West Midlands (region) facts for kids

West Midlands

The West Midlands is an official Region of England, covering the western half of the Midlands.

Geography

The official region contains the large conurbation that includes Birmingham and Wolverhampton and includes also the mainly rural shire counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. (Unofficially the West Midlands region also spreads as far as Cheshire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, but these are not part of the official region.)

There is some confusion in the use of the term "West Midlands", as the name is also used for the much smaller West Midlands county, and is still used by various organisations within that area such as West Midlands Police and West Midlands Fire Service.

The highest point in the region is Black Mountain, at 703 metres.

Towns and cities

Major towns and cities in the West Midlands region include:

• Birmingham, Bromsgrove, Burton upon Trent
• Coventry
• Droitwich Spa, Dudley
• Evesham
• Hereford
• Kenilworth, Kidderminster
• Leamington Spa, Lichfield
• Newcastle-under-Lyme, Nuneaton
• Redditch, Rugby
• Shrewsbury, Stafford, Stoke-on-Trent, Stratford-upon-Avon, Solihull,Sutton Coldfield
• Tamworth, Telford
• Walsall, Warwick, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, Worcester

Regional Assembly

The official representative body of the region is the West Midlands Regional Assembly which has limited administrative functions such as regional planning and economic development. The assembly is not an elected body, but is made up of members appointed from local councils across the region, and members from regional interest groups such as business and environmental groups and trade unions.

Local government

The official region consists of the following subdivisions:

Key: shire county = † | metropolitan county = == Economy == Coal mining used to be the main industry of the Black Country. Nationally famous companies in the West Midlands are Cadbury's in Bournville, Birmingham; the brewing companies such as Coors Brewers in Burton on Trent, as well as Marmite; JCB is based in Staffordshire.

Local media

• The West Midlands region of the BBC is based at the Mailbox in Birmingham. From there, the regional programme Midlands Today is produced. ITV Central broadcasts from Birmingham, with its Central Tonight regional programme.
• BBC Radios WM, Coventry & Warwickshire, Stoke, Hereford & Worcester and Shropshire.
• Commercial radio stations: BRMB, Beacon Radio in Wolverhampton, Mercia FM in Coventry, Touch FM (Burton, Lichfield and Tamworth) in Tamworth, Touch FM (Coventry), Kerrang! 105.2 in Birmingham, Wyvern FM in Worcester, 100.7 Heart FM in Birmingham, and Signal 1 from Stoke.
• Newspapers - the Birmingham Post, Birmingham Mail, Express & Star in Wolverhampton, The Sentinel in Stoke-on-Trent and Coventry Evening Telegraph.

Images for kids

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  Rural Shropshire, Lyth Hill.

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  Map of the West Midlands passenger railway network

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  The M6 Toll plaza.

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  The M45 motorway, originally called the Dunchurch Link, was one of the first motorways built in the UK, and is now one of the quietest

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  A map of the West Midlands region, showing Towns/Cities in Red, Motorways in Blue, AONBs in Light Green and National Parks in Dark Green.

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  The cast iron Iron Bridge at Coalbrookdale, opened in January 1781 and was the first large-scale object made out of cast iron; but cast iron is not reliably strong due to impurities. Wrought iron, where the carbon is hammered to remove to carbon and impurities is much stronger; the first large-scale wrought iron bridge was the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait, only possible due to its innovative box girder design by Robert Stephenson

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  Coalbrookdale by Night, of the Madeley Wood Company, painted by Philip James de Loutherbourg in 1801

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  Boulton, Watt and Murdoch, a 1956 statue on Broad Street in Birmingham; the SI unit of power is the watt, most commonly found as the kW, a replacement for the imperial measurement of horsepower

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  1817 Boulton & Watt beam blowing engine re-erected on the Dartmouth Circus roundabout, on the A4540 and the A38(M)

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  Statue of St Michael and Satan at Coventry Cathedral

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  Lord Bamford, the wealthiest British-nationality businessman

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  Bulmers cider orchard east of Hereford, near the River Wye

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  The Michelin Man (Bibendum) at Sideway in Stoke-on-Trent, with its name originating from the Latin phrase Nunc est bibendum

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  Marmite is made from the yeast left over from the brewing industry

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  Dennis Eagle bin wagon works at Warwick

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  IBM at Warwick

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  NFU Mutual headquarters at Tiddington, east of Stratford-upon-Avon

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  In 2008, the former Daw Mill colliery produced 3.2 million tonnes of coal, a UK record

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  Morgan Sindall Construction HQ on Corporation Street (B4632) in Rugby

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  The leaping jaguar mascot outside the car company's head office south of Coventry

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  Cadbury in Birmingham

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  A Land Rover Defender in eastern Africa, made in Solihull

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  Carillion head office in Wolverhampton

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  Wednesfield Steelpark in September 2006

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  Willenhall is the lockmaking capital of the UK, and the home of Chubb

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  Worcester Bosch; Bosch Thermotechnology are in Warndon

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  The factory opened in 1897; the recipe for Worcestershire sauce came from Lord Sandys, and was only discovered accidentally when initially discarded and left to mature for months

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  Qinetiq at the Malvern Hills Science Park, or Malvern Technology Centre; the integrated circuit was invented here in 1952

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  King Edward VI Aston School

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  University of Birmingham

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  St George's Park is the training ground of the England National Football Team

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  Tennis was invented in Edgbaston, Birmingham

See also

In Spanish: Región de las Tierras Medias Occidentales para niños