 After the First World War , the Urban District Council , which had replaced the District Board in 1894 , began a programme of urban improvement . Large areas of open farmland were purchased for the building of council houses , and a notorious slum area , Ogley Square , which had been declared unfit for human habitation , was demolished after a long legal dispute and the tenants rehoused . The final farmland within the boundaries of Brownhills was sold for redevelopment in 1952 . 
