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 comes from the Old English 'Ealdenbyrig', which conveys 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 fortification or fortified town. According to the 2011 Census, the town has a permanent population of around 13606 people. Oldbury was part of the ancient parish of Halesowen, a detached part of Shropshire surrounded by Worcestershire and Staffordshire, up 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 created a few thousand houses, flats and cottages for some 40 years till its disbandment, the 1000th of which was finished in 1933 at Wallace Road near the border with Rowley Regis. Since the 1980s, the town has seen sustained expansion, mainly the creation of more retail opportunities. This includes Oldbury Green Retail Park, found on the town's ring road, which was developed in the middle of the 1990s. This, along with the advancement of the Merry Hill Shopping Centre discovered roughly six miles away through the 2nd half of the 1980s, has actually added to a decline in the functioning of neighboring West Bromwich town centre as a retail centre for citizens. For all of your home improvements, be sure to find trusted contractors in Oldbury to make certain of quality.