Oxley is a suburb of

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

, West Midlands, and a

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

of the

City of Wolverhampton Council City of Wolverhampton Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Wolverhampton has had an elected local aut ...

. Its area code is WV10. It is situated in the north of the city, bordering

South Staffordshire South Staffordshire is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. Its council is based in Codsall. Other notable settlements include Brewood, Cheslyn Hay, Coven, Essington, Featherstone, Four Ashes, Great Wyrley, Huntington, ...

and the Bushbury North, Bushbury South and Low Hill, St Peter's and Tettenhall Regis wards. It forms part of the Wolverhampton West constituency.

Name and origins

The place name Oxley has its origins in the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

language. ' Ox' from old English 'Oxa' (for the animal), and 'Ley' from the old English 'lēah' (recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

by the Normans as 'Oxelie'), meaning woodland clearing or meadow. The majority of Wolverhampton's place names are old English (

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

) in origin, and at that time, much of the land was covered in woodland. Cannock forest stretched down through Wolverhampton and would have encompassed the Oxley area – so the name means a clearing in the woodland with the presence of oxen. Up until the 20th century, Oxley was very much a rural area, sitting on the route of the Wolverhampton to

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...

road.

Transport

The borough's western border is also the location of

Autherley Junction Autherley Junction () is the name of the canal junction where the Shropshire Union Canal terminates and meets the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal near to Oxley, north Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. History The Staffordshire a ...

, where the

Shropshire Union Canal The Shropshire Union Canal, sometimes nicknamed the "Shroppie", is a navigable canal in England. It is the modern name for a part of the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company network. In the leisure age, two of the branches of that netwo ...

meets the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal, and of Aldersley Junction, where the

BCN Main Line The BCN Main Line, or Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line is the evolving route of the Birmingham Canal between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in England. The name ''Main Line'' was used to distinguish the main Birmingham to Wolverhampton ro ...

meets the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal. The mainline of the former

Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway The Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway was authorised in 1846. It agreed to joint construction with others of the costly Wolverhampton to Birmingham section, the so-called Stour Valley Line. This work was dominated by the hostile London and North ...

(S&BR) transits the area. In 1907, the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

developed a

railway depot A motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine sheds" or just "sheds". Facilit ...

at Oxley, to replace the existing S&BR shed at

Wolverhampton railway works Wolverhampton railway works was in the city of Wolverhampton in the county of Staffordshire, England. It was almost due north of the city centre, and is commemorated with a small display of level crossing gates and a plaque. Known as the Staff ...

. A standard two-turntable shed, it housed nearly 100 locomotives, mainly freight types for servicing the co-located major freight yard. After allocation to

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

ways

London Midland Region The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England, Wales and Northern Irelan ...

in January 1963, it closed the dilapidated Wolverhampton (Stafford Road) TMD, and moved all locomotives to Oxley from September 1963. The shed closed to steam locomotives from March 1967, redeveloped as a diesel maintenance facility. In 1972 the stretch of railway between Wolverhampton North Junction and Oxley was electrified on the 25 kV overhead line AC system (using catenary designed for low-speed movements only), the first stretch of the former Great Western network to be thus treated. This enabled electric locomotives to work empty coaching stock on

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

services from London Euston that terminated at

. Today

Oxley TRSMD Oxley Traction and Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot is a railway depot located in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, operated by Alstom to maintain Avanti West Coast's British Rail Class 390 ''Pendolino'' stock for the West Coast Main Line. History ...

is operated by

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

to maintain Class 390 ''Pendolinos'' for

Avanti West Coast First Trenitalia West Coast Rail, trading name, trading as Avanti West Coast, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia (30%) that operates the West Coast Partnership. In November 2016, the Department for Tra ...

. Since 2021 Oxley TRSMD has been the home depot for Avanti West Coast Class 805 and 807s. Oxley is well served by buses with

National Express West Midlands National Express West Midlands (NXWM) is bus operator in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. It is a subsidiary of Mobico Group (formerly National Express Group) and is the largest bus operator in the region, as well as one of ...

services 3 and 4 providing a combined 7 minute service between the City Centre and Three Tuns Island. Additional services are operated by Select Bus Service on service 877/878 which runs to

Brewood Brewood is an ancient market town in the civil parish of Brewood and Coven, in the South Staffordshire district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. Brewood lies near the River Penk, north of Wolverhampton and south of Stafford. Brewoo ...

and occasionally to

Modern times

The focal point of Oxley is the Three Tuns Parade, a shopping area on the

A449 The A449 is a major road in the United Kingdom. It runs north from junction 24 of the A48 road at Newport in South Wales to Stafford in Staffordshire. The southern section of the road, between Ross on Wye and Newport forms part of the trunk ...

Stafford Road, adjacent to the boundary with Bushbury North. Principal local landmarks include the two towering railway viaducts crossing the Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line Canal. After car tyre production ceased in 2006, the Goodyear plant went into an almost complete shutdown. Its 81-year-old blue and yellow chimney stack was demolished in June 2008 as part of a regeneration and housing project. A new housing estate was built here from summer 2011https://www.expressandstar.com/money/property/2011/03/02/300-goodyear-homes-on-the-way/ Express & Star - 300 Goodyear homes on the way (02/03/2011) which includes an

Aldi Aldi (German pronunciation: ), stylised as ALDI, is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and ...

and a

Hungry Horse Hungry Horse is a chain of 246 pub restaurants in England, Wales and Scotland which is owned by Greene King. It was first established in 1995 and promotes itself as offering low cost meals for families and groups. The chain launched its vega ...

pub named "The Gatehouse" as it sits on the site of the old Goodyear gatehouse. The Church of the Epiphany is the Anglican parish Church on Lymer Road, the building dates to the early 1960s. Installed within the Church is a fine example of a Compton

Theatre organ A theatre organ (also known as a theater organ, or, especially in the United Kingdom, a cinema organ) is a type of pipe organ developed to accompany silent films from the 1900s to the 1920s. Theatre organs have horseshoe-shaped arrangements of ...

originally installed at the Windsor

Theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

in Bearwood, Birmingham. The local Polish community has its centre and Catholic Church on Stafford Road, Oxley. The suburb of

Pendeford Pendeford is a suburb of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is situated north-north-west of the city centre, within the Oxley, Wolverhampton, Oxley Ward (politics), ward ...

falls within Oxley ward. Wolverhampton Science Park is situated near Oxley's south border, on the site of the old Gas Works at Gorsebrook. Ormiston NEW Academy lies in the ward.

References

Sources

*''Canal Companion - Birmingham Canal Navigations'', J. M. Pearson & Associates, 1989, * https://web.archive.org/web/20120305171636/http://www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/D608419B-8BF8-493F-89B7-204FF5C8306C/0/Oxley.pdf 2001 Census {{Wards of Wolverhampton Areas of Wolverhampton Wards of Wolverhampton City Council Bushbury