Route Around Smethwick
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Shireland Collegiate Academy, Waterloo Road, Smethwick Shireland Collegiate Academy is a Secondary School in the English academy programme, The school was built during the early 20th century. Originally called Shireland High School, and then later Shireland Language College. The school became Shireland Collegiate Academy in 2007. The Academy, and its predecessor schools has been run by Sir Mark Grundy since 1997 who was knighted for his services to education for his work within the school Harborne Parish Trust Smethwick was originally a township within the ancient parish of Harborne to the west of Birmingham. Harborne parish was shaped roughly like anhour-glass, with Smethwick forming the upper partand the neck and Harborne township the lower part. Cape Hill Waterloo Road Shireland Hall to our right Shireland Hall Primary School, Smethwick Shireland Hall Primary was originally on the same site as Shireland Collegiate Academy and built on the present site in 1975. The latest rebuild has just been completed and has become a Primary Academy part of the Eliot Trust Foundation Cape Hill The Cape Hill district takes its name from theCape of Good Hope inn which stood by 1814 atthe junction of Grove Lane and the main road Cinemas To our left Smethwick as a whole had several cinemas which had all closed by 1970. The earliest was the Cape Electric Cinema, built in 1911.[5] Just off Cape Hill, on Windmill Lane, was the Gaumont Cinema. The site originally held a skating rink, built in 1909. This was sold and converted into a cinema, named the Rink Picture House, in 1912. In 1928 it was taken over by Denman Picture Houses, the old building demolished and the current building erected. This was the named the Gaumont cinema which lasted until 1964, when it became a bingo hall eventually taken over by the Mecca Bingo chain. The bingo club closed in 2005, but the building still survives in use as the Victoria Suite Cape Hill Primary School smethwick By the schools Facing each other on opposite corners of Durban Road are Cape Hill Primary School and the building which was once the local dispensary. Both were constructed in red brick with terracotta facings, the dispensary in 1888 and the school in 1890. Neither building has changed its exterior appearance to any significant extent. The school is still providing education for the local children but the dispensary is now an "at risk" Grade II Listed Building. There have been plans to turn the building into an emergency refuge for asylum seekers, a casino and a restaurant but none of these has come to fruition. Mitchells & Butlers opened a brewery on Cape Hill in 1879. It was a local landmark in Smethwick and provided employment in the town for 123 years. However, following a decline in sales and revenue, American owners Coors closed the brewery on 6 December 2002. It was demolished two years later and a 650-home private housing estate was developed on its site. There is a monument where the brewery once stood Black Patch Black Patch Park is a park iThe park, covering over 20 acres (81,000 m2), was formerly part of a sparsely populated landscape of commons and woodland (known as The Black Patch), dotted with farms and cottages which has been transformed from heath to farmland then to a carefully laid out municipal park surrounded by engineering companies employing thousands of people; Tangyes, Nettlefolds, (later GKN plc), the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, Birmingham Aluminium Castings, ironworks, glassmaking and brewing. These factories, including the Soho Foundry, started by James Watt and Matthew Boulton are, but for foundations and frontages, almost all gone.[1] Avery Weigh-Tronix is a company specialising in weighing machines. Its HQ stands on the site of the Soho Foundry overlooking Black Patch Park in Smethwick, Turn left at traffic lights. Drive past crocketts primary school and Sandwell College the metric sized houses in May 1970. A council estate was being completed in1971 between High Street and Holly Street, obliterating Queen and James Streets Post Office Until 1837 the inhabitants of Smethwick had to go to Birmingham to send and collect mail. In that year a post office was opened in a small house in what is now High Street. In 1890 a new head post office was opened in Rolfe Street. It was replaced by the office in Trinity Street in 1968. Holy Trinity Church Former Prime Minister John Major's parents married at Holy Trinity Church in Smethwick while they were on tour with a music hall variety act. SYCC Gudwara Guru Nanak Gurdwara Smethwick. It was the UK's first and biggest Gurdwara. The total Gurdwara spans an area of about 78,000 square metres and the building is four storeys high. The Sikh Community in the area first began holding religious services at in a school in Brasshouse Lane, Smethwick, in 1958. This led to larger and larger congregations of Sikh worshippers and the need arose to acquire more suitable premises for the Gurdwara. Library near High Street, Smethwick In 1907 the new Council House was opened and reorganisation of the council in 1928 resulted in the library moving back into what was now the old Town Hall. The library building, built in 1880 was demolished in 1931, along with its neighbour, the Blue Gates Hotel during the road widening scheme carried out in Stony Lane. The old Town Hall, has undergone considerable internal rennovations, since it became the library. The lending department, which was originally the Public Hall, in the Town Hall has had its ceiling lowered and the library today houses Sandwell Borough's Community History and Archive Service Toll House Built in the late 18th century the toll house stands on what is today Smethwick High Street. The road was orginally part of the Birmingham to Dudley turnpike road. In the 1970s the toll house was Ethel Steventon's milliners store. The toll house was renovated between 1983 and 1984. St Paul’s Rd turn left at Ivy Bush to go towards Marshall Street Drive past Marshall Street – On the left is a blue plaque on the wall of a house Civil rights campaigner Malcolm X changed history when he visited the West Midlands during a period of heightened racial tension in 1965. He was invited to Marshall Street in Smethwick where white homeowners were lobbying the council to buy up houses to prevent black or Asian families moving in.Conservative members of Smethwick Borough Council and the local Conservative MP were using their influence and control to prevent non-white people from buying homes there. The visit of Malcolm X – nine days before his assassination in New York – helped to end the discriminatory housing practice. “Start Quote” We would not want to see a return to racial intolerance or bigotry and hopefully this plaque will remind people to stand united against that.” Turn left past West Smethwick Park There is a listed memorial to James J. Chance, one of the partners of Chance Glass Company in West Smethwick Park.Go past Holly Lodge High School Drive over to Oldbury Road Turn left onto dual carriageway pass Galton Railway Station on our right Galton Village Galton Village is a residential area of Smethwick. It takes its name from the iconic nearby Galton Bridge that was named after local business man Samuel Galton whose land the new BCN Main Line (lower level) canal was built through, the canal runs behind Galton Village. The Oldbury Road runs through the area which begins next to Smethwick’s Galton Bridge railway station and ends at Spon Lane, next to a small shopping centre. The Ruskin Pottery Studio, named in honour of the artist John Ruskin, was in Oldbury Road. Galton Bridge This record-breaking span was built by Thomas Telford in 1829. At the time it was the longest single-span bridge in the world This is the Galton Valley, an earthwork carved long and deep by hundreds of navvies, creating a single level canal where previously had been a lengthy flight of locks. Telford’s fresh cut removed a bottleneck between Birmingham and the Black Country, but created a gash in the landscape that needed to be crossed by a bridge. From the 18th century, three generations of the Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line were built through Smethwick, carrying coal and goods between the nearby Black Country and Birmingham. • James Brindley built the first canal, the Old Line, over the Smethwick Summit in 1769 • his summit level was lowered and improved by John Smeaton in 1790 • Thomas Telford built a parallel, more direct route, in deeper cuttings and without locks, the New Line, in 1829. Hindu Cultural Resource Centre Services are held Tuesday and Sunday evenings Turn right at roundabout and head towards M5 at Spon Lane roundabout past East End Foods Originally established over 49 years ago. Today East End Foods has grown to become the largest importer of ethnic foods in the UK Chance Glass works Spon Lane Chance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology. 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.