 Early in the 19th century , a horse @-@ drawn tram system connected the mines to the wharves on the canal . In response to the growing population of the area open land in Ogley Hay , up until then merely heathland , was enclosed and converted to farmland in 1838 , the same year in which the area was first declared a parish , although no church was built for another 13 years . Charles Foster Cotterill , a former mayor of Walsall who had purchased the manor of Ogley Hay in 1836 upon the death of former lord Phineas Hussey , saw the potential of the area and sold off large tracts of his land for private farming and the construction of a flour mill and a foundry . The remaining land of the former manor was progressively sold off through a series of indentures of questionable legality until 1846 when Cotterill sold the last 135 acres ( 0 @.@ 55 km2 ) and moved to London . 
