36 Facts About Smethwick

Smethwick is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England.

In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider built-up area subdivision has a population of 53,653.

Smethwick was recorded in the Domesday Book as Smedeuuich, the d in this spelling being the Anglo-Saxon letter eth.

Smethwick was bankrupted in 1855 by the failure of an overseas railway to pay for work done.

The mass council house building of the 1920s and 1930s involved Smethwick's boundaries being extended into part of neighbouring Oldbury in 1928.

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The ethnic minority communities were initially unpopular with the white British population of Smethwick, prompting the election of Conservative Party Member of Parliament Peter Griffiths at the 1964 general election.

The Guru Nanak Gurdwara Smethwick is said to be the oldest and now the largest Gurdwara in Europe.

Smethwick was the first black head teacher in the UK, having been born in Jamaica and moved to Britain with the RAF in 1943.

Oldest surviving building in Smethwick is the Old Church which stands on the corner of Church Road and the Uplands.

Town has often enjoyed a somewhat turbulent political history: Smethwick was created as a separate parliamentary constituency in 1918, having previously been part of the Handsworth constituency.

Smethwick lost to the Labour candidate by 775 votes in a straight fight.

Smethwick is thus the shortest-serving Member of Parliament in British history, if one discounts a few cases of people being elected posthumously.

Labour's victory at the general election would inevitably have seen him appointed as Foreign Secretary in the government led by Harold Wilson; however, Smethwick had attracted immigration from the Commonwealth in the economic and industrial growth of the years following the Second World War and Griffiths ran a campaign critical of the government's policy.

The election of Griffith led to Smethwick becoming famous worldwide as 'Britain's most racist town'.

At the beginning of 1965 Smethwick Council was planning "to purchase all available houses on Marshall Street to prevent their sale to immigrants".

Malcolm X's visit to Smethwick had been organised by a BBC News journalist with a view to X having a debate with Griffiths outside a council house in Smethwick.

Originally a hamlet within the parish of Harborne, Staffordshire, Smethwick was made into an urban district in 1894, and later incorporated as a municipal borough in 1899, and county borough within Staffordshire in 1907 with its base at Smethwick Council House.

In 1966, Smethwick was merged with the boroughs of Oldbury and Rowley Regis to form the new County Borough of Warley, and was transferred into the county of Worcestershire.

In 1888, there had been plans for Smethwick to be incorporated into the city of Birmingham, but the urban district council voted against these plans by a single vote.

Archives for the Borough of Smethwick are held at Sandwell Community History and Archives Service.

Smethwick has a long association with canals, which were the town's first major transport links from a time before decent roads and of course railways.

New Smethwick Pumping Station next to Brasshouse Lane was added later in 1892.

New main line through Smethwick was completed by 1829 and completely bypassed all six remaining locks of the summit with a deep cutting.

In 1995 the line between Birmingham Snow Hill and Smethwick West was restored and a new station called Smethwick Galton Bridge was constructed over both the Snow Hill and Stour Valley lines to provide an interchange.

Smethwick West was due to close when Galton Bridge opened, but due to a legal error British Railways had to maintain a parliamentary train service to the station.

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Smethwick never had its own Corporation Transport Department, like West Bromwich or Birmingham.

Route 34 was the first route in Smethwick to disappear, in 1930; the last tram route was closed in 1939 and replaced by motor buses.

Until the end of the 18th century, Smethwick was largely rural, with farming as the main industry.

Route of the canal, passing through the valley of the Hockley Brook, the boundary with Handsworth on the north side of Smethwick, resulted in most of the heavy industry being located there.

Smethwick demolished Smethwick Hall, on the border with Handsworth, and built his factory, the Cornwall Works, on the site.

Major roadsThe M5 runs along the western edge of Smethwick, passing over the two canals and a railway near Spon Lane.

Smethwick is on both the Hagley Road and Dudley Road bus corridors and the famous Number 11 Birmingham Outer Circle bus routes.

Smethwick has three operational railway stations providing regular local and some long-distance services.

AirportsThe closest airport to Smethwick is Birmingham, which is around 20 miles east at the other side of Birmingham city centre.

Emergency servicesPolicing in Smethwick is provided by the West Midlands Police, who have a police station on Piddock Road just off the High Street.

Smethwick Cricket Club is an amateur cricket club in the town.