Rowley Regis and Blackheath

[Neville Bastable]

Using the traditional labelling, firstly Rowley Village (“capital” of the ancient parish of Rowley Regis) has changed beyond recognition since the1950’s when I had a girlfriend in the area and Blackheath a town only created in the mid 19th Century can be a little confusing to the non locals as just beyond the High Street comes the old Staffordshire/Worcestershire border and Rowley Regis in the District of Sandwell becomes Halesowen (Hill and Cakemore) in the District of Dudley, even the church St Pauls built 1869 to form the new ecclesiastical parish I think doesn’t quite make it, although it should be said that well beyond this point always used to be described as Blackheath.

[Rob]

When i was a kid coming from Oldbury ,Rowley Regis started just past The New Hotel (now called The Whiteheath Tavern)
I think one side of Oldbury Road (the left hand side) was Oldbury and the other Rowley Regis right up to Mincing Lane.
My grandparents lived in Throne Road and that was Rowley Regis but behind them was Lion Farm and that was Oldbury.Very confusing!!

[linell]

Rowley Regis, a village and a parish in Staffordshire;. The village stands near the Birmingham and Dudley Canal, 3 miles SE of Dudley, and has a station, called Rowley Regis and Blackheath, on the Birmingham and Stourbridge extension of the G.W.E. and L. & N.W.R., and a post, money order, and telegraph office under Dudley. The parish contains also the villages or townships of Blackheath, Cradley Heath, Old Hill, and Tividale. Acreage, 3828; population of the civil parish, 30,791; of the ecclesiastical, 4857. The parish is governed by an urban district council, and is divided into five wards - Old Hill, returning four members to the council; Cradley Heath, four; Rowley Regis, three; Blackheath, two; and Tividale, two. It is the head of a petty sessional division; the offices of the council and the sessions-house are at Old Hill. The Rowley Hills diversify the surface, rise to an altitude of nearly 900 feet, and send off streams in opposite directions toward the Trent and the Severn. Coal, ironstone, building-stone, and excellent clay abound. Ironworks, steelworks, collieries, potteries, hardware manufactories, nailworks, agricultural implement works, tile-kilns, and malting establishments in various parts, give employment to the greater part of the population. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester; net value, £432 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church was originally Early English, and was rebuilt in 1840, the tower being rebuilt in 1858. The nave was condemned as unsafe in 1894, and the church closed for worship. It is situated on the top of Rowley Hill, and contains a Norman font. Blackheath, Old Hill, Reddall Hill, and Tividale form separate ecclesiastical parishes. There are Baptist, New Connexion, and Primitive Methodist and Wesleyan chapels.

Notes
Rowley Village lies clustered round the church on the southern approach to the Rowley Hills. During the 19th century, most of the villages were engaged either in the traditional Black Country trades of nail- or chain-making, or in the peculiar local craft of making Jews' harps: "All the Jews' harps in the world were once made round Rowley" [Drabble]. Houses usually had a small forge in place of a wash-house and much of the work was carried out by women, or by children. only whose fingers were delicate enough to work on fusee chains.

Until the 19th century, Rowley church was a chapel of ease belonging to the parish of Clent. The distance between the two (some 9 kilometres) gave rise to much inconvenience, particularly with the growth in the population of Rowley. They were separated by a Private Act of Parliament in 1841, largely through the efforts of George Barrs, the curate of Rowley Regis. Barrs was also responsible for the replacement of the original 13th century church with a larger building in 1840, and the selling-off of the glebe lands, leading to the development of Blackheath. The second church was badly affected by mining subsidence, and had to be closed in 1894; although part of the tower was incorporated in the third church, opened in 1904. This was destroyed by fire in 1913, arson being suspected, and suffragettes blamed. Proof was not forthcoming, and the fire remains a mystery.

Prior to the 1840s, Blackheath or Bleak Heath as it was more commonly known, was a place of little significance, living up to its name. It was the site of a few farms and the meeting point of several roads. The sale of the glebe lands, however, led to a growth in coal and ironstone mining, brick-making, and other industries, and a population surge. The businesses were mostly in the hands of enterprising locals; such as Joseph Hackett, who turned his farmstead into the George and Dragon public house, and aquired an interest in the coal mining and brickmaking industries. Many of the labourers in the new industries had been agricultural labourers, but they were soon joined by immigrants, particularly from the South Wales coalfields. By the time St Pauls Church was built in 1869, the population had grown to some 5000. As F W Hackwood, the local historian, observed: "Blackheath, the daughter, has far outstripped Rowley, the parent".

Blackheath had the appearance of a typical industrial town, with long streets of well patronised shops, and cramped rows of cottages where most of the population lived. A draper named Joseph Connop built a large house and shop on the corner of Halesowen Street and High Street in 1865, on the site of a saw mill on the edge of the heath. The area is known today as Connops Corner.

The Stourbridge Extension railway, from Galton Junction in Smethwick to Old Hill, opened in 1867, completing a through route from Birmingham to Worcester. The line reached its summit near Blackheath, passing through the 896 yard tunnel beneath the southern reaches of the Rowley Hills before descending to Old Hill.