Bromsgrove: Guide, Hotels, Map & Photos
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GBP 50 - 70 Wellington Lodge Luxury Bed And Breakfast
 In a quiet yet convenient location, with good transport links to the surrounding region, Wellington Lodge is an elegant Edwardian building that now ho… MoreGBP 34 - 109 Premier Inn Bromsgrove South (Worcester Road)
 South of Bromsgrove, just off the M5 and 10 miles (16 km) from Cadbury World, this Premier Inn with on-site pub and restaurant has free parking and ve… MoreGBP 31 - 109 Premier Inn Bromsgrove Central
 A 10-minute walk from Bromsgrove city centre, this Premier Inn hotel has free parking and is next to the Artix Theatre and Bromsgrove Golf Centre. Bir… MoreGBP 56 - 115 Holiday Inn Birmingham Bromsgrove
 Situated on the outskirts of Bromsgrove, Holiday Inn Bromsgrove offers stylish air-conditioned rooms and a leisure centre. Just 30 minutes from Birmin… MoreGBP 49 - 169 Hilton Birmingham Bromsgrove
 The Hilton Birmingham Bromsgrove is just 10 miles from Birmingham city centre and offers rooms 30% larger than the norm, a restaurant, a café, a bar … More | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bromsgrove: Guide
Bromsgrove is a town and the main settlement of the Bromsgrove (district)|Bromsgrove district of Worcestershire, England.
Background
Bromsgrove currently has a fast growing population with its excellent links to the A38 road|A38 that cuts through the town, the M5 motorway bordering the west side and the M42 motorway starting at the north of the town. It is now a dormitory town for Birmingham.
History
The name Bromsgrove may derive from the Old English language|Old English Brommsgraf, meaning a small wood frequented by highway robbers.
An alternative source comes from the Domesday book of 1086 where the town is mentioned as Bremesgrave. Breme may have been a famous person and grave is a fortified clearing.
In its early days, Bromsgrove was a centre for the woollen trade, which went into decline before the 17th century.
The Bromsgrove Union Poor Law|Workhouse, on the Birmingham Road, was opened in 1838 and closed in 1948 and is in use as offices.
Nail making was introduced by the France|French Huguenots in the 17th Century and became a thriving industry. At one point Bromsgrove was the world centre of nail making. Mechanisation quickly put the industry into decline. In 1840, the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway built a Bromsgrove railway works|maintenance facility.
Bromsgrove was home for many years to the world-famous "Bromsgrove Guild", a company of craftsmen who produced many fine works of sculpture, ironwork, etc., including the gates of Buckingham Palace (whose locks are stamped with the Guild's name), the lifts on the Lusitania and the famous statue adorning the Fortune Theatre in Drury Lane. Details of these and other works are available in a recent book on the subject.
Major restoration of the Norman architecture|Norman and 13th century St John the Baptist church was carried out in 1858 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, Nikolaus Pevsner, 1968 Penguin. p109
St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Worcester Road was built by Gilbert Blount in 1858.The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, Nikolaus Pevsner, 1968 Penguin. p110
The fish and chip shop above which Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan|Lord Lucan was rumoured to have hidden during the late 1970s has been demolished.
Bromsgrove is twinned with the German town of Gronau.
Born in Bromsgrove
Alfred Edward Housman, 1859, poet.
Geoffrey Hill, 1932, poet.
Mark Williams (actor)|Mark Williams, 1959, actor.
Nicholas Evans, author, best known for The Horse Whisperer.
Alan M. Smith, 1962, Football (soccer)|footballer.
Nicola Charles, 1969, Actor.
Richard Orford, TV Presenter.
Matthew Priest, Musician.
Singer/songwriter Clifford T. Ward, who lived in nearby Stourport, taught English and drama in Bromsgrove before resigning to concentrate on his solo career.
Sport
Bromsgrove is home to :-
Bromsgrove Rugby Football Club, one of the oldest clubs in the country.
Bromsgrove Rovers F.C.|Bromsgrove Rovers football (soccer)|Football Club.
Bromsgrove Cricket Club.
