Kates Hill

Kates Hill is a residential area in Dudley, West Midlands, England.

Kates Hill was the scene of chaos in 1648 when parliamentarians used it as their base in the Civil War against King Charles I. As a result, many roads in the area are named in honour of parliamentary figures from that era and afterwards; these include Oliver Cromwell (Oliver Close and Cromwell Street) and Robert Peel (Peel Street).

It is believed that from Cromwell Street, parliamentary leader Oliver Cromwell fired his cannons at royalist garrison Dudley's Norman Castle.

Kates Hill was not developed as a residential area until probably the 1830s, when a large number of houses were built to accommodate people moving to the Black Country in hope of landing jobs in the ever-growing number of factories and coalpits that were being created in the region at this time. In 1840, St John's Parish Church was opened and an adjoining church school was built soon afterwards to serve the growing community.

Despite hundreds of houses being built around St John's Church during the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, as recently as World War II, Kates Hill was surrounded by a substantial amount of farmland. There is still standing a historic grade II listed farm house, dating from the 17th century, at the top of Watsons Green Road; it is now solely a residential property as its farmland has long since been built on.

This largely rural scene disappeared after 1915, as hundreds of council houses were built in the Watson's Green Road, Highfield Road, Corporation Road and Bunns Lane areas to accommodate families who were being rehoused. These included the very first council houses to be built in Dudley, built on the Brewery Fields Estate, land which was purchased by the council in 1915 and which by 1918 consisted of more than 300 houses.

Most of the roads on this development were named after British heroes of the recently ended Great War; these include Kitchener Road (Herbert Kitchener), Cavell Road (Edith Cavell) and Haig Road (Douglas Haig).

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