Brierley Hill is a small town and electoral ward of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough within the West Midlands of England. It is situated around 2.5 miles south of central Dudley and 2 miles to the north of Stourbridge. Brierley Hill was historically in Staffordshire, but is now a part of the West Midlands metropolitan county ever since its establishment in 1974. Part of the Black Country, and in a heavily industrialised area of the Dudley Borough, it boasts a resident population of approximately 14,000 people, as recorded in the 2011 census. Mostly a product of the Industrial Revolution, Brierley Hill features a reasonably recent history, with the very first written records of the town going back to the 17th century. Initially established as a settlement within the woodland of Pensnett Chase, it began expanding rapidly following the chase's enclosure in 1748, and was initially shown on a map in 1785 following the mapping of the Stourbridge Canal. The town is mostly known for glass and steel production, although the business has declined significantly since the 1970s. One of the biggest factories within the area was the Round Oak Steelworks, which was shut and redeveloped in the 1980s to be transformed into the Merry Hill Shopping Centre. The Merry Hill Shopping Centre is positioned immediately to the east of Brierley Hill. One of the largest shopping centres in the country, it was built between 1985 and 1989 on the grounds of Merry Hill Farm, the last working urban farm in the West Midlands. Since 2008, Brierley Hill, including the nearby Waterfront Business Park and Merry Hill Shopping Centre, has been officially named the Strategic Town Centre of the Dudley Borough, with the aim to make a new town centre for the borough. For all of your house improvement work, ensure that you pick vetted experts in Brierley Hill to ensure that you get a top quality service.