| Oxley | |
|---|---|
  Oxley Location within theWest Midlands | |
| Population | 12,797 (2011.Ward Census)[1] |
| Metropolitan borough | |
| Metropolitan county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Wolverhampton |
| Postcode district | WV |
| Dialling code | 01902 |
| Police | West Midlands |
| Fire | West Midlands |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
| |
Oxley is a suburb ofWolverhampton,West Midlands, and award of theCity of Wolverhampton Council. Its area code is WV10. It is situated in the north of the city, borderingSouth Staffordshire and theBushbury North,Bushbury South and Low Hill,St Peter's andTettenhall Regis wards. It forms part of theWolverhampton West constituency.[2]
The place nameOxley has its origins in theOld English language. 'Ox' from old English 'Oxa' (for the animal), and 'Ley' from the old English 'lēah' (recorded in theDomesday Book by the Normans as 'Oxelie'), meaning woodland clearing or meadow. The majority of Wolverhampton's place names are old English (Anglo-Saxon) in origin, and at that time, much of the land was covered in woodland.Cannock forest stretched down through Wolverhampton[3] and would have encompassed the Oxley area – so the name means a clearing in the woodland with the presence of oxen.
Up until the 20th century, Oxley was very much a rural area, sitting on the route of the Wolverhampton toStafford road.[4]
The borough's western border is also the location ofAutherley Junction, where theShropshire Union Canal meets theStaffordshire & Worcestershire Canal, and ofAldersley Junction, where theBCN Main Line meets the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal.
The mainline of the formerShrewsbury and Birmingham Railway (S&BR) transits the area. In 1907, theGreat Western Railway developed arailway depot at Oxley, to replace the existing S&BR shed atWolverhampton railway works. A standard two-turntable shed, it housed nearly 100 locomotives, mainly freight types for servicing the co-located major freight yard. After allocation toBritish RailwaysLondon Midland Region in January 1963, it closed the dilapidatedWolverhampton (Stafford Road) TMD, and moved all locomotives to Oxley from September 1963. The shed closed to steam locomotives from March 1967, redeveloped as a diesel maintenance facility.[5]
In 1972 the stretch of railway between Wolverhampton North Junction and Oxley was electrified on the 25 kV overhead line AC system (using catenary designed for low-speed movements only), the first stretch of the former Great Western network to be thus treated. This enabled electric locomotives to work empty coaching stock onWest Coast Main Line services fromLondon Euston that terminated atWolverhampton. TodayOxley TRSMD is operated byAlstom to maintainClass 390Pendolinos forAvanti West Coast.[6] Since 2021 Oxley TRSMD has been the home depot for Avanti West CoastClass 805 and807s.[7]
Oxley is well served by buses withNational Express West Midlands services 3 and 4 providing a combined 7 minute service between the City Centre and Three Tuns Island. Additional services are operated by Select Bus Service on service 877/878 which runs toBrewood and occasionally toStafford.
The focal point of Oxley is the Three Tuns Parade, a shopping area on theA449 Stafford Road, adjacent to the boundary with Bushbury North. Principal local landmarks include the two towering railway viaducts crossing theBirmingham Canal Navigations Main Line Canal. After car tyre production ceased in 2006, theGoodyear plant went into an almost complete shutdown. Its 81-year-old blue and yellow chimney stack was demolished in June 2008 as part of a regeneration and housing project. A new housing estate was built here from summer 2011[8] which includes anAldi and aHungry Horse pub named "The Gatehouse" as it sits on the site of the old Goodyear gatehouse.
The Church of the Epiphany is the Anglican parish Church on Lymer Road, the building dates to the early 1960s. Installed within the Church is a fine example of a ComptonTheatre organ originally installed at the WindsorTheatre inBearwood, Birmingham. The localPolish community has its centre and Catholic Church on Stafford Road, Oxley.
The suburb ofPendeford falls within Oxley ward. Wolverhampton Science Park is situated near Oxley's south border, on the site of the old Gas Works at Gorsebrook.Ormiston NEW Academy lies in the ward.
