West Midlands conurbation

Kenrick Park tram stop is a tram stop in Sandwell, England on the outskirts of West Bromwich, named after the adjacent park of the same name. It was opened on 31 May 1999 and is situated on West Midlands Metro Line 1. It is the first stop outside Birmingham on the tram-only alignment.

Sandwell Academy is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status located in West Bromwich in the West Midlands, England.

Summit Bridge is a road bridge over a canal, built in 1789. It crosses the Old Main Line of the Birmingham Canal Navigations in Smethwick, in the West Midlands, England; it was part of John Smeaton's improvements to the canal system at its highest point in the area. It is a Grade II* listed building, listed on 8 February 2007. It is also a scheduled monument.

Sandwell Valley is an area of green belt in the county of West Midlands, England, on the border of Birmingham and West Bromwich, with Walsall at its northern end. It is a valley on the River Tame of which 720 hectares (1,800 acres) are owned by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, with the RSPB leasing 25 acres as RSPB Sandwell Valley nature reserve. Within this large area, is the 270 hectares (670 acres) Sandwell Valley Country Park, which contains two visitor centres, Forge Mill Farm and Sandwell Park Farm, the former using modern farming techniques, the latter with a walled kitchen garden and rare breeds of farm animals, one of 16 farm parks approved nationally by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Sot's Hole is one of three Local Nature Reserves in the Country Park, and lies on the edge of the site on Dagger Lane/Church Vale, West Bromwich. In an effort to protect and restore the reserve, a group of local people joined together in November 2005 and formed the Friends of Sot's Hole. The earliest evidence of people in Sandwell Valley is in the form of flint tools from the Mesolithic period, but evidence of later periods is also present in the landscape, including the site of Sandwell Hall (home of the Earls of Dartmouth) and Sandwell Priory ruins (still evident today). Exhibitions at Sandwell Park Farm tell the story of the people who lived here. The M5 motorway bisects the Country Park, with the intersection between it and the M6 (considered Junction 8 of the M6) at the northern end, and junction 1 of the M5 to the south. The latter junction surrounds a surviving gatehouse from the hall. The Birmingham-Walsall Line, part of the former Grand Junction Railway, opened in 1837, runs through the northern end of the valley, with Hamstead railway station being the nearest. The former Newton Road railway station having closed some years ago. The highest point of Sandwell Valley is in Birmingham and is known as Hill Top, where the remains of a World War II gun emplacement can still be found there. The Country Park's fauna and flora are studied by the Sandwell Valley Naturalists' Club (SandNats). Every Saturday morning at 9.00am, the country park hosts a parkrun, a free, weekly timed 5 km run.Adjacent areas include Great Barr, Hamstead and Handsworth Wood.

At around 11pm on the night of 30 June 2013, a sky lantern landed on a Jayplas plastics and paper recycling plant on Dartmouth Road, near to the West Bromwich Albion football ground, at Smethwick, West Midlands, England, igniting the material stored there.The resulting fire was the largest ever dealt with by the West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS), who deployed over 200 firefighters and nearly 40 appliances, including seven appliances borrowed from Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service and three from Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service. Three firefighters were taken to hospital.The 6,000 feet (1,800 m) column of smoke cloud could be seen as far away as Coventry. 10 miles away in Yardley, the skies were filled with grey ash in the morning rush hour. WMFS received over 400 emergency phone calls.The Canal and River Trust and the Environment Agency monitored nearby waterways for toxic residues in the run-off water. Birmingham Airport monitored the smoke in case it affected arriving or departing flights. Delays were caused on the adjacent M5 Motorway and the region's road network. WMFS broadcast live from the site over the Internet, via Bambuser.Initial estimates put the cost of the damage caused at £6 million.On the afternoon of the 1 July, the WMFS called for "an urgent review of the legislation regarding the use of airborne ‘fire’ lanterns", calling on the public and event organisers to stop using them and questioning whether event licences should be issued for events where they were to be used.

