Hope you enjoyed this video! If you have any feedback or comments, we'd love to hear them! Do you live/have lived in or near Lye? Maybe you've visited the area? Whether yes or no, your feedback is valuable to the audience, so please feel free to share.
I think Lye is an average area in Stourbridge. It’s all I’ve been to in the whole town. I’ve heard of plans to regenerate the High Street. I also heard of a really bad crime about stabbing so this video ain’t fake.
i live in kidderminster and its not even close to being this level of shithole, yet. its just a dead end town these days with 50% of the town being empty shops and old abandoned buildings, yet all they do is build more and more housing. we have an immigrant hotel, and even they arent causing any trouble. were on borrowed time here id say.
Lye is historically a mess. Squatters moved there in the 17th century, there were slum clearances in the 1930s. An area nearby named Lye Waste had hovels made from mud. "Lye Waste: A Very Horrible History by Tracey Jones is a succinct overview of one of the most notorious corners of the Black Country.Lye Waste grew out of a squatter settlement on common land to the east of Lye Cross in the 1650s. Its inhabitants built their homes from the most readily available resource, the clayey mud and the area became known as Mud City. From these mean hovels the Lye Waste people produced nails by the million, working long hours and barely earning enough to keep themselves fed and clothed. Young children and women worked in the nail shops and there are countless stories of the hard conditions and endemic violence of their lives, some of which are recounted by Tracey.Undoubtedly, the most shocking story relating to Lye Waste is the tale of unwanted babies being fed to pigs. Whether the charge is true or not it is impossible to say; perhaps there was one isolated incident, but it was an often told tale."
5th generation Lyer, just had to move out, it was so depressing, the huge influx of newcomers, who have no intention of mixing with the existing community, and who intend to bring over to this town, their own set of values!Going back into the past our town began to fail when the existing council decided to carry out mass demolition of the old town, replacing it with concrete ghettoes, filling it with sink estate overspill. As a footnote there are some great people living in Lye, Its just a shame they are stuck in this situation, and have to suffer daily.
I drive through here daily as I work in Stourbridge and twenty years ago it was a thriving town where I used to deliver to ..but now it is full of Eastern European shops and immigrants hanging around the streets all day.
So, East Europeans and other immigrants are responsible for the decline of the town!? Sounds like a load of Brexit / Reform Party cheap racial scaremongering. Next you'll be blaming everything on the EU.
I cry each time I drive through Lye. I'm in my 70s and grew up in Lye in the 1950s/1960s. It used to be a lovely pretty town. It had lovely small shops including a Delicatessen and a real old fashioned Pharmacy. Mens and womens clothes shops. Two cinemas. It was a safe place to live. With lovely solid built red brick terraces houses. At one time a 'mid hut's which should have had a conservation order put on it for historical purposes. Also Sir Cedric Hardwicke a Hollywood actor lived in a cottage on Lye Cross, which also should have had a Conservation Order on it. Sadly, consecutive councils, mostly Labour, pulled all the good quality houses and cottages down and replaced them with the rubbish that's in this video. The decline in Lye started slowly, but has increased rapidly in recent years. The population has changed dramatically and not for the better !!!!!!
Thanks for your comment, it's always interesting to hear from people who knew these areas from years gone by. It's so sad to hear how areas like Lye go downhill, espeically when you see the deterioration is accelerating, it's hard to see how things will ever improve, isn't it.
I would just like to give a huge thank you to Gary Farmer and his team who work tirelessly to keep the Lye High Street clean of rubbish and flytipping....to the best of my knowledge NO ONE has yet been on the receiving end of this £1000.00 threatened fine, do the cameras work ?? if they did, it may help this hard working crew, Wake up DMBC.
They face a grim challenging job don't they? I'm originally from lye and my mate still lives in the small flats (she's desperate to get out!) It's been sad to see the curry house capital of the Midlands be turned into such a dump. Years ago those restaurants attracted people from all around....now its not safe to walk round on a night. Used to love kamrons but it's not worth the risk lol! Even driving through the town I lock my doors and put the windows up!
I delivered all over the UK for a bed company during the late 90's and early 00's and the most desolate and miserable place I ever visited was Penrhys in the Rhonnda Valleys. It's effectively a big council estate on top of a mountain that has been left to rot. The area around it is stunning though and the place as a whole is well worth visit.
hate to state the obvious but having lived in the midlands all my life its the so-called 'diverse' areas that are the problem hot spots, i worked in industrial waste and did Birmingham out to Dudley for one company and you can see the good and bad places. if you want to see a complete change go from four oaks to washwood heath, its like going from a nice area in the 1960's to downtown delhi in washwood heath, round the back of the shops waste is just thrown into the yard and i have caught shop workers s**ting in the back yard not using the toilets at all!
Lye used to be alright back when it was mostly Pakistanis. You can thank Tony Blair for what it is today, which is a shithole inhabited mostly by people from the dodgiest parts of Eastern Europe.
I live in Stourbridge and used to drive through Lye regularly on my to Halesowen to see friends. Lye really is a depressing craphole. It used to be full of Curry restaurants which are now closing and relocating elsewhere and now the High Street is all junk food outlets, halal butchers and corner shops. That Typewriter supplies place is always closed whenever I've driven past it and I've done it lots and lots of times. By the crossroads there is a gentleman's outfitting shop which looks like it is still stuck in the 70s. It really is a sorry looking place. You should do another video about a similar town nearby which is just as bad; Brierley Hill.
"it's very diverse" is now synonymous with "there are not many English people there" To clarify I'm not ethnically English either. "Diverse" seems to be code for "lots of Muslims" and not actually meaning a wide mix of different people! Again to clarify, I was raised Muslim in England in a migrant household and now I see how strange it must look to "regular" white English people.
