school at Amblecote was too small to cope with the influx of new residents. Many residents children on the Stourview estate had to attend schools some distance away, such as Thorns Primary. In 1974, the County Borough of Dudley responded by constructing the new Peters Hill Primary School, which rapidly expanded over time to eventually accommodate some 800 children. Some of the northern part of Amblecote High Street was demolished in the early 1990s to make way for a major road widening scheme. These developments, coupled with the nearby Withymoor Village development (classed as part of Brierley Hill), added almost 8,000 new homes between 1964 and 1998 on land formerly used for farming and rehabilitated former coal and fire clay mines, both bell pits and open cast mines, which completely changed the face of the area, and brick works which closed down. Many of the new homes were family dwellings, which saw the rapid expansion especially of Peters Hill Primary School, which more than quadrupled in size from around 200 when opened to over 800 on completion. The development also changed Amblecote's nature as a settlement, from a clearly defined ancient village separated from Quarry Bank and Stourbridge by fields and pit workings etc. to a coalesced settlement, looking more like a suburban development and the development joined Stourbridge and Brierley Hill for the first time ever and Amblecote became the largest electoral ward in Dudley Borough, with a Conservative leaning, under first Dudley West and then Stourbridge Constituencies, until boundary changes in 2004 created Lye and Stourbridge North which took half of Amblecote and reduced the Amblecote ward. Notable residents H. Jack Haden, writer of several books about the local history of Amblecote and Stourbridge. John Corbett, owner of "The Hill" and founder of the Corbett Hospital. Salt merchant and future Droitwich MP and owner of the Chateau Impney. James Foster, ironmaster whose firm Foster, Rastrick and Company made the Stourbridge Lion steam locomotive, the first of which ever to run in the USA and now in the Smithson Museum and its sister locomotive, the Agenoria. Edward Lindsay Ince FRSE mathematician, born and raised here John Simpson, former Councillor for Amblecote Ward, Lye and Wollescote Ward, Mayor of Dudley and the first Alderman of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. Died 2009. Jan O. Pedersen, Danish Speedway rider (formerly of Cradley ) References External links Histories of the Public Houses of