Quiet and unassuming village named 'most dangerous place in the Midlands'

A quiet area of the West Midlands has been named as the "most dangerous" part of the region. Residents of Brownhills in the Black Country may be surprised to see their home ranked at number one in a new crime study.

Brownhills is a relatively tiny area in the Walsall borough, close to the A5 and the Staffordshire border. The study compared crime rates across the region, relative to size and how many people live there.

It produced results showing the areas with the highest crime rates in terms of population. Brownhills was ranked number one with a crime rate of 151.5 offences per 1,000 people.

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The area's small population means it doesn't take many offences to put it high up on the crime list. Churchill Support Services, which complied the study after analysing police data for last year, said it "might come as a surprise that Brownhills ranks as the most dangerous area in the region'.

Over 3,000 offences were reported there in 2023, according to the study. Evesham, Oldbury, Bedworth and Tipton made up the top five on the list. Brownhills has had its problems in recent times. I

n May, we reported how two people were arrested during a dawn raid in Brownhills as police seized weapons including a crossbow, guns and a samurai sword. Naming the area as top of the crime list, relative to population, Churchill Support Services said: "As a relatively small settlement in the West Midlands, it might come as a surprise that Brownhills ranks as the most dangerous area in the region.

"The town used to have a strong mining industry, commemorated by a 46ft statue of a coal miner, but the collapse of the industry led to an economic slump, which may have contributed to the predicament Brownhills finds itself in today. With a crime rate of 151.5 offences per 1000 people, Brownhills is officially the worst area for crime in the West Midlands, with a total count of 3,126 crimes."