Blakenhall
Encyclopedia
Blakenhall is a ward in Wolverhampton
, England
.
s, some with shop fronts, being built on the Dudley Road (A459) towards Sedgley
, as well as many being built in the side streets running off.
Wanderers Avenue can be found in Blakenhall, the original home of Wolverhampton Wanderers, who regularly played on the adjacent Phoenix Park until 1889. Names of the players can be found on the front of the terraced houses along the street. The club was founded as 'St Luke's Football Club' in 1877, a school side, before merging with another local football and cricket team, 'The Wanderers' two years later to form Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Wolverhampton's very first council houses were built at Blakenhall, on Birmingham Road, in 1902, though it would be nearly 20 years before mass council housing building took place anywhere else in the town.By the 1980s, however, these properties were outdated and they were finally demolished in the spring of 1988.
In 1919, when work began on the Wolverhampton's first major council housing development to rehouse families from town centre slums, a site around Green Lane (later renamed Birmingham Road and Thompson Avenue) and Parkfield Road was included in this development.
In 1960, 1st Blakenhall Scout Group was formed by the late Maurice Lane. Maurice was influential in setting up the group which is still going strong today and still recruiting young people aged 6-14. Although Scouting has changed somewhat since the days 1st Blakenhall has formed the group now meet at St Johns Methodist Church near to the Fighting Cocks crossroads and is open to both male and females in the Blakenhall area.
The next major development in Blakenhall took place in the 1960s when several tower block
s were constructed. The tallest of these tower blocks, Cobden House, was demolished by a controlled explosion in August 2002. Two smaller tower blocks were cleared in mechanical demolitions during 2007. The final tower block, Phoenix Rise, was demolished in the spring of 2011.
On 8 July 1996, as nationally reported in the news, a machete
attack took place at St Luke's Nursery School in Blakenhall, when 33-year-old Horrett Campbell ran riot - stabbing 21-year-old nursery nurse Lisa Potts
and six children aged between two and four years. Campbell was later convicted on seven counts of attempted murder and sentenced to indefinite detention in a mental hospital
, while Lisa Potts was awarded the George Medal
for her bravery. Campbell is still in prison, eleven years after his arrest.
City Council and forms part of the Wolverhampton South East constituency. The ward also covers the suburb of Goldthorn Park
, immediately to the south, and part of Graiseley
. It borders Penn
, Graiseley
, St Peter's
, Ettingshall
and Spring Vale
wards, as well as (briefly) South Staffordshire
and the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley
.
Blakenhall's community is of predominantly Indian ethnicity (45.6% of the population) which settled into the area in the two decades following the Second World War. The Sikh
Guru Nanak Gurdwara
occupies the site of a former Corona drinks factory and has at times been able to claim to be the largest Gurdwara in Europe.
Blakenhall is one of the most deprived districts of Wolverhampton, although it has improved slightly since the 1990s due to its designation as an ABC Regeneration Area. A similar initiative covers the neighbouring All Saints
district.
The Royal Wolverhampton School
is situated in Blakenhall ward, as are Colton Hills and Parkfields secondary school
s.
The regeneration of Blakenhall has seen the demolition of most of the multi-storey blocks in the area since 2002, including the Blakenhall Gardens flats. The final tower block is scheduled for demolition during 2010. All of these flats were built in the 1960s. However, the shops and (currently disused) public house that were built at the same time as part of the complex are still standing.
pub) and 'Billa's Bar' (formerly The Fermentine & Firkin) are all on the Dudley Road A459. Tucked away on Pool Street is 'The Yew Tree Inn' (a Desi
pub), and on Cartwright Street is 'The Crown'. Previously in the area - in fact, lending its name to the area south of Blakenhall, was the 'Fighting Cocks', and the 'Foresters Arms' on Grove Street is still standing, but is closed. The 'Glassey Inn' has now been demolished, and the new Blakenhall Community and Healthy Living Centre, operated by Wolverhampton City Council, stands in its place.
