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Peter Simpson
Peter Simpson recalls growing up in the area, before he left for a life on the high seas.
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For the local historian or researcher, looking through business commercial directories is one route to build up a picture of trade activity in an area.
Thomas William King
Thomas William King was a toll collector for Birmingham Canal Navigations and keen photographer of the canals he worked on.
Percy Eamus
Percy Eamus, who became a Pyrometry Technician at Accles and Pollock, recalls growing up in the industrial heart of the Black Country.
Martin Prestidge
Martin Prestidge has lived in Oldbury since he was three years old. He recalls growing up and going to work in the area.
Terry Daniels
Dr Terry Daniels has spent all his working life in Oldbury. He is Chair of Langley Local History Society and Oldbury Local History Group.
George Piggott
George Piggott worked at Accles & Pollock for the whole of his working life. This written material records his first day at work there in 1928.
John Hutchcocks
John Hutchcocks started work at Accles & Pollocks as an apprentice engineer and draughtsman. He eventually became a Development Engineer overseeing tube production in the sports department.
M.C.L. and Repetition Limited
M.C.L. and Repetition Limited produced a range of bolts, screws, screw machine products, rivets, nuts, eye bolts, washers.
Jackie Adams
Jackie used to live in Brades Village. Her mother worked at Parkes sweet factory, as did two or three aunts.
Dennis Lawley
Dennis Lawley first worked as an apprentice roll turner at Johnsons’ Rolls in West Bromwich. He worked at GKN, then Lucas’s, before coming to work at Metal Sections.
Langley Baths
Langley Baths opened in 1937. It was here in 1949 that the original ‘Made in Oldbury Exhibition of local Industrial Effort’ was held.
Midlands Tar Distillers
By the late 1930s, Midland Tar Distillers’ Organisation had their head office at Oldbury. The tar distillation works closed down in 1972.
Portway Road Brick Works
Sadler & Sons established a brickworks in 1847, proclaiming they were the ‘manufacturer of every description of Staffordshire brindled, red, blue and brown bricks and tiles.’
Langley Maltings
Langley Maltings (also known as Showell’s Maltings) finally closed in 2006. The buildings alongside Titford Canal date from 1870.
Cuxson & Gerrard
Cuxson and Gerrard was founded in 1878 as a manufacturer of surgical dressings. Pioneers in industrial first aid, the company is still a leader in the field today.
Hunt Brothers
Aerial view of Griffin Foundry, 1960. The factory had then been in operation over 100 years as Hunt Brothers, producing metal castings of any shape and size.
Accles & Pollock
Early 1970s view of the Paddock works. Accles & Pollock celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1949 as the largest manufacturer of cold drawn seamless precision tubes in the world.
Brookes
Engineers and iron founders, Brookes made tube-making machinery, multiple punching and angle bending machines, lathes, power presses, drawbenches and nail machinery.
Metsec
Metsec provide specialist cold roll-forming metal fabrications for the construction and manufacturing industries.
Brades Works
William Hunt and Sons, founded in 1782, was the oldest firm of edge tool makers in the area.
Langley Park
Langley Park was established in 1886 by local industrialist Arthur Albright. The park lodge (pictured in this Christmas card by Langley Local History Society) was the home of the park keeper.
Barnford Hill Park
Barnford Hill Park, 29 acres given to the district council by W. A. Albright in 1915.
The Blue Billies
The Blue Billies were landmarks for decades; large mounds of mining and chemical waste blue-grey in colour from contamination, with two pools of noxious liquids.
Birchley Island, M5 Junction 2
Birchley Island sits next to junction two of the M5 motorway, with over 92,000 motorists passing each day.
British Industrial Plastics
British Industrial Plastics is the oldest polymer material manufacturer in the UK, still in operation today.
Whimsey Bridge
Whimsey Bridge, a name given when the canals were first cut, late in the 18th century, was once a hive of activity with canal barges delivering raw materials from the factories and brickyards.
Titford Pools
Rainfall from the Rowley Hills fed water into the pool, which then was culverted to feed Rotten Park Reservoir. A haven for wildlife, the pools are partly covered by an elevated section of the motorway.
Titford Canal
First constructed in 1837, the canal once served the collieries on the Rowley Hills, and Pratt’s Brickyard, as well as the factories and maltings in Langley.
Savacentre
In 1980, retail giant Sainsbury opened one of its first SavaCentre hypermarkets in the town centre. Originally with 65,000 square feet of shop floor, today its boasts 75,000 square feet.
London Works
First established as the Ebenezer Works in the mid-19th century, the London Works was producing 2000 tons of steel a week in 1949, a value of two million pounds a year.
Beetle Products
Beetle Products was set up in 1925 to mould resins made by British Cyanides Co Ltd, its sister company.
Tube Products
Founded in 1929 Tube Products made ‘component parts of motor cars, cycles, perambulators, steel furniture and electrical equipment.’ (Aerial view of the factory, 1935, © Historic England)
John Elwell
John Elwell of Rood End produced agricultural buildings, pillars, fencing, netting, gates and animal troughs, hurdles and shelters.