|
Amblecote is an urban village in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England. It lies immediately north of the historic town of Stourbridge, extending about one and a half miles from it, and is on the southwestern edge of the West Midlands conurbation. Historically, Amblecote was in the parish of Oldswinford, but unlike the rest of the parish (which was in Worcestershire) it was in Staffordshire, and as such was administered separately. Formerly an urban district in its own right, Amblecote was divided between the boroughs of Dudley and Stourbridge in 1966,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit_page.jsp?u_id=10109048 )〕 with the area to the east of the railway line becoming part of Brierley Hill, and the remainder going into Stourbridge. This is reflected in the area's postcodes, being divided between the DY5 and DY8 postal districts. In 1974, under the Local Government Act, Amblecote became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, which formed part of the new West Midlands county. ==History== Amblecote was a village in Staffordshire near the River Stour, which formed the border with the county of Worcestershire. It was originally part of the parish of Oldswinford, which was otherwise in Worcestershire. It was a separate division for rating purposes from those Stourbridge and Oldswinford (the two Worcestershire divisions of the parish). Since rates were separately collected for it, it became a civil parish in 1894. In 1894, under the Local Government Act 1894, the parish of Amblecote became part of Kingswinford Rural District, but became an urban district by itself in 1898.〔''Victoria County History, Staffordshire'', XX, 49 61-2.〕 The urban district council of Amblecote used to meet in the former "Fish Inn" public house which is now a Chinese restaurant and historic relics of this time remain at the building, such as the civic clock. This civic clock has recently been restored and opened up by Pat Martin, ward councillor in 2009. From the 17th century, there have been glassworks in Amblecote, including Thomas Webb and Dennis Hall, and together with the adjoining village of Wordsley, formed the main centre of the Stourbridge glass industry, now known as "The Glass Quarter". The glass tradition was brought by Huguenot immigrants to the area. Glass is still produced to this day in albeit much reduced numbers following the deindustrialisation of the area in the 1980s and 1990s which saw the closure of many of the larger companies. Other important industries included *Coal and fire clay mining, especially in the north-east of the village; *Fire brick and house brick manufacturing; (George King Harrison & Co.,William King and Co and Pearsons) *Ironworks, particularly the Stourbridge Ironworks of John Bradley & Co, which included the engineering works of Foster, Rastrick and Company, which made the ''Stourbridge Lion'', the first train to run on American railways and the ''Agenoria'', another important early locomotive. *Davits and ship equipment. Agriculture continued well into the 20th century. The ancient Manor House of Amblecote Hall went back to Norman times, and had a farm attached to it. The Hall was probably rebuilt, and perhaps relocated, several times over the intervening centuries, the last Hall was lived in by a number of prominent people throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The Gittins family lived there until the Hall was demolished in 1952 due to mining subsidence. The farm disappeared when the whole area to the east of the Western Fault was open cast mined to extract the coal in the mid-1960s. The parish church of Holy Trinity was begun in 1841, and the church completed in 1842 and consecrated in 1844, being made a separate ecclesiastical parish (a perpetual curacy) in 1845 and then a vicarage in 1868.〔''Victoria County History, Staffordshire'' XX, 62--3.〕 Amblecote Parish Church of the Holy Trinity is almost unique (as is nearby Quarry Bank Church) because it is constructed completely of yellow fire bricks, made by local brickworks (William King and Co) from the local fire clay which, together with thick coal seams, forms the main strata of Amblecote in the east, whilst the new red sandstone underlies Amblecote to the west of the railway line. Local benefactors, such as the Foster Rasterick Ironworks, supplied the iron railings around the perimeter of the church and Amblecote was one of few to retain these railings following World War II when many churches did not keep them. Amblecote was the location up until 2007 of the Corbett Hospital, presented to the local people by the local born (at The Delph) businessman John Corbett. He made his fortune from extracting brine to make salt in his works at Stoke Prior near Droitwich, and who became known as the 'Salt King'. John Corbett visited France extensively in the course of his business, and in Paris he met and wed Anna O'Meara, daughter of an Irish father and French mother. He purchased the Impney Estate, just outside Droitwich Spa, and built a chateau-styled mansion to try to assuage her home-sickness. "The Chateau Impney" was finished in 1875 and cost £247,000 to build. In 1893 he gave "The Hill" to the local people of Amblecote in perpetuity as a hospital, to augment the dispensary in Stourbridge Town Centre, which still remains on the junction of New Road and Worcester Street, which had been the mainstay of local public health before this time. Corbett Hospital was much extended over the years and catered for all hospital functions, becoming a general hospital. It was allowed to become run down in the mid-1980s, as a new hospital Russells Hall Hospital was built in Dudley to cater for all health-care issues in the Dudley MBC area. The Corbett Hospital was demolished in 2006 and replaced with a new Out-Patients Centre containing a wide range of services and also a new children and family centre. In 1966, Amblecote Urban District Council (Stourbridge part) was absorbed into the municipal borough of Stourbridge in Worcestershire and the north-eastern part of the Borough, was incorporated within the County Borough of Dudley as part of Brierley Hill. In 1974, Amblecote and the rest of the Stourbridge borough and the former County Borough of Dudley became the Metropolitan District of Dudley under the two tier county of West Midlands and when the West Midlands County Council was abolished in 1986, the Metropolitan District of Dudley became the unitary Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the metropolitan county of the West Midlands. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Amblecote」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|