Economy
Many of Bromsgrove's residents find employment in Birmingham, Redditch, Worcester, England|Worcester and other places along the motorway network. MG Rover was a major employer of Bromsgrove residents until its collapse in May 2005.
Bromsgrove is still home to LG Harris Ltd, a maker of quality paint brushes. Though now most brushes are made in China to save the company money.
New business parks in Aston Fields, Buntsford Hill and Harris's Business Park are helping to revitalise the local economy. Bromsgrove District Council is aiming to create a technology corridor along the A38 road|A38 to take advantage of the area's excellent road links, partly to mitigate the effects of the MG Rover collapse.
Attractions
The Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings|Avoncroft Museum of Buildings has its home in Bromsgrove. This museum includes the National Telephone Kiosk Collection. There is also another museum in the town, called simply "Bromsgrove Museum".
Since 2005, Bromsgrove has its own arts centre, the Artrix.
Bromsgrove's nightlife scene was dominated by "Euphoria" (known to some locals as "Euph" or "Euthanasia"), a nightclub featuring a mixture of styles ranging from pure pop to commercial dance. As of 20 February 2006, Euphoria is now undergoing refurnishing, it will be opening 6 July 2006 and now called Aura. Popular pubs in the town-centre include The Red Lion, The Golden Cross Hotel, The Hogs Head and the Wishing Well. A Barracuda called the Rousler has opened in the High street. This large number of restaurants and pubs is beginning to make Bromsgrove a popular "night out" location.
Bromsgrove is close to the Lickey Hills, Clent Hills, Waseley Hills, and to rural Worcestershire and Birmingham.
Education
Schools
Bromsgrove schools use a three-tier education system (First School, Middle School, High School). However, there are plans for this to be changed to a two-tier system in the future.
There are two high schools, North Bromsgrove High School|North and South Bromsgrove High Schools. South Bromsgrove is a specialist school in foreign languages and I.T, noted for its extensive use of information technology. The outgoing headteacher, Philip "Big Phil" McTague was heavily involved in political action to correct the gap in funding between Worcestershire state schools and others across the country. North Bromsgrove High School is currently preparing a bid for Specialist school|specialist status in arts.
Most of the state schools, including the two high schools, are now being rebuilt in a PFI scheme. Most of this work should be finished by 2009.
Private Schools
Bromsgrove is also home to 'Bromsgrove School' (founded in 1553) a private, co-educational independent school (United Kingdom)|independent school with three campuses catering for pupils from nursery to sixth-form that offers boarding facilities. Digby Jones, head of the CBI for many years, went to Bromsgrove School.
Special Schools
There is two special schools in Bromsgrove one of them is Chadsgrove School and Specialist Sports College. The School is for children who have a physical disability. Many pupils also have additional sensory, communication or learning difficulties. Its ages are 2 years old to 19 years old. It also has a swimming pool and large muti-senory room. It has just become a Specialist Sports College.
Further Education
Bromsgrove is the main site of North East Worcestershire College, better known as NEW College.
Political
Bromsgrove's MP is Julie Kirkbride. As a largely rural constituency with affluent residential areas, Bromsgrove is strongly conservative, swinging further to the Tories during Labour's major election win in 1997. The population has a small ethnic minority. Bromsgrove has its own youth branch of Conservatives called Conservative Future|Bromsgrove Conservative Future.
Energy policy
In May 2006, a report commissioned by Centrica|British Gas showed that housing in Bromsgrove produced the 14th highest average carbon emissions in the country at 7,133 kg of carbon dioxide per dwelling.
:See also: Energy efficiency in British housing.
Bibliography
Bromsgrove (Images of England) - ISBN 0-7524-1146-2
Glory Gone: The Story of Nailing in Bromsgrove - ISBN 0-9513525-1-2
External links
Local Bromsgrove weekly newspaper
Bromsgrove branch of CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale)
Community and Leisure portal for Bromsgrove
The Local Bromsgrove weekly newspaper
References
This "Travel Guide" section is drawn from the Wikipedia article "Bromsgrove". We hope you will edit and improve it. It is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.