The Galton Bridge is a cast-iron bridge in Smethwick, near Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Opened in 1829 as a road bridge, the structure has been pedestrianised since the 1970s. It was built by Thomas Telford to carry a road across the new main line of the Birmingham Canal, which was built in a deep cutting. The bridge is 70 feet (21 metres) above the canal, making it reputedly the highest single-span arch bridge in the world when it was built, 26 feet (7.9 metres) wide, and 150 feet (46 metres) long. The iron components were fabricated at the nearby Horseley Ironworks and assembled atop the masonry abutments. The design includes decorative lamp-posts and X-shaped bracing in the spandrels. In the 1840s, a railway bridge was built from one of the abutments, with a parapet in keeping with the original. The Galton Bridge carried traffic for over 140 years until it was bypassed by a new road, named Telford Way, in the 1970s, and now carries only pedestrians and cyclists. The bridge is one of six built by Telford that share common design features and the only one still standing without modification. It underwent minor repair work in the 1980s, after which it was repainted from its original black into a colour scheme intended to enhance its features. It is maintained by the Canal and River Trust and lends its name to the nearby Smethwick Galton Bridge railway station. It is a grade I listed building.

Smethwick Galton Bridge is a split-level railway station in Smethwick, West Midlands, England. It is at a point where two railways' lines cross on two levels. It has platforms on both lines, allowing interchange between them. The two low-level platforms serve the Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton Line, while the two high-level platforms serve the Birmingham Snow Hill to Worcester Line. The high level line passes over the low level line at a right angle on a bridge. West Midlands Railway manages the station and operates most of its services, with others provided by Chiltern Railways and London Northwestern Railway. Running parallel to the low-level line is the Birmingham New Main Line canal. The high-level platform extends over the canal, and the line Northbound quickly passes over a surviving section of the higher Old Main Line. It is an important interchange; over 600,000 people changed trains at the station during 2019/20.

Dartmouth Park is a public park in West Bromwich, in West Midlands, England, about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) east of the town centre and west of Sandwell Valley Country Park. The park was opened in 1878. It is owned and operated by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, and is listed Grade II in Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens. Its area is 23.9 hectares (59 acres).

The Hawthorns is an all-seater football stadium in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, with a capacity of 26,688. It has been the home of Championship club West Bromwich Albion since 1900, when it became the sixth ground to be used by the club. The Hawthorns was the first Football League ground to be built in the 20th century, opening in September 1900 after construction work took only 4 months. The official record attendance at The Hawthorns stands at 64,815, set in 1937. Alongside being the home of West Bromwich Albion for over 120 years, The Hawthorns has also hosted a number of England internationals, as well as two FA Cup semi-finals. At an altitude of 551 feet (168 m), it is the highest ground above sea level of all Premier League and Football League clubs.

Galton Junction is a minor junction on the West Coast Main Line's Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line. With Smethwick Junction, it allows northbound trains from the RBS to join the Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line in a westbound direction and vice versa. Until the re-opening of Birmingham Snow Hill for stations to Kidderminster, in 1995, all passenger services routed via Galton and Smethwick Junctions to reach Birmingham New Street. With this re-opening, use of the junction has sharply decreased. This was compounded with the removal of the remaining services between Worcester and New Street in May 2004, and now only selected freight services and charter trains use the junction. It has also been used as a way to divert trains to Cheltenham Spa via Stourbridge Junction and Worcester Shrub Hill. In addition, the first and last CrossCountry services of the day to/from Cardiff Central, which start and terminate at New Street, use this junction for operational reasons.

Smethwick Junction is a junction on the Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line. With Galton Junction, northbound trains on the West Coast Main Line's Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line can join the Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line in a westbound direction. Until the re-opening of Birmingham Snow Hill for stations to Kidderminster in 1995, all passenger services routed via Smethwick and Galton Junctions to reach Birmingham New Street. With this re-opening, use of the link between the two junctions has sharply decreased. This was compounded with the removal/re-routing of the Worcester to New Street service in 2004, and now only selected freight services and charter trains use the link. It has also been used as a way to divert trains to Cheltenham Spa via Stourbridge Junction and Worcester Shrub Hill. In addition, the first and last Cardiff Central CrossCountry services of the day, which start and terminate at New Street, use this junction for operational reasons. On 12 November 2011, London Midland operated a service from Birmingham New Street to Kidderminster as part of a farewell to its Class 150 fleet.

Trinity Way tram stop is a tram stop just off the A4031 (Trinity Way) in West Bromwich in the West Midlands, England. It was opened on 31 May 1999 and is situated on West Midlands Metro Line 1.