Came here from your video about Smethwick (where we lived in the 60s) to look at Lye where I lived in the late 70s. My friends family lived on the estate behind the High Street - Cross Walks. They were such house proud people and this really was a nice place to live once. Very depressing.
My dad actually lives in lye, he’s lived there ever since 2017. You see before my dad moved to lye he was in rehab after he and my mom divorced for mental health reasons, I would rather not get too into. But he moved there because it was literally the only place he could afford, and me and my siblings usually visit him every weekend, and we did start to notice the area was becoming a lot more ghetto which is why he usually just stays inside his house, and here’s another story, one time me and my brother were on our way back home, and we got ourselves an Uber and the driver spoke to us about how bad lye has become over the years but the thing that stayed in my mind the most was when he told me that it wasn’t always like this in fact back in the day Lye was actually very similar to Stourbridge. But yeah, it’s such a shame that I place my dad would call home has been reduced to this! But hey at least the park and the library are nice.
In the mid-80s, a balti restaurant was opened in the High Street by an English guy called Mr Dave's. Shortly after, a large Bangladeshi community grew in Lye, with, at one time during the mid-90's, more than 20 balti houses in the High Street alone. It was very popular and very safe. Lye was known as the balti capital of the Black Country. Virtually all the balti houses have now gone and the place is full of junk food shops. Lye is now one of the most intimidating towns in the area and has nothing going for it. It is such a shame to see a place slowly go to rack and ruin.
Lye is full of Romanians & Muslims . I’ve seen the flats being rented out 10 mattresses on the floor per room . It’s a mess .Easily to see why there is a decline
@@iearl504It's a double-edged sword. Do we make them spread out, thereby stopping the rot but having them in more areas, or do we concentrate them so they can be kept an eye on, but turn the area to sh*t?
Since there was a large influx of Eastern European immigrants there has been rubbish everywhere, excrement on the pavements and intimidation of shoppers on the high street. Lye used to be a reasonable place with lots of Indian restaurants and a lovely Anglican Church but now it is awful and genuinely dangerous.
Go to chadsmoor aka chavsmoor. When I was in high school, and invited my best mate over to mine, I told him how bad the place was. He didn’t think I meant it. The moment we got to my housing estate, an entire house was completely on fire crumbling to the ground. And there were no people standing near it, neighbours didn’t care, no police being called or firefighters. Nothing. I said told you so hahah
I grew up in Stourbridge and have family in Lye. Most have moved away now due to the massive muslim problems there now. Nobody wants to live alongside these sort of people it seems. Or in these squalid conditions. I have seen with my own eyes the transformation of Lye from a pretty and appealing area to a third world slum over 35 years or so. A process that seems to be still ongoing whenever I pass through. Lets be honest, I will only ever passing through these days, Lye is so far gone now there is no point in stopping to check it out. A terrible shame and a chilling thought is that this is how everywhere will eventually end up like this unless action is taken.
Great video. I know this area well and it's been slowly in decline for the best part of 20 years. To be quite honest though, that part of West Midlands and Sandwell all have their problems. Areas around West Brom and Smethwick are particularly bad.
Oo, I hadn't heard of Smethwick. Honestly, it was a sad to see how bad Lye has become, I spoke to a couple of old heads there who have lived in the area most or all of their lives and while they're acclimated to how it is now, they were pretty devistated.
@@ukexplored I’m Smethwick born and bred. Would be a great video as unlike many places, issues can’t simply be put down to “immigration”. Smethwick has had one of the most ethnically diverse populations of anywhere in the country since the 60s, the terminal decline is rather the enduring demise of industry and the proliferation of drugs and associated gangs. Subbed btw.
I actually spent a few hours in Smethwick filming last week as it's one of the most requested places, along with Tipton, for us to go and film. It was a bit of an eye-opener around the main shopping area and industrial parks. I agree with you, I haven't pulled the immigration card, although it's discussed a lot in the comments. The way this country is going south is far more complex than simply immigration.
@@MH-hy2ot even in the bus station that’s packed with security it still feels sketchy, a friend of mine is a retail store manager at one of the shops in Queens and he says the number of people that just walk in and steal without even trying to cover is just insane, lawless hellhole.
I live nearby and I have to go through Lye if I want to go to Stourbridge. I try to avoid walking through there if possible because it's just miserable there
Lye gets nothing. There is a local group that sweep the high street regularly, for the Albanian community to sit on the church wall in drones spitting their sunflower husks out. It’s disgusting, and yes they do c*ap in the curb 🤢
Lye looks like a lovely place to live...... well at least it's up and coming! 5:10 looks a bit like a cigarette! Another great video! You should do some more around the Dudley area!
Yowm in Lye……..a bit of a no go area now. A crying shame - the Indian supermarket at the top of the high street was superb, as were many of the Indian restaurants. Won’t even drive through the place now. Blimey, I’m amazed that the typewriter shop and Portraits By Hart are still there - they have been in Lye for as long as I can remember (I’m 51).
I grew up in Lye in the 80s. I lived in one of the very few houses actually on the high street. In fact, I could see that typewriter shop from my window. No one in there, not ever. Sad to see that the town has declined in the way it has.
i literally live up the road from this town, thankfully atleast 10 minutes away by car. it is so sad to even try and visit. I never go there if i can help it
I've been avidly watching your videos since discovering the ones you did in my hometown. After watching your videos here and in Hull, surely you have to admit that those areas in Swindon that you visited weren't all that bad? I've travelled up and down the country and, whilst Swindon isn't aesthetically pleasing, it is quite a safe place to live in comparison with other major towns and cities.
Yeah for sure, Swindon isn’t as bad as some other places and nowhere near the worst in the country. It’s hard to do a comparison across the country, maybe I’ll do something like that sometime. These videos are typically the worst areas in a city, even if they’re not that bad. Like the York video, I filmed the worst areas in York, but those areas are like a luxury resort compared to the worst of the West Mids.
