20 Facts About Halesowen

1.

Halesowen is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the county of West Midlands, England.

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2.

Halesowen is included in the Halesowen and Rowley Regis constituency which is held by the Conservative James Morris.

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3.

Halesowen was a detached part of the county of Shropshire but was incorporated into Worcestershire in 1844 by the Counties Act.

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4.

Centre of Halesowen is home to a Norman church, a football ground and Halesowen College which was founded in 1939.

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5.

Halesowen is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as being larger than Birmingham.

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6.

The parish of Halesowen, which incorporated other townships later to become independent parishes, was an exclave of the county of Shropshire, but grew to become a town and was transferred to the jurisdiction of Worcestershire by the Counties Act 1844.

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7.

Halesowen became the centre of a poor law union in the 19th century, which later became established as a rural sanitary district and later the Halesowen Rural District in 1894.

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8.

In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, Halesowen was incorporated into the new Dudley Metropolitan Borough, in the Metropolitan county of the West Midlands.

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9.

Halesowen was once served by a railway line – in reality two lines which met at an end-on junction at the station.

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10.

The first was a branch of the Great Western Railway from Old Hill to Halesowen, opened in 1878, followed in 1883 by a section jointly owned by the Great Western and the Midland Railway, linking the town with Northfield on the Midland Railway's Birmingham to Bristol main line, with intermediate stations at Rubery, Hunnington, and a workmen's halt at Longbridge serving the car factories.

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11.

Nearby are the ruins of Halesowen Abbey, founded in 1215 by Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester.

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12.

Principal industry of Halesowen was traditionally nail making, an industry that was performed on a small scale individually in the backyards of a large number of nail makers.

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13.

Halesowen had, along with most other areas of the Black Country, a large number of above and underground coal mines.

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14.

In more recent years, the arrival of a junction of the motorway network allowed Halesowen to attract a number of large organisations to the town.

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15.

Halesowen, as mentioned above, is no longer served by a railway station.

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16.

Halesowen is considered one of the largest towns in the United Kingdom without a railway station.

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17.

Newfield Park Primary School primary school located in Halesowen, was built during the 1960s to serve the expanding local area of Hawne.

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18.

In 1972, when still a borough in its own right, Halesowen Council abolished the traditional infant and junior schools and replaced them with first schools for ages 5 to 9 and middle schools for the 9 to 13 age group, but this system was abolished in 1982 and reverted to the previous infant schools for 5 to 7 year olds and junior schools for ages 7 to 11.

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19.

Halesowen area is served by the following local and regional radio stations:.

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20.

Halesowen has a rugby union club called Old Halesonians and a hockey club named Old Halesonians.

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