History UsefulNotes / TheWestMidlands

The city has produced a good number of famous British personalities, including Trevor Eve, Creator/JRRTolkien, Creator/JasperCarrott, and UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain. Music/BlackSabbath, Music/JudasPriest, Music/TheMove, Music/ElectricLightOrchestra, Music/UB40 and Music/DuranDuran were also formed here.

The West Midlands name is mainly used for three things: [[NamesTheSame The West Midlands Urban Area, the slightly larger West Midlands county, and the even larger West Midlands region]]).

The West Midlands name is mainly used for three things ([[NamesTheSame The West Midlands Urban Area which is in the West Midlands county in the West Midlands region of England]]).

The West Midlands county is a metropolitan county created in 1974 but the county council lost its powers in 1986 so the county doesnt exist adminstratively but the area is still served by the West Midlands police force. The county includes most of the West Midlands urban area as well as the city of Coventry and an area of Green belt between the two areas, known as the Meridan Gap. This area is home to around 2.7 million people.

The West Midlands region which includes the West Midlands county, as well as the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire. It was created in the late 90s and abolished in 2011 and served as a constituency in the European parliament, it is occasionally still used in statistics. This area is home to around 5.6 million people. As well as places in the West Midlands county the other significant towns in the region are the cities of Stoke and Worcester and the new town of Telford.

'''Towns and Cities of the West Midlands Urban Sprawl'''

The area to the west of Birmingham is often referred to as the Black country. This area sat on a large coalfield hence being a major area for coal mining and was heavily industrialised during the industrial revolution and as a result was heavily polluted. Most of the heavy industry has now died however. The area includes a number of large towns such as Dudley, Wednesbury, Walsall, West Bromwich, Halesowen, Stourbridge, Tipton, Smethwick and Oldbury all of which are within the metropolitan boroughs of Sandwell, Dudley and Walsall. Wolverhampton is sometimes included as part of the Black Country. The area has its own [[UsefulNotes/BritishAccents accent which is known as Yam Yam]]. Creator/JulieWalters comes from here, as does Creator/LennyHenry - who will sometimes lapse into an exaggerated accent when describing his youth in "Dod-lay".

'''Towns and Cities of the Rural West Midlands'''

* The relatively obscure Creator/MarvelComics superhero ''ComicBook/{{Digitek}}'' is originally from Sutton Coldfield.

* ''Series/RaisedByWolves'' is set in Wolverhampton.

The city has produced a good number of famous British personalities, including Trevor Eve, Creator/JRRTolkien, Creator/JasperCarrott, and UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain. Music/BlackSabbath, Music/JudasPriest, The Move, Music/ElectricLightOrchestra, Music/UB40 and Music/DuranDuran were also formed here.

The city has produced a good number of famous British personalities, including Trevor Eve, Creator/JRRTolkien, Creator/JasperCarrott, and UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain. Music/BlackSabbath, Music/JudasPriest, The Move, Music/ElectricLightOrchestra, and Music/DuranDuran were also formed here.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has had a planet by the name of [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Birmingham Birmingham]] ever since first edition, noted for its enormous population ([[StuffedIntoTheFridge that was somehow reduced to zero at one point by Dark Eldar raids]]). One can't help but feel someone on the creative team had... issues... with the place.

The West Midlands are located in the [[CaptainObvious western part]] of UsefulNotes/TheMidlands, about 100 miles NW of UsefulNotes/{{London}}.

There's a film from the 1970s of Telly Savalas extolling the virtues of Birmingham, including the new redeveloped Bull Ring shopping centre.

The area to the west of Birmingham is often referred to as the Black country. This area sat on a large coalfield hence being a major area for coal mining and was heavily industrialised during the industrial revolution and as a result was heavily polluted. Most of the heavy industry has now died however. The area includes a number of large towns such as Dudley, Wednesbury, Walsall, West Bromwich, Halesowen, Stourbridge, Tipton, Smethwick and Oldbury all of which are within the metropolitan boroughs of Sandwell, Dudley and Walsall. Wolverhampton is sometimes included as part of the Black Country. The area has its own [[UsefulNotes/BritishAccents accent which is known as Yam Yam]]. JulieWalters comes from here.

The West Midlands region which includes the West Midlands county, as well as the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire was created in the late 90s and abolished in 2011 although still serves as a constituency in the European parliament. This area is home to around 5.6 million people. As well as places in the West Midlands county the other significant towns in the region are the cities of Stoke and Worcester and the new town of Telford.

The area to the west of Birmingham is often referred to as the Black country. This area sat on a large coalfield hence being a major area for coal mining and was heavily industrialised during the industrial revolution and as a result was heavily polluted. Most of the heavy industry has now died however. The area includes a number of large towns such as Dudley, Wednesbury, Walsall, West Bromwich, Halesowen, Stourbridge, Tipton, Smethwick and Oldbury all of which are within the metropolitan boroughs of Sandwell, Dudley and Walsall. Wolverhampton is sometimes included as part of the Black Country. The area has its own [[UsefulNotes/BritishAccents accent which is known as Yam Yam]].

