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Solihull
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Solihull ( or ) is a large town in the West Midlands of England, with a population of 94,753. It is a part of the West Midlands conurbation and is located 9 miles (14.5 km) southeast of Birmingham city centre. It is the largest town in, and administrative centre of, the larger Metropolitan Borough of Solihull which itself has a population of 200,400.
Solihull is one of the most prosperous towns in the English Midlands, and the borough is the fifth richest in the UK. Residents of Solihull and those born in the town are referred to as Silhillians. The motto of Solihull is Urbs in Rure (Town in the Country).
Geography and administrationDue to its growth, Solihull was promoted from an Urban District to a municipal borough, the honour being bestowed by Princess Margaret.
In 1964, Solihull became a county borough and on this occasion The Queen bestowed the honour. In 1974, the Solihull county borough was merged with the rural district surrounding Meriden to form the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull. This also includes the districts known as Shirley, Knowle, Dorridge, Balsall Common, Castle Bromwich and Chelmsley Wood (North Solihull). At this time it also moved from the county of Warwickshire to the West Midlands.
Solihull may be considered to be a dormitory town for Birmingham to which it is joined, although many Silhillians now work within the town and many commute daily to towns and cities outside the Birmingham conurbation.
WardsThere are 17 wards in Solihull; Shirley West, Blythe, Shirley South, Meriden, Elmdon, Lyndon, Smith's Wood, Chelmsley Wood, Dorridge and Hockley Heath, Olton, St. Alphege, Shirley East, Silhill, Kingshurst and Fordbridge, Castle Bromwich, Knowle, and Bickenhill. Each ward is represented by three councillors at Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, of which there are a total of 51 councillors. The mayor is elected by the Council and is currently Gary Allport of the Conservative Party, representing Shirley South.
Council structureSolihull Metropolitan Borough Council run the services in Solihull through seven directorates: adult social services, community services, customer services, education and children's services, resources, and strategic services. At the annual meeting, the council appoints a leader of the council. The leader then appoints a cabinet which currently consists of eight members. An overview and scrutiny management board as well as five scrutiny boards have been set up by the council.
HistoryEtymologySolihull derived its name from a 'dirty or muddy' or soily hill which was given by passers-by at the time. The parish church was built on a hill of stiff red marl, which turned to sticky mud in wet weather.
Early historyThe town has existed since medieval times when it was founded as a market centre, and it later became an important coaching stop. Solihull probably came into being about a thousand years ago as a clearing in the forest to which people would come to trade. The town is noted for its historic architecture, which includes examples of timber-framed Tudor style houses and shops. The historic Solihull School dates from 1560 (although not on its present site). The red sandstone parish church of St. Alphege dates from a similar period and is a large and handsome example of classical British Church architecture, with a traditional spire making the Church visible from a great distance. It is located at the head of High Street, Solihull, and is a Grade I listed building. It was founded in about 1220 by Hugh de Oddingsell. A chantry chapel was also founded there by Sir William de Oddingsell in 1277 and the upper chapel in St Alphege was built for a chantry. The priest lived and had his sacristy in a crypt chapel underneath, and the fireplace there can still be seen.
20th centuryUnlike nearby Birmingham, the Industrial Revolution largely passed Solihull by, and until the 20th century Solihull remained a small market town.
World War II also nearly passed Solihull by. Neighbouring Coventry and Birmingham were severely damaged by repeated German bombing raids but apart from some attacks on what is now the Land Rover plant, the airport and the local railway lines, Solihull escaped largely intact.
In 1901, the population of the town was just 7,500, however by the 1960s, the population had grown to over 100,000. This growth was due to a number of factors including a large slum clearance programme in Birmingham, the development of the Rover car plant, the expansion of what was then Elmdon Airport into Birmingham International Airport and, perhaps most significantly, the release of large tracts of land for housing development attracting inward migration of new residents from across the UK.
Until the early 1960s, the main high street remained much as it would have been in the late 19th century with several streets of Victorian terrace houses linking High Street with Warwick Road. The construction of the central shopping area known as Mell Square (named after W.Maurice Mell, the town clerk who planned the work) involved the demolition of properties in Mill Lane and Drury Lane, some of which were several hundred years old, together with that of the large Victorian Congregational Church that had stood on the corner of Union Street and Warwick Road. On the right along High Street from St Alphege's Church porch is one of town's oldest landmarks, The George, which dates from the 16th century. It is now called the Ramada Jarvis Hotel. On the opposite side of High Street is the Manor House which dates from about 1495.
