Town in West Midlands, England
West Bromwich
West Bromwich's football club began as a works team from a spring factory, and its ground now sits 551 feet above sea level, among the highest in the English league.
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Key information
- County
- West Midlands
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- West Bromwich Albion, The Hawthorns, Salter spring balances, a medieval manor house
- What locals are called
- No single everyday name; Albion fans are Baggies, and many locals just say Black Country
- Famous people
- Betty Boothroyd (MP), Jeff Astle, Cyrille Regis, Tony Brown
- Football clubs
- West Bromwich Albion
About West Bromwich
The football club that started in a spring factory
West Bromwich Albion began life in 1878 as West Bromwich Strollers, a team of workers from George Salter's Spring Works. A few years later the name changed to Albion, and the club became one of the founder members of the Football League in 1888. The team has a trophy cabinet to match that early start. Albion won the FA Cup in 1888, 1892, 1931, 1954 and 1968, and were league champions in 1919-20. The 1930-31 season was a one-off. Albion lifted the FA Cup and won promotion from the Second Division in the same year, something no other club has done before or since.
Baggies, Throstles and a very high ground
Fans are known as the Baggies, and nobody has ever settled on a single explanation for why. The club's other nickname, the Throstles, is more straightforward: a throstle is the Black Country word for a song thrush, and the bird appears on the club badge. The Hawthorns has been home since 1900. At about 551 feet above sea level it is generally cited as the highest ground in the English league, and the stop on the railway and the Midland Metro takes its name from it. The club has its heroes. Jeff Astle scored in every round of the 1968 FA Cup run, including the winning goal in the final against Everton. Tony Brown is the club's record goalscorer. In the late 1970s Cyrille Regis and Laurie Cunningham, alongside Brendon Batson, were nicknamed the Three Degrees, and helped change the face of English football.
Salter's scales and the Black Country at work
West Bromwich is in the Black Country, and for generations it made things: springs, scales, locks, chains and iron goods. The name is as old as the Domesday Book, where it appears as Bromwic. The best-known local brand is Salter. The firm made its name with spring balances and weighing scales, and its works gave the town's football club its first players. The heavy industry has largely gone, but the town's habit of making and mending still shows in how locals talk about it. The local accent, thick with Black Country vowels, is part of the identity.
A medieval manor that outlived the factories
Oak House is a timber-framed house of the Tudor and Jacobean era with black-and-white gables, now a museum of period rooms. It stands in its own grounds, a splash of black and white among the later housing. West Bromwich Manor House is older still. Dating from the late 13th century, it is a medieval manor house that still has its great hall. It is rare for a house of this age to survive among Black Country industry. For a change of scene, Sandwell Valley has lakes, meadows and the ruins of Sandwell Priory. It is a nature reserve that locals regard as the town's lungs.
Faggots, grey peas and the Speaker's seat
Local food is proudly plain. Faggots and peas, and grey peas and bacon, are Black Country staples, and pork scratchings are bought by the bag in the pub. The town also gave Westminster a famous voice. Betty Boothroyd was MP for West Bromwich from 1973 until 2000, and in 1992 became the first woman to be Speaker of the House of Commons.