Here is a little information on my village town of Sedgley. Beacon Hill in Sedgley, England, is one of the highest points in the West Midlands, at 237 metres (778 ft) above sea level. From the summit,The local areas of Wolverhampton, Walsall and Birmingham are all visible, as is the Staffordshire and Shropshire countryside to the west. The hill is so named, as historically it was one in a series of prominent locations with beacons on top, where a bonfire would be lit as a signal during times of war or turmoil. This beacon, along with many more stretched across the country would have almost certainly been lit back in 1588 to signal the arrival of the spanish armada arriving in the English channel.The Sedgley beacon lies between other beacons located at Barr Beacon and Cannock Chase. In 1846 at the highest point of the hill the Now grade II listed tower was erected, this now stands on the original site where the former bonfires would have been lit. Beacon Hill is the highest point of land between Sedgley and the Ural Mountains in Russia. So good are the views that when the tower was climbable the Bristol Channel was visible on a clear day, although today the tower still stands,a fence restricts any access to the tower due to the unsafe crumbled steps. Sadly over the years of this 50 ft high tower it is now showing signs of deterioration ,The tower needs an immense amount of work on both the inside and the outside and from top to bottom. The surrounding area which forms part of the tower itself is also in desperate need of restoration. The bottom eight feet of its internal stone spiral staircase is also missing. A local group will be applying to the lottery and other organisations who supply money for this type of work. We are working hard towards a complete restoration of this unique monument and returning the area to its former glory”. It is reputed between 1455~1485 that during the Wars of the Roses a troop of Yorkish soldiers were camped on the hill, also that Parliamentarian forces under Colonel Bruerton occupied Sedgley Beacon during the siege of nearby Dudley Castle in the English Civil War , Sedgley Beacon is not short on legend including one that Druids once practiced their faith on its summit. These days, the local Sedgley Morris Men can be found on the hill dancing in the dawn each May Day morning . Back in the day approximately half of Beacon Hill was situated in the urban district of Coseley, which was created in 1897 from the eastern half of the old Sedgley manor. This section included the Beacon Tower. However, the local government reorganisation of 1966 (which saw the bulk of Sedgley and approximately half of Coseley incorporated into Dudley) resulted in the creation of post code districts, with all of Beacon Hill being included in the new Sedgley DY3 post code district. The town now still has many of its historical buildings and old bull ring, The Bull Ring has been the hub of the village for at least 300 years with principal routes leading to the Manor boundary in all directions. As passenger transport progressed from horse drawn to ‘horse powered’ vehicles, the stage coach gave way to the horse drawn tram, quickly followed by the steam tram, electric tram and trolleybus. All these passed through the village centre mirroring the rapid industrialisation of the Black Country. However the name echoes a cruel and barbaric activity from even earlier.Bull baiting, with dogs, was once a popular ‘sport’ throughout England. The main variation seems to have been the length of rope between the animal's horns and the iron ring of the bull stake. This marked out the size of the ring. Eventually the spectacle was banned in an Act of 1835, but many events took place after this date. The local villages of Lower Gornal and Coseley had rings as did Darlaston and Birmingham. The old bullring was reformed as transport means started to take a hold, thus came the arrival of the roundabout or traffic island, a French ‘invention’ using the Arc de Triomphe in 1907, became widespread in this country in the 1920s. The Bull Ring's gas lamps, surrounded by cobbles, were probably converted to the new layout in the late 1920s. However the continental free for all at such junctions only stopped in 1966 when ‘give way to the right’ became mandatory thus solving the problem of ‘locking’. In 1967 the trolley bus era ended and with it the removal of the overhead power system that had dominated the area for forty years. An opportunity to rearrange the central flower bed in 1972 saw the return of cobbles as a feature of the new retaining wall. The island has overlooked an ever changing variety of pedestrian crossings, safety railings and lighting columns and since December 2000 it has housed a CCTV camera watching the daily traffic chaos, but also making a safer environment for everyone. Other historical buildings surrounding the bullring of which are still standing are, The Court House, built in the early 19th century, was once the town's magistrates' court. These law courts were relocated to a building at the nearby police station until the town's courts were declared redundant in 1988. The Court House is still open, having been part of many different pub chains over the years. Another beautiful building of which is now another public house,The Red Lion is approximately the same age as the Court House, and was once the village prison. It is still connected to the Court House by a passageway, though this has long fallen into disuse. On the opposite side of the bullring, The removal of Hilton's house and builders yard, together with John Conway Fox’s butcher’s shop, made way for the Bull Ring's most dominant building. The Clifton Sedgleys first cinima,Started in 1936, and opened in May 1937, it was a state of the art cinema and flagship architectural creation. The sketch in the opening day programme captured the spirit of the new glittering edifice and the first film, ‘San Francisco’, starring Clark Gable, firmly placed the village on the 'cinema circuit'. Such style lasted barely forty years before television emptied the seats and a bingo caller replaced the stars of the silver screen. The exterior became shabby as the 1970s bingo hall came to an end in about 1995. The rumours of sale or demolition again circulated. Then new life was breathed into the shell in 1998 when a well known pub business brought it,and at a cost of £920,000, started to create a theme pub recalling the glory days of motion pictures. Once more the Clifton was well patronised and had enough traces of its 1930s appearance to please the preservation lobby! Today this little yet bustling town is still the heart and soul of many local communities and a great place to live.....