[4] Other former industry included railway rolling stock manufacture, at the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company factory; screws and other fastenings from Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds (GKN); engines from Tangye; tubing from Evered's; steel pen nibs from British Pens; and various products from Chance Brothers' glassworks, including lighthouse lenses and the glazing for the Crystal Palace (the London works, in North Smethwick, manufactured its metalwork).

The mass council house building of the 1920s and 1930s also involved Smethwick's boundaries being extended into part of neighbouring Oldbury in 1928.

Many English churches have stained glass windows made by Hardman Studios in Lightwoods House, or, before that, by the Camm family.

[8] The ethnic minority communities were initially unpopular with the white population of Smethwick, leading to the election of Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) Peter Griffiths at the 1964 general election, who campaigned by appealing to the racist element and whose supporters had used the slogan, "If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour".

[citation needed] In 1961, the Sikh community purchased the unused Congregational Church on the High Street in Smethwick.

Smethwick received bad publicity when, the day after the announcement of his appointment, racist slogans and swastikas were daubed around the school.

[citation needed] There is a collection of red brick turn-of-20th century terrace, 1930s semi-detached, newly built modern housing and a number of high rise blocks of flats.

[citation needed] In July 2013, a major fire occurred at the Jayplas plastics and paper recycling plant on Dartmouth Road.

At that year's general election, Christabel Pankhurst, standing as a Women's Party candidate, narrowly failed to become one of Britain's first woman Members of Parliament.

[18] Labour held the seat until 1931; from 1926, the MP was Sir Oswald Mosley, future founder of the British Union of Fascists.

Mosley resigned the Labour whip in March 1931, but continued to represent the constituency until it was taken by the Conservatives at that year's general election.

He is thus the shortest-serving Member of Parliament (MP) in British history, if one discounts a few cases of people being elected posthumously.

At the 1964 general election, sitting MP Gordon Walker, who was Shadow Foreign Secretary, was defeated in highly controversial circumstances in the constituency by the virulently anti-immigration Conservative Party candidate Peter Griffiths.

Smethwick had attracted immigration from the Commonwealth in the economic and industrial growth of the years following the Second World War and Griffiths ran a campaign critical of the government's policy.

[20] Historian Rachel Yemm argues that the anti-immigration sentiment in the town was the result of a housing shortage, which local newspapers, such as The Smethwick Telephone, blamed on the migrants.

[20] At the beginning of 1965 Smethwick Council was planning "to purchase all available houses on Marshall Street to prevent their sale to immigrants".

Earlier in his career he had advocated the complete separation of African Americans from whites, but he now showed his opposition to racial segregation,[23][24] telling the press: I have come here because I am disturbed by reports that coloured people in Smethwick are being treated badly.

Smethwick has a long association with canals, which were the town's first major transport links from a time before decent roads and of course railways.

It required 12 locks to climb over the hill through the town; Brindley had found the earth too soft to dig a cutting through at the time.

A water mill named Briddismylne is recorded in 1499 as belonging to Halesowen Abbey, thought to be on the more recent Thimblemill site.

[39] The mill which led to the street name "Windmill Lane" was built on land bought in 1803 by William Croxall, a miller.

The route of the canal, passing through the valley of the Hockley Brook, the boundary with Handsworth on the north side of Smethwick, resulted in most of the heavy industry being located there.

The shop was owned by Arthur Teale and his wife Joan, with their eldest son joining the family business in the early 1970s.

The courier company Interlink Express established its head office and national distribution hub in the town in the early 2000s, and is a major employer in the area.

[45] Major roads The M5 runs along the western edge of Smethwick, passing over the two canals and a railway near Spon Lane.

Public transport Local bus service is provided primarily by National Express West Midlands, as well as other operators.

There are also direct regular bus services to West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, Oldbury, Blackheath, Harborne, Birmingham University and Dudley.

[47] Dudley Road corridor buses provide a bus link to the nearby City Hospital in Winson Green.

The main pool was capable of being covered for the purpose of public events; concerts, galas and exhibitions took place there until the late 1960s.

Famous acts including Tommy Cooper, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Small Faces and the Kinks played at the baths.