1901 - 2000

The advent of the 20th Century belied the changes that were in store over the decades to come. Although the death of Queen Victoria, after 64 years on the throne, heralded, psychologically at least, a 'new era' in Britain, little immediate change occurred in Amblecote itself. However, by Christmas 1914 war had turned the world up-side-down and by November 1918 irrevocably altered it forever. The period of the first half of the 20th century was marked by global, mechanised warfare and Amblecote bore its share in terms of both human lives and economic upheaval. By the end of the Second World War the industries of Amblecote were tired and worn out and despite a number of valiant efforts, finally succumbed to the dictates of the new global markets. Until, by the late century, they had all but ceased to exist. However, from the ashes(literally) of the old Amblecote a new entity arose, as redundant land created by strip-mining the last of the high ground coal, was used to create a vast area of private housing. Sadly the late century also saw a civic disaster wrought on Amblecote by division between, and amalgamation with, Brierley Hill and Stourbridge in 1966; and worse still the subsumation and subjugation of these within the artificial Metropolitan Borough of 'Dudley' in 1974. Thus was local democracy taken away from the people and replaced with an inadequate elected entity controlled by a remote and irrelevant bureaucracy which, at one point, even proposed the name 'Amblecote' be replaced as an elective ward.