Place:Amblecote, Staffordshire, England

Watchers
NameAmblecote
Alt namesAmblecoatsource: Family History Library Catalog
TypeVillage, Urban district
Coordinates52.467°N 2.15°W
Located inStaffordshire, England     ( - 1974)
Also located inWest Midlands     (1974 - )
See alsoOldswinford, Worcestershire, Englandancient parish of which it was a part
Halfshire Hundred, Worcestershire, Englandhundred in which it was located
Kingswinford Rural, Staffordshire, Englandrural district of which it was part 1894-1898 (prior to becoming an urban district)
Dudley, Worcestershire, Englandmunicipal borough into which it was partly absorbed in 1966
Stourbridge, Worcestershire, Englandmunicipal borough into which it was partly absorbed in 1966
Dudley Metropolitan Borough, West Midlands, Englandmetropolitan borough of which it has been a part since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Amblecote was originally a village in Staffordshire near the River Stour, which formed the border with the county of Worcestershire. Prior to 1894 it was part of the parish of Oldswinford or Old Swinford, which was otherwise in Worcestershire. Amblecote was a separate division for rating purposes (local taxation assessment based on property) from those for Stourbridge and Oldswinford (the two Worcestershire divisions of the parish). Since rates were separately collected for it, it became a civil parish in 1894. In that year, under the Local Government Act 1894, the parish of Amblecote became part of Kingswinford Rural District in Staffordshire, but became a separate urban district in 1898.

In 1966, Amblecote was divided between the boroughs of Dudley and Stourbridge with the area to the east of the railway line becoming part of Brierley Hill, and the remainder going into Stourbridge in Worcestershire.

Since 1974 Amblecote has been an "urban village" in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England. Dudley Metropolitan Borough covers the former municipal boroughs of both Dudley and Stourbridge.

History

From the 17th century, there have been glassworks in Amblecote, including Thomas Webb and Dennis Hall, and together with the adjoining village of Wordsley, formed the main centre of the Stourbridge glass industry, now known as "The Glass Quarter". The glass tradition was brought by Huguenot immigrants to the area. Glass is still produced to this day in albeit much reduced numbers following the deindustrialisation of the area in the 1980s and 1990s which saw the closure of many of the larger companies.

Other important industries included

  • Coal and fire clay mining, especially in the north-east of the village;
  • Fire brick and house brick manufacturing; (George King Harrison & Co.,William King and Co and Pearsons)
  • Ironworks, particularly the Stourbridge Ironworks of John Bradley & Co, which included the engineering works of Foster, Rastrick and Company, which made the Stourbridge Lion, the first train to run on American railways and the Agenoria, another important early locomotive.
  • Davits and ship equipment.

Agriculture continued well into the 20th century. The ancient Manor House of Amblecote Hall went back to Norman times, and had a farm attached to it. The Hall was probably rebuilt, and perhaps relocated, several times over the intervening centuries, the last Hall was lived in by a number of prominent people throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The Gittens family lived there until the Hall was demolished in 1952 due to mining subsidence. The farm disappeared when the whole area to the east of the Western Fault was open cast mined to extract the coal in the mid-1960s.

Staffordshire Research Tips

Reminder: Staffordshire today covers a much smaller area than formerly. The West Midlands now governs the southeastern corner of pre-1974 Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, although ceremonially still part of Staffordshire, is a unitary authority covering a large well-populated part of the north of the county.

  • The William Salt Library is the reference library in Stafford and is adjacent to the county archive offices. They have an online catalogue of their holdings.
  • GENUKI lists other large libraries in Staffordshire for Wolverhampton, Burton-upon-Trent, Dudley, Walsall, and Sandwell. The last three of these places are now in the West Midlands and may hold items of local interest which are no longer housed in Staffordshire libraries and archives. For example, The Walsall Archives Centre keeps local census records and local church records.
  • The Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry includes Staffordshire in its remit. It has branches in Stoke-on-Trent, Burton-on-Trent and Wolverhampton. Publications are available through the BMSGH shop. Payments accepted by debit and credit card and by Paypal. Other family history and local history societies situated around Staffordshire are listed by GENUKI.
  • The Midlands Historical Data project produces searchable facsimile copies of old local history books and directories of interest to genealogists. It specialises in the three counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire, working closely with libraries, archives and family history societies in the area. Digital images are made freely available to participating organisations to improve public access. Free search index on its web-site to all its books. In many cases payment will be required to see the extract.
  • GENUKI makes a great many suggestions as to other websites with worthwhile information about Staffordshire as well as leading to a collection of 19th century descriptions of each of the ecclesiastical parishes.
  • The FamilySearch Wiki provides a similar information service to GENUKI which may be more up-to-date. An index of parishes leads to notes and references for each parish. The auxiliary website English Jurisdictions can also be helpful.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time has
  1. organization charts of the hierarchies of parishes within hundreds, registration districts (1837 onwards) and the rural and urban districts of the 20th century. They have just announced (August 2015) a future expansion to their data including 2011 census population data and links to post-1974 county organization.
  2. excerpts from a gazetteer of circa 1870 outlining individual towns and parishes
  3. reviews of population through the time period 1800-1960
  • Brett Langston's list of Staffordshire Registration Districts and parishes within each registration district from 1837 to the present can indicate where to find details of civil registration entries since the process began in England.
  • More local sources can often be found by referring to "What Links Here" in the column on the left.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Amblecote. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.