Sandwell

Sandwell is a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands that includes West Bromwich, Oldbury, Smethwick, Rowley Regis, Tipton and Wednesbury. Created in 1974 from the former county boroughs of Warley and West Bromwich, the borough sits at the heart of the Black Country and retains a strong industrial layout: canals, railway corridors and terraces of housing trace the nineteenth- and twentieth-century development of metalworking and manufacturing. Local governance centres and colleges are based in West Bromwich and Oldbury, and services link the towns closely to Birmingham and Wolverhampton without overlapping their civic identities.

Green space and industrial heritage sit side by side across Sandwell. Sandwell Valley Country Park runs along the valley between West Bromwich and Walsall and contains the ruins of Sandwell Priory set into farmland and wetland, where visitors can walk former mill and saltmarsh lines. At the western edge of West Bromwich, The Hawthorns stadium marks the borough’s sporting presence. Community museums, canal paths and council-run parks offer routes into the borough’s working past and present.