Sandwell is a

metropolitan borough A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of districts of England, local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan distric ...

of the West Midlands county in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The borough is named after the

Sandwell Priory Sandwell Priory was a small medieval Benedictine monastery, near West Bromwich, then part of Staffordshire, England. It was founded in the late 12th century by a local landowner and was only modestly endowed. It had a fairly turbulent history and ...

, and spans a densely populated part of the West Midlands conurbation. According to Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, the borough comprises the six amalgamated towns of Oldbury, Rowley Regis,

Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in Sandwell, West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire. In 2019, the ward of Smethwick had an estimated population of 15,246, while the wider b ...

, Tipton, Wednesbury, and West Bromwich, although these places consist of numerous smaller settlements and localities. Sandwell's Strategic Town Centre is designated as West Bromwich, the largest town in the borough, while Sandwell Council House (the headquarters of the local authority) is situated in Oldbury. In 2019 Sandwell was ranked 12th most deprived of England's 317 boroughs. Bordering Sandwell is the City of Birmingham to the east, the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley to the south and west, the

Metropolitan Borough of Walsall The Metropolitan Borough of Walsall is a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Walsall, but covers a larger area which also includes Aldridge, Bloxwich, Brownhills, Darlaston, Pelsall ...

to the north, and the

City of Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

to the north-west. Spanning the borough are the parliamentary constituencies of West Bromwich West, West Bromwich East, Warley, and part of Halesowen and Rowley Regis, which crosses into the Dudley borough. At the 2011 census, the borough had a population of 309,000 and an area of .

History and culture

The Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell was formed on 1 April 1974 as an amalgamation of the

county borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent te ...

s of Warley ( ceremonially within Worcestershire) and West Bromwich (ceremonially within

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...

), under the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

. Warley had been formed in 1966 by a merger of the

of Smethwick with the

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

s of Rowley Regis and Oldbury; at the same time, West Bromwich had absorbed the boroughs of Tipton and Wednesbury. For its first 12 years of existence, Sandwell had a two-tier system of local government; Sandwell Council shared power with the

West Midlands County Council West Midlands County Council (WMCC) was, from 1974 to 1986, the upper-tier administrative body for the West Midlands county, a metropolitan county in England. History The WMCC existed for a total of twelve years. It was established on 1 April ...

. In 1986 the county council was abolished, and Sandwell effectively became a unitary authority. The borough is divided into 24 Wards and is represented by 72 ward

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

s on the borough council. The borough was named after Sandwell Priory, the ruins of which are located in

Sandwell Valley Sandwell Valley is an area of green belt in the county of West Midlands, England, on the border of Birmingham and West Bromwich, with Walsall at its northern end. It is a valley on the River Tame of which are owned by Sandwell Metropolita ...

. The local council has considered changing its name in the past over confusion outside the West Midlands as to the whereabouts of the borough, and in June 2002 a survey of borough residents was carried out. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed favoured retaining the name Sandwell. Landmarks and attractions in Sandwell include

Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery is a purpose-built Victorian art gallery in Wednesbury in the West Midlands of England. It is notable for its Ruskin Pottery collection and for hosting the first public display of the Stuckism art movement. Bu ...

Bishop Asbury Cottage Bishop Asbury Cottage () is a 17th-century cottage on Newton Road, Great Barr, England, known for being the boyhood home of Francis Asbury (1745 – 1816), one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church (now The United Methodist C ...

West Bromwich Manor House Bromwich Hall - The Manor House Museum is an important, Grade I listed, medieval domestic building (a hall house) built by Richard de Marnham around 1270 as the centre of his agricultural estate in West Bromwich. Only the Great Hall surviv ...

, Oak House, West Bromwich, and Sandwell Valley Country Park. It is also the home of

West Bromwich Albion F.C. West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

Sandwell used to be a popular hotspot for car cruising. In 2015 a High Court order was introduced to ban car cruising in the area. An extension has been secured to run until at least 2021.

Demographics

Religion 2021

Politics

Since the council election in 2021, the political composition of the council has been as follows: From the borough's creation in 1974 until 2010, all

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MPs) within its boundaries were Labour. However, in the 2010 general election, Conservative party candidate James Morris was elected to the Halesowen and Rowley Regis seat which incorporates the Sandwell communities of Rowley Regis, Blackheath and Cradley Heath, and the neighbouring area of Halesowen which is situated within Dudley's borders. This was the very first time any part of Sandwell had elected a Conservative MP – or indeed an MP from any party other than Labour. In the December 2019 general election, however, Conservative candidates Nicola Richards and Shaun Bailey were elected to represent West Bromwich East and West Bromwich West respectively. This was the first time since the borough's creation that West Bromwich has returned any Conservative MPs to Parliament, and the first time that a constituency fully within the boundaries of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council has been represented by a Tory MP. The election of both Richards and Bailey has been marked as a significant milestone in the political history of the borough and marked the end to decades of control by Labour MPs.