EducationSolihull School is the oldest school in Solihull and was founded in 1560. It is a fee-paying, independent / 'public' school and has recently become co-educational. It occupies a 50-acre site in the centre of the town on the Warwick Road. It is notable for high academic and sporting standards. Also, it offers pupils a huge array of extra curricular activities.
St Martin's is an independent girls' school nearby which was founded during the world war by Miss Bull and Miss Tucker. Other schools in the Solihull area include Tudor Grange School, Langley School, Lode Heath School, Eversfield Preparatory and Junior School, St Alphege Junior School, Alderbrook School and Lyndon Secondary School. Catholic schools include: St Augustine's Primary School and St Peter's RC Catholic Secondary School.
Although a large town of almost 100,000 inhabitants, Solihull has no university, but there are in fact five universities within 25km of the town; three in Birmingham and two in Coventry. However, Solihull College, formerly known as the Solihull College of Technology, offers several foundation degree and full degree courses, particularly in technical subject areas such as computer sciences and engineering.
There is also a sixth form college located on the outskirts of the town centre. This is known as the The Sixth Form College, Solihull and is where students, mainly between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, complete their secondary education.
Solihull was the first council in the country to have their 'Wave 1' proposal of the Building Schools for the Future investment programme approved. They were awarded over £80 million to transform six schools in the north of the borough in December 2004. As a result of the funding, there will be six new schools constructed within seven years. The school curriculum will be redesigned as well as a further £6 million investment in managed ICT services. The six schools to be rebuilt are Park Hall, Smith's Wood, Archbishop Grimshaw, Lanchester Special School, and Forest Oak and Merstone special schools. Forest Oak and Merstone have been already rebuilt on one site. Lanchester, Park Hall and Smith's Wood will all be built by BAM PPP, under 'Private Finance Initiative'. Archbishop Grimshaw will also be built by BAM PPP under a traditional contract.
TransportA number of main roads pass through Solihull including the A41 Birmingham to Warwick road and the A34 Birmingham to Stratford road. The M42 and the M40 both pass through Solihull and provide very rapid links to Oxford and London and to the rest of the motorway network surrounding the West Midlands.
Solihull railway station is on the former Great Western Railway line from Birmingham Snow Hill station to London Marylebone station. In the first half of the 20th century, this railway line carried most of the express trains from the Midlands to the South West and South Wales, including the Cambrian Coast Express pulled by the elegant and powerful Great Western Railway King Class and Castle Class locomotives. Other railway links are provided on the West Coast Main Line, as Birmingham International railway station lies within the borough's boundaries and offers frequent express connections to London. Express train services to Solihull are now run by Chiltern Railways and local services by London Midland. Local people are represented by the .
The Grand Union Canal passes across Solihull, coming within a mile of the town centre and linking the town to the River Thames in London.
Local bus services are provided largely by National Express West Midlands from their Acocks Green depot in south-east Birmingham.
HousingResidential development in Solihull comprises a variety of housing types, but features a notable preponderance of large detached houses of four or more bedrooms. Many of the larger developments were constructed between 1950 and 1970. One of the earlier large scale developments centred around Beechwood Park Road and Stonor Park Road with new detached houses selling for £4,000 in 1952. Chelmsley Wood to the north of Solihull town centre is a large 1960s overspill estate for Birmingham, and is currently marketed under the name of "North Solihull". In the early to mid-1980s, the new Monkspath district constructed east of Shirley (and close to the M42 motorway) was the UK's single largest housing development of that decade.
Industry and commerceSolihull offers a variety of shopping facilities. It has an open-air 1960s-style shopping centre called Mell Square. In recent years, the town has undergone much development, and the High Street has been pedestrianised since 1994. On July 2, 2002, a large new shopping centre, Touchwood, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
Solihull is the home of the four wheel drive car manufacturer Land Rover and a range of other major companies.
The National Exhibition Centre, commonly thought to be in Birmingham, is in fact within the borough of Solihull, as is almost all of Birmingham International Airport and the ever-expanding Birmingham Business Park.