Curry house spice of lye is best curry I have ever had though, but I live local and my heavily pregnant wife went to get a prescription from one of the 2 24 hour chemist it has and was approached by Middle Eastern man and asked what the fuck she was doing there and is she lost. Roma, Pakistani and Middle Eastern men every were. More Roma though lately and nearly every time I use the local Aldi is Roma shoplifting in there.
Yes the Roma flocked there as they had a local compatriot helping them 'settle in' (complete benefit forms, that sort of thing). I too remember it from the 80s when it was incredibly popular due to the excellent Curry houses (many famous). It was never 'great' but now it's simply dreadful and dangerous, so avoid if you can.
I used to live near Lye some years ago and it has got worse and worse as time has gone on! Did you count the amount of Indian restaurants down the high street? Clay Croft is not a great estate as your saw. Loved the video! ….. Smithy
this was a descent place to have a curry and was well known for its indian restuarants,then they let in loads of romanians and its gone downhill since,
I was taking my motorbike to be fixed in Stourbridge when it completely died on Lye High Street... Just by the church. I'm not saying it was bad but I paid £175 to join and get a bodge job by the AA to get the Hell out of there to the garage.
That is incorrect. Lye is predominantly Romanian Gypsies brought in illegally so there not on any census. It used to be predominantly pakistani and they made businesses and it was the place to go for a curry, but all those businesses have now been destroyed due to the romanian gypsies constantly stealing/ anti social behaviour. Source is I literally live next to it
@@tejmag7608 A Pakistani, born in England to Pakistani parents, has Pakistani culture. Often a Muslim living in a Christian country. It changes the culture of a country, and in my view, not for the better.
We live in Pedmore but our elected pharmacy is in Lye. Why? Well because they open 7 days a week and are open till 9pm. (Unlike Pharmacists in Stourbridge!)
It's on the hit list, I enjoyed the TV show about that area, but it's about a 5 hour drive. I'm going to try and plan in a road trip and film a few areas en route at some point.
Went to school not far from Lye. Some of the gangs from Lye would release a list of names on facebook each year and then show up outside our school waiting for them; they called it the 'hitlist'. I remember being petrified that my name would be on there. Not a good place.
They council have implemented a night time clean up team that have to sweep the street, main high street, to pick up those tobacco type drug bits that they chew all day and drop on the floor. There is a gathering of Romania travellers that have gathered there over say the past 7 years and they have just made an already bad place, worse. They live in squaller in tiny rooms with loads of people in one space. They have, in turn made businesses close down as its not safe for people to walk down the high street. They eat out of bins and savage the skips. Something really needs to be done about all of this. Terribly sad state of affairs. Shameful to say that this is 21st century living. Is there anyway this video could be forwarded to Dudley council at all?
It's gone down hill ever since the advent of Dudley MBC, an embarrassment of a council which should never have been instigated. Was a nice shopping area back in the early 80's. The building of the cross walks flats didn't do the area any favours which was a sixties thing I think. As with other areas such as Halesowen, it is continuing to decline. Dudley MBC are now bankrupt because of the continued mismanagement and waste of public funds.
Ive just come back from Lye Cricket Club. My son played an away match there. Its the worst club we have played at. Total mess. Rubbish everywhere and overgrown nettles all around. Even my 7 year old daughter described it as 'sketchy'
I dunno if chadsmoor is as awful as I remember it being, the best Wetherspoons ever is down the road in hednesford though 10 min drive away, if your trips uneventful lol
Lye is populated by one group. It isn't safe for women to walk through there and you can see groups of men hanging around all the shops drinking. Drive through don't stop.
Only reason I feel safe walking through Lye is because I always have 2 very large protective dogs with me and still won't walk down the high street if I can help it (Because of the rubbish, Rats, excrement etc) Too worried my dogs might catch something
Glad you liked my recommendation, it really didn't used to be like this my dad had a shop there on the high street until the early 90s it used to be full of decent hard working salt of the earth people, even about 10 years ago it was a great place to go on a night for a curry now its just a slum 😔 our society has gone seriously wrong somewhere along the way. Heres a video of Lye from days long gone ironically made by the same portrait gallery you passed by on the video which is one of the few surving old businesses, it looked a nice place back then th-cam.com/video/paDDnU5dY8s/w-d-xo.html
That's so awesome you shared that, I really appraciate it. It really does make one reflect on how areas change over time, and it was almost eerie thinking back to the day when I filmed as I stood outside the Portraits by Hart shop asking my mate how the hell a shop like that survives in this day and age, not knowing the original owner, Mr Hart is somewhat of a local legend! I guess the day that shop closed up will be symbolic.
Thankyou Alex for the 'Old Lye' collage that you've added. Reminded of the beautiful town it was and brought back happy memories of my childhood in Lye❤
There are nicer parts not far off the High Street. The Shovel Inn is my favourite pub anywhere and closer to the High Street, The Railway and The Windsor Castle are good too.
@@tk380514 lol you think the tories are bad? Wait till Labour get in 😄 they can't even define what a woman is and their stance on crime is non existent it's going to be fun hah
@tk380514 It's Labour who opened the floodgates. It's Labour who tried to stop everything the Conservatives tried to do to control legal and illegal immigration. It's Labour who enshrined the human right into law which stops us being able to control immigration.
I lived close by for 25 years so do have some local knowledge about Lye. Up until the late 1980s it was a 'salt of the earth' white British working class town. Then the mulims moved in and within a short time, took the place over. Some say "Import the third world and you become the third world". I leave that for viewers to judge for themselves. I could tell you a lot about the goings on there but already i suspect my comment, based on personal observation is likely to be deleted by some clever ass.
did you know? when unemployed criminals get a fine, YOU will be the one paying it...heres why - the uk justice system says that fines paid by the unemployed need only be £3 per fortnight and that money is coming from their benefits which is coming from the taxpayer. fines are not much of a deterrent and definitely not the answer here, they need to be far more severe in their punishments...but then its like you said mr narrator, ive never seen these areas turn things around and probably never will.
