Bloxwich
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Template:GBmap Bloxwich is a town in the borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands of England, with a population of around 40,000 people.
The town grew rapidly in the eighteenth century around coal mining and various manufacturing industries. It is also known for its canals. Famous people from Bloxwich include Pat Collins.
Bloxwich town center is small with one main high street. Along this street is a market, a bus station and an all year fireworks shop. Bloxwich police station has recently been redeveloped over the past few years, but little else in the town has changed.
Bloxwich was originally formed hundreds of a year ago as a settlement in the ancient manor of Wednesbury. While still a village during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, most of the local people were employed in the newly founded mining and forging industries.
Being part of the County Borough of Walsall, Bloxwich was heavily developed between the wars for council housing on the Blakenall Heath, Harden and Goscote estates. In the 20 years which followed the Second World War, the Beechdale and Mossley estates were also erected as council housing developments. Many privately owned houses, mostly in the Little Bloxwich and Wallington Heath areas, were also constructed.
The town centre is still mostly made up of Victorian and Edwardian buildings which maintain Bloxwich's origins of a Staffordshire village. But some of the town's council estates have gained a reputation for being home to car thieves, robbers and drug dealers. The Blakenall Heath area currently has the highest crime rate in the Walsall borough. Near by estates include New Invention and Mossley.
The postcode for Bloxwich is WS3, it also covers the village of Pelsall.