Is Rubery in the Black Country? Consensus is, definitely not.

[Edwardian]

Nothing wrong with Wednesbury.  Having been researching my family tree over the summer, I've found relatives and ancestors from all over the Black Country from Sedgley and Dudley to Wednesbury and Darlaston, but suddenly the previous generation all seem to come from the former iron areas of Shropshire, such as Dawley and Oakengates, clearly having moved to the Black Country as the Shropshire ironworks closed.  Others appear to have been rural workers from Oswestry and Ruyton XI Towns who must have moved to the Black Country as many rural workers did for work, mirroring the progress of the Industrial Revolution.

 

Mind you, one branch of my maternal family which came from North Staffordshire ended up with a first cousin, three times removed, who was the station master at Stone Station on the outbreak of war in 1939.  Also, possibly, I'm the 7x great nephew of Josiah Wedgwood, which I will claim as then I can blag 86 236 as a family loco and a suitable rename for one of my Heljan models...

 

Ah, a legal allusion.  Google "wednesbury unreasonableness", and all will be revealed!

 

Mind you, if you have some drying paint to watch instead, you might not want to bother.

[bike2steam]

My maternal half of the family are deeply rooted in the northern half of the Black Country (the paternal, Essex, and the East end) - yeah what a mix !! That original question would most definitely be welcomed with derision, typical of Black Country 'humour'.

Edited August 17, 2018 by bike2steam

[Giles]

Love Andy's map. After we left Rubery, we went to live just outside Bearwood for six years. I can see our road just off the Hagley road, and both schools I went too.... takes me right back.... not to mention Bearwood Models....

[wombatofludham]

Ah, a legal allusion.  Google "wednesbury unreasonableness", and all will be revealed!

 

Mind you, if you have some drying paint to watch instead, you might not want to bother.

 

Funnily enough I did wonder about the Wednesbury Test of Reasonableness, it was one of the things that we did as part of my Planning degree in the law module.  I must be one of the few who actually quite enjoy reading legal adjudications, in between trying to find second hand lives for sale on eBay.

 

For a little town in the Black Country, Wednesbury has made a name for itself.  It even has a version of the Madison named after it featuring Janice "Oi'll give it Foive" Nicholls

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM8UMwZvjvc

[TheSignalEngineer]

We did indeed.... 96 New Road....

 

Extraordinary coincidence! One might assume that it's the same house? There was a sort of Dance Hall next door at the time, and a Butchers just a little further up.

 

I shouldn't think Rubery has changed so very much, except for expansion.

The same house. Small world.

[Giles]

How wonderful. We were there an out '66 - '69 or so, the vicar being Rev Mark Thompson-McCausland (uncle to Alexander Armstrong) who was and is a wonderful chap. We eventually left and moved to Edgebaston/Bearwood, where Dad became one of the very first worker-priests, taking up a post as an electrical designer at T.I. in Wednesbury. (He was previously a designer at Rayrolles on Tyneside).

[Chris M]

Culturally speaking, Edgbaston/Bearwood is a million miles from the Black Country. I was posh, I was brung up in Bearwood.  

[Giles]

..... boasting its very own ice-rink and model shop. What more could anyone ask for?

[melmerby]

Culturally speaking, Edgbaston/Bearwood is a million miles from the Black Country. I was posh, I was brung up in Bearwood.

Culturally Edgbaston & Bearwood are a million miles apart!

 

Keith

[Oldddudders]

Speaking as one who is monumentally ignorant about the area, I nevertheless know that Rubery Owen, the firm that started BRM, the motor racing team formed in the 1940s, were based in Darlaston.

 

And another irrelevance is that the couple we chatted to in Sherry’s local pub last night here in Torquay, were from Cradley Heath, which may not be a million miles away.

 

And Sherry points out that National Express West Midlands Black Country Travelcard includes all parts of the BC, including Rubery. But then it also includes Stafford, where she used to teach, and no-one is going to suggest.....

[bike2steam]

Speaking as one who is monumentally ignorant about the area, I nevertheless know that Rubery Owen, the firm that started BRM, the motor racing team formed in the 1940s, were based in Darlaston.

 

And another irrelevance is that the couple we chatted to in Sherry’s local pub last night here in Torquay, were from Cradley Heath, which may not be a million miles away.

 

And Sherry points out that National Express West Midlands Black Country Travelcard includes all parts of the BC, including Rubery. But then it also includes Stafford, where she used to teach, and no-one is going to suggest.....

 

I did a technical engineering apprenticeship at the main Darlo works of Rubery Owen, many said I only got it due to my surname ( one for motor-racing history fans there). ROstyle wheels, the first 'sporty' type are known to most motor fans. Oh, and they were one of the original backers to help the Severn Valley Railway to 'get on their feet'.

Andy's map is nearly spot on, but I would also include the area between Short Heath, and Wednesfield, and not just because part of my dear old late mum 's family are partly from that area, but no further north

Edited August 18, 2018 by bike2steam

[wombatofludham]

My late grandfather was a toolsetter at Rubery Owen and used to help train apprentices.  He had the patience of a Saint but even he had to admit defeat trying to teach me how to solder.

There's an interesting local history photo-album book of Rubery Owen which can be purchased from the Black Country Museum.

[wombatofludham]

Culturally speaking, Edgbaston/Bearwood is a million miles from the Black Country. I was posh, I was brung up in Bearwood.

 

When Centro rebuilt the bus station at Bearwood back in the 1990s the contractor had a huge problem trying to break up the concrete running bays as they were to be replaced with asphalt.  Eventually the concrete gave way - to reveal public air-raid shelters underneath!  They had a reinforced roof, which is why they couldn't break through, and Midland Red had just built the bus station on top after the war.  It caused something of a stir with the Twirleys* who could remember them in use.  It looked like the entrance was in the adjacent park but Sandwell had seemingly lost any records of them.  Mind you that's not as bad as the City of Coventry forgetting there was a river running under Pool Meadow bus station.  You'd have thought there was a clue in the name and the history of the site as a pool for breeding fish for the local monastery and the Bishop.

 

* Twirley.  Name coined by West Midlands bus drivers to describe pensioners who arrive at bus stops at 09.27 or thereabouts to ask "Am I too early for my bus pass?"

[E3109]

I wouldn't fret about it too much, home is where the heart is and all that.

 

If you identify as being a Black Countryman then who is anyone else to dispute that?

 

My town is one of the oldest settlements in Lancashire (1274 Charter, Wigan, formerly known as Coccium) yet the clowns in charge have deemed it as 'Greater Manchestershire' since April Fools' Day 1974.

The 'impartial' BBC use the 'GM' tag as a matter of course sadly, nowt against Manchester (which is also within the historical county of Lancashire of course) and nowt against Liverpool either which is also in Lancashire.

 

To wit: administrative areas have booger all to do with historic identity.

It's more about empire building.

[wombatofludham]

I wouldn't fret about it too much, home is where the heart is and all that.

 

If you identify as being a Black Countryman then who is anyone else to dispute that?

 

My town is one of the oldest settlements in Lancashire (1274 Charter, Wigan, formerly known as Coccium) yet the clowns in charge have deemed it as 'Greater Manchestershire' since April Fools' Day 1974.

The 'impartial' BBC use the 'GM' tag as a matter of course sadly, nowt against Manchester (which is also within the historical county of Lancashire of course) and nowt against Liverpool either which is also in Lancashire.

 

To wit: administrative areas have booger all to do with historic identity.

It's more about empire building.

 

There's still a lot of actually quite fierce animosity in the Black Country towards Birmingham.  Unfortunately at a political level it has held back the area and is why the new look West Midlands Combined Authority ended up with such a catchy, attention grabbing name.  Of course the problem with the WMCA and the previous WM County Council is that it includes Coventry, which functionally, economically and culturally has never been part of Birmingham and the Black Country, but was the centre of it's own economic region including Warwick, Leamington, Nuneaton, Meriden, Bedworth and Kenilworth, together with possibly Stratford on Avon.  Even today Coventry has less connection to Birmingham and the Black Country and really should be seen as a separate sub region to reflect the local circumstances.

[sp1]

Interesting to see so many people from the Black Country popping out of the woodwork!

[E3109]

Just to add, and I'm sure this applies equally to the 'West Midlands' [sic] quango.

 

There are bits of what were traditionally affiliated to Wigan that were chopped in two on 1 April 1974.

Billinge, Orrell, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Appley Bridge and so on, to this day these locations find it difficult to fully promote themselves due to the administrative boundaries splitting their areas into two admin zones.

 

Divide and conquer etc

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

...And Sherry points out that National Express West Midlands Black Country Travelcard includes all parts of the BC, including Rubery. But then it also includes Stafford, where she used to teach, and no-one is going to suggest.....

 I shall have to wind the vicar up on this matter tomorrow. She originates from Toadstool Heath or some such, and appears to grade the authenticity of black countryness by how shallowly the foul water drains are buried. Rather like the Yorksiremen contesting their relative poverty as a point of pride, that the pavement outside her parent's house had humps where the foul waste ran (or all too frequently failed to flow) is clearly ultimate authentication of the claim in her opinion.

 

Don't be offended now, how are people with ancestry covering half the globe supposed to have any clue to such miniscule territorial distinctions? Before I met said vicar, on the basis of seeing Stoke on Trent when I was about five, I would have guessed that this was the intended location covered by the term 'Black Country'.

[E3109]

There's still a lot of actually quite fierce animosity in the Black Country towards Birmingham.  Unfortunately at a political level it has held back the area and is why the new look West Midlands Combined Authority ended up with such a catchy, attention grabbing name.  Of course the problem with the WMCA and the previous WM County Council is that it includes Coventry, which functionally, economically and culturally has never been part of Birmingham and the Black Country, but was the centre of it's own economic region including Warwick, Leamington, Nuneaton, Meriden, Bedworth and Kenilworth, together with possibly Stratford on Avon.  Even today Coventry has less connection to Birmingham and the Black Country and really should be seen as a separate sub region to reflect the local circumstances.

I get that, I've nothing against Manchester (worked there for years, as I did in Liverpool) and just to add, I suspect that the good folk from Coventry have never forgiven WMPTE for painting their buses blue when they're supposed to be red and cream.

Same as here when our buses were forced to trade Crimson and White for insipid orange.

[Liam]

For your amusement:

 

 

Taken from the magazine that Virgin produce for the Pendolinos.

[E3109]

For your amusement:

image.jpeg

Taken from the magazine that Virgin produce for the Pendolinos.

Well what else would you expect from the establishment poster boy....

 

The sooner that guy is retired to his island forever the better, the only Interest he has in our country is how much he can milk it for.

 

Many 'metropolitan county' councillors display similar fetishes.

Edited August 18, 2018 by E3109

[tigerburnie]

I worked wi sum ladz from Rudgeley and Cannock, they reckoned folk from the "Black Cuntray" were easy to spot as they had webbed feet so the didn't sink in to the swamp. I don't know about that but those ladz began every sentence with "Yam" so I knew where they came from lol.

Edited August 18, 2018 by tigerburnie

[melmerby]

For your amusement:

 

image.jpeg

 

Taken from the magazine that Virgin produce for the Pendolinos.

Factually incorrect on more than one level.

Being pedantic Birmingham is the UK's largest city & the UK's largest administrative district, population wise.

 

London, as in Sadiq Khan's empire, consists of two smaller cities (Westminster & London) plus several boroughs.

 

Keith

[wombatofludham]

I worked wi sum ladz from Rudgeley and Cannock, they reckoned folk from the "Black Cuntray" were easy to spot as they had webbed feet so the didn't sink in to the swamp. I don't know about that but those ladz began every sentence with "Yam" so I knew where they came from lol.

 

 

[Oldddudders]

I worked wi sum ladz from Rudgeley and Cannock, they reckoned folk from the "Black Cuntray" were easy to spot as they had webbed feet so the didn't sink in to the swamp. I don't know about that but those ladz began every sentence with "Yam" so I knew where they came from lol.

I am reliably informed that Rugeley used to be Ridgelea or Ridgelee, and then Rudgeley. When Sherry taught there she met older residents who still called it the latter. Locals are indeed Yam Yams. One identified himself proudly as such in Lidl in Okehampton the other day.