Tag Archives: Oldbury

Beacon to be lit on the Rowley Hills to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday

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The Rowley Hills (image © Mike Poulton)Tomorrow evening Sandwell will join hundreds of communities up and down the country when it lights a special beacon to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday.

People will be able to see the beacon from miles around when it is lit at 8.30pm on Thursday 21 April. Sandwell Mayor Councillor Barbara Price will officially light the borough’s beacon on the Rowley Hills, near East Avenue. The best view of the beacon will be from the Oldbury area (the actual site where the beacon is lit is not suitable for spectators).

The Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will light the principal beacon at Windsor Castle. It will be followed by the lighting of more than 1,000 beacons throughout the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, UK overseas Territories and Commonwealth to celebrate the Queen’s landmark birthday.

The Army Cadet Force is taking special gas-fuelled beacons to the top of the four highest peaks in the UK, other beacons include Unst in the Shetland Islands, the most northerly beacon in Great Britain, and four beacons in the Virgin islands.

Beacons have previously been lit for:

  • The Queen’s Silver Jubilee – 1977
  • 50th Anniversary of VE Day – 1995
  • Beacons for the Millennium – 1999
  • The Queen’s Golden Jubilee – 2002
  • The Trafalgar Weekend Beacons – 2005
  • The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee – 2012
  • 75th Anniversary of VE Day – 2015
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Friends of Rowley Hills at Titford Boat Rally this weekend

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12th May 2015

Titford Boat Rally 2015

We will have a stall at the Titford Boat Rally this Saturday, why not come and say hello and learn a bit about the Rowley Hills? The Rally is from 11am til 5pm and there will be a real ale bar, stalls, refreshments, boat trips, music and fun.

The Rally is held at the pumphouse at the top of the Titford Locks at Tat Bank junction – address is Engine Street, Oldbury, B69 4NL, off the Tat Bank Road. If you want to come by train, Langley Green Station is a few hundred yards away, on the line from Birmingham Moor Street to Stourbridge.  Turn right coming out of the station, on to Western Road.  Turn left at Tat Bank Road, and left again at Engine Street.

By buses number 128 (Birmingham to Blackheath), and 89 (Birmingham to Blackheath via Dudley Road) go down Tat Bank Road past Engine Street, bus 120 (Birmingham to Dudley) turns off Tat Bank Road at Western Road, before Engine Street, passing Langley Green station.  This is probably the quickest bus from Birmingham, but the walk to the pumphouse is a little longer.