Actually public defecation is a cultural thing with a certain group from a subcontinent and they even have designated pooing streets and beaches. So it could be culturally insensitive to complain about pooing in public
even someone give me a million euro to living there for a long time i never take that money to living in that hellhole not even for 10 million euro,no no no- for not any price paid to me can ever high enough to want ever living there.never!
2.06 the award winnning restaurant is not relating to the take away that exists today......old signs of the past lad you should have had some chats with some locals about some real home truths and history of the area. I sent you a link for comparison of some history of the area... all credit going to Harts Photography of LYE
good work, 🤙I ve watched 💩towns... for months, and all of a sudden today , I get your link. . You're deffo on a par. 💫 probs more depressing / truthful. 🤔
That's the issue. Most recycling centres are free, but the issue is that low income resident don't actually have access to a vehicle and probably can't afford to pay to have their waste removed. This results in fly tipping.
@@Chopper8472 ive got a good idea ! What about the rates that we all pay..the one that we pay or go to prison for….those funds could be used to dispose of waste from peoples homes ?
It used to be great for having a curry ( Mr Dave's) and there was a great hardware shop but these have closed! Like a lot of similar areas, it's now full of Barber Shops and you can get your false nails done.😂
Hope you enjoyed this video! If you have any feedback or comments, we'd love to hear them!
Do you live/have lived in or near Lye? Maybe you've visited the area?
Whether yes or no, your feedback is valuable to the audience, so please feel free to share.
I think Lye is an average area in Stourbridge. It’s all I’ve been to in the whole town. I’ve heard of plans to regenerate the High Street. I also heard of a really bad crime about stabbing so this video ain’t fake.
Kidderminster and Bridgnorth please
i live in kidderminster and its not even close to being this level of shithole, yet. its just a dead end town these days with 50% of the town being empty shops and old abandoned buildings, yet all they do is build more and more housing. we have an immigrant hotel, and even they arent causing any trouble. were on borrowed time here id say.
Lye is historically a mess. Squatters moved there in the 17th century, there were slum clearances in the 1930s. An area nearby named Lye Waste had hovels made from mud. "Lye Waste: A Very Horrible History by Tracey Jones is a succinct overview of one of the most notorious corners of the Black Country.Lye Waste grew out of a squatter settlement on common land to the east of Lye Cross in the 1650s. Its inhabitants built their homes from the most readily available resource, the clayey mud and the area became known as Mud City. From these mean hovels the Lye Waste people produced nails by the million, working long hours and barely earning enough to keep themselves fed and clothed. Young children and women worked in the nail shops and there are countless stories of the hard conditions and endemic violence of their lives, some of which are recounted by Tracey.Undoubtedly, the most shocking story relating to Lye Waste is the tale of unwanted babies being fed to pigs. Whether the charge is true or not it is impossible to say; perhaps there was one isolated incident, but it was an often told tale."
@@KILLER.KNIGHT Lye went downhill once they let the Roma moved in.
5th generation Lyer, just had to move out, it was so depressing, the huge influx of newcomers, who have no intention of mixing with the existing community, and who intend to bring over to this town, their own set of values!Going back into the past our town began to fail when the existing council decided to carry out mass demolition of the old town, replacing it with concrete ghettoes, filling it with sink estate overspill.
As a footnote there are some great people living in Lye, Its just a shame they are stuck in this situation, and have to suffer daily.
I drive through here daily as I work in Stourbridge and twenty years ago it was a thriving town where I used to deliver to ..but now it is full of Eastern European shops and immigrants hanging around the streets all day.
So, East Europeans and other immigrants are responsible for the decline of the town!? Sounds like a load of Brexit / Reform Party cheap racial scaremongering. Next you'll be blaming everything on the EU.
Exactly! That's why it's literally a shithole now!
@marthasheilds2446 Oh no, a part of England that's predominantly English, the horror 😮
Agree some of best Balti restaurants in the country not long ago. Council literally ruined the place which. is some going.
I cry each time I drive through Lye. I'm in my 70s and grew up in Lye in the 1950s/1960s. It used to be a lovely pretty town. It had lovely small shops including a Delicatessen and a real old fashioned Pharmacy. Mens and womens clothes shops. Two cinemas. It was a safe place to live. With lovely solid built red brick terraces houses. At one time a 'mid hut's which should have had a conservation order put on it for historical purposes. Also Sir Cedric Hardwicke a Hollywood actor lived in a cottage on Lye Cross, which also should have had a Conservation Order on it. Sadly, consecutive councils, mostly Labour, pulled all the good quality houses and cottages down and replaced them with the rubbish that's in this video. The decline in Lye started slowly, but has increased rapidly in recent years. The population has changed dramatically and not for the better !!!!!!
Thanks for your comment, it's always interesting to hear from people who knew these areas from years gone by. It's so sad to hear how areas like Lye go downhill, espeically when you see the deterioration is accelerating, it's hard to see how things will ever improve, isn't it.
It is the hard left's desire for chaos which is surely to blame.
So sad !
I would just like to give a huge thank you to Gary Farmer and his team who work tirelessly to keep the Lye High Street clean of rubbish and flytipping....to the best of my knowledge NO ONE has yet been on the receiving end of this £1000.00 threatened fine, do the cameras work ?? if they did, it may help this hard working crew, Wake up DMBC.
They face a grim challenging job don't they? I'm originally from lye and my mate still lives in the small flats (she's desperate to get out!) It's been sad to see the curry house capital of the Midlands be turned into such a dump. Years ago those restaurants attracted people from all around....now its not safe to walk round on a night. Used to love kamrons but it's not worth the risk lol! Even driving through the town I lock my doors and put the windows up!
