Bell End road name 'will not be changed', says council Published duration 11 April 2018

image copyright PA image caption Some residents say the name Bell End is making them a laughing stock

A street called Bell End will keep its name, despite calls for the "rude" road name to be changed.

A petition was started in January. Some residents of the Rowley Regis street said the "offensive" name made them a laughing stock and children a target for bullies.

But thousands signed a counter-petition to keep the "historic" name.

Sandwell Council has said it has not received copies of either petition and there are no plans to change Bell End.

The original petition , backed by about 200 supporters, told the Labour-run council it was "time for a change", even to a similar name, such as Bell Road.

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But people from all over the world supported local historian Linda George when she set up her own petition saying Bell End should stay as it is.

Sandwell Council said: "In order for anything to happen, the council would have to receive a copy of a petition, but that hasn't happened, so there will be no change."

image copyright Linda George image caption Linda George runs a local history group

Mrs George, who lives in Worcester, said her great uncle, Albert Harrold, lived in Bell End and, after he was killed during World War One, his widow Sarah Jane and their children ran a shop there until about 1960.

She had originally believed the name had come from a local mine, which dated back to the 1800s.

But discussions among a history group she runs called I Remember Blackheath and Rowley Regis, now suggest it may come from a bell attached to a hunting lodge belonging to King John in the 12th Century, which was set in what is now Rowley Regis.

"I'm very pleased the council aren't going ahead with it," Mrs George said.

"The locals that I have been speaking to say they just can't understand why this first came about.

"I think they haven't gone any further with the petition because they just didn't have the support."