The town is part of the Black Country, Netherton is bounded by nature reserves to the east and west, and an industrial area and the Dudley Southern By-Pass to the north.

[2] For most of its history, Netherton was a small village centred around the point where a brook crossed the Baptist End Road, near the boundary of Pensnett Chase, a partially wooded common.

[8] Netherton is shown in Joseph Browne's 1682 map of Staffordshire, although like all of Dudley at the time, it lay in a small exclave of Worcestershire.

[9] In 1684, King Charles II of England granted a charter to allow the village to hold an annual market fair.

[5] Following the Inclosure Acts of the late 18th century, allowing construction in Pensnett Chase, the present-day settlement began to develop further up the hill than its original site.

[2] Netherton expanded rapidly in the industrial age and the thick seams of coal underlying the region were extensively mined.

In 1874, Dr. Ballard, sent by the Local Government Board to inspect the sanitary conditions of the Borough of Dudley, described Netherton as 'a village of such size it almost deserves to be termed a town'.

A typical comment was: 'Old Netherton Town, Mr. Thomas Woodall's buildings.- Drainage very horrible, with privies and piggeries as usual, and no pavement.

Procure water from a horse-pit nearly half a mile, and it has to be carried up hill, mostly by girls, in little pails of about three gallons, on their heads.

[13] A fire station and a number of police houses were constructed at the same time on an adjacent site, though these buildings have since been converted for commercial and community use.

Two old landmarks of Netherton can be viewed at the Black Country Living Museum - Harold Emile Doo's chemist shop[17] and Providence Church.

Another old industrial area that has been reclaimed for public recreation is the Bumble Hole,[21] which lies east of Netherton adjacent to Warrens Hall Park, in the neighbouring Sandwell borough.

A rare Timber Gallows crane, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, stood in the reserve but is currently (2008) undergoing restoration.

[11] The area is now a small public garden, on which has been placed a full-sized replica of an anchor of the RMS Titanic, manufactured at local ironworks, Hingley's.

A small branch line from Baptist End led to Withymoor Goods Station, which was near where the Dudley No.

In the north of Netherton lies Baptist End, an area thought to encompass the site of the medieval village.

Bordering the Bumble Hole nature reserve is Windmill End, and in the south of Netherton is the industrial area of Primrose Hill.

In medieval times, the lodge was where the local forester lived and it is likely that this is the ultimate origin of the estate's name, which is sited in what once was Pensnett Chase.

The most prominent, the Anglican parish church of St. Andrew's, was consecrated and opened by the Lord Bishop Folliott on 16 July 1830.

The Midland Counties Express reported in 1904: 'a few horse-nailers at Netherton and about a dozen female workers at Cawney Hill are the only remaining representatives of the nail trade'.

Netherton chainmakers N. Hingley & Sons were famous for making the anchors for the ocean liner RMS Titanic.

[39] The firm's founder, Noah Hingley, started making chain cable for ships in nearby Cradley in 1820.

[42][43] The main anchor for the Titanic weighed fifteen and a half tons and, on completion, was hauled from the factory to the rail head at Dudley by 20 Shire horses.

2 canal was Lloyds Proving House, where chain was subjected to a variety of tests to show it was of suitable quality.

[48] Edwin Alfred and Lucy Blanche Holden, founders of the Holdens brewing concern, had their first pub in Netherton; whilst Daniel Batham, son of Daniel and Charlotte Batham who had started the family beer production, brewed at the King William in Cole Street, before moving the brewery to its present location at the Vine on the Delph.

[4] Other notable firms included H. & T. Danks, manufacturers of boilers; John Barnsley and Co., specialists in cranes and hoists; and Grazebrook's, which had furnaces for iron-making.

Sammy 'Pigiron' Whitehouse was a strongman from Darby End, who worked unloading canal boats and in a foundry in the earlier part of the 20th century.

The nickname 'Pigiron' was earned in 1921 when he won a 4-mile race from St. Thomas' Church through Netherton following the Halesowen Road, carrying a hundredweight (112 lb) of pigiron.

[4] Cockfighting took place at a number of cock-pits: at Yew Tree Hills, Northfield Road,[55] and the Bumble Hole.

[56] Mark Fletcher describes the court proceedings resulting from the arrest of people suspected of being involved in cockfighting in 1885.