Totally agree, imagine Lye High Street and up by Claycroft if him and his team packed it in
Just came to say the same thing if Gary was not there then who knows the state the place would be in compared to its current state!!!
I got a £70.00 for a roll up in Dudley….. it was biodegradable!
House the third world...become the third world I'm sad to say. When an area is described as diverse it means it's a dump
The jukebox shop at No14, Lye High Street used to be a florists, it belonged to my great-great-Auntie Violet, 50 years ago
It was a flower shop and she was called Violet, now that's something.
I delivered all over the UK for a bed company during the late 90's and early 00's and the most desolate and miserable place I ever visited was Penrhys in the Rhonnda Valleys. It's effectively a big council estate on top of a mountain that has been left to rot. The area around it is stunning though and the place as a whole is well worth visit.
Was that C&C bedding by any chance, in an old school type building?
hate to state the obvious but having lived in the midlands all my life its the so-called 'diverse' areas that are the problem hot spots, i worked in industrial waste and did Birmingham out to Dudley for one company and you can see the good and bad places.
if you want to see a complete change go from four oaks to washwood heath, its like going from a nice area in the 1960's to downtown delhi in washwood heath, round the back of the shops waste is just thrown into the yard and i have caught shop workers s**ting in the back yard not using the toilets at all!
Is Four Oaks a dump.
@@Behwyelzebub well seeing as it has a high percentage of bankers, surgeons and professional football players i'd say its quite nice
Lye used to be alright back when it was mostly Pakistanis.
You can thank Tony Blair for what it is today, which is a shithole inhabited mostly by people from the dodgiest parts of Eastern Europe.
That's what they do in india is it not.
@@paulsawtell3991 well are you saying that what I seen with my own eyes is a lie then?
When you bring the third-world to your area, that area becomes the third-world. I think this video illustrates that theory perfectly. 😔
Well said mate!
I live in Stourbridge and used to drive through Lye regularly on my to Halesowen to see friends. Lye really is a depressing craphole. It used to be full of Curry restaurants which are now closing and relocating elsewhere and now the High Street is all junk food outlets, halal butchers and corner shops. That Typewriter supplies place is always closed whenever I've driven past it and I've done it lots and lots of times. By the crossroads there is a gentleman's outfitting shop which looks like it is still stuck in the 70s. It really is a sorry looking place. You should do another video about a similar town nearby which is just as bad; Brierley Hill.
"it's very diverse" is now synonymous with "there are not many English people there"
To clarify I'm not ethnically English either.
"Diverse" seems to be code for "lots of Muslims" and not actually meaning a wide mix of different people! Again to clarify, I was raised Muslim in England in a migrant household and now I see how strange it must look to "regular" white English people.
this town is mostly christian and about 1/6th muslim he posted the stats
Yeah "Adam browning" I'm sure you're a Muslim mate 😂
"Diversity" has always meant "no whites".
@@kozigotbeatz1240 Except the other 5/6th of the Muslim population failed to fill in the questionnaire/census...lol
@@keziasarah😅😅
Came here from your video about Smethwick (where we lived in the 60s) to look at Lye where I lived in the late 70s. My friends family lived on the estate behind the High Street - Cross Walks. They were such house proud people and this really was a nice place to live once. Very depressing.
My dad actually lives in lye, he’s lived there ever since 2017. You see before my dad moved to lye he was in rehab after he and my mom divorced for mental health reasons, I would rather not get too into. But he moved there because it was literally the only place he could afford, and me and my siblings usually visit him every weekend, and we did start to notice the area was becoming a lot more ghetto which is why he usually just stays inside his house, and here’s another story, one time me and my brother were on our way back home, and we got ourselves an Uber and the driver spoke to us about how bad lye has become over the years but the thing that stayed in my mind the most was when he told me that it wasn’t always like this in fact back in the day Lye was actually very similar to Stourbridge. But yeah, it’s such a shame that I place my dad would call home has been reduced to this! But hey at least the park and the library are nice.
It's a good thing that you make these videos. The downside is that most of England will never see them!
The stationary shop is a drug front lol, it’s got to be. I’ve never seen anyone in that shop since I was a kid and I’m 32 now 😂
Yeah, how the hell do they sell enough stock to cover costs. Go in and ask for a special ‘deal’ and give them a wink. See what happens!
😊
😂😂😂
In the mid-80s, a balti restaurant was opened in the High Street by an English guy called Mr Dave's. Shortly after, a large Bangladeshi community grew in Lye, with, at one time during the mid-90's, more than 20 balti houses in the High Street alone. It was very popular and very safe. Lye was known as the balti capital of the Black Country. Virtually all the balti houses have now gone and the place is full of junk food shops. Lye is now one of the most intimidating towns in the area and has nothing going for it. It is such a shame to see a place slowly go to rack and ruin.
Used to be a great place to eat out! Kamrons was my fave!
Its most famous son was Usain Balti.
Lye is full of Romanians & Muslims . I’ve seen the flats being rented out
10 mattresses on the floor per room . It’s a mess .Easily to see why there is a decline
It start to happen to every single area when they reach around 20% or more of the demographics
It turns slowly into a hell hole
@@iearl504It's a double-edged sword. Do we make them spread out, thereby stopping the rot but having them in more areas, or do we concentrate them so they can be kept an eye on, but turn the area to sh*t?
Since there was a large influx of Eastern European immigrants there has been rubbish everywhere, excrement on the pavements and intimidation of shoppers on the high street. Lye used to be a reasonable place with lots of Indian restaurants and a lovely Anglican Church but now it is awful and genuinely dangerous.
Funny how the streets in Easter European countries are clean
Good video👍 o used to deliver ceramic tile round this area between 1993-2010 it used to be a nice place but going the same way as Wolverhampton
Thanks, wish I’d seen the area back then to compare.
