Rogues, Villains and Peaky Blinders
The next meeting of the Society takes place on Thursday 12th March at 7:30 pm in St. Andrew's Church, Bilston Street, Sedgley. The speaker is Corinne Brazier, Heritage Manager for the West Midlands Police Museum housed in Steelhouse Lane Lockup, Birmingham.
Corinne has meticulously researched police files to reveal the real lives of the city's criminals and gangsters. There is a treasure trove of 'mug-shots' adding poignancy to the stories.
Grinding poverty at the end of the Victorian age and beginning of the twentieth century forced some families into lives of crime - even children became involved. Gangs formed, resulting in organised skulduggery and violence.
One leading gang, the Peaky Blinders, were a frightening bunch and their reputation was well earned. For them fact has become fiction, launching television dramas, fashion trends and now a film.
Admission is £2 - exact amount appreciated.
2025 – Autumn Teaser Answer
If Sedgley Manor ever needed a mascot the pig would be in the running. The tale has become a Black Country legend. We asked why and if you could name the villages telling the porkies.
Around 1875 a Dawley postcard was produced to celebrate Captain Webb swimming the Channel in that year. The picture montage included a procession, the Captain and a man sitting on a wall beside a pig with its front trotters on the coping stones.
Years later this card was altered by someone in the Gornals. The Captain was covered over with names and the caption read "Who put the pig on the wall at Gornal to see the band go by?"
Lower Gornal claimed the owner of the inquisitive pig, but Upper Gornal told the same story!
2026 – Winter Teaser
This photograph was taken in the 1890s. Although he never lived in Sedgley Manor his knowledge of the nine villages and whole of the Black Country was unsurpassed.
Send an email if you can name this English teacher.
The SLHS 2025 / 2026 Programme
The 2025/2026 Programme promises a season of informative and stimulating talks from local experts.
Take your pick from presentations covering urban housing projects, Home Front reactions to the Great War, short films, the history of Dudley Castle, Birmingham's criminals and gangsters and, in May, Smethwick's famous Soho works. As usual there's something for everyone.
Meetings take place at St. Andrew's Church on Bilston Street in Sedgley, and are scheduled for Oct / Nov 2025 and Jan / Feb / Mar / May 2026. The Society is very friendly and, as always, visitors will be most welcome.
Sedgley Local History Society [SLHS]
Sedgley Local History Society [SLHS] is a Black Country group based in the village of Sedgley, which is situated at the northern tip of Dudley Metropolitan Borough and just 3 miles south of the centre of Wolverhampton.
Here, the heritage of the Manor of Sedgley, in south Staffordshire, is focused through its nine villages - Sedgley, Gospel End, Cotwall End, Upper Gornal, Lower Gornal, Woodsetton, Coseley, Ettingshall and Brierley. A history of people, places and events.
Please contact
us if you have any comments, suggestions, contributions or
questions.
Please note that genealogy isn't a prime interest of SLHS - it's a huge specialist area in its own right. We provide a list of useful sites on our genealogy links page that will help you to begin your research, however if you have a specific query drop us a line!
Sedgley Heritage Trails
During 2019 two trails were researched covering nearly forty places of interest within easy walking distance of Sedgley Bull Ring.
A leaflet was then prepared by Sedgley Evening Townswomen's Guild with support from Sedgley People's Archive and Sedgley Local History Society. There was specialist help and advice from Dudley MBC who printed the final version.
The trails can be followed using the street map alongside notes and pictures.
Follow this link to download a copy of the leaflet and enjoy the trails.