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Toponymy and history
Blakenhall's name, according to topynmists comes from the Old English 'blæc', meaning 'black' or dark coloured, & 'halh' meaning 'nook' or 'corner'. It was developed during the late 19th century just south of the town centre, with hundreds of terraced houseTerraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
s, some with shop fronts, being built on the Dudley Road (A459) towards Sedgley
Sedgley
Sedgley is an urban village within the West Midlands county of England. Historically a part of Staffordshire, Sedgley was formerly an ancient manor composed of several smaller villages, including Gornal, Gospel End, Woodsetton, Ettingshall, Coseley and Brierley...
, as well as many being built in the side streets running off.
Wanderers Avenue can be found in Blakenhall, the original home of Wolverhampton Wanderers, who regularly played on the adjacent Phoenix Park until 1889. Names of the players can be found on the front of the terraced houses along the street. The club was founded as 'St Luke's Football Club' in 1877, a school side, before merging with another local football and cricket team, 'The Wanderers' two years later to form Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Wolverhampton's very first council houses were built at Blakenhall, on Birmingham Road, in 1902, though it would be nearly 20 years before mass council housing building took place anywhere else in the town.By the 1980s, however, these properties were outdated and they were finally demolished in the spring of 1988.
In 1919, when work began on the Wolverhampton's first major council housing development to rehouse families from town centre slums, a site around Green Lane (later renamed Birmingham Road and Thompson Avenue) and Parkfield Road was included in this development.
In 1960, 1st Blakenhall Scout Group was formed by the late Maurice Lane. Maurice was influential in setting up the group which is still going strong today and still recruiting young people aged 6-14. Although Scouting has changed somewhat since the days 1st Blakenhall has formed the group now meet at St Johns Methodist Church near to the Fighting Cocks crossroads and is open to both male and females in the Blakenhall area.
The next major development in Blakenhall took place in the 1960s when several tower block
Tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, office tower, apartment block, or block of flats, is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building...
s were constructed. The tallest of these tower blocks, Cobden House, was demolished by a controlled explosion in August 2002. Two smaller tower blocks were cleared in mechanical demolitions during 2007. The final tower block, Phoenix Rise, was demolished in the spring of 2011.
On 8 July 1996, as nationally reported in the news, a machete
Machete
The machete is a large cleaver-like cutting tool. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though it is less commonly known...
attack took place at St Luke's Nursery School in Blakenhall, when 33-year-old Horrett Campbell ran riot - stabbing 21-year-old nursery nurse Lisa Potts
Lisa Potts
Lisa Potts GM is a former nursery teacher noted for saving her school children's lives from a machete attack by a man with severe paranoid schizophrenia on July 8, 1996 at the St Luke's Primary School in Blakenhall, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. Her arm was almost severed in the attack...
and six children aged between two and four years. Campbell was later convicted on seven counts of attempted murder and sentenced to indefinite detention in a mental hospital
Mental Hospital
Mental hospital may refer to:*Psychiatric hospital*hospital in Nepal named Mental Hospital...
, while Lisa Potts was awarded the George Medal
George Medal
The George Medal is the second level civil decoration of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth.The GM was instituted on 24 September 1940 by King George VI. At this time, during the height of The Blitz, there was a strong desire to reward the many acts of civilian courage...
for her bravery. Campbell is still in prison, eleven years after his arrest.
Today
The ward serves WolverhamptonWolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
City Council and forms part of the Wolverhampton South East constituency. The ward also covers the suburb of Goldthorn Park
Goldthorn Park
Goldthorn Park is a suburb of Wolverhampton, West Midlands. It is situated to the south of the city centre within the Blakenhall ward.It mostly consists of nearly 2,000 private houses built in the 1920s and 1930s housing...
, immediately to the south, and part of Graiseley
Graiseley
Graiseley is both an inner-city area of Wolverhampton, situated immediately to the south-west of the city centre, and the name of a ward of Wolverhampton City Council.-Place-name:...
. It borders Penn
Penn, West Midlands
Penn is an area now divided between Wolverhampton in the West Midlands and South Staffordshire. Originally, it was a village in the historic county of Staffordshire. There is considerable confusion about exactly which areas fall within Penn...