What's with the hate for Wolverhampton? Better than this shithole and most other places in the WM
@@ukexploredth-cam.com/video/paDDnU5dY8s/w-d-xo.htmlsi=9bl_JN03vIfSK0sZ
Go to chadsmoor aka chavsmoor. When I was in high school, and invited my best mate over to mine, I told him how bad the place was. He didn’t think I meant it. The moment we got to my housing estate, an entire house was completely on fire crumbling to the ground. And there were no people standing near it, neighbours didn’t care, no police being called or firefighters. Nothing. I said told you so hahah
Ha that’s wild!
I grew up in Stourbridge and have family in Lye.
Most have moved away now due to the massive muslim problems there now. Nobody wants to live alongside these sort of people it seems. Or in these squalid conditions.
I have seen with my own eyes the transformation of Lye from a pretty and appealing area to a third world slum over 35 years or so. A process that seems to be still ongoing whenever I pass through.
Lets be honest, I will only ever passing through these days, Lye is so far gone now there is no point in stopping to check it out.
A terrible shame and a chilling thought is that this is how everywhere will eventually end up like this unless action is taken.
Great video. I know this area well and it's been slowly in decline for the best part of 20 years. To be quite honest though, that part of West Midlands and Sandwell all have their problems. Areas around West Brom and Smethwick are particularly bad.
Oo, I hadn't heard of Smethwick. Honestly, it was a sad to see how bad Lye has become, I spoke to a couple of old heads there who have lived in the area most or all of their lives and while they're acclimated to how it is now, they were pretty devistated.
@@ukexplored I’m Smethwick born and bred. Would be a great video as unlike many places, issues can’t simply be put down to “immigration”.
Smethwick has had one of the most ethnically diverse populations of anywhere in the country since the 60s, the terminal decline is rather the enduring demise of industry and the proliferation of drugs and associated gangs. Subbed btw.
I actually spent a few hours in Smethwick filming last week as it's one of the most requested places, along with Tipton, for us to go and film.
It was a bit of an eye-opener around the main shopping area and industrial parks.
I agree with you, I haven't pulled the immigration card, although it's discussed a lot in the comments. The way this country is going south is far more complex than simply immigration.
West Brom has to be the worst town in the west mids. Very uncomfortable walking around there and the high street is in a sorry state
@@MH-hy2ot even in the bus station that’s packed with security it still feels sketchy, a friend of mine is a retail store manager at one of the shops in Queens and he says the number of people that just walk in and steal without even trying to cover is just insane, lawless hellhole.
I live nearby and I have to go through Lye if I want to go to Stourbridge. I try to avoid walking through there if possible because it's just miserable there
The council should Try and clean it like most places
It becomes too much for even the council in some areas. But I feel like that’s what makes them give up, which only makes things worse.
It's uncleanable. Best to just let it go, like the UK in general.
Lye gets nothing. There is a local group that sweep the high street regularly, for the Albanian community to sit on the church wall in drones spitting their sunflower husks out. It’s disgusting, and yes they do c*ap in the curb 🤢
Lye looks like a lovely place to live...... well at least it's up and coming! 5:10 looks a bit like a cigarette! Another great video! You should do some more around the Dudley area!
Thanks ! We have a Dudley video in the editing process right now 😀
Not far from there,you got some nice parts,some nice historical buildings and nice houses.
Lye Town FC is quite a successful little football team. Near top of the Northern Premier Midland division.
Let in the third world become the third world...
Yowm in Lye……..a bit of a no go area now. A crying shame - the Indian supermarket at the top of the high street was superb, as were many of the Indian restaurants. Won’t even drive through the place now. Blimey, I’m amazed that the typewriter shop and Portraits By Hart are still there - they have been in Lye for as long as I can remember (I’m 51).
I always take a couple of miles detour to get get home in order to avoid LockYourCarDoors Lye. Turns my stomach.
I grew up in Lye in the 80s. I lived in one of the very few houses actually on the high street. In fact, I could see that typewriter shop from my window. No one in there, not ever. Sad to see that the town has declined in the way it has.
My Dad was doctor with the biggest practice on Pedmore Road there for years 1953-1992. I was there a lot ten years ago.Cleaning is the council's job.
i literally live up the road from this town, thankfully atleast 10 minutes away by car. it is so sad to even try and visit. I never go there if i can help it
I've been avidly watching your videos since discovering the ones you did in my hometown. After watching your videos here and in Hull, surely you have to admit that those areas in Swindon that you visited weren't all that bad? I've travelled up and down the country and, whilst Swindon isn't aesthetically pleasing, it is quite a safe place to live in comparison with other major towns and cities.
Yeah for sure, Swindon isn’t as bad as some other places and nowhere near the worst in the country.
It’s hard to do a comparison across the country, maybe I’ll do something like that sometime.
These videos are typically the worst areas in a city, even if they’re not that bad.
Like the York video, I filmed the worst areas in York, but those areas are like a luxury resort compared to the worst of the West Mids.
Stourbridge is nice, Lye… well look at the demographics on the street.
Visit Croydon in South London. It would be perfect for your channel
Curry house spice of lye is best curry I have ever had though, but I live local and my heavily pregnant wife went to get a prescription from one of the 2 24 hour chemist it has and was approached by Middle Eastern man and asked what the fuck she was doing there and is she lost. Roma, Pakistani and Middle Eastern men every were. More Roma though lately and nearly every time I use the local Aldi is Roma shoplifting in there.
Yes the Roma flocked there as they had a local compatriot helping them 'settle in' (complete benefit forms, that sort of thing). I too remember it from the 80s when it was incredibly popular due to the excellent Curry houses (many famous). It was never 'great' but now it's simply dreadful and dangerous, so avoid if you can.
