Tipton - History

History

Until the 18th century, Tipton was a collection of small hamlets. Industrial growth started in the town when ironstone and coal were discovered in the 1770s. A number of canals were built through the town and later railways, which greatly accelerated the pace of industrialisation.

The engineer James Watt built his first steam engine in or very near Tipton in the 1770s, which was used to pump water from the mines. In 1780, James Keir and Alexander Blair set up a chemical works there, making vast quantities of alkali and soap.

The massive expansion in iron and coal industries led to the population of Tipton expanding rapidly through the 19th century, going from 4,000 at the beginning of the century to 30,000 at the end. Tipton gained a reputation as being "the quintessence of the Black Country" because chimneys of local factories belched heavy pollution into the air, whilst houses and factories were built side by side. Most of the traditional industries which once dominated the town have since disappeared.

The Black Country Living Museum in nearby Dudley re-creates life in the early 20th century Black Country, in original buildings which have been painstakingly rebuilt and furnished. There is a residential canal basin at the museum - Tipton was once known as the Venice of the Midlands because it had so many canals, although some of the 'minor' canals in the town were filled-in during the 1970s. The canals today form a vital cycling, wildlife and leisure facility.

The area has a distinctive spoken dialect, different from the Birmingham accent. The richest of Tipton speech is very similar to that which Shakespeare, or even Chaucer, would have spoken. Those who grew up here can often tell the difference between Tipton speech and the speech of people from other Black Country towns.

The town has retained a traditional horse-keeping culture; private horses are kept freely on public land and are occasionally 'trotted' on roads (pulling a rider on a lightweight racing cart). There are also "tatters" (i.e. rag-and-bone men), who also have links to the horse culture. Despite persistent council attempts to clear horses off public land, horses still appear in parks and on canal banks from time to time.

During World War II (1939-1945), there were a number of air raids on the town. On 19 November 1940, a man was killed by a Luftwaffe bomb which was dropped in Bloomfield Road and destroyed several buildings including The Star public house; this was rebuilt after the war but demolished in 1996. On 17 May 1941, six people died in an air raid in New Road, Great Bridge, which killed six people including a local doctor. The Tipton Tavern (later rebuilt as the Hallbridge Arms) and New Road Methodist Church was destroyed and a number of nearby houses were damaged. Aside enemy action, on 21 December 1940 a tragedy struck at the Boat Inn, Tividale. A stray anti-aircraft shell fired from a gun on the Dudley-Rowley Regis border fell on the public house during the wedding reception of Sidney Jones and Florence Pottinger. 13 people died as a result of their injuries, including the bride and her younger brother David; eight of the victims were from Tipton. The groom lost both of his legs and many other people were injured as a result. The pub was later completely rebuilt, only to be demolished in 2004. A total of 20 people died as a result of air raids in Tipton during the war.

Until 1966, the town had its own council. The Urban District Council of Tipton was formed in 1894 but received County Borough status in 1938.

The headquarters were originally based in a 19th century building on Owen Street, near the railway station, until 1935 when it relocated to the former Bean offices site on Sedgley Road West, straddling the border with Coseley. The council remained at this site for the next 31 years, until the dissolution of the borough council in April 1966. The building was later taken over by Dudley College who retained it until about 1993. It has since been occupied by various businesses.

The bulk of the Tipton borough was absorbed into an expanded West Bromwich borough, although a fragment of the town near the border with Coseley (including the former council offices and the bulk of the new Foxyards housing estate) was absorbed into Dudley and most of the Tividale area became part of the new County Borough of Warley. In this reorganisation, the township of Tipton was expanded around Princes End to take over a section of the former Coseley urban district.

Since 1974, Tipton has been part of the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, which was created by a merger of the former West Bromwich and Warley boroughs.