Smethwick is a town adjacent to Birmingham and West Bromwich, and, since 1974 has been part of the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands county. Historically, it was in Staffordshire.

Smethwick is served by trains on both the LMS and GWR lines from Birmingham New Street railway station and Birmingham Snow Hill station respectively, serving Wolverhampton and Worcester, with onward connections. A new station replaced two older facilities, one on each line, in the 1990s.

History

Smethwick means "The settlement on the smooth land". Until the end of the 18th century it was an outlying hamlet of the south Staffordshire village of Harborne.

From the 18th century, three generations of canal were built through Smethwick, carrying coal and goods between the nearby Black Country and Birmingham.

• James Brindley built the first in 1769
• his design was improved upon by John Smeaton in 1790
• Thomas Telford built a more direct, route, in deeper cutings and without locks, in 1829.

Grade I listed Galton Bridge spans the canal and railway. When built, it was the longest single-span bridge in the world. Its name commemorates Samuel Galton.

Matthew Boulton and James Watt opened their Soho Foundry. In 1792, William Murdoch's cottage there was the first domestic residence in the world to have artificial lighting. The foundry was later home to weighing scale makers W & T Avery.

The world's oldest working engine, made by Boulton and Watt, the Smethwick Engine originally stood near Bridge Street, Smethwick. It is now at at Millennium Point, in Birmingham.

Other former industry included railway rolling stock manufacture, at the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company factory; screws and other fastenings from Guest Keen and Nettlefolds, engines and from Tangye, and various products from Chances Glasswork, including lighthouse lenses and the glazing for the Crystal Palace.

The Ruskin Pottery Studio, named in honour of the artist John Ruskin, was in Oldbury Road. Many English churches have stained glass windows made at Hardman Studios in Lightwoods House, or, before that, buy the Camm family.

Former Prime Minster John Major's parents married there while they were on tour with a music hall variety act. Actor Julie Walters and comedian Frank Skinner are both from Smethwick.

In 1966, Smethwick ceased to be a single County Borough and was absorbed into the new County Borough of Warley in Worcestershire.

Politics

In the UK general election, 1964, the Labour Foreign Secretary, Patrick Gordon Walker, was defeated in controversial circumstances in the constituency by Conservative candidate Peter Griffiths. Smethwick had been a focus of immigration from the Commonwealth in the economic and industrial growth of the years following World War II and Griffiths ran a campaign critical of the government's policy. There were rumours that his supporters had covertly circulated the slogan If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Liberal or Labour. Hardly had the heat of the election subsided when, on February 12, 1965, US black activist Malcolm X visited the region just nine days before his assassiniation. He fueled further controversy when he told the press:

I have come here because I am disturbed by reports that coloured [sic] people in Smethwick are being treated badly. I have heard they are being treated as the Jews under Hitler. I would not wait for the fascist element in Smethwick to erect gas ovens.

Labour candidate, actor Andrew Faulds, defeated Griffiths in the UK general election, 1966 and was MP for the constituency until his retirement in 1997. (The constituency was renamed Warley East in 1974.)