I used to live near Lye some years ago and it has got worse and worse as time has gone on! Did you count the amount of Indian restaurants down the high street? Clay Croft is not a great estate as your saw. Loved the video! ….. Smithy
this was a descent place to have a curry and was well known for its indian restuarants,then they let in loads of romanians and its gone downhill since,
Would say cape hill near Smethwick or Bearwood for the next one
I worked on turning Ley high street one way some years ago!! I was driving the JCB 3CX👍❗
4:35 - why has that one car been masked/obscured?
I was taking my motorbike to be fixed in Stourbridge when it completely died on Lye High Street... Just by the church. I'm not saying it was bad but I paid £175 to join and get a bodge job by the AA to get the Hell out of there to the garage.
I don't blame you, I bet its like that movie from Dusk to Dawn when the night draws in 😀
@@ukexplored🤣🤣🤣🤣 it really is!
I can only tell one thing from my polish point of view - the time stopped at the beginning of the nineties the XX century.
It's immigration 🤷♂
Majority of those living there were born here so your point is invalid
That is incorrect. Lye is predominantly Romanian Gypsies brought in illegally so there not on any census. It used to be predominantly pakistani and they made businesses and it was the place to go for a curry, but all those businesses have now been destroyed due to the romanian gypsies constantly stealing/ anti social behaviour. Source is I literally live next to it
@@tejmag7608 A Pakistani, born in England to Pakistani parents, has Pakistani culture. Often a Muslim living in a Christian country. It changes the culture of a country, and in my view, not for the better.
@@tejmag7608 These people have had generations to adapt to British society and standards, but the result is always the same.
Agreed, 1000000% .
We live in Pedmore but our elected pharmacy is in Lye. Why? Well because they open 7 days a week and are open till 9pm. (Unlike Pharmacists in Stourbridge!)
Another factor is that a lot of councils are making it harder and harder to dispose of waste properly.
Yes, that is very true and it's insane how difficult it is in some cities. But still....
I dare you to visit Jaywick, Essex 😮if you want rough.
It's on the hit list, I enjoyed the TV show about that area, but it's about a 5 hour drive. I'm going to try and plan in a road trip and film a few areas en route at some point.
@@ukexplored I can't wait for the Jaywick episode!
haha yes definitely 😂i’ve heard lots of people are visiting jaywick it’s almost like it’s turning into a tourist attraction 😂
Looks a bit grim.
Just a 'bit'! 🤔
These people probably immature
Yeah, that’s part of the problem 😀
Great channel, subbed.
You're awesome, thanks!
Went to school not far from Lye. Some of the gangs from Lye would release a list of names on facebook each year and then show up outside our school waiting for them; they called it the 'hitlist'. I remember being petrified that my name would be on there. Not a good place.
They council have implemented a night time clean up team that have to sweep the street, main high street, to pick up those tobacco type drug bits that they chew all day and drop on the floor.
There is a gathering of Romania travellers that have gathered there over say the past 7 years and they have just made an already bad place, worse. They live in squaller in tiny rooms with loads of people in one space. They have, in turn made businesses close down as its not safe for people to walk down the high street. They eat out of bins and savage the skips. Something really needs to be done about all of this. Terribly sad state of affairs. Shameful to say that this is 21st century living. Is there anyway this video could be forwarded to Dudley council at all?
Maybe via email or twitter?
Why do they need a video!!.. they are well aware of it!... Dudley Council are fighting a losing battle with lye, a video isn't going to remind them!
They should be deported.
@bullet1544 what a nob !!
Like the council would care less?
Lye - a.k.a. caustic soda
Yeah, both are highly corrosive 😀
Also, local primary school now has hepatitis c.
It's gone down hill ever since the advent of Dudley MBC, an embarrassment of a council which should never have been instigated. Was a nice shopping area back in the early 80's. The building of the cross walks flats didn't do the area any favours which was a sixties thing I think. As with other areas such as Halesowen, it is continuing to decline. Dudley MBC are now bankrupt because of the continued mismanagement and waste of public funds.
The Spice of Lyfe, and Maliks are great restaurants though 😂
This is the way forward for the UK. It is not unusual.
I would love to see Keir starmer walk around areas like this and see the beautiful utopia he's creating
You can guarantee any area that is a bit iffy….has loads of unemployment opportunities..
Ive just come back from Lye Cricket Club. My son played an away match there. Its the worst club we have played at. Total mess. Rubbish everywhere and overgrown nettles all around. Even my 7 year old daughter described it as 'sketchy'
HOPE IT GETS BETTER SOON FOR THE RESIDENCE OF LYE.
Great channel
"....also has a mosque...". All you need to know.
Make a Video on Langley in Oldbury,West Midlands
Yeah, Oldbury is on my list of places to go, never been there but it has a high crime rate and looks pretty depressing in places on Maps.
Go to bloxwich and Mosley and beechdale all near walsall.
Thanks, I’m making notes of all the places people recommend and will go there if I can find some wild stories and interesting stuff to film.
I dunno if chadsmoor is as awful as I remember it being, the best Wetherspoons ever is down the road in hednesford though 10 min drive away, if your trips uneventful lol
A Spoon’s discount burger and pint always saves the day 😂
Nothing like that in Norwich
Lye is populated by one group. It isn't safe for women to walk through there and you can see groups of men hanging around all the shops drinking. Drive through don't stop.
Yeah, it's normal to have a no dog poop or £1k fine, but dang that is some filth.
Only reason I feel safe walking through Lye is because I always have 2 very large protective dogs with me and still won't walk down the high street if I can help it (Because of the rubbish, Rats, excrement etc) Too worried my dogs might catch something
Glad you liked my recommendation, it really didn't used to be like this my dad had a shop there on the high street until the early 90s it used to be full of decent hard working salt of the earth people, even about 10 years ago it was a great place to go on a night for a curry now its just a slum 😔 our society has gone seriously wrong somewhere along the way. Heres a video of Lye from days long gone ironically made by the same portrait gallery you passed by on the video which is one of the few surving old businesses, it looked a nice place back then th-cam.com/video/paDDnU5dY8s/w-d-xo.html
That's so awesome you shared that, I really appraciate it. It really does make one reflect on how areas change over time, and it was almost eerie thinking back to the day when I filmed as I stood outside the Portraits by Hart shop asking my mate how the hell a shop like that survives in this day and age, not knowing the original owner, Mr Hart is somewhat of a local legend! I guess the day that shop closed up will be symbolic.
