Park Hall

Park Hall is a residential area within, but near to the south-eastern edge of Walsall in the West Midlands of England. Officially, it comes under the Paddock area of the town, however it is recognised as a separate estate by most residents. It is considered that the housing area near to the local Park Hall Primary and Infant schools and the Gillity Village shops are classed as Park Hall. The estate is named after the Park Hall, built in 1863, which was the home of Sir William Pearman Smith, a solicitor and Walsall's mayor during 1899–1902. The hall was demolished in the 1950s.^[1]

Park Hall primary school was opened on the site of the hall in 1970. It outgrew its original building, so a junior school, which was used as a community centre until 2013, known as Park Hall Community Centre, was built next door, opening in 1974. The community centre has since moved and is no longer located in Park Hall. No community activities take place at the school since it became an academy in 2012. It was the first purpose built Junior Community School built in the UK. Park Hall infant and junior school is mixed and secular. The school took grant maintained status in January 1994. The infant school teaches over 300 pupils with student’s standards in national tests being in the highest five percent of the country upon leaving.^[2] Park Hall Junior School has over 400 pupils and it is the 9th ranked junior school out of 80 in the Walsall region in the aggregate score across the three test subjects of English, Maths and Science.^[3]

Park Hall is an affluent area in comparison to other Walsall estates, with most houses being semi-detached or detached. It is close to the other Walsall suburbs of Chuckery, The Delves and is separated to Streetly by countryside and by the local landmark of Barr Beacon. It falls under the Walsall South parliamentary constituency, with the local Member of Parliament being Valerie Vaz of the Labour Party. The previous long standing MP was Bruce George who retired just prior to the candidates being declared for the 2010 General Election.

Like other residential areas of England, Park Hall contains several roads named after towns in the County of Cornwall. Such roads include: St. Ives Road, Newquay Road, Redruth Road, Truro Road, Falmouth Road, Liskeard Road, Launceston Road, Penryn Road, as well as a Cornwall Road.

The Gillity Village shops is the central point of Park Hall containing a mixture of food outlets and other shops (a fish & chips and kebab shop, Indian restaurant, a Cantonese take away, a health food agent, a ladies hairdresser and beauty parlour, an opticians, a children's tutoring organisation, a pharmacist, a telecoms & utilities broker, a Co-op supermarket open 7 days, a dry cleaner, an off-licence, a newsagent containing a Post Office), a yoga studio offering infra red heat yoga and a dentist. Further shops can be found on the estate at the junction of Gillity Avenue and Edinburgh Rd consisting of a hairdresser, a tanning studio, a florist and an off-licence. There are four Public Houses (Pub) in and near to the estate, The Bell Inn, The King Arthur, The Longhorn and The Broadway.

The Park Hall estate contains 4 of the 10 most expensive roads in Walsall including the most expensive road, Woodlands Avenue, which has an average house price of £636,000. The other roads in the top ten are Elizabeth Road (#4), Skip Lane (#7) and Charlemont Road (#10).^[4]

References

1. "Walsall: The growth of the town". British History Online.
2. "Section 9/10 Inspection" (PDF). Ofsted. 2004-09-27.
3. "League tables, Primary schools, Walsall". BBC article. 2004-12-02.
4. "Walsall house prices - WS5 - OurProperty.co.uk".

Coordinates: 52°34′23″N 1°56′42″W / 52.5730°N 1.9449°W