Editing Smethwick (section)

===Architecture===
[[File:Smethwick toll house.jpg|right|thumb|The old Toll House]]
The oldest surviving building in Smethwick is the [[Smethwick Old Church|Old Church]]<ref name="History">{{cite web |url=http://www.smethwickoldchurch.org.uk/history.php |title=History |publisher=Smethwick Old Church |access-date=2016-06-29 |archive-date=20 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140720095429/http://smethwickoldchurch.org.uk/history.php |url-status=live }}</ref> which stands on the corner of Church Road and the Uplands. This was consecrated in 1732 as a [[Chapel of Ease]] in the parish of [[St Peter's Church, Harborne|St Peter, Harborne]]. The building was originally known as "Parkes' Chapel" in honour of Mistress Dorothy Parkes who bequeathed the money for the church and also for a local school. The chapel was later known as the "Old Chapel", and the public house next to it is still called this. In the church there are several fine memorials, including one to Dorothy Parkes.

The [[Listed building|Grade I listed]] [[Galton Bridge]] spans the New Line canal and railway. When built in 1829 by [[Thomas Telford]], it was the highest single-span bridge in the world.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}} Its name commemorates [[Samuel Galton, Jr.|Samuel Galton]], a local landowner and industrialist. It is identical to Telford's bridge at [[Holt, Worcestershire|Holt]] Fleet over the [[River Severn]] built in 1828 and opened in 1830.

[[File:Smethwick public library.jpg|right|thumb|The public library by [[Yeoville Thomason]]]]
The public library in the High Street was originally built as the Public Hall in 1866–67 and is designed by [[Yeoville Thomason]].<ref>''The Buildings of England: Worcestershire'', Nikolaus Pevsner, 1968 Penguin. p81</ref>

[[Matthew Boulton]] and [[James Watt]] opened their [[Soho Foundry]] in the north of Smethwick (not to be confused with the [[Soho Manufactory]] in nearby [[Soho, Birmingham|Soho]]) in the late 18th century. In 1802, [[William Murdoch]] illuminated the foundry with [[gas lighting]] of his own invention. The foundry was later home to [[Scale (measurement)|weighing scale]] makers [[W & T Avery Ltd.]]

Rolfe Street public baths were among the first public swimming baths in the country when opened north of the town centre in 1888. The baths remained open for nearly a century before closing. In the late 1980s, the [[Black Country Museum]] expressed interest in transferring the building to its site in [[Dudley]] and so the transfer of the building began in 1989. It was finally opened to visitors at the museum in 1999, housing the museum's exhibition gallery and archive resource centre.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bclm.co.uk/map1.htm |title=Rolfe Street Baths - Black Country Living Museum |website=Bclm.co.uk |access-date=2016-06-29 |archive-date=29 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100729140811/http://www.bclm.co.uk/map1.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Thimblemill Library]] is a [[Grade II listed building]] built in brick in the [[Moderne architecture|Moderne style]].<ref name=britishlisted >{{cite web |last1=British Listed Buildings |url=http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/ |website=British Listed Buildings |title=Warley Branch Library, Smethwick |access-date=21 May 2015 |archive-date=4 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304005022/https://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/ |url-status=live }}</ref>