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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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