page_title: Netherton, West Midlands
section_title: Notable residents
hierarchical_section_title: Netherton, West Midlands / Notable residents
caption_attribution_description: English: Joe Darby A sculpture to the local world standing jumping champion of victorian times.
context_page_description: Netherton is a town of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, 1.5 miles south of Dudley town centre in the West Midlands of England, but historically in Worcestershire. In the Black Country, Netherton is bordered by nature reserves to the east and west, and an industrial area and the Dudley Southern By-Pass to the north.
context_section_description: Netherton was the birthplace of spring-jumping champion Joe Darby, born at Windmill End in 1861. Not only was he a superb athlete but a showman as well, appearing before King Edward VII in Covent Garden, London. In 1887 he defeated W.G Hamlington, then the World Champion spring-jumper. A statue showing the athlete in a crouched position, about to leap, stands on the junction of the Halesowen Road and Church Road. Some of his more famous exploits are written on plaques on the plinth of the statue.
  Another notable resident of Netherton was England footballer Joe Smith (1890–1956). He was born in Darby End and played for local teams until he signed for West Bromwich Albion in 1910. He put in 470 appearances for Albion, was a member of the 1920 side that won the First Division and was capped two times for England. Other Netherton-born footballers include Tom Grosvenor (1908–1972) who played for Birmingham City and was capped 3 times for England and Billy Wooldridge (1878–1945) who played for Wolverhampton Wanderers and represented the English Football League in two games against the Irish League.
  Sammy 'Pigiron' Whitehouse was a strongman from Darby End, who worked unloading canal boats and in a foundry in the earlier part of the 20th century. He became well known locally for his feats of strength. His nickname 'Pigiron' was earned in 1921 when he won a 4-mile race from Dudley Top church through Netherton following the Halesowen Road carrying a hundredweight (112 lb) of pigiron.
  Theophillus Dunn, also from Darby End, was a notable 19th-century character, known locally as the 'Dudley Devil'. He was an astrologer and claimed magical healing abilities, charging a shilling for a charm to cure toothache. He also claimed to be able locate stolen property by using charms. In one story, he is said to have prophesied that a certain Mr Hickman would die by being crushed by coal. As Hickman was not a miner he doubted the prophecy – but later was run over by a coal waggon and killed. Dunn later prophesied the downfall of William Perry (the boxer known as the 'Tipton Slasher') at the hands of Tom Sayers. The prophecy was given in the form of a rhyme with the final line: "Tom Little will mek it come true." (Tom Sayers was considerably smaller than Perry).
caption: Statue of Joe Darby in Netherton
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "<Digimax D53>", "Image Make": "Samsung Techwin", "Image Model": "<Digimax D53>", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "4487189", "Image YResolution": "30899735/154992", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Corel Photo Album 6", "Image DateTime": "2007:04:10 22:55:59", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "COPYRIGHT, 2006", "Image ExifOffset": "277", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "4487189", "Thumbnail YResolution": "30899735/154992", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "41940", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6869", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1000", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:04:09 12:45:46", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:04:09 12:45:46", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "305009/153600", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "10", "EXIF ApertureValue": "297/100", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "297/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1920", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2560", "EXIF RelatedSoundFile": "RelatedSound", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "41799", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "1", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "35", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}