significant number in the private sector. Local industry also expanded further during this time.

In 1840, the Batson family established a lubricant blending plant to serve the local industries at the junction of High Street and Dudley Road. The site is still operational today, owned by German refiner H&R AG, although the original buildings have long since been replaced.

Coal mining had disappeared from Tipton by the mid-20th century, and the town lost a large percentage of its factories during the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s, which contributed to a rise in unemployment and poverty in Tipton, while living conditions continued to improve.

Bean Cars, a company that manufactured cars and lorry engines and other vehicle parts, had a factory in Tipton.^[10] Further industrial sites have been abandoned since the 1970s, paving the way for mass private house building on the land.^[11] The town's naphtha gas plant opened in 1965 but closed just 10 years later, unable to compete with natural gas from the North Sea. The gasworks stood abandoned for about a decade afterwards, when it was finally demolished. Standeridge Park housing estate was built on its site during the 1990s. By the late 2000s, most of the town's large factories had closed.^[7]

Transport

The M5 motorway between the West Midlands and the West Country and its junction with the M6 motorway passes a few miles to the South and East of the town but not through the town itself. The M5 runs along the eastern region passing over canals and railways. M5 Junction 1 is accessible at West Bromwich using the A41 road Black Country Spine Road. M5 Junction 2 is accessible at Oldbury on the A4123 Wolverhampton Road (Harborne to Wolverhampton) at Birchley Island. The M5 also enables access to other motorways.

Buses

Tipton has direct bus links with the towns of Dudley, Walsall, Sedgley, West Bromwich, Bilston, Wednesbury on Diamond Bus services 42 and 229, seven days a week.

Railways

Tipton has direct, frequent rail services to Wolverhampton and Walsall via Birmingham New Street with some additional services during evening rush hour direct to Telford and Shrewsbury. There are two railway stations -

In October 2015, it was announced that due to high transport funding for the West Midlands, the Stourbridge to Walsall line could re-open as a Network Rail operated line served by West Midlands franchise services and the delivery date was 2018-2020, however this did not occur. Instead, the line will partially reopen operated by the West Midlands Metro as its second line, running between Wednesbury and Brierley Hill. Services are anticipated to start in 2023 and the stations within the Tipton boundaries will be Great Bridge, Horseley Heath, Dudley Port (Low Level), Sedgley Road East and Birmingham New Road.^[9]

Other closed lines

The line between Great Bridge and

The line between Princes End and Ocker Hill closed to passenger trains in 1916 but remained open to goods traffic until 1981. The closure of the railway was followed by the construction of a pedestrian walkway on the trackbed, while the tunnel under the road at Ocker Hill was filled in. The final stub of the line, which linked Wednesbury with Ocker Hill Power Station, was closed in 1991.

The Dudley-Wolverhampton railway closed in 1968, several years after passenger trains were withdrawn, and by the 1990s some sections of it had been built over, making it impossible to reopen this route at any stage. The former

Notable people

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• Alan Baker (born 1944), footballer, born in Tipton.
• Scott Baker (born 1986), darts player.
• Philip Bradbourn OBE MEP (1951–2014), politician, born in Tipton and attended Tipton Grammar School.
• Chris Brookes (born 1991), professional wrestler, born in Tipton.^[12]
• Steve Bull MBE (born 1965), footballer, born in Tipton and played for Tipton Town before signing for West Bromwich Albion in 1985, Wolverhampton Wanderers 1986 and also played for England.
• David Burrows (born 1968), footballer, born in Dudley but grew up on the Denbigh Estate, Tipton.
• Yan Dhanda (born 1998), footballer for Swansea City, grew up in Tipton.
• Jack Holden (athlete)
  (1907–2004), a long distance runner for Tipton Harriers and Great Britain, running in both the Olympic and Commonwealth Games. A public garden was named after him in Tipton.
• Jamie Hughes (born 1986), darts player.
• Alec Jackson (born 1937), born and lived in Tipton.
• Nicky James (1943–2007), musician and music writer.
• Glasgow style
  , were born in Tipton.
• Joe Mayo (born 1951), footballer, born and lived in Tipton.
• William Perry (1819–1880), Victorian bareknuckle boxer and Champion of England, aka 'The Tipton Slasher'. There is a statue of Perry in the Coronation Gardens, Tipton.
• Alan Roper (born 1939), footballer, born in Tipton and played as a defender for Walsall FC from 1962–65, following which he ran the Union Pub in Tipton.
• Joseph Williams (composer) (c.1800–1834), English coal-miner and composer of sacred music, lived in Watery Lane, Tipton.

