RICS Chartered Surveyors York North Yorkshire

Approximate Population: 193,300

York is a walled city, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England.   The city is noted for its rich heritage and it has played an important role throughout much of its almost 2,000 year existence. The city was founded as Eboracum in AD 71 by the Romans and was made the capital of Britannia Inferior.  During the Roman period influential historical figures, such as Constantine the Great, became associated with the city.   The entire Roman Empire was governed from York for two years by Septimius Severus.

After the Angles moved in, the city was renamed Eoferwic, and served as the capital of the Kingdom of Northumbria.  The Vikings captured the city in 866, renaming it Jórvík, the capital of a wider kingdom of the same name covering much of Northern England. Around the year 1000, the city became known as York.

Richard II wished to make York the capital of England, but before he could effect this he was deposed.  After the Wars of the Roses, York housed the Council of the North and was regarded as the capital of the North.   It was only after The Restoration that the political importance of the city began to decline.  The Province of York is one of the two English ecclesiastical provinces, alongside that of Canterbury.

From 1996, the term City of York describes a unitary authority area which includes rural areas beyond the old city boundaries.   The urban area has a population of 137,505, while the entire unitary authority has 193,300 (2007 est.) people.

RICS Chartered Surveyors York North Yorkshire

RICS Chartered Surveyors West Bromwich West Midlands

Approximate Population: 136,940

West Bromwich is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands, England. It is 5 miles (8.0 km) north west of Birmingham lying on the A41 London-to-Birkenhead road. West Bromwich is part of the Black Country. West Bromwich is the largest town within the Borough of Sandwell with a population of 136,940 (2001).

West Bromwich is famous for its football club, West Bromwich Albion.   The club was founded in 1878 and in 1888 it became one of the twelve founder members of the Football League.   It won the league championship in 1920 and has won the FA Cup five times, most recently in 1968.   The club recently won the Coca Cola Championship in 2008.   Albion were based in and around the centre of West Bromwich during their formative years, but moved further out of the town in 1900 when they switched to their current ground, The Hawthorns.

Engineering and chemicals are important to the town’s economy, as it played a crucial part in the Industrial Revolution during the 19th century and still retains many manufacturing jobs to this day, despite a steady nationwide decline in this sector since the 1970s.

Sandwell General Hospital is located near the town centre.   It is part of the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the United Kingdom.  William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth had his seat at Sandwell Hall.   Legge was unusual as an aristocrat of this period by being a Methodist and attending the Wednesbury Methodist meetings, where fellow Methodists – many of them colliers and drovers – knew him as “Brother Earl”.

RICS Chartered Surveyors West Bromwich West Midlands

RICS Chartered Surveyors Cannock Staffordshire

Approximate Population: 92,500

Cannock is a town in Staffordshire, England, just north of the West Midlands conurbation. It sits to the south of Cannock Chase, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and is administered as part of the Cannock Chase district. With a population of 92,500 people at the 2001 census, Cannock is the second largest town in the ceremonial county, after Stoke on Trent.

Cannock lies on the M6 Toll, A34 and A5 roads, to the north of the Black Country (about 11 kilometres (6.8 mi)) and south of Stafford (about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi)). It is served by a railway station on the Chase Line. The post town of Cannock includes Bridgtown, Heath Hayes, Hednesford, and Norton Canes. Other nearby towns and villages include Burntwood (which includes Chase Terrace and Chasetown), Cannock Wood, Cheslyn Hay, Great Wyrley, Huntington, Penkridge, and Rugeley.

Its name comes from the Celtic cnoc, meaning hill. It is first recorded in the unlikely form Chenet in the Domesday Book, probably due to the information being written down by a Norman scribe with less than perfect knowledge of English.

The town was very small until coal mining increased heavily during the mid to late nineteenth century. The area then continued to grow rapidly with many industries coming to the area because of its proximity to the Black Country and because of its coal reserves. After the Second World War the town’s population again increased and has kept on increasing ever since as many new residential developments are built as commuting areas for Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall and Stafford.

RICS Chartered Surveyors Cannock Staffordshire