CRADLEY LINKS

|

Dedicated to the local and family history of Cradley in the Black Country

CRADLEY ONLINE

SEARCH THE SITE











Enter one or more keywords to search the site for into the box below. Enclosing more than one word in double quotes (e.g. "Black Country") will search for the exact phrase. Click the Google Search button.












 WWW  Cradley Links

WHERE IS CRADLEY?

CRADLEY MAP


Thanks to Google Earth™ and FotoTagger software we are able to bring you an aerial map of Cradley and the immediately surrounding district, with pointers naming the main areas, streets and buildings of the town.
We hope this will help you find your way around. If the place you are interested in is still not to be found, contact us and we will try to help.
Just click anywhere on the map image (left) and a new window will open, bringing you a full screen map. It may take a few seconds to load.
Later there will be a second map showing the old place and street names of Cradley, the ones that have disappeared with time.
Cradley's Location

    Elevation above sea level: 125 metres
    Location World: 52° 27’ 43” North   2° 05’ 06” West
    Location British Isles: SP 943 849 (Ordnance Survey Grid Reference)

Black Country Map: Location of Cradley in Dudley Borough in the south of the Black Country. Image courtesy of Black Country Investments

Cradley is an ancient town in the industrial, urban Black Country in the Midlands of England, situated close to the much newer town of Cradley Heath, which grew up on Cradley's heathland in relatively modern times.

Also, there is another Cradley some 30 miles away to the south in rural Herefordshire, near the Malvern Hills, a different place altogether. This other Cradley is spelt the same but pronounced differently - like "bad" or "sad", whereas our Cradley is pronounced more like a baby's "cradle".

Historically our Cradley was in the north of the county of Worcestershire but local government boundary changes have "moved" it into Dudley in the West Midlands. For Poor Law and early Census purposes Cradley was in the Stourbridge Union and Stourbridge Registration District respectively. The Stourbridge registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths are now held in the Dudley District.

The Black Country today lies within the borders of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall Boroughs and Wolverhampton City but does not actually coincide with any "official" boundaries. There is no definitive map of the Black Country. In fact, it almost defies definition. However, we all know where we are from, even if we might have slightly differing views over exactly what is in and what's not in our dark region. Some places are like that!

GOOGLE EARTH™


If you have Google Earth™ installed, click here to download a tiny file called "cradley.kmz". When this Google Earth file is downloaded, just double click it and it will take you to Cradley (or it may take you straight there anyway). The file will then show up under your Temporary Places in Google Earth and you can save it to My Places folder if you would like to re-visit it at a later date.

If you don't have Google Earth™, why not download and install it now.

THE BLACK COUNTRY

The Black Country was not always so-called, but the industrial revolution transformed the area now known by this name. Indeed, our black country was home to that revolution. By the mid-nineteenth century it had been described as 'The Iron Country', the 'Staffordshire Mining District' and finally the Black Country. In 1868 Elihu Burritt, who trained as a blacksmith before he became the American Consul in Birmingham, published his book 'Walks in the Black Country and its Green Borderland'.

The name Black Country derives from the important coal mining industry, the spoil from which was deposited around the pits, turning green to black. And it owes something to the overwhelming presence of smoke from the iron works that made our homeland "black by day, red by night". Cradley Forge was one of the iron works where Dud Dudley first smelted iron with coal in the early years of the seventeenth century. Cradley later became known throughout the world for its hand-made iron chain.