Withymoor Village
Encyclopedia
Withymoor Village is a residential area of Brierley Hill
, West Midlands
, England
.
It is situated more than a mile south of the town centre, near to the "Nine Locks" as known locally. Withymoor Village is a massive urban agglomeration built between 1971 and 1978 on the site of a former open cast colliery (and before this closed in 1976/7, on the site of redundant farmland, scrub, scrapyards and the Plants Hollow and Gayfield Collieries - Later Phases - Abbots/Tarvin/Marbury Mews/Tilston and Norbury Drives and Turners Lane were all developed on the site of the former William Kings Brick Works, a famous producer of yellow bricks from the local clay which are famously used in Amblecote Church and Quarry Bank Church).
The majority of the urban development in the Village was developed by Bovis Homes. The first phase of development was built by Page and Johnson until their take over by Bovis Homes, who built the remainder of the historic village. Mc Lean Homes built Beechwood Park estate between 1987 and 1989 and Seven Dwellings View in the mid 1990s. There were also minor developments by Cox Homes on Turners Lane (circa 1985) and Kendrick Homes on the entrance of Norbury Drive and on Gayfield Ave around the mid 1980s.
The development consists of approximately 2000 houses and is surrounded by newer development, which is classed as Amblecote and has always historically been classed as Withymoor Village or Lakeside.
A primary School was built in the Village in the late 1970s to take the pressure of the nearby Mount Pleasant School and was named Withymoor Primary School. Around the same time, a doctors surgery and Spar (now Dillons) shop and chemist opened. The local GP was Dr Rigler, who was a well known character. In 1985, a J Sainsbury supermarket opened in the Village in the "Withymoor Centre" along with a Sainsburys Freezer Centre, now a Chinese takeaway and a branch originally of regional newsagent Preedys, now a Choices Video outlet. In 2007, a new doctors surgery was built in the geographic centre of the village, opposite Sainsburys in a better location for transport and parking, which had been a problem.
Its streets include Thornton Drive, Ravensitch Walk, Plants Hollow, Gayfield Avenue and Warner Drive,some of which are named after local curiosities. Gayfield and Plants Hollow are both former coal mines, Ravensitch is named after Wright's Farm off Woods Lane which is nearby and other streets on the site are named after English places (Barsham Drive, Briston Close, Aldeford Drive, Sedgeford Close and trees (Palm Croft, Conifer Close, Fir Croft).
Withymoor Village in its infancy suffered from the effects of its former land use as coal mines and later open cast mining. Mine shafts opened up causing subsidence and even more severe subsidence resulted because Bovis Homes acquired the land from the then National Coal Board who had not fully rehabilitated the site after backfilling when mining operations ceased in around 1976/77. Some properties were large and quite heavy (big 4 bed homes) and also the land beneath was not fully stable and this caused a great deal of subsidence on the estate, with two homes on Gayfield Avenue becoming dangerous for occupation and being demolished (Numbers 325 and 327 Gayfield Avenue) and several others on the later part of the estate from 308 and 303 Gayfield Avenue and all closes suffering from major subsidence and cracking of walls and foundations. Many of these homes received underpinning and pumping up by using concrete sprayed into foundations and many were brought back by Bovis Homes from their original owners and either re-sold or let to them, or sold to other people. Some houses on the village were severely effected by subsidence with underpinning required on several occasions and some even to this day, although many seem to be fine now with time.
Withymoor Village is a modern, vibrant community. It is situated less than a mile away from the Merry Hill shopping centre and there are train stations at Lye and Cradley Heath, only a short distance away, which provide up to 6 trains per hour into Birmingham City.
Brierley Hill
Brierley Hill is a town and electoral ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England. It is one of the larger Black Country towns with a population of 9,631 and is heavily industrialised, best known for glass and steel manufacturing, although the industry has declined...
, West Midlands
West Midlands conurbation
The West Midlands conurbation is the name given to the large conurbation that includes the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton and the large towns of Dudley, Walsall, West Bromwich, Solihull, Stourbridge, Halesowen in the English West Midlands....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
It is situated more than a mile south of the town centre, near to the "Nine Locks" as known locally. Withymoor Village is a massive urban agglomeration built between 1971 and 1978 on the site of a former open cast colliery (and before this closed in 1976/7, on the site of redundant farmland, scrub, scrapyards and the Plants Hollow and Gayfield Collieries - Later Phases - Abbots/Tarvin/Marbury Mews/Tilston and Norbury Drives and Turners Lane were all developed on the site of the former William Kings Brick Works, a famous producer of yellow bricks from the local clay which are famously used in Amblecote Church and Quarry Bank Church).
The majority of the urban development in the Village was developed by Bovis Homes. The first phase of development was built by Page and Johnson until their take over by Bovis Homes, who built the remainder of the historic village. Mc Lean Homes built Beechwood Park estate between 1987 and 1989 and Seven Dwellings View in the mid 1990s. There were also minor developments by Cox Homes on Turners Lane (circa 1985) and Kendrick Homes on the entrance of Norbury Drive and on Gayfield Ave around the mid 1980s.
The development consists of approximately 2000 houses and is surrounded by newer development, which is classed as Amblecote and has always historically been classed as Withymoor Village or Lakeside.
A primary School was built in the Village in the late 1970s to take the pressure of the nearby Mount Pleasant School and was named Withymoor Primary School. Around the same time, a doctors surgery and Spar (now Dillons) shop and chemist opened. The local GP was Dr Rigler, who was a well known character. In 1985, a J Sainsbury supermarket opened in the Village in the "Withymoor Centre" along with a Sainsburys Freezer Centre, now a Chinese takeaway and a branch originally of regional newsagent Preedys, now a Choices Video outlet. In 2007, a new doctors surgery was built in the geographic centre of the village, opposite Sainsburys in a better location for transport and parking, which had been a problem.
Its streets include Thornton Drive, Ravensitch Walk, Plants Hollow, Gayfield Avenue and Warner Drive,some of which are named after local curiosities. Gayfield and Plants Hollow are both former coal mines, Ravensitch is named after Wright's Farm off Woods Lane which is nearby and other streets on the site are named after English places (Barsham Drive, Briston Close, Aldeford Drive, Sedgeford Close and trees (Palm Croft, Conifer Close, Fir Croft).
Withymoor Village in its infancy suffered from the effects of its former land use as coal mines and later open cast mining. Mine shafts opened up causing subsidence and even more severe subsidence resulted because Bovis Homes acquired the land from the then National Coal Board who had not fully rehabilitated the site after backfilling when mining operations ceased in around 1976/77. Some properties were large and quite heavy (big 4 bed homes) and also the land beneath was not fully stable and this caused a great deal of subsidence on the estate, with two homes on Gayfield Avenue becoming dangerous for occupation and being demolished (Numbers 325 and 327 Gayfield Avenue) and several others on the later part of the estate from 308 and 303 Gayfield Avenue and all closes suffering from major subsidence and cracking of walls and foundations. Many of these homes received underpinning and pumping up by using concrete sprayed into foundations and many were brought back by Bovis Homes from their original owners and either re-sold or let to them, or sold to other people. Some houses on the village were severely effected by subsidence with underpinning required on several occasions and some even to this day, although many seem to be fine now with time.
Withymoor Village is a modern, vibrant community. It is situated less than a mile away from the Merry Hill shopping centre and there are train stations at Lye and Cradley Heath, only a short distance away, which provide up to 6 trains per hour into Birmingham City.