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Redditch, Staffordshire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Redditch is a town
and local government district in Worcestershire, England, just south of
the West Midlands urban area. The district has a population of about
80,000 and is represented in Parliament by Jacqui Smith.
The first recorded
mention of Redditch is in 1348, and it became a centre of
needle-making. It was designated a new town in 1964 and the population
was increased dramatically by the large overspill from an industrially
expanding Birmingham. Now mainly a dormitory town, it has some light
industry and is also well-known in the region for its speciality
Batchley Cheese, the town of recent years has had one of the highest
rates of teenage pregnancies in the country.
Famous Residents
John Bonham from Led Zeppelin
Rick Mayall comedian
Transport
Located in the heart
of England, Redditch is an ideal point of departure for destinations in
the surrounding region. The M42 motorway is a short drive away and it
is linked by dual carriageways and A-class roads to surrounding towns
such as Bromsgrove and Evesham. The Cross-City Line provides a regular
train service via Birmingham to Lichfield. There is a regular bus
service to Studley.
There is an
extensive network of local bus services run by First Midland Red and
other operators. Many services run from the bus station in the town
centre, a postcard of which was voted Britain's most boring postcard in
a competition run by the photographer Martin Parr.
Redditch is locally
well known for its confusing road system dominated by a system of dual
carriageways built when it became a "New Town". Due to their similar
appearance drivers easily become disorientated, although the story of
an elderly couple admitted to hospital with severe dehydration after
spending more than sixty hours trying to navigate the highway system is
an urban legend. Redditch was briefly famous for a tongue-in-cheek
calendar featuring its "picturesque" roundabouts, which has proved so
popular it has since been revived for subsequent years.
Places of Interest
Bordesley Abbey:
remains of a former Cistercian abbey, later used as a Royal Swannery.
Forge Mill Needle Museum: exhibition of traditional needle making
Local Dialect
Due to its
geographical location Redditch was isolated from the Worcestershire
vernacular, instead developing a distinguishable local mode of speech
which owes more to the influence of nearby Warwickshire and Birmingham.
With the establishment of Redditch as a new town this influence has
been strengthened with the influx of migrants from the West Midlands
area. For
example, policemen are colloquially known as "tadgers" instead of
"bobbies", and their distinctive helmets are referred to as "peckers".
A "kingfisher" is a shoplifter, while a "roundabout" is a drug-induced
high (thought to derive from the children's television programme The
Magic Roundabout; to avoid confusion, the type of road junction usually
called a roundabout is known in the town as a "swing", as in the phrase
"swings and roundabouts").
Photos of Redditch
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