, Graiseley
Graiseley
Graiseley is both an inner-city area of Wolverhampton, situated immediately to the south-west of the city centre, and the name of a ward of Wolverhampton City Council.-Place-name:...
, St Peter's
St Peter's ward, Wolverhampton
St Peter's is a ward of Wolverhampton City Council, West Midlands. It has two parts: the city centre , and the inner-city areas immediately to the north and north-west, including Dunstall Hill and part of Whitmore Reans.It is bordered by the wards of Bushbury South and Low Hill, Heath Town, East...
, Ettingshall
Ettingshall
Ettingshall is an area of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, and is a ward of Wolverhampton City Council.-History:Ettingshall was mentioned as an ancient manor in the Domesday Book of 1086...
and Spring Vale
Spring Vale
Spring Vale is a ward of Wolverhampton City Council, West Midlands, England. It is situated SSE of the city centre, on the city's border with the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley.-Geography:...
wards, as well as (briefly) South Staffordshire
South Staffordshire
South Staffordshire is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. The district lies to the north and west of Wolverhampton and the West Midlands, bordering Shropshire to the west and Worcestershire to the south...
and the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley
Metropolitan Borough of Dudley
The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley is a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It was created in 1974, and is made up of the towns of Dudley , Stourbridge , Halesowen, Brierley Hill, Amblecote, Sedgley and Coseley...
.
Blakenhall's community is of predominantly Indian ethnicity (45.6% of the population) which settled into the area in the two decades following the Second World War. The Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
Guru Nanak Gurdwara
Gurdwara
A Gurdwara , meaning the Gateway to the Guru, is the place of worship for Sikhs, the followers of Sikhism. A Gurdwara can be identified from a distance by tall flagpoles bearing the Nishan Sahib ....
occupies the site of a former Corona drinks factory and has at times been able to claim to be the largest Gurdwara in Europe.
Blakenhall is one of the most deprived districts of Wolverhampton, although it has improved slightly since the 1990s due to its designation as an ABC Regeneration Area. A similar initiative covers the neighbouring All Saints
All Saints, Wolverhampton
All Saints is an inner city area of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. It is situated immediately to the south-east of the city centre, in the city council's Ettingshall ward....
district.
The Royal Wolverhampton School
Royal Wolverhampton School
The Royal Wolverhampton School began life as The Wolverhampton Orphan Asylum in 1850. It was founded by John Lees, a local lock-manufacturer and freemason, after a cholera epidemic ravaged the town and left many children orphaned...
is situated in Blakenhall ward, as are Colton Hills and Parkfields secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
s.
The regeneration of Blakenhall has seen the demolition of most of the multi-storey blocks in the area since 2002, including the Blakenhall Gardens flats. The final tower block is scheduled for demolition during 2010. All of these flats were built in the 1960s. However, the shops and (currently disused) public house that were built at the same time as part of the complex are still standing.
Public houses
Of Blakenhall's pubs, only a handful remain. 'The Old Ash Tree', 'The Kings Arms', 'The British Queen' (now a DesiDesi
Desi or Deshi refers to the people, cultures, and products of the Indian subcontinent and, increasingly, to the people, cultures, and products of their diaspora. Desi countries include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh...
pub) and 'Billa's Bar' (formerly The Fermentine & Firkin) are all on the Dudley Road A459. Tucked away on Pool Street is 'The Yew Tree Inn' (a Desi
Desi
Desi or Deshi refers to the people, cultures, and products of the Indian subcontinent and, increasingly, to the people, cultures, and products of their diaspora. Desi countries include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh...
pub), and on Cartwright Street is 'The Crown'. Previously in the area - in fact, lending its name to the area south of Blakenhall, was the 'Fighting Cocks', and the 'Foresters Arms' on Grove Street is still standing, but is closed. The 'Glassey Inn' has now been demolished, and the new Blakenhall Community and Healthy Living Centre, operated by Wolverhampton City Council, stands in its place.