Wards

The Sandwell Borough is divided into 24 electoral wards, with each one represented by 3 councillors on the borough council: Central Campus, Sandwell College, West Bromwich

Central Campus, Sandwell College, West Bromwich

Education

Sandwell is home to nearly 100 primary schools, 25 secondary schools, 4 special schools and 1 college. The sole further education college in the borough, Sandwell College was opened in September 1986 following the merger of Warley College and West Bromwich College. It was originally based in the old Warley College buildings on Pound Road, Oldbury, and the West Bromwich College buildings on West Bromwich High Street, as well as a building in Smethwick town centre, but moved into a new single site campus in West Bromwich town centre in September 2012. In 2004, a debt-ridden Sandwell College was subject to a police investigation.

Localities

The six towns that comprise Sandwell and localities within each include: ** Oldbury ***

Brandhall Brandhall is a suburb of Oldbury in the south of the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, bordering Birmingham and Halesowen. The development of the area commenced during the 1930s with the construction of several hundred private h ...

*** Langley Green *** Oakham *** Rood End ** Rowley Regis *** Blackheath *** Cradley Heath ***

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 conurbati ...

*** Tividale **

***Albion Estate *** Black Patch & Soho *** Bearwood *** Cape Hill *** Londonderry ***North Smethwick ***

Uplands Upland or Uplands may refer to: Geography *Hill, an area of higher land, generally *Highland, an area of higher land divided into low and high points *Upland and lowland, conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level *I ...

*** West Smethwick ** Tipton *** Dudley Port *** Great Bridge *** Horseley Heath *** Ocker Hill ***

Princes End Princes End is an area of Tipton, West Midlands, England, near the border with Coseley (of which approximately half of the area was part of until 1966), which was heavily developed during the 19th century with the construction of factories. Th ...

*** Summer Hill * West Bromwich ***

Charlemont and Grove Vale Charlemont with Grove Vale is a political ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the English Midlands constituency of West Bromwich East. This Sandwell ward population as taken at the 2011 census was 11,964. The ward is made up o ...

*** Great Barr (although some areas are part of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

and Walsall) *** Guns Village *** Hamstead ***

Hill Top A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not as ...

*** Newton ***

Stone Cross Stone crosses (german: Steinkreuze) in Central Europe are usually bulky Christian monuments, some high and wide, that were almost always hewn from a single block of stone, usually granite, sandstone, limestone or basalt. They are amongst the ...

***

Yew Tree Yew is a common name given to various species of trees. It is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus '' Taxus'': * European yew or common yew ('' Taxus baccata'') * Pacific yew or western yew (''Taxus ...

*** Greets Green *** Hateley Heath ** Wednesbury *** Friar Park

Local places of interest

* The Public, West Bromwich *

Sandwell Aquatics Centre Sandwell Aquatics Centre is an indoor facility located in Londonderry, Smethwick, West Midlands, England. It contains an Olympic-size swimming pool (one of only two in the West Midlands region), a 10-metre diving board with 25 metre pool (the ...

* Sandwell Valley Country Park * RSPB Sandwell Valley * Sheepwash Urban Park * The Hawthorns * Sandwell General Hospital * Sandwell College *

Holly Lodge High School Holly Lodge High School College of Science is a secondary school located in Smethwick, West Midlands, England. Admissions It is located on Holly Lane on the middle point between Smethwick and Oldbury, near West Smethwick Park and West Park R ...

Warley Woods

Twin towns and cities

Sandwell is twinned with: *

Le Blanc Mesnil () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris, between Charles de Gaulle Airport and le Bourget Airport. Name The name Le Blanc-Mesnil was recorded for the first time in the 11th centu ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Amritsar Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

* Zalau,

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

References

External links

Sandwell MBCResearch SandwellSandwell Trends – a Local Intelligence System for SandwellSandwell Building Schools for the FutureSandwell Lions Club
{{Authority control Metropolitan boroughs of the West Midlands (county) NUTS 3 statistical regions of the United Kingdom Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership