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Bromsgrove

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Bromsgrove is the major town in the Bromsgrove District Council area in the north east of Worcestershire, England. It is the main settlement in the district.

Contents

Background

Bromsgrove currently has a fast growing population with its excellent links to the A38 that cuts through the town, the M5 motorway bordering the west side and the M42 motorway starting at the north of the town. Bromsgrove also benefits from a relatively low crime rate. It is now a dormitory town for Birmingham.

History

The name Bromsgrove may derive from the Old English Brommsgraf, meaning a small wood frequented by highway robbers. An alternative source comes from the Domesday book of 1086 where the town is mentioned as Bremesgrave. Breme may have been a famous person and grave is a fortified clearing.

In its early days, Bromsgrove was a centre for the woollen trade, which went into decline before the 17th century.

The Bromsgrove Union Workhouse, on the Birmingham Road, was opened in 1838 and closed in 1948 and is in use as offices.

Nail making was introduced by the French Huguenots in the 17th Century and became a thriving industry. At one point Bromsgrove was the world centre of nail making. Mechanisation quickly put the industry into decline. In 1840, the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway built a maintenance facility.

Bromsgrove was home for many years to the world-famous "Bromsgrove Guild", a company of craftsmen who produced many fine works of sculpture, ironwork, etc., including the gates of Buckingham Palace (whose locks are stamped with the Guild's name), the lifts on the Lusitania and the famous statue adorning the Fortune Theatre in Drury Lane. Details of these and other works are available in a recent book on the subject.

Major restoration of the Norman and 13th century St John the Baptist church was carried out in 1858 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. *The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, Nikolaus Pevsner, 1968 Penguin. p109

The fish and chip shop above which Lord Lucan was rumoured to have hidden in during the late 1970s has been demolished.

Famous residents

Born in Bromsgrove

Sport

Bromsgrove is home to Bromsgrove Rugby Football Club, one of the oldest clubs in the country. Bromsgrove also hosts Bromsgrove Rovers F.C. (football) and Bromsgrove Cricket Club.

Economy

Many of Bromsgrove's residents find employment in Birmingham, Redditch, Worcester and other places along the motorway network. MG Rover was a major employer of Bromsgrove residents until its collapse in May 2005.

Bromsgrove is still home to LG Harris Ltd, a maker of quality paint brushes. Though now most brushes are made in China to save the company money.

New business parks in Aston Fields, Buntsford Hill and Harris's Business Park are helping to revitalise the local economy. Bromsgrove District Council is aiming to create a technology corridor along the A38 to take advantage of the area's excellent road links, partly to mitigate the effects of the MG Rover collapse.

Attractions

The Avoncroft Museum of Buildings has its home in Bromsgrove. This fine museum is great for family days out and includes the woefully underappreciated National Telephone Kiosk Collection.

Since 2005, Bromsgrove has its own arts centre, the Artrix.

Bromsgrove's nightlife scene was dominated by "Euphoria" (known to some locals as "Euph" or "Euthanasia"), a nightclub featuring a mixture of styles ranging from pure pop to commercial dance. As of 20 February 2006, Euphoria is now undergoing refurnishing, it will be opening 6 July 2006 and now called Aura. Popular pubs in the town-centre include The Red Lion, The Golden Cross Hotel, The Hogs Head and the Wishing Well. A Barracuda called the Rousler is now open in the high street. This large number of restaurants and pubs is beginning to make Bromsgrove a popular "night out" location.

Bromsgrove is close to the Lickey Hills, Clent Hills, Waseley Hills, and to rural Worcestershire and Birmingham.

Education

Schools

Bromsgrove schools use a three-tier education system (First school, Middle School, High School). However, there are plans for this to be changed to a two-tier system in the future.

There are two high schools, North and South Bromsgrove High Schools. South Bromsgrove is a specialist school in foreign languages and I.T, noted for its extensive use of information technology. The outgoing headteacher, Philip McTague was heavily involved in political action to correct the gap in funding between Worcestershire state schools and others across the country. North Bromsgrove High School is currently preparing a bid for specialist status in arts.

Most of the state schools, including the two high schools, are now being rebuilt in a PFI scheme. Most of this work should be finished by 2009.

Private Schools

Bromsgrove is also home to 'Bromsgrove School' (founded in 1553) a private, co-educational independent school with three campuses catering for pupils from nursery to sixth-form that offers boarding facilities. Digby Jones, head of the CBI for many years, went to Bromsgrove School.

Further Education

Bromsgrove is the main site of North East Worcestershire College, better known as NEW College.

Political

Bromsgrove's MP is Julie Kirkbride (Conservative). As a largely rural consituency with affluent residential areas, Bromsgrove is strongly right wing, even seeing a swing to Conservative in 1997. The population is almost entirely white.

External links

References

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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