West midlands which county

Navigation menu Personal tools Log in. Namespaces Page Talk. Views Read View source View history. This page was last changed on 5 September , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use Privacy Policy. Some content of the original page may have been edited to make it more suitable for younger readers, unless otherwise noted. Coventry was one of England's most important cities during the Middle Ages , with its prosperity built upon wool and cloth manufacture. Birmingham and Wolverhampton have a tradition of industry dating back to the 16th century, when small metal-working industries developed.

Birmingham was known for its manufacture of small arms , whereas Wolverhampton became a centre of lock manufacture and brass working. The coal and iron ore deposits of the Black Country area provided a ready source of raw materials. The area grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution , and by the 20th century had grown into one large conurbation.

Coventry was slower to develop, but by the early 20th century, it had become an important centre of bicycle and car manufacture.

Around the periphery of this area, three other towns remained separate Halesowen , Stourbridge and Sutton Coldfield , while Aldridge and Brownhills joined to form a single unit, called Aldridge-Brownhills. In the same year, a single West Midlands Constabulary was formed for the Black Country county boroughs, whilst Birmingham retained its Birmingham City Police and Solihull continued being policed by the Warwickshire Constabulary.

In , the Local Government Act came into effect, creating the metropolitan county of West Midlands. This area was based on the seven county boroughs and the other non-county boroughs and urban districts around the fringe of the conurbation.

The new area consisted of seven new metropolitan boroughs, with Aldridge-Brownhills added to Walsall; Halesowen and Stourbridge to Dudley and Sutton Coldfield to Birmingham.

A new borough of Sandwell was formed by the merger of West Bromwich and Warley. The actual designation of Warley itself was abolished and the three towns of Smethwick, Oldbury and Rowley Regis reinstated as component parts of Sandwell, although these areas formed the Warley postal district.

Solihull took in much of the suburban fringe to the east of Birmingham, including the former villages of Chelmsley Wood and Castle Bromwich, also Birmingham Airport , and the area of countryside between Solihull and Coventry, whilst Coventry itself received only small changes and Wolverhampton was unaltered.

This led to apart from in the east, with Coventry and the Meriden Gap quite a tightly defined metropolitan border, excluding such places as Burntwood , Bromsgrove , Cannock , Kidderminster , Lichfield and Wombourne which had been considered for inclusion in the West Midlands metropolitan area by the Redcliffe-Maud Report. The reform created the West Midlands County Council that covered the entire area and dealt with strategic issues. A new West Midlands Police service was formed covering the entire area, with the West Midlands Constabulary and Birmingham City Police abolished, and also taking over responsibility from the county forces.

Between and , the county had a two-tier system of local government, and the seven districts shared power with the county council.

Most of its functions were devolved to the West Midland boroughs, which effectively became unitary authorities , with responsibility for most local authority functions. Further boundary changes came into effect in , when part of the Hereford and Worcester parish of Frankley including the south-west part of Bartley Reservoir was transferred to Birmingham and became part of the county.

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