A Bold New Walsall

Walsall Regeneration Company was established in March 2004 to champion and facilitate the physical regeneration of 780 hectares of Walsall.

Our Role

Our designated area includes the town centre and neighbouring areas, canalside communities to the north and Darlaston Strategic Development Area, straddling the M6, to the south west.

We have the strong support of a powerful partnership, driven by our founding partners Advantage West Midlands, English Partnerships and Walsall Council, and are working successfully with the private sector, other public sector organisations and community stakeholders to deliver a co-ordinated programme of transformational regeneration.

WRC is focused on attracting a total of more than £750 million of private and public sector investment within a decade, creating more than 5,500 jobs, over 1,500 new homes and reclaiming in excess of 70 hectares of land.

Our Main Objectives

• Provide a unified vision and framework for regeneration that raises aspirations and makes a real and lasting difference to the economy and people of Walsall – our Prospectus for Growth
• Remove the obstacles and barriers to regeneration and development
• Raise the profile of Walsall regionally and nationally and generate confidence in the town as a place in which to invest, work and live
• Make a genuine difference by securing commitment from investors, both public and private, through a clear resonance with central Government initiatives for creating sustainable communities and urban renaissance
• Encourage high quality urban design within a framework for sustainable development

To achieve a revitalised town centre that is climbing the league table
To increase the residential population
To exploit Walsall’s prime location and transport links
To utilise the canal as an artery for regeneration
To align Walsall’s emergence as a ‘town for enterprise’ with the Black Country Study, and the emerging Black Country Joint Core Strategy, and the growth of the West Midlands region

Major transformational projects
An increased GDP through encouraging better skills
An improved quality and choice of housing
Creation of an office market
The retention of a much larger portion of disposable income within the local economy

A History of Walsall

Look around you from Walsall town centre and two buildings, one new one old, dominate the skyline.

The New Art Gallery Walsall, opened in February 2000.  A world class venue for the millennial arts, it was commissioned by Walsall Council and cost £21 million.

At the town’s highest point, some 511 feet at the top of Church Hill, is the impressive St Matthew’s.  Formerly dedicated as All Saints, a church has overlooked Walsall from this site since the early 13^th century.

Restoration of Walsall’s medieval vistas, part of proposals for the regeneration of the town centre, would provide a visual link between St Matthew’s and the art gallery.

Walsall grew in a cross shape around Church Hill in the Middle Ages.  Before that the town’s history is less certain.

The earliest reference, at the beginning of the 11^th century, speaks of ‘Walesho’, interpreted as ‘home of the woods’.  Another is ‘Wealhs Halh’, but there is certainly no ‘Walsall’ in the Doomesday Book.

Walsall Market was first mentioned in around 1220, so can rightly claim an 800-year history.

Walsall’s early development was as an agricultural centre and market town.

Although there is evidence of some light metalworking in Tudor times, it was the Victorian era and the Industrial Revolution that catapulted it to international acclaim.

The mining locally of coal, iron and limestone saw the economy grow dramatically, with Walsall’s excellent canal links and railway making the movement of heavy goods easy.

The town’s population grew hugely and by the end of the 19^th century Walsall’s pre-eminence in leather goods and saddlery brought it world renown as the ‘Leather Capital of Britain’.  This boom period is celebrated today in exhibits at the Walsall Leather Museum.

While this ‘light’ has faded Walsall has won new fame for its annual festival of light in the Arboretum. Launched as part of the 1951 Festival of Britain, Walsall Illuminations has been attracting large numbers of visitors from around the region and further afield for more than half a century.

Although the town centre was remodelled in the 1960s, Walsall’s economy has been in decline for some time.

The delivery of plans to regenerate Walsall between 2005 and 2015 will see a new more confident town emerging, returning to its position as the leading town in the Black Country and that will fulfil its potential as ‘Walsall – a town for enterprise’.