We visited a suburb of Wolverhampton that has a buzzing shopping parade and a hair salon formerly owned by some celebrity stars
Straight outta Compton? Absolutely, but not the one you might be used to.
Forget the California sun and hip-hop headliners, the latest feature in the Express and Star's Love your Neighbourhood series is Compton, Wolverhampton, a suburb located to the west of the city centre within the Tettenhall Wightwick ward.
Compton’s name reflects its landscape, first recorded in the Domesday Book as “Contone,” combining the Old English cumb (a narrow valley, possibly linked to the Brythonic cwm) and tūn (a farmstead or settlement), meaning a farmstead in a valley.
Compton lies beneath the ridge stretching south-west from Aldersley, with homes climbing the hill near The Holloway towards Tettenhall Wood, while the land rises again across the Smestow Valley towards Finchfield.
The valley, carved by glacial meltwater, is followed by the Smestow Brook and was once quarried for sandstone. In 1766, Compton Lock marked the starting point of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, engineered by James Brindley.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the area was home to artist Joseph Vickers de Ville, and terraced housing was built along Henwood Road. Quarrying has since ceased, with much of the valley developed for housing in the later 20th century, although older properties remain, particularly on The Holloway.
