18 Facts About Brownhills

Brownhills is a town and former administrative centre in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England.

Brownhills quickly grew around the coal-mining industry, especially after the town became linked to the canal and railway networks in the mid-19th century.

Brownhills is on the ancient Watling Street and there is evidence of early settlement in the area, including an ancient burial mound and a guard post believed to date from Roman times and later dubbed Knaves Castle.

In 1858 a branch line was constructed through the heart of what was then the hamlet of Brownhills, which led to a migration of the population eastwards, leading to the formation of mining slums in the Ogley Hay area.

In 1877 the town of Brownhills was officially recognised for the first time after a new Act authorised the amalgamation of rural districts into larger local government areas.

Related searches

Brownhills is represented by two tiers of government, Walsall Borough Council and UK Parliament.

Brownhills District established in 1877 remained in existence until 1894 when it was superseded by Brownhills Urban District.

Brownhills was part of the Walsall council counting area of the West Midlands European Parliament constituency, which elected seven MEPs to the European Parliament.

In 2007, a new £445,000 bridge was erected across the canal at Brownhills, providing pedestrian, disabled and cycling access to the Common and to the village of Clayhanger beyond.

At the 2011 UK census, Brownhills ward had a population of 12,676, and a population density of 17.

In 2007, the local authority created a "Townscape Masterplan" for the regeneration of Brownhills, which involved increased leisure provision, the improvement of the town centre's shopping facilities, a new transport interchange incorporating Park and Ride facilities and cycle links to the town centre and the National Cycle Route, and the refurbishment of run-down properties.

Brownhills was formerly home to the wirings manufacturer Electrium's last UK-based factory, but this has closed, with manufacturing shifted overseas and commercial staff moved to a new site in Cannock.

Brownhills is served by the A5 and lies close to a junction of the M6 Toll motorway.

Birmingham Canal Navigations' Wyrley and Essington Canal passes through Brownhills and meets the Daw End Branch Canal at Catshill Junction.

Brownhills has a Church of England church, a Roman Catholic church, two Methodist churches, two Spiritualist Churches, and a Pentecostal church.

Brownhills has had strong links with the Methodist faith since the 19th century.

One of Brownhills' most prominent landmarks is a 46 feet stainless steel sculpture of a coal miner, erected in May 2006 on a roundabout at one end of the High Street, where the A4124 Pelsall Road and High Street A452 cross.

Brownhills has no dedicated local newspaper, but is covered by newspapers published in Wolverhampton and Walsall.