Old Hill

Old Hill is a small village in the metropolitan borough of Sandwell in the West Midlands, England, situated around north of Halesowen and south of Dudley. Initially a separate village it is now part of the much larger West Midlands conurbation.

History

Old Hill was historically in the urban district and later county borough of Rowley Regis, in the county of Staffordshire. However, local government reorganisation in 1966 saw it become part of the new County Borough of Warley, and transferred into the county of Worcestershire. This arrangement lasted until 1974, when it became part of the borough of Sandwell in the newly-created West Midlands county.

Old Hill's commercial centre was by-passed with the construction of a new single-carriageway road (Heathfield Way) which opened on 7 December 1990, relieving the centre of some of its heavy congestion. A rerouted section of Highgate Street, completed in 1988, formed the first phase of the by-pass.

General Facilities

Old Hill High Street is home to several takeaways, ladies clothes shop, pet food shop, former butchers, KFC (opened in 2005 on the site of a former public house) and six different churches. Old Hill has undergone redevelopment.
Old Hill Police station stands on the Halesowen Road (Closed 2018).

The Eliza Tinsley factory was sold off in 2005 due to the firm's financial difficulties, demolished, and replaced by housing on Tinsley Avenue.

The Cook Shop is the longest serving business in Old Hill and in 2010 celebrated its 120th anniversary under the ownership of the same family. It closed in 2014

Old Hill's market hall closed down in 2006. In December 2010 it reopened as a Costcutter store.

The old Plaza bingo hall, formerly a theatre, has been redeveloped and reopened April 2010. The building now called the Plaza was originally The Grand, a cinema, and then became the Plaza, a dance hall where many stars of the day performed including The Beatles, Joe Brown and Lulu. When it first opened only soft drinks and snacks were available at the 'bar'.

The Waterfall Pub on Waterfall Lane is regularly included in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide.

Sporting Facilities

Old Hill Cricket Club's ground is found next to Haden Hill Park.

Haden Hill Leisure Centre offers a range of sporting facilities including a gym, swimming pools and squash courts.

Housing

In 1945 prefabs were built in Cherry Orchard and Spring Meadow to house young families. Although meant to be temporary they were much loved family homes for twenty years or more, until replaced by more modern housing.

The Riddins Mound council estate was built near the Halesowen Road railway overbridge in the 1960s. The estate provided 547 homes, 288 of which were in three 16-storey tower blocks, with the remainder spread across seven three-storey blocks of flats, nine maisonette blocks and four bungalows. However, the estate had fallen into decline by the early 1990s, and in August 1996 one of the tower blocks was demolished in a controlled explosion. The remaining properties have been refurbished and community facilities improved.

Notable buildings

Haden Hill House, a Victorian gentleman's residence and Haden Old Hall are set in a municipal park to the south of the town centre. Both are in the ownership of Sandwell Borough Council and are open to the public.

The Church of the Holy Trinity and a former butcher's shop at 191 Halesowen Road are grade II listed. The latter's listing in 2005 concludes:

Schools and education

Ormiston Forge Academy, (formerly Heathfield Foundation Technology College, and previously Heathfield High School) was built during the 1970s on Wright's Lane and is the only secondary school in Old Hill and Cradley Heath. A new technology block and a sports hall had been added by 1988.

Old Hill has three primary schools:
* Old Hill Primary School and Nursery is next to Holy Trinity Church on Lawrence Lane/Halesowen Road.
* Redall Hill Primary School and Nursery on Mace Street/Trinity Street is housed in the buildings of the former Macefields Secondary School, which date from 1891.
* Temple Meadow Primary School and Nursery is on Wright's Lane and Clifton Street; two buildings have datestones of 1898.

Transport

Old Hill is served by Old Hill railway station on the main line from Birmingham, Snow Hill to Stourbridge.

Buses run to Halesowen, Dudley, Walsall, West Bromwich, Birmingham and Merry Hill Shopping Centre.

A branch of the Dudley Canal passes to the east of the town.

Notable people

Old Hill is the birthplace of cricketer Eric Hollies and his father Billy Hollies, one of the last of the underarm bowlers in League cricket. Comedian/comic actress Josie Lawrence, a star of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and EastEnders, and has topped the bill in London's West End was also born here.

Places of worship

Holy Trinity Parish Church stands at the junction of Lawrence Lane and Halesowen Road (the main street). This grade II listed church was completed circa 1875 and is built of snecked rock-faced red sandstone.

Almost opposite the parish church on Halesowen Road are the Kingdom Hall of Jehova's Witnesses and the Old Hill Masjid, the latter occupying the former Zion's Hill Methodist Church Sunday School building.

Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church was founded in the 1920s in a disused button factory, utilised until a new church was built in the late 1970s. The new church was blessed by the Most Reverend Maurice Couve de Murville, Seventh Archbishop of Birmingham, on 13 October 1988 and was later consecrated by the Right Reverend David McGough, Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham, 1 November 2008.

The Methodists meet at a building on the corner of Lawrence Lane and Clyde Street, built after several other congregations amalgamated. St James Wesleyan Reform Union church is on Highgate Street.

Spring Meadow Baptist Church (or Chapel) was established in 1841, thus preceding Holy Trinity Parish Church, and greatly extended in 1864. A number of members and congregation from Spring Meadow left in 1902 to form the Ebenezer Strict Baptist Chapel, and opened a new church building on Station Road in 1904.

Former

The Macefield Mission building in Claremont Street has a datestone of 1904. The Mission had vacated the building prior to February 2022.

Notes

References

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Areas of Sandwell