Many of Amblecote’s older named streets found in various Directories and Census’ may still be located, with the majority of addresses on the Stourbridge to Wolverhampton road (The Holloway, Coalbournbrook and High Street), and along Brettell Lane, with many in King William Street and Collis Street. Platts Crescent is also well represented, whilst minor roads such as Dial Lane, Villa Street, Vale Street and Vicarage Road (itself now a main thoroughfare in terms of traffic volume) can be recognised.

The addresses within some documents may be confusing to the modern reader versed in the mantra of ‘please use the postcode’. Some are quite specific with house names or numbers. Others merely state an individual’s name and a street, area or house. The later were not so much attempts at preserving privacy as indicating that a well known person or business had no need to state an exact address in order to be located by customers, callers or the postman.

Some Amblecote address’ are very old indeed, Coalbournbrook was certainly known as such by late 1600’s, whilst Brettell Lane had been laid out and named by the 1720’s. However, the most significant urban development took place between the 1830’s and 1870’s, filling in the area between the Coalbourn stream itself and Brettell Lane. Collis Street was named after William Blow Collis, a Stourbridge Solicitor who purchased land there sometime during this period. King William Street is named after William King, a claymaster who died in 1850, known locally as ‘King Billy’. The area around Platts Crescent was developed from about 1840. Meanwhile in direct contrast to modern Amblecote, those few addresses that do appear in Withymoor and Amblecote Bank are largely of farms and extraction or refractory industries.