Sedgley Urban District

Sedgley Urban District was a local government district within Staffordshire, which was created in 1894 from the western half of the manor of Sedgley (the other half of which became the Coseley Urban District).The Urban District, formed in 1894, consisted of the historic villages of Sedgley, Cotwall End, Gospel End, Upper Gornal, Lower Gornal and Woodsetton.The UDC built many new houses within its boundaries as the local population grew. The first developments included the Beacon Hill Estate in Sedgley and smaller developments off Dudley Road in Upper Gornal and Summer Lane in Lower Gornal, which were built in the 1920s. These developments were then expanded in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Post World War II developments included the Sedgley Hall Estate near Gospel End Road, the Bramford Estate at Woodsetton and a smaller development at Cinder Road in Gornal Wood. Flats (not in blocks more than four storeys high) and bungalows were also built in large numbers during this era. Interwar estates including the Beacon Estate were also expanded after 1945. Interestingly, the houses on the Sedgley Hall Estate were built from concrete panels just after the end of World War II, and are still standing some 70 years later even though Sedgley UDC intended to replace them with brick-built housing by the 1960s.By 1966, the district had developed into a town due to extensive housebuilding (private and council) since 1920, and was dissolved to be absorbed into three neighbouring authorities. The bulk of the district was absorbed into the County Borough of Dudley, while the Gospel End area was absorbed into Seisdon Rural District (now South Staffordshire) and Goldthorn Park was absorbed into Wolverhampton. The introduction of post code districts locally in 1966 also means that much of Woodsetton now has a Dudley DY1 post code rather than Sedgley DY3, although Gospel End comes within the DY3 postal district - as do the villages of Himley and Swindon, which were never within the same local authority at Sedgley and are no longer even in the same county.