Communal facilitiesSolihull has a number of parks including Malvern Park, Brueton Park, Tudor Grange Park and Shirley Park. The nearest parks to the town centre are Malvern and Brueton parks. They are interlinked and cover about 130 acres. Brueton Park used to be part of the grounds of Malvern Hall, which dates back to about 1690. It is home now to St Martin's School. Solihull has numerous leisure facilities including a public swimming pool on the edge of Tudor Grange Park. This pool replaced an outdoor pool in Tudor Grange Park which was demolished in the 1960s. The current pool is now being replaced by a new leisure centre. At present there are two sports centres, the more modern Tudor Grange sports centre, and the older Norman Green sports centre, formerly known as the Norman Green Athletics Centre. There is also an outdoor wooden skateboarding and in-line skating facility in Tudor Grange Park. Sailing takes place on Olton Reservoir.
The borough is well served by numerous youth groups, both from the statutory and voluntary sector. One of the largest is , based in the south of Solihull. The Group is sponsored by the Royal Navy and provides a wide programme of activities for young people from all over Solihull aged from 6 to 18. The recently refurbished ice rink on Hobs Moat Road is home to Solihull's ice hockey teams the Solihull Barons, Solihull Vikings, a Junior ice hockey team, the Mohawks ice racing club, as well as ice dance and figure skating clubs. Above the ice rink is Rileys snooker club.
The River Blythe, a headwater tributary of the River Trent, passes through parts of Solihull including Malvern and Johnathon Parks.
SportThe largest football club in the town are Solihull Moors. They are a semi-professional club and currently compete in the Conference North. The club was established in 2007 as a merger between former clubs Solihull Borough and Moor Green. They play at Damson Park, located around 2 miles from the town centre. The other sports club of note are Pertemps Bees, a rugby union team who compete in National Division One.
In November 2007 it was announced that the Bees would be leaving their Sharmans Cross Road home to groundshare with the Moors. The proposed 'Solihull Sports Partnership' will include a multi-million pound investment into improving the Damson Park facilities, as well as the sporting infrastructure of Solihull.
SuburbsSolihull town has several suburbs including Blossomfield, Solihull Lodge, Haslucks Green, Sharmans Cross, Shirley (considered a sub-town of Solihull), Shirley Heath, Hillfield, Monkspath, Widney Manor, Olton, Lode Heath and World's End.
Solihull Borough includes several satellite towns and villages including Castle Bromwich, Chelmsley Wood, Cheswick Green, Dorridge, Knowle, Balsall Common, Meriden, Hampton in Arden, Hockley Heath, Eastcote, Barston, Bickenhill and Catherine-de-Barnes.
Twin townsSolihull is twinned with:
Notable residentsThis list includes notable persons who were born or have lived in Solihull.
- Elizabeth Bower, actress, Doctors
- Karren Brady, the managing director of Birmingham City Football Club
- Michael Buerk, BBC News Reader, born and grew up in Solihull, attending Solihull School
- Martin John Callanan born and grew up in Solihull
- Lucy Davis, actress
- Paddy Doyle
- Tommy Godwin, cyclist, twice Olympic medallist in 1948 and President of Solihull Cycling Club
- Richard Hammond, BBC presenter of Top Gear
- Dave Hill (Slade's Guitarist)
- Rupert Hill (Jamie Baldwin) in Coronation Street was born and grew up in Solihull
- Martin Johnson CBE, former England rugby union player and captain.
- Joanne Malin
- Don Maclean
- Kerry Minnear, keyboard player, composer and member of 1970s progressive rock band Gentle Giant
- Lizo Mzimba from CBBC's Newsround, attended Solihull School
- Ritchie Neville from pop band Five
- Mandy Rice-Davies, famed for her role in the Profumo affair, attended Sharman's Cross junior school in Solihull
- Malcolm Stent, playwright and entertainer
- Shane Geraghty, England rugby union player, reportedly attended St Alphege Junior School in the 1990s.
- Nick Drake
Musical groups which were formed in or by a member from Solihull include:
Solihull in popular culture- In an episode of Rex the Runt, when the protagonists shrink Birmingham, the character Bad Bob later shrinks Solihull. The miniature model of Solihull includes the spire of St. Alphege Church among other buildings.
- In an episode of Fonejacker, the character George Agdgdgwngo, while doing one of usual telephone scams, says that he is in Solihull, incorrectly stating it is in the north when it is in the West Midlands.
- In an episode of The Thin Blue Line, the character Inspector Fowler tests his officers for racial prejudice by roleplaying as a Martian who has married a woman from Solihull.
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