As I write this (July 10), England is preparing to face the Netherlands in the semi-finals of the Euros. And the whole nation is holding out hope for another Jude Bellingham miracle. To many, the Real Madrid star is a Brummie icon, but he’s not from Birmingham at all.
He might be a former Birmingham City player, but Jude Bellingham is actually from Stourbridge – a market town 10 miles west of Birmingham that lies on the fringes of Dudley (so, yeah, Jude’s a yam yam) – that, during the Industrial Revolution, was best known as the centre of British glassmaking.
These days, you’ll likely have heard of Stourbridge for its golf course (which even gets a mention in P. G. Wodehouse’s Money for Nothing); three local indie bands – The Wonder Stuff, Pop Will Eat Itself and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – who all shot to fame in the early 90s; and for homing the shortest railway line in Europe.
Jump on a train from Moor Street (or Snow Hill) to Stourbridge Junction, and from here, change onto the Stourbridge Town branch line to take you into the town centre. At 0.8 miles long (1.3 km), this railway branch line is easily the shortest in Britain and, widely believed to be, the shortest line in Europe to run daily.
The journey, which has been running since 1879 and takes only three minutes, operates every 10 minutes. That’s 1,370 trips per week on this one-carriage train. And, according to the Stourbridge Shuttle website, it has a service reliability of 99.6%, which is pretty unbelievable – but Stourbridge has a track record of producing the incredible! It’s also the UK’s only in-operation Very Light Rail (VLR) vehicle, making it one of the most eco-friendly vehicles in the country.
Now, we doubt you’ll be spotting Jude on here anytime soon… But there’s every chance that the future Ballon d’Or winner has done in the past! While in Stourbridge, learn more about the town’s other claim to fame at the Stourbridge Glass Museum and The Red House Glass Cone; relax in the beautiful gardens of Mary Stevens Park; or visit the nearby Kinver Edge.