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Rowley Regis in 1872

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John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales - 1870-2


ROWLEY-REGIS, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in Dudley district, Stafford. The village stands adjacent to the Birmingham and Stourbridge railway, near the Birmingham canal, 3 miles SE of Dudley; and has a station on the railway, a post-office under Dudley, and a police station. The parish contains also the villages or hamlets of Cradley-Heath, Old Hill, Reddall-Hill, and Tividale. Acres, 3,503. Real property, £98,550; of which £44,234 are in mines, £320 in quarries, £32,699 in iron-works, and £356 in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 14, 249; in 1861, 19,785. Houses, 3,685. The increase of pop. arose from the extension of mining operations, and of iron manufacture.

There are several good residences. The Rowley hills diversify the surface; rise to an altitude of nearly 900 feet; and send off streams in opposite directions, towards the Trent and the Severn. Coal, ironstone, building-stone, and excellent clay abound. Iron-works at Corngreaves and Cradley are of great extent; and steel-works, hardware manufactories, agricultural implement works, tile-kilns, and malting establishments, in various parts, employ very many hands.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester. Value, £300. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church comprises nave, aisles, and chancel; and has a tower, rebuilt in 1858. The perpetual curacy of Reddall-Hill is a separate benefice. Value, £300. There are chapels for Baptists, Wesleyans, Primitive Methodists, and New Connexion Methodists, two endowed schools with £73 a year, a large school erected by the New British Iron company, a national school, and charities £60 A Wesleyan chapel at Rowley village was erected in 1863. The sub-district is conterminate with the parish.

An 1872 Gazetteer description of the following places in Rowley Regis is to be found on a supplementary page.

  • Reddal-Hill
  • Tividale
[Description(s) from The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72) - Transcribed by Mike Harbach ©2020]