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 was part of the ancient parish of Halesowen, a separated part of Shropshire surrounded by Worcestershire and Staffordshire, till the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844, when it was involved back into Worcestershire after an absence of nine-hundred years. It became an Urban District in 1894, earning Municipal Borough status in 1935. In this time, Oldbury council constructed a few thousand houses, flats and bungalows for some 40 years till its dissolution, the 1000th of which was completed in 1933 at Wallace Road near the border with Rowley Regis. Since the 1980s, the town has actually seen sustained expansion, mainly the creation of more retail options. This includes Oldbury Green Retail Park, found on the town's ring road, which was formed in the middle of the 1990s. This, along with the development of the Merry Hill Shopping Centre discovered about 6 miles away during the second half of the 1980s, has actually added to a decrease in the functioning of neighboring West Bromwich town centre as a retail centre for citizens. For all your home improvements, make sure to find credible contractors in Oldbury to make certain of quality.