Sport

Tipton Town Football Club were formed in 1948 as Ocker Hill United, adopting their current name in 1967. They currently play in the non-league West Midland league division one and made history in the 2010-11 football season by reaching the FA Cup first round proper for the first time in their history, earning a trip to Carlisle United, the League One (third highest English division) club.^[13] They were the first club that Steve Bull played for; he joined them on leaving school in 1981 and remained with them until he signed for West Bromwich Albion, a top division club, in 1985. However, it was after signing for Wolverhampton Wanderers in November 1986 that Bull achieved fame; by the time he retired in 1999, he had scored more than 300 goals for the club. He was also capped 13 times by the England national football team between May 1989 and October 1990, scoring four goals.^[14]

The

• Great Bridge
• Glebefields
• Dudley Port
• Horseley Heath
• Ocker Hill
• Moat Farm
• Princes End
• Tibbington
• Tipton Green
• Tividale Quays
• Toll End

Education

Secondary schools

• Q3 Academy Tipton (formerly Tipton Central School, Tipton Grammar School and Alexandra High School and Sixth Form Centre, Ace Academy)
• Gospel Oak School (formerly Willingsworth High School and RSA Academy)

The town has two secondary schools, though in the Tipton Green area of the town a significant percentage of children attend

• Tipton Green Junior School – on Park Lane West, Tipton Green, Tipton. Started life in 1880 at a site on Sedgley Road West before relocating to Park Lane West in 1976, a new building opening in that building's grounds in 2011.
• Victoria Infant School – in Queen's Road, Tipton Green. Opened in 1995 to replace Manor Road Infant School, which was built in the 1930s. The current school exists on the site of the former Park Lane Secondary Modern School, which was later an annex for the younger pupils of Alexandra High School and Sixth Form Centre.
• Summerhill Primary School – on Central Avenue, Tibbington, on the merger of Locarno Primary School and Prince's End Primary School.
• Great Bridge Primary School – in Mount Street, Great Bridge, Tipton.
• Ocker Hill Infant and Nursery School^[15] - located in Prospect Street, Ocker Hill, Tipton.
• Ocker Hill Junior School – located in Gospel Oak Road, Ocker Hill, Tipton.
• Glebefields Primary School – Located on Sandgate Road, the Glebefields Estate, Ocker Hill, Tipton.
• Sacred Heart Primary School – originally located on Victoria Road, Tipton Green and was Tipton's only
  Roman Catholic
  school. Recently relocated to a new site on Sedgley Road East after pupil admission numbers rapidly increased. The previous building still remains unoccupied.
• Wednesbury Oak Primary School – off Wednesbury Oak Road, Tipton. It was constructed in 1972 to serve the recently built Wednesbury Oak housing estate.
• St Paul's Church of England Primary School – off Robert Road. It was formed in 1874 at a site in Wood Street. It remained at this site until 1992, when it relocated to a new building in nearby Robert Road. It takes its name from the parish church of St Paul, which opened in Owen Street, Tipton. in 1839.
• St Martin's Church of England Primary School – on Upper Church Lane, Tipton.
• Joseph Turner Primary School – on Powis Avenue, Cotterills Farm Estate, Ocker Hill, Tipton.
• Jubilee Park Primary School – on Highfield Road, the Glebefields Estate, Ocker Hill, Tipton.
• Burnt Tree Primary School – on Hill Road, Burnt Tree Estate, Tipton.
• Foxyards Primary School – on Foxyards Road, Foxyards Estate, Tipton.

Religion

• Tipton Christian Church^[16] was established around 70 years ago and today is a Pentecostal Church situated in Waterloo Street.
• Tipton Family Church^[17] was established in November 1992. It is an Evangelical Christian fellowship.
• St Matthew's Church Tipton^[18] is a Church of England Evangelical church on Dudley Road, established in 1890.
• St Marks Church Ocker Hill^[19] is a Church of England church in the Anglo-Catholic tradition.

Public parks

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• Jubilee Park – Located between Powis Avenue, Highfields Road on the Glebefields Estate.
• Victoria Park – on Victoria Road in the Tipton Green area.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tipton.