Tipton
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Template:GBmap Tipton is a town in the Sandwell borough of the West Midlands, England, with a population of around 47,000.
Tipton is located about halfway between Birmingham and Wolverhampton it is a part of the West Midlands conurbation, and is a part of the Black Country.
Tipton was an urban district council until 1938, when it became a municipal borough. The vast majority of Tipton borough was transferred into West Bromwich County Borough in 1966, while parts of the borough were incoroprated into the boroughs of Dudley and Warley. The former Tipton council house was situated in the area controlled by Dudley council and became an annexe to Dudley College. Since 1974 Tipton has been administered by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, which was created from a merger between West Bromwich and Warley.
Tipton today is one of the poorest towns in the West Midlands. Around half of all households in Tipton do not own a car. Around 40 per cent of residents have incomes of less than £20,000 a year. The right-wing British National Party have performed well in local elections in the town, and have several councillors. A splinter group from the BNP, the UK Freedom Party, also have an elected councillor in the area.
Tipton was once one of the most heavily industrialised towns in Britain. But most of its factories closed during the 1980's and new housing estates have been built on the site of many former factories, the new private homes have seen an upturn in Tipton's fortunes by rising house prices.
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History
Until the 18th century, Tipton was a collection of small hamlets. Industrial growth started in the town when ironstone and coal were discovered in the 1770s. A number of canals were built through the town, and later railways, which greatly accelerated the pace of industrialisation.
The engineer James Watt built his first steam engine in or very near Tipton in the 1770s, used to pump water from the mines. In 1780, James Keir and Alexander Blair set up a chemical works there, making vast quantities of alkali and soap.
The massive expansion in iron and coal industries lead to the population of Tipton expanding rapidly through the 19th century, going from 4,000 at the beginning of the century to 30,000 at the end. Tipton gained a reputation as being "the quintessence of the Black Country" because chimineys of local factories belched heavy pollution into the air, whilst houses and factories were built side by side. Most of the traditional industries which once dominated the town have since disappeared.
The Black Country Living Museum in nearby Dudley re-creates life in the early 20th century Black Country, in original buildings which have been painstakingly rebuilt and furnished. There is a residential canal basin at the Museum - Tipton was once known as the Venice of the Midlands because it had so many canals, although some of the 'minor' canals in the town were filled in during the 1970's. The canals today form a vital cycling, wildlife and leisure facility.
The area has a distinctive spoken dialect, different from the Birmingham accent. The richest of Tipton speech is very similar to how Shakespeare, or even Chaucer, would have spoken. Those who grew up here can often tell the difference between Tipton speech and the speech of people from other Black Country towns.
The town has retained a traditional horse-keeping culture; private horses are kept freely on public land, and are occasionally 'trotted' on roads (pulling a rider on a lightweigh racing cart). There are also totters (i.e. rag-and-bone men), who also have links to the horse culture. Despite persistent Council attempts to clear horses off public land, horses still appear in parks and on canal banks from time to time.
Outsiders opinion of Tipton
The Newcastle-based adult comic, Viz, used Tipton as a perennial butt of jokes throughout the 1990s, involving a fictitious councillor, Hugo Guthrie. Guthrie may, however, have been based on the real inter-war figure of Councillor Doughty who forbade any more pubs to open until one was opened carrying his name- now renamed the Pie Factory- and apparently when asked by his Town Clerk whether the then Council should buy a urinal for the town park, instructed him to buy two so we can breed from them.
Tipton was described by the BBC during the 2000 West Bromwich West by-election as; "one of the few places in Britain with no middle-class".
Famous people
Several famous people were born in Tipton.
Currently the most famous person born in the town is Stephen George Steve Bull, who was born on the town's Moat Farm estate on 28th March 1965. He joined West Bromwich Albion on leaving school in 1981 but did not break into the first team until the 1985-86 season. After just one year and a handful of league appearances for the club, he was transferred to Wolverhampton Wanderers in a £64,000 deal and became a legend in 13 years at the Molineux club. He scored over 300 league goals, won two successive promotions and was capped 13 times by the England team, although he never played any higher than the new Division One. Less famous footballers born in Tipton included Isaac Clarke and Joe Mayo.
In Victorian times, the most famous person was William Perry, the bareknuckle boxer who was Champion of England from 1850-57. There is a statue to Perry, know as 'the Tipton Slasher' in the Coronation Gardens park in central Tipton.
Norman Kendrick was a resident of Princes End Tipton. He was an early pioneer of the Coach Travel Industry, and a civic leader for over 50 years up to his death at 75. Known as 'Ten Men' Kendrick because of 6'7" 300 lb frame.
Another famous athlete was the athlete Jack Holden (1907-2004) who lived to the age of 97, ran for Tipton Harriers until he was in his 40's and competed for England at the 1948 Olympic Games when 41 years old.
The Villages of Tipton
The centre of Tipton has always been known as Tipton Green and during the latter part of the 19th century hundreds of terraced houses were built in the area, but almost all of these homes had been demolished by the early 1970's to make way for modern council houses and flats.
The south side of Tipton, near Dudley, is known as Burnt Tree because there was once a large tree in the area which was burnt down after being struck by lightning. Joining onto Burnt Tree is Dudley Port, which took its name in the 19th century from a canalside coalyard. When Second World War evacuees from other parts of the country arrived in the area to be transported to the Staffordshire countryside, they thought that Dudley Port was near the sea!
The village of Tividale was created during the 19th century but was mostly developed between 1920 and 1960. When Tipton became part of West Bromwich County Borough in 1966, Tividale curiously became part of Warley.
In the east of Tipton is the village of Great Bridge, which was extensively developed as factories and terraced houses during the 19th century. But many of the factories and Victorian terraces were replaced by modern private houses during the 1990's. One lasting feature of Great Bridge is its outdoor market, which was last seen in operation in the 1990s. There is (or was) an indoor market that was seen to be operating circa 1998 and had some outdoor stalls in the car park at weekends.
In the north of Tipton are the villages of Princes End and Ocker Hill. Princes End is mostly made up of pre- and post-war council houses, only a handful of pre-1900 buildings still exist. Ocker Hill retains many terraced houses but almost all of the factories have disappeared to be replaced by private houses. Until 1985, there was a power station at Ocker Hill which had two enormous cooling towers. Like many other industrial sites in Tipton, the power station site is now occupied by modern houses.