Not to be confused with [[SweetHomeAlabama the one in Alabama]] (it's really more like UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}), Birmingham is the second most populous city in the United Kingdom[[note]]Manchester and Birmingham are both sometimes considered the second most populous city (it depends on the definition of city) but by different people[[/note]], with a population in the metropolitan borough itself of about one million, three times the size of any other metropolitan borough in the West Midlands. It's jokingly referred to as one of the ugliest cities in the world - and that's by its own inhabitants.

Droitwich is a small town about 7 miles north of Worcester known since time immemorial for the large deposits of salt underlying it, which are extracted by dissolution in the form of brine. In Roman times it was known as "Salinae" and was the centre of a large salt distribution network, with many Roman roads converging on it (the village of Hanbury, on which Ambridge of TheArchers is based, is about four miles east of Droitwich along one of these roads). Droitwich brine is more concentrated than the Dead Sea, and its extreme buoyancy gave rise to a spa industry which is still just about alive today, with a private hospital incorporating brine baths, and a locally-famous open air salt water lido which closed down for financial reasons in the face of considerable protest and has recently re-opened to great acclaim. Salt extraction has caused a great deal of subsidence over the centuries, because of which the town contains many old buildings leaning at crazy angles. The electrical conductivity of the salt deposits was a major reason for the choice of Wychbold, a couple of miles north of Droitwich, as the site of an extremely powerful radio transmitter which provides long-wave coverage to most of Britain. Modern Droitwich consists of the old core of the town surrounded by extensive modern housing estates where people who work in Birmingham sleep. One such estate became a notorious (by local standards; it was nothing compared to places like UsefulNotes/{{Glasgow}} or Barnsley) sinkhole and centre of delinquency. The local council decided to fix this by changing its name from Boycott to Westlands, which worked about as well as changing the name of the Cumbrian nuclear facility from Windscale to Sellafield did.

* Ambridge, in which TheArchers is set, is based on the Worcestershire village of Hanbury.

The city has produced a good number of famous British personalities, including [[WakingTheDead Trevor Eve]], Creator/JRRTolkien, Creator/JasperCarrott, and UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain. Music/BlackSabbath, Music/JudasPriest, The Move, Music/ElectricLightOrchestra, and Music/DuranDuran were also formed here.

The local population, nicknamed "Brummies", [[BritishAccents have a distinctive accent]].

The area to the west of Birmingham is often referred to as the Black country. This area sat on a large coalfield hence being a major area for coal mining and was heavily industrialised during the industrial revolution and as a result was heavily polluted. Most of the heavy industry has now died however. The area includes a number of large towns such as Dudley, Wednesbury, Walsall, West Bromwich, Halesowen, Stourbridge, Tipton, Smethwick and Oldbury all of which are within the metropolitan boroughs of Sandwell, Dudley and Walsall. Wolverhampton is sometimes included as part of the Black Country. The area has its own [[BritishAccents accent which is known as Yam Yam]].

The city has produced a good number of famous British personalities, including [[WakingTheDead Trevor Eve]], Creator/JRRTolkien, Creator/JasperCarrott, and UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain. Music/BlackSabbath, Music/JudasPriest, The Move, ElectricLightOrchestra, and DuranDuran were also formed here.

Droitwich is a small town about 7 miles north of Worcester known since time immemorial for the large deposits of salt underlying it, which are extracted by dissolution in the form of brine. In Roman times it was known as "Salinae" and was the centre of a large salt distribution network, with many Roman roads converging on it (the village of Hanbury, on which Ambridge of TheArchers is based, is about four miles east of Droitwich along one of these roads). Droitwich brine is more concentrated than the Dead Sea, and its extreme buoyancy gave rise to a spa industry which is still just about alive today, with a private hospital incorporating brine baths, and a locally-famous open air salt water lido which closed down for financial reasons in the face of considerable protest and has recently re-opened to great acclaim. Salt extraction has caused a great deal of subsidence over the centuries, because of which the town contains many old buildings leaning at crazy angles. The electrical conductivity of the salt deposits was a major reason for the choice of Wychbold, a couple of miles north of Droitwich, as the site of an extremely powerful radio transmitter which provides long-wave coverage to most of Britain. Modern Droitwich consists of the old core of the town surrounded by extensive modern housing estates where people who work in Birmingham sleep. One such estate became a notorious (by local standards; it was nothing compared to places like Glasgow or Barnsley) sinkhole and centre of delinquency. The local council decided to fix this by changing its name from Boycott to Westlands, which worked about as well as changing the name of the Cumbrian nuclear facility from Windscale to Sellafield did.