  Map sources for Rowley Regis at grid reference SO9687
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Rowley Regis is a town in the Sandwell borough of the West Midlands county, and a part of the Black Country. It started life centuries ago as a small village which surrounded the parish church of St Giles. It began to develop as a town between the two world wars, when thousands of privately owned and local authority houses were built in the surrounding area. During that time, Rowley Regis expanded to coalesce with Blackheath, Old Hill and Cradley Heath. These places were all within the ancient parish of Rowley Regis, which (despite being in Staffordshire) was in the diocese of Worcester. The parish contained the manors of Rowley Regis and Rowley Somery, the latter being part of the barony of Dudley, but the extents of these manors and the relationship between them are not clear. The village sits on Rowley Hill which makes up part of the Rowley Hills famed for the quarrying of Rowley Rag Stone. The present St Giles Church on Church Road is not the first church. It was designed by Holland W. Hobbiss and A. S. Dixon and was built in 1923.[1] The previous church, built in 1904 was burned down in 1913 by arsonists. Prior to that the original church, built in 1840 was found to be unsafe and condemned in 1900. In 1966, Rowley Regis borough merged with the borough of Oldbury and Smethwick county borough to form Warley County Borough. Eight years later in 1974, on the formation of the West Midlands Metropolitan county, Warley merged with West Bromwich County Borough to form Sandwell Metropolitan Borough. Rowley Regis was previously in the county of Staffordshire, but it is now right in the core of the West Midlands conurbation. Being part of the Black Country, locals speak with the traditional dialect, though in a form which is regarded by many as the quickest and the hardest to understand.
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Neighbourhoods
- Rowley Village
- Blackheath
- Whiteheath
- Lion Farm
- Portway
- Ross
- Brickhouse Farm
- Lodgefields
- The Green
Famous residents
- Carlton Palmer - Former England and Sheffield Wednesday footballer
References
- ^ The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, Nikolaus Pevsner, 1963 p89
External links
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| Metropolitan districts | City of Birmingham • City of Coventry • City of Wolverhampton Metropolitan Borough of Dudley • Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell • Metropolitan Borough of Solihull • Metropolitan Borough of Walsall |
| Cities and towns | Aldridge • Amblecote • Bilston • Birmingham • Blackheath • Bloxwich • Brierley Hill • Brownhills • Coseley • Coventry • Darlaston • Dudley • Halesowen • Hampton-in-Arden • Oldbury • Rowley Regis • Sedgley • Smethwick • Solihull • Stourbridge • Sutton Coldfield • Tipton • Walsall • Wednesbury • Wednesfield • West Bromwich • Willenhall • Wolverhampton See also: List of civil parishes in West Midlands |
| Rivers | River Blythe • River Cole • River Penk • River Rea • River Sherbourne • River Sowe • River Stour • River Tame |
| Topics | Birmingham Canal Navigations • Black Country • Centro • History of West Midlands County |
| West Midlands conurbation • Coventry/Bedworth Urban Area • Category:West Midlands | |
