Lye, West Midlands

Lye or The Lye is an area in the Dudley Metropolitan Borough, in the West Midlands county, England. It was formerly a village within the parish of Oldswinford, historically situated within the boundaries of the county of Worcestershire. It used to be famous for the manufacture of nails, anvils, vices, chain, crucibles and firebricks. Lye Waste, adjacent to the original village of Lye, was an area of uncultivated common land but it was settled by people who, by building houses including a fireplace within 24 hours by using mud and clay as the main building materials, acquired freehold rights as a result of the passing of the Inclosure Acts [sic] from 1604 onwards, and it became thickly built upon. The village of Careless Green, now part of Lye but once a separate village immediately to the south-east, was noted for insurance clubs called Stewpony societies and the Stewpony Allotment Society which tried to improve conditions for the labouring classes.[2][3]

Lye

Town sign of The Lye
Lye
Location within the West Midlands
Population12,346 (Lye and Stourbridge North ward)
(2011 Census)[1]
OS grid referenceSO921846
Metropolitan borough
Metropolitan county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townSTOURBRIDGE
Postcode districtDY9
Dialling code01384
PoliceWest Midlands
FireWest Midlands
AmbulanceWest Midlands
UK Parliament

Places of interest

The local cemetery is the Lye and Wollescote Cemetery, which contains a pair of Grade II listed chapels.[4]

Lye is also home to Lye Town F.C., which has competed in the West Midlands Regional League since 1947.[5] Its home ground is The Sports Ground, which it shares with the resident cricket club.

Lye railway station serves the community, and is situated on the Stourbridge–Birmingham mainline.

Sir Cedric Hardwicke
Sir Cedric Hardwicke sculpture - Dudley Road, Lye

Lye is the birthplace of the actor Sir Cedric Hardwicke,[6] who is commemorated by a sculpture by Tim Tolkien, commissioned by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. The memorial takes the form of a giant filmstrip, the illuminated cut metal panels illustrating scenes from some of his best-known films which include The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Things to Come, and The Ghost of Frankenstein. It was unveiled in November 2005 and is located at Lye Cross near his childhood home.[7]

Further reading
  • Britain In Old Photographs: Lye And Wollescote Denys Brooks and Pat Dunn, 1997 (ISBN 0-7509-1657-5).
  • A Brief History of Lye & Wollescote Don Cochrane, 2005 (ISBN 0-9541753-3-6).

References
  1. "Table PHP01 2011 Census: Usual residents by resident type, and population density, number of households with at least one usual resident and average household size, wards in England and Wales". Office for National Statistics. 23 November 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
  2. "History of Lye". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
  3. "Lye". Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  4. "Lye and Wollescote Cemetery Chapel". Listed Building in Stourbridge. British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
  5. "Club Details". Lye Town F.C. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
  6. "Cedric Hardwicke". IMDb. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
  7. "Lye movie star gets civic honour". Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 9 April 2012.


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