Friar Park (Wednesbury)
Encyclopedia
Friar Park is an area of Wednesbury
, England
. It was developed by Wednesbury Urban district
council in the 1920s and 1930s to rehouse families from town centre slum clearances. It is situated approximately one mile to the east of the town centre and since the 1960s has stood in the shadow of the M6 motorway
.
There have been some more recent additions to the estate, including Carisbrooke House multi storey council flats that were built in the 1960s. However, these flats were demolished in 2001 in a controlled explosion, one of many tower blocks in the West Midlands
which have been demolished since the 1980s.
Joseph Edward Cox Infant and Junior Schools have served the 5-11 year olds of the estate since 1930s, initially in temporary buildings before a permanent junior school opened in 1934 and an infant school in 1936.
A tragedy struck the estate on 21 December 1977 when a house at 36 School Road caught fire. The fire took place while firefighters were on strike, and the Auxiliary Fire Service
had to deal with the emergency call. The occupant of the house, 31-year-old Mrs Maureen Brazier, managed to escape the fire, but her four children Denise (aged 12), Suzanne (aged 10), Lisa (aged 6) and Tony (aged 4) were trapped inside and burnt to death. Mrs Brazier was rehoused at another council property nearby and the house was demolished, leaving a gap in the middle of the terrace where it once stood.
Friar Park has had a history of high unemployment since 1980, when the nearby Patent Shaft steelworks closed in 1980. At the time of the 2001 census, it was reported that 9.9% of the area's residents were unemployed - well above the national average and slightly above the average for Sandwell
. It has risen considerably since then due to the recession which began in 2008
.http://cmis.sandwell.gov.uk/CMISWebPublic/Binary.ashx?Document=32709
Wednesbury
Wednesbury is a market town in England's Black Country, part of the Sandwell metropolitan borough in West Midlands, near the source of the River Tame. Similarly to the word Wednesday, it is pronounced .-Pre-Medieval and Medieval times:...
, 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...
. It was developed by Wednesbury Urban district
Urban district
In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....
council in the 1920s and 1930s to rehouse families from town centre slum clearances. It is situated approximately one mile to the east of the town centre and since the 1960s has stood in the shadow of the M6 motorway
M6 motorway
The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...
.
There have been some more recent additions to the estate, including Carisbrooke House multi storey council flats that were built in the 1960s. However, these flats were demolished in 2001 in a controlled explosion, one of many tower blocks in the West Midlands
West Midlands (county)
The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...
which have been demolished since the 1980s.
Joseph Edward Cox Infant and Junior Schools have served the 5-11 year olds of the estate since 1930s, initially in temporary buildings before a permanent junior school opened in 1934 and an infant school in 1936.
A tragedy struck the estate on 21 December 1977 when a house at 36 School Road caught fire. The fire took place while firefighters were on strike, and the Auxiliary Fire Service
Auxiliary Fire Service
The Auxiliary Fire Service was first formed in 1938 in Great Britain as part of Civil Defence Air raid precautions. Its role was to supplement the work of brigades at local level. In this job it was hampered severely by the incompatibility of equipment used by these different brigades - most...
had to deal with the emergency call. The occupant of the house, 31-year-old Mrs Maureen Brazier, managed to escape the fire, but her four children Denise (aged 12), Suzanne (aged 10), Lisa (aged 6) and Tony (aged 4) were trapped inside and burnt to death. Mrs Brazier was rehoused at another council property nearby and the house was demolished, leaving a gap in the middle of the terrace where it once stood.
Friar Park has had a history of high unemployment since 1980, when the nearby Patent Shaft steelworks closed in 1980. At the time of the 2001 census, it was reported that 9.9% of the area's residents were unemployed - well above the national average and slightly above the average for Sandwell
Sandwell
Sandwell is a metropolitan borough of the West Midlands with a population of around 289,100, and an area of . The borough is named after Sandwell Priory, and spans a densely populated part of both the Black Country, and the West Midlands conurbation, encompassing the urban towns of Blackheath,...
. It has risen considerably since then due to the recession which began in 2008
Late 2000s recession
The late-2000s recession, sometimes referred to as the Great Recession or Lesser Depression or Long Recession, is a severe ongoing global economic problem that began in December 2007 and took a particularly sharp downward turn in September 2008. The Great Recession has affected the entire world...
.http://cmis.sandwell.gov.uk/CMISWebPublic/Binary.ashx?Document=32709