I thought when they played us in the FA Cup final either in 1887 or 1895, West Brom were so confident of victory that they'd arranged for there to be a procession that bypassed Birmingham completely. If they hated Brum so much, surely they wouldn't have built the Hawthorns in the city.I heard something like this off my brother.
The first time I went to the Hawthorns I was surprised to see that it was in Sandwell, rather than West Bromwich.
Anywhere north of Worcester and south of Stafford is in Birmingham as far as I'm concerned.
The Hawthorns has never been part of Birmingham. The city boundary is said to run through what used to be the Woodman corner but that might be a myth. Perry Barr was in Staffordshire when Villa played there and Villa Park was originally in Aston Manor, which was seperate from Birmingham until 1911.