Brandhall Explained

Official Name:Brandhall
Country:England
Region:West Midlands
Static Image Name:King's Community Church - geograph.org.uk - 443241.jpg
Static Image Caption:King's Community Church & Oak Tree Centre
Population:23,084
Population Ref:(2001 Population Census)
Os Grid Reference:SO990846
Map Type:West Midlands
Post Town:OLDBURY
Postcode Area:B
Postcode District:B68
Dial Code:0121
Metropolitan Borough:Sandwell
Metropolitan County:West Midlands
Coordinates:52.47°N -2°W

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 houses along the Hagley Road and Wolverhampton Road, as well as several side roads leading off the main dual carriageways. Oldbury Corporation founded a municipal farm in 1943. In 1949, the farm included a piggery, and fields growing wheat, potatoes, barley, hay, clover and oats.[1] Oldbury Council placed a public notice for the demolition and removal of the farm buildings in February 1952.[2] Most of Brandhall was developed in the 1950s and 1960s, when several thousand council houses, flats and bungalows were built by Oldbury Council on farmland to the south of Brand Hall. The Hall, which had become the clubhouse for Brandhall Golf Course, was demolished. Some of the first families moving on to the estate were relocating from Smethwick.[3] Most of the high and medium-rise flats in Brandhall were demolished in the early 2000s and in their place housing associations built new low-rise homes.

Brandhall (along with the rest of the Oldbury borough, and the neighbouring boroughs of Smethwick and Rowley Regis) became part of the County Borough of Warley in 1966, but this arrangement lasted just eight years until Warley merged with West Bromwich to form Sandwell Metropolitan Borough in 1974.

Perryfields Academy is the area's secondary school and adjoins Perryfields Primary School, which opened in 1956.[4] Brandhall Primary School is on Brennand Road. Brandhall public library opened in July 1961.[5]

The King's Community Church was originally opened as Brandhall Baptist Church by Sir Alfred Owen on 5 January 1963.[6]

Brandhall ward

Brandhall was the name of an electoral ward of Oldbury Municipal Borough from its formation in 1935, when three independents were elected;[7] and a ward of Warley County Borough from 1966 to 1974 following Oldbury's merger with the County Borough of Smethwick and Rowley Regis Municipal Borough. In June 1964, Brandhall ward was described as "a Tory stronghold",[8] and in February 1966 duly elected three Conservatives to the inaugural Warley County Borough council.[9]

Nearest places

Notes and References

  1. News: 12 May 1949 . Bacon for 17,666 down on the (civic) farm . 5 . . 32,756 . subscription . 2 January 2024 . British Newspaper Archive.
  2. News: 8 February 1952 . Public notices:Borough of Oldbury . 2 . . 29,168 . subscription . 2 January 2024 . British Newspaper Archive.
  3. Book: Rosser, Anthony N. . The Quinton and Round About . Quinton History Society . 1998 . 095343270X . One . 77,78.
  4. Web site: History and Community . 2024-01-02 . www.perryfields-pri.sandwell.sch.uk . en-GB.
  5. News: 28 July 1961 . News in brief . 7 . Midland . . 32,066 . subscription . 2 January 2024 . British Newspaper Archive.
  6. News: 7 January 1963 . Sir Alfred Owen opens Baptist Church . 7 . City . . 32,513 . subscription . 2 January 2024 . British Newspaper Archive.
  7. News: 2 November 1935 . Oldbury . 4 . City . Evening Despatch . 13,838 . subscription . 3 January 2024 . British Newspaper Archive.
  8. News: 26 June 1964 . Tories ward off new Labour bid: Brandhall . 4 . Mid-day . Birmingham Evening Mail and Despatch . 30,636 . subscription . 3 January 2024 . British Newspaper Archive.
  9. News: 4 February 1966 . Recounts at Smethwick in Warley poll: Results . front . Midland . Birmingham Post . 33,468 . subscription . 3 January 2024 . British Newspaper Archive.