Merry Hill Centre, Brierley Hill - 01384 487 900 editor@marketingbirmingham.com

The name was formed from three Anglo-Saxon or Old English words; 'brier' meaning the place where the Briar Rose (Rosa rubiginosa) grew, 'leah' or 'ley' meaning a woodland clearing and 'Hill'.

Brierley Hill was established as a settlement in Pensnett Chase, surrounded by woodland. This woodland was cut down in medieval times and were replanted for the production of charcoal. Coppices were produced and by the 18th century, most of the land to the east of the High Street was woodland that had grown as a result coppicing.

The town was first referred to in 1642 when Richard Peirson, a blacksmith of Brierley Hill was mentioned. Brierley Hill continued to expand, and this increased in rate following the enclosure of Pensnett Chase in 1748. Lord Dudley was the dominant land owner in the area and his involvement in constructing the Stourbridge Canal across Pensnett Chase put Brierley Hill on the map, when John Snape mapped the canal in 1785, including Brierley Hill on it for the first time.

The first religious building in Brierley Hill was St. Michael's Chapel, which was constructed in 1765 by public subscription. In 1842, St Michael's became a parish church and a parish was created, covering the areas of Brockmoor, Delph and Quarry Bank. In 1872, construction commenced on St Mary's Church. Designed by E. W. Pugin, it was completed in 1873 and upon completion, consisted of a nave, sanctuary, aisle and side chapel.

The Industrial Revolution had a major impact on Brierley Hill, which soon became heavily industrialised. As well as having a large number of quarries and collieries that supplied the factories in the Black Country with coal and building materials, Brierley Hill too hosted numerous factories. In Fowlers Map of 1822, Brierley Hill had extended to the canal except for a small piece of Level Coppice. The canal was lined with iron works and collieries.

In 1835, a National School was constructed and opened in the town. A market area had developed on the High Street. Amongst the heavy industries at work in the area, Marsh and Baxter's became a major employer in the town, manufacturing meat products and was once the biggest meat processing plant in Europe. They installed the first refrigerating machine erected within the UK and then the first ammonia-refrigerating unit, which was even more reliable than its predecessor. Due to the industrialisation of the town, green land and the coppices began to disappear and so Marsh and Baxter's gave Marsh's Park to the town.

By the start of the 20th century, the raw material deposits began to become depleted. This led to the closure of the quarries and collieries as well as the ironworks, unable to compete with the introduction and increased usage of alternative materials. On December 8, 1979, the Marsh and Baxter's plant closed and was demolished in June 1980. The Moor Centre shopping area was built on the site. The biggest blow to Brierley Hill came in December 1982, when the Round Oak Steel Works was closed after 125 years. It was around this time too that the towns football team, Brierley Hill Alliance, sold their ground which was situated behind the High Street. The site is now part of the car park for the town's ASDA store. At its peak, the factory had employed some 3,000 people, and by the time of its closure it still employed 1,200. The actual site of the steelworks remained disused until it was developed as the Waterfront commercial and leisure complex between 1989 and 1995, but the nearby surrounding farmland (known as Merry Hill Farm) formed the bulk of the Dudley Enterprise Zone and between 1984 and 1989 was developed as the huge Merry Hill Shopping Centre. This helped revive Brierley Hill's economy and it ended the 1980s in a much better shape than it had begun the decade.

The decline in manufacturing in the town resulted in an unemployment rate of 25% in Brierley Hill by the early 1980s.

Originally part of Staffordshire, Brierley Hill became an urban district in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894. Previously, it had had an urban sanitory authority. The urban district expanded greatly in 1934 when it took in part of Kingswinford Rural District and the Quarry Bank urban district. It remained an independent urban district until 1966, when it became part of the County Borough of Dudley and then in 1974 the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. It is in the DY5 postal district.

In recent years, proposals have been drawn up by the local authority to regenerate Brierley Hill, which has suffered as a result of the decline of the manufacturing industry. The Brierley Hill Regeneration Partnership was formed to improve Brierley Hill over a period of 10 years by investing in the infrastructure and increasing the number of homes and job opportunities.

The Merry Hill Shopping Centre was built in the 1980s on the grounds of the last working urban farm within the Midlands and the Round Oak Steelworks. Also built on the site of the steelworks is the Waterfront office complex, with most of the offices opening between 1990 and 1995, and a railway steel terminal opening on the nearby railway in 1986.

From 1850 to 1962, Brierley Hill was served by a railway station for passengers on the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line, when passenger services were withdrawn. This was before Richard Beeching brought the axe down on many local railway lines. The railway line from Stourbridge through Brierley Hill is still in use for goods trains but since 1993 it has been closed beyond Round Oak Steel Terminal, although that section of line is set to reopen in the 2010s as an extension to the Midland Metro that will run to Wednesbury. Goods trains will also be allowed to use the full length of the line to Walsall.

Brierley Hill Town Hall, situated on Bank Street in the town centre, hosted several of Slade's first gigs during the early 1970s, although none of the members were actually from Brierley Hill.

The town's police station was built during the mid-1960s as the future local council offices, however when Brierley Hill became part of the Dudley borough, the plan was shelved.

Merry Hill once had a large house with surrounding gardens and an orchard which was named Bellencroft. The house has been demolished for a long while and the gardens no longer exist, instead a street named Bellencroft Gardens is in their location. Where the house once existed are now 2-3 private homes. The orchard of Bellencroft is now a cul-de-sac named Orchard Crescent which leads to Orchard Court. All that remains of Bellencroft is the pillar from the entrance to the driveway and until recently had the original 'Bellencroft' text on one of them. The text began to peel off and has been replaced with a modern plaque also saying 'Bellencroft'.