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Although the metropolitan county of the West Midlands has only existed since 1974, the settlements within its borders have long been important centres of commerce and industry. The area straddles the historic border between the counties of Warwickshire (Birmingham and Coventry), Staffordshire (the north), Worcestershire (the south). ==Economic history== 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. Birmingham and Coventry became important centres of the car industry from the early 20th century. The Austin car plant was built in 1905 at Longbridge, to the south of Birmingham, and gradually expanded over the next 75 years, but closed down in 2005 on the bankruptcy of MG Rover. Since 2007, part of the former Longbridge plant has been reutilised by new owners Nanjing Automobile for the production of MG cars. Iconic cars to have been produced at the Longbridge plant include the Austin Seven (launched in 1922), the Mini (1959), BMC/BL 1100/1300 saloons and estates (1962) and Austin Metro (1980). Castle Bromwich Assembly was built in the late 1930s for the manufacture of Spitfire aircraft, which continued throughout World War II. Aircraft manufacturing at the plant continued until 1977, when it was sold to Jaguar for car production. The factory remains in use four decades later. Around the same time that the Castle Bromwich Assembly was built, the government built another shadow factory at Solihull, which produced aircraft for the war effort. After the end of the war, the plant was taken over by Rover cars, who relocated from their Lode Lane plant in Coventry. The Land Rover, Britain's first four-wheel drive off-road vehicle, was first produced at the Solihull factory in 1948. The factory expanded and increased in productivity over the subsequent decades to allow for the production of Rover, Land Rover and more recently Jaguar cars. The coal and iron ore deposits of the Black Country area provided a ready source of raw material. The area grew rapidly during the industrial revolution, and by the 20th century had grown into one large conurbation. However, the Black Country's coal mining industry was in decline by the early 20th century and the last coal pit in the area, Baggeridge Colliery at Sedgley, closed in 1968. Heavy industry began to decline in the 1970s and 1980s, with towns including Bilston, Darlaston, Wednesbury, Tipton and Brierley Hill being hit particularly hard by factory closures. However, new lighter industrial began to develop in some of these areas, with a large retail park developing in the north of Wednesbury during the 1990s and a light industrial estate being built in the south of the town. Brierley Hill became home to the giant Merry Hill Shopping Centre, which developed between 1985 and 1990. Many of the former industrial sites in Tipton, however, have been mostly developed for new housing. Coventry was slower to develop, but by the early 20th century had become an important centre of bicycle and car manufacture, soon becoming Britain's most important area for car manufacturing. The city's population soared during the interwar years as a result, and expansion continued after World War II, along with rebuilding which resulted from the city's severe wartime bomb damage. A number of factories were built in the city for the wartime effort, including a Daimler shadow plant in the north-west of the city, which was taken over by Jaguar in 1951 and remained the carmaker's main site until 2005, when the factory was closed and the company concentrated on its factories at Castle Bromwich near Birmingham and the Halewood plant (originally a Ford facility) near Liverpool. The Rootes Group, whose brands including Hillman, Singer and Sunbeam, opened a factory at Ryton to the east of the city at the start of World War II, and in peacetime it was converted for car production. Such was the success of the company in the postwar era that it opened another factory at Linwood in Scotland in 1963, just before its takeover by American carmaking giant Chrysler, but financial difficulties saw the company being taken over by French carmaker Peugeot in 1978. From 1986, the plant was used by Peugeot for production of its own cars after it discontinued the Talbot brand, but in December 2006 the plant was closed down, leaving the city with virtually no car industry remaining. The growth of the area in the 19th century, which attracted thousands of families from rural communities, led to extensive building of houses across the region. Many villages grew into towns, while others swallowed up neighbouring communities. However, this led to overpopulation in many areas, with a large percentage of the region's population living in unfit housing by the early 20th century. This led to the extensive construction of council housing, mostly on new suburban housing estates. Notable developments in the region during this era include Weoley Castle in Birmingham, Low Hill in Wolverhampton, the Priory Estate in Dudley, Friar Park in West Bromwich and Blakenall Heath in Walsall. The region suffered significant air raid damage by the Luftwaffe during World War II, with thousands of buildings damaged and people killed or seriously injured in Birmingham and Coventry, while there was a lesser degree of bomb damage in towns including Dudley, Tipton and West Bromwich. Several of the less densely populated areas, including Sedgley, Stourbridge or Halesowen, suffered little or no bomb damage. The rebuilding of the region continued after World War II. The region's first multi-storey flats were built in the 1950s, although these were mostly built in the larger towns where space for housebuilding was already very limited. Some of the region's population was rehoused in the new town of Telford in Shropshire which was developed mostly in the 1960s and 1970s, or in expanded towns like Redditch in Worcestershire. The largest housing development in the midlands during the postwar era was the Castle Vale estate in Birmingham. Many inner city areas and town centres became less densely populated as a result of this continued regeneration of housing. The area also became connected to the new motorway network in the 1960s, with the M5 motorway terminating between Walsall and West Bromwich, and when completed it gave the region a direct link to areas in the south of England including Bristol and Exeter. The M6 motorway joined up with the M1 motorway to the south, giving the area a direct motorway link to London, and gave a direct motorway link to Liverpool and Manchester in the north. The M42 motorway was developed around the south of Birmingham to serve Birmingham Airport as well as nearby towns including Redditch, Bromsgrove and Tamworth, during the 1970s and 1980s. The M54 motorway, linking the area with Telford, was built around the same time. The M40 motorway was completed in January 1991, giving the area its second motorway link with London, as well as improving its links with the South Coast seaports of Southampton and Portsmouth, along with the university city of Oxford. In 2003, Britain's first toll motorway, the M6 Toll, opened, bypassing the West Midlands to the north. 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「History of the West Midlands」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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