Brandhall
King's Community Church & Oak Tree Centre
Brandhall is located in West Midlands county
Brandhall
Brandhall
Location within the West Midlands
Population23,084 (2001 Population Census)
OS grid referenceSO990846
Metropolitan borough
Metropolitan county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townOLDBURY
Postcode districtB68
Dialling code0121
PoliceWest Midlands
FireWest Midlands
AmbulanceWest Midlands
List of places
UK
England
West Midlands
52°28′N 2°00′W / 52.47°N 2.00°W / 52.47; -2.00

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

References

  1. ^ "Bacon for 17,666 down on the (civic) farm". Birmingham Gazette. No. 32, 756. 12 May 1949. p. 5. Retrieved 2 January 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  2. ^ "Public notices:Borough of Oldbury". Birmingham Post. No. 29, 168. 8 February 1952. p. 2. Retrieved 2 January 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. ^ Rosser, Anthony N. (1998). The Quinton and Round About. Vol. One. Quinton History Society. pp. 77, 78. ISBN 095343270X.
  4. ^ "History and Community". www.perryfields-pri.sandwell.sch.uk. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  5. ^ "News in brief". Birmingham Post. No. 32, 066 (Midland ed.). 28 July 1961. p. 7. Retrieved 2 January 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ^ "Sir Alfred Owen opens Baptist Church". Birmingham Post. No. 32, 513 (City ed.). 7 January 1963. p. 7. Retrieved 2 January 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ^ "Oldbury". Evening Despatch. No. 13, 838 (City ed.). 2 November 1935. p. 4. Retrieved 3 January 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. ^ "Tories ward off new Labour bid: Brandhall". Birmingham Evening Mail and Despatch. No. 30, 636 (Mid-day ed.). 26 June 1964. p. 4. Retrieved 3 January 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ "Recounts at Smethwick in Warley poll: Results". Birmingham Post. No. 33, 468 (Midland ed.). 4 February 1966. p. front. Retrieved 3 January 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.


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