Horseley Heath is a residential area of

Tipton Tipton is an industrial town in the West Midlands in England with a population of around 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located northwest of Birmingham. Tipton was once one of the most heavily industrialised towns in the Black Country, w ...

, in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

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 b ...

. It is situated around the main

A461 road List of A roads in zone 4 in Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European isla ...

which links the major townships of

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

and

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

, and stands on the banks of the River Tame. Tipton was one of the most significant towns during the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

of the 19th century and by 1900 was home to numerous significant factories. There was also a railway link which gave passenger services to major towns including

Stourbridge Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The ...

, Dudley, Walsall and

West Bromwich West Bromwich ( ) is a market town in the borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is north-west of Birmingham. West Bromwich is part of the area known as the Black Country, in terms of geography, c ...

. There is a fine

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

building with

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

by Gibbs & Canning, located on the corner of Horseley Heath and Horseley Road and built around 1900. Horseley Heath was the home of Tipton's last remaining cinema, the Alhambra, on Dudley Port, which closed in August 1963. Horseley Heath was one of the most hard-hit areas during the fall of the West Midlands manufacturing industry during the 1980s, with many of its factories closing and no new industries replacing them. Many of the former industrial sites have recently been redeveloped for housing, as Tipton's population has surged by around 30% since 1990. Passenger train services have been absent from Horseley Heath since the mid-1960s, when the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the M ...

resulted in the closure of the local railway station. The line through Horseley Heath remained open to freight trains until 1993, and is set to re-open in the 2020s as the second phase of the

West Midlands Metro The West Midlands Metro (originally named Midland Metro) is a light-rail/tram system in the county of West Midlands, England. Opened on 30 May 1999, it currently consists of a single route, Line 1, which operates between the cities of Birmi ...

. St Martin's Parish Church was opened on Lower Church Lane in 1797, but closed in 1988 after nearly 200 years in use. The church was known locally as the "Pepperbox" due to the dome shaped top of its tower; however this feature was lost when the tower was rebuilt in 1963. It had relocated to that site due to the deteriorating condition of the previous church in Upper Church Lane, where it had been based since the 13th or 14th century. In 2007, the church was converted into a house. Next door to St Martin's, Tipton Police Station was opened in the 1860s, constructed in distinctive Staffordshire Blue Brick. It was completely rebuilt in 2006.

Notable people

Ben Boucher(1769-1851), known as the 'Dudley Poet', was born in Horseley Heath.

References

{{reflist Tipton