Oldbury is a town in Sandwell, West Midlands in England. It is a part of the Black Country, and the administrative centre of the borough of Sandwell. The town's name stems from the Old English 'Ealdenbyrig', which represents that Oldbury was old even in early English times over 1000 years ago. Eald is Old English for 'old', and Byrig is the plural of 'burh' in Old English, with a burh being a stronghold or fortified town. According to the 2011 Census, the town has a permanent population of around 13606 people. Oldbury belonged to the ancient parish of Halesowen, a detached part of Shropshire surrounded by Worcestershire and Staffordshire, until the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844, when it was integrated back into Worcestershire after an absence of nine-hundred years. It became an Urban District in 1894, acquiring Municipal Borough status in 1935. In this time, Oldbury council developed a few thousand houses, flats and bungalows for some 40 years up until its dissolution, the 1000th of which was finished in 1933 at Wallace Road near the border with Rowley Regis. Ever since the 1980s, the town has actually seen ongoing development, specifically the creation of more retail possibilities. This includes Oldbury Green Retail Park, found on the town's ring road, which was built in the middle of the 1990s. This, as well as the advancement of the Merry Hill Shopping Centre found roughly six miles away through the second half of the 1980s, has contributed to a decrease in the functioning of neighboring West Bromwich town centre as a retail centre for residents. For all of your home developments, make sure to identify respected professionals in Oldbury to make certain of quality.