One of the largest factories in the area was the Round Oak Steelworks, which closed down and was redeveloped in the 1980s to become the Merry Hill Shopping Centre.

[4] Largely a product of the Industrial Revolution, Brierley Hill has a relatively recent history, with the first written records of the town dating back to the 17th century.

[7] In recent years, proposals have been drawn up by the local authority to regenerate Brierley Hill, with the Brierley Hill Regeneration Partnership formed to improve the town over 10 years, by investing in the infrastructure and increasing the number of homes and job opportunities.

[16] On a national level, the ward forms part of the Dudley South constituency, with the Conservative MP Mike Wood currently elected.

[citation needed] Round Oak Steelworks was built in 1857 on land overlooking the site of what is now the Merry Hill Centre, and employed up to 3,000 people at its peak, but that figure had fallen to just over 1,200 by the time it closed in December 1982.

On the border with Wordsley was the Bottle and Glass Inn, erected on the bank of the Dudley Canal in about 1800 as The Bush.

[26] Pensnett is situated more than a mile north of the town centre and borders the townships of Sedgley, Kingswinford, and Dudley.

Withymoor Village and Lakeside lie to the south of the town centre bordering Stourbridge and were mostly developed in the 1970s and 1980s, following open cast coalmining.

Chapel Street Estate was developed during the 1960s with predominantly multi-storey flats on the site of a Victorian residential area.

Quarry Bank is situated to the southeast of the town centre and leads to the border with Cradley Heath and Stourbridge.

[citation needed] Hawbush Estate stands one mile to the west of the town centre and was developed in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Under current plans, an under-construction extension to the West Midlands Metro will see the railway line north of Brierley Hill re-opened, with light rail services providing a link to the existing Metro line in Wednesbury and Dudley to the north and Stourbridge to the south.

[27] West Midlands Police have their main Dudley area station in Brierley Hill, situated on the corner of Bank Street, next to the Civic Hall.

The police station was originally built in the 1960s as the future local council offices, but the plan was scrapped when Brierley Hill became a part of the Dudley Borough.

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West Midlands and ITV Central.

However (along with Dudley, Sedgley, and Coseley) it ran a system of 5–8 first, 8–12 middle, and 12–16 secondary schools from 1972 until 1990, before reverting to the traditional age ranges.

The school serves the Quarry Bank area which is situated approximately one mile south of the town centre, and there are currently around 175 pupils aged 5–11 on the roll.