Thankyou Alex for the 'Old Lye' collage that you've added. Reminded of the beautiful town it was and brought back happy memories of my childhood in Lye❤
Oh Enoch. If only we had listened.
Go to handsworth Soho road if you think LYE has been taken over 😂
I agree with you
Napalm it.
Alum rock too!! And small heath!
There are nicer parts not far off the High Street. The Shovel Inn is my favourite pub anywhere and closer to the High Street, The Railway and The Windsor Castle are good too.
More towns like Lye coming our way once Labour take power and immigration gets even worse
Please, no, we can’t let the curse of Lye spread any further, it’s a dystopian nightmare.
13 years of the Tories and yet you are worried about Labour, get a grip
@@tk380514 lol you think the tories are bad? Wait till Labour get in 😄 they can't even define what a woman is and their stance on crime is non existent it's going to be fun hah
@tk380514 It's Labour who opened the floodgates. It's Labour who tried to stop everything the Conservatives tried to do to control legal and illegal immigration. It's Labour who enshrined the human right into law which stops us being able to control immigration.
I lived close by for 25 years so do have some local knowledge about Lye. Up until the late 1980s it was a 'salt of the earth' white British working class town. Then the mulims moved in and within a short time, took the place over. Some say "Import the third world and you become the third world". I leave that for viewers to judge for themselves. I could tell you a lot about the goings on there but already i suspect my comment, based on personal observation is likely to be deleted by some clever ass.
...and since the brexit we have much more migrants coming in, but yet brexit was supposed to stop migrants!? 😂
did you know? when unemployed criminals get a fine, YOU will be the one paying it...heres why - the uk justice system says that fines paid by the unemployed need only be £3 per fortnight and that money is coming from their benefits which is coming from the taxpayer. fines are not much of a deterrent and definitely not the answer here, they need to be far more severe in their punishments...but then its like you said mr narrator, ive never seen these areas turn things around and probably never will.
Actually public defecation is a cultural thing with a certain group from a subcontinent and they even have designated pooing streets and beaches. So it could be culturally insensitive to complain about pooing in public
I hope that was sarcasm.
You need to do West Brom
You should look at smethwick
Literally in Smethwick filming right now actually. This area is scuffed. 😀
@ukexplored look around dibble Road, my dad lived there and there were 3 murders on that street in the first year he was there.
Ah, I left before I saw that. I think we got some good footage. Was the most litter I’ve ever seen on the streets in some areas, was hard to believe.
It was a lovely town before immigration.
Most towns were.
I drive through every day full of immigrants sitting around all day but according to the government there a Benefit to the country
I think on your next visit.....you should visit Thailand! You deserve a break! I left the UK many years ago...best decision I ever made..bar none! 🤔🤔🤔
even someone give me a million euro to living there for a long time i never take that money to living in that hellhole not even for 10 million euro,no no no- for not any price paid to me can ever high enough to want ever living there.never!
2.06 the award winnning restaurant is not relating to the take away that exists today......old signs of the past lad you should have had some chats with some locals about some real home truths and history of the area. I sent you a link for comparison of some history of the area... all credit going to Harts Photography of LYE
Loved t he car parjing space where they couldn't spell reserved.
Good spot, I didn't notice that until you said, that's hilarious and says a lot!
@@ukexplored I and misspelled parking!!
Classic 😂
From a man who can't spell parking.
@@paulkirton8945 I said that a week ago ffs
good work, 🤙I ve watched 💩towns... for months, and all of a sudden today , I get your link. . You're deffo on a par. 💫 probs more depressing / truthful. 🤔
You should see what they said about Waste Bank in Lye from the 1650's to mid 19th Century. This is tame by comparison. Lawless, violent, immoral....
Visit netherton by dudley
Looks worth a visit, Good shout. If I make it out alive form Walsall tomorrow I’ll plan a trip!😀
@@ukexplored 😂 yeah is a good visit netherton definitely interesting place lol
I worked in lye, i saw a woman pop a squat and take a dump on the main path.
Didn't you know, diversity is our strength 😂😂😂
Or so they keep trying to drip feed us😮
Maybe theres a waste disposal problem…does a policeman ever walk down the high street ? What is the unemployment factor ?
That's the issue. Most recycling centres are free, but the issue is that low income resident don't actually have access to a vehicle and probably can't afford to pay to have their waste removed. This results in fly tipping.
@@Chopper8472That, and Company vehicles (even for small businesses) aren't allowed to use them
Lye actually has its own big rubbish tip facility! It's the main one in the area.
@@Chopper8472 ive got a good idea ! What about the rates that we all pay..the one that we pay or go to prison for….those funds could be used to dispose of waste from peoples homes ?
There's a third (world) problem
It's actually 'the Lye' but not to split hairs. When the 'Bronx' closed, so did 'the Lye'. Free for all!
visit LOUGHBOROUGH please!
I would not ever eat in any of these places, hygiene would be very questionable !
I work in lye and have done for 6 \years down Hayes lane…it’s only bad when you go up on the high street…it’s like a 3rd world war torn country
It really is!
It used to be great for having a curry ( Mr Dave's) and there was a great hardware shop but these have closed! Like a lot of similar areas, it's now full of Barber Shops and you can get your false nails done.😂
I have prayed for the people of Lye
And it made no difference naturally.
@@paulsawtell3991 it's not about making a difference it's about me showing youtube that I care
Looks like the 'Dress' shop is doing OK though?