Brierley Hill is a small town and electoral ward of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough within the West Midlands of England. It's approximately 2.5 miles to the south of central Dudley and 2 miles to the north of Stourbridge. Brierley Hill was historically in Staffordshire, but is now part of the West Midlands metropolitan county since its creation in 1974. Part of the Black Country, and within a heavily industrialised area of the Dudley Borough, it features a resident population of about 14,000 residents, as per the 2011 census. Primarily created by the Industrial Revolution, Brierley Hill has a relatively recent history, with the initial written records of the town going back to the seventeenth century. Initially created as a settlement within the woodland of Pensnett Chase, it started to expand rapidly following the chase's enclosure in 1748, and was initially displayed on a map in 1785 after the mapping of the Stourbridge Canal. The town is best famous for glass and steel manufacturing, though the industry has declined significantly since the 1970s. On the list of the largest factories in the area was the Round Oak Steelworks, which was closed down and renovated in the 1980s to turn into the Merry Hill Shopping Centre. The Merry Hill Shopping Centre is situated immediately east of Brierley Hill. One of the biggest shopping centres in the United Kingdom, it was built between 1985 and 1989 on the grounds of Merry Hill Farm, the final operating urban farm within the West Midlands. Since 2008, Brierley Hill, including the neighbouring Waterfront Business Park and Merry Hill Shopping Centre, has been officially named the Strategic Town Centre of the Dudley Borough, with the purpose of creating a new town centre for the borough. For all of your home improvement work, make sure that you choose vetted professionals in Brierley Hill to ensure you get a fantastic quality service.