- published: 03 Jan 2011
- views: 2462
- author: TheTfh
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- A41 road
- Acocks Green
- Alan Cox
- Alcott Wood
- Aldridge
- Alphege
- Amii Grove
- Andy Townsend
- Architecture
- Aston Villa
- B postcode area
- Babbs Mill Lake
- Baker
- Balsall Common
- Barston
- BBC
- BBC News
- Bentley Heath
- Bickenhill
- Bills Wood
- Bilston
- Birmingham
- Birmingham City F.C.
- Black Country
- Bloxwich
- Bolton Wanderers
- Brierley Hill
- British Rail
- Brownhills
- Castle Bromwich
- Catherine-de-Barnes
- Central News
- Chantry
- Chelmsley Wood
- Chelsea F.C.
- Cheswick Green
- Chiltern Main Line
- Chiltern Railways
- Cholet
- Conference North
- Cooks the Bakery
- Coronation Street
- County borough
- Coventry
- Cradley Heath
- Craig Gardner
- Daniel Caines
- Darlaston
- Dave Hill
- David Baulcombe
- David Jennens
- Districts of England
- Don Maclean
- Dormitory town
- Dorridge
- Dorridge Wood
- Dr Beeching
- Dudley
- Eastcote
- Editors
- Elizabeth Bower
- Elmdon Airport
- Elmdon Park
- England
- English Midlands
- Felicity Kendal
- Fire station
- Five (band)
- Fordbridge
- France
- Gaelic games
- Gentle Giant
- George Cross
- Germany
- Gianni Paladini
- Grand Union Canal
- Halesowen
- Hampton in Arden
- Hillfield Park
- Hockley Heath
- Ice hockey
- Ice rink
- Images of England
- Italy
- James McFadden
- Jasper Carrott
- Jim Proudfoot
- Joanne Malin
- Jobs Close
- John A Butt
- Jonathan Nott
- Karren Brady
- Kerry Minnear
- Kingshurst
- Knowle
- Land Rover
- Liberal Democrats
- Linux
- Listed building
- Lizo Mzimba
- Local nature reserve
- London
- London Midland
- Lucy Davis
- M40 motorway
- M42 motorway
- Mail coach
- Main-Taunus-Kreis
- Malcolm Stent
- Mandy Rice-Davies
- Market town
- Marl
- Marylebone station
- Matthew Croucher
- Medieval
- Michael Buerk
- Millisons Wood
- Monkspath
- Municipal borough
- Newsround
- Nick Drake
- Ocean Colour Scene
- Olton
- Olton Reservoir
- Overspill estate
- Oxford
- Paddy Doyle
- Palmers Rough
- Parish church
- Park
- Post town
- Princess Margaret
- Profumo
- Regions of England
- Republic of Ireland
- RFU Championship
- Richard Hammond
- Ritchie Neville
- River Blythe
- River Penk
- River Rea
- River Sherbourne
- River Sow
- River Sowe
- River Thames
- River Trent
- Rover (car)
- Rowley Regis
- Royal Marine
- Royal Navy
- Ruckleigh
- Rugby union
- Rupert Hill
- Russell Leetch
- Sandstone
- Sandwell
- Secondary education
- Sedgley
- Shane Geraghty
- Sharmans Cross Road
- Silversmith
- Simon Mayo
- Sixth form college
- Skateboarding
- Slade
- Smestow Brook
- Smethwick
- Smith's Wood
- Smiths Wood
- Solihull
- Solihull Barons
- Solihull College
- Solihull Moors
- Solihull plant
- Solihull School
- Songwriter
- Spire
- Spizzenergi
- Stagecoach
- Stephanie Cole
- Stewart Lee
- Stourbridge
- Stratford upon Avon
- Sunderland A.F.C.
- Sutton Coldfield
- Swell Maps
- Swimming pool
- Terraced house
- The Last Farewell
- Three Cooks
- Timber framing
- Tipton
- Touchwood
- Tributary
- Triumph Engineering
- Tudor Grange Park
- Tudor style
- UK
- United Kingdom
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- Walsall
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- Warwickshire GAA
- Wednesbury
- Wednesfield
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- West Coast Main Line
- West Ham United F.C.
- West Midlands Police
- Willenhall
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- World War II
- Yorks Wood
- Zat Knight
-
A41 road
The A41 is a major trunk road in England that links London and Birkenhead, although it has now in parts been superseded by motorways. It passes through or near various towns and cities including Watford, Kings Langley, Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury, Solihull, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, Newport, Whitchurch, Chester and Ellesmere Port.
It follows part of the line of the old Roman road, Akeman Street and the eighteenth century Sparrows Herne turnpike.
With the opening of the M40 extension in 1990 linking with the M42 near Birmingham, much of the route was downgraded in importance - with the sections between Bicester and the M42 near Solihull being renumbered as the A4141, A4177 and B4100.
The route begins near Marble Arch in London, at the junction with Oxford Street (A40). Here, north-bound traffic uses Gloucester Place, the south-bound uses Baker Street. It becomes a dual-carriageway on Finchley Road, through Swiss Cottage, and along Hendon Way, and intersects with the North Circular Road near Brent Cross shopping centre. The road passes through Hendon and after the junction with the A5150, (close to the Metropolitan Police's police college and the RAF Museum), it runs directly next to the M1. The A41 overlaps the A1 at Five Ways Corner with the section known as Watford Way. It passes through Mill Hill, separating with the A1 at Apex Corner roundabout After crossing the M1, near Elstree, it links the M1 at Junction 4, and then meets the A5 at a roundabout (where the A5 becomes the A5183). The A41 continues next to the M1 into Hertfordshire. This section is known as Elton Way, as far as the roundabout with the B462. The next section is dual-carriageway.
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Aldridge
Coordinates: 52°36′22″N 1°55′04″W / 52.606°N 1.91787°W / 52.606; -1.91787
Aldridge is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands, England. Historically it was part of the county of Staffordshire, but in 1974 it was incorporated into the Walsall borough as well as the West Midlands county.
Aldridge was recorded as a settlement in the Domesday Book of 1086, though the now much larger settlement of Walsall was not. It was valued at 15 shillings under the name of "Alrewic", which may have originated from an abundance of Alder trees in the area.
Aldridge began as a small agricultural settlement, with farming being the most common occupation up until the 19th century.
In the 1800s, Aldridge became an industrial town with coal mines and lime kilns. The coal and clay in the area prompted many to set up collieries and brickworks. Aldridge clay is especially useful in the manufacture of blue bricks. The 1881 census shows that the mines and brick works were major employers. Because the coal and clay beneath the eastern side of Aldridge (towards Stonnall) is located much deeper under the surface, extraction of this coal and clay would not have been economically viable. As a result farms continued to dominate the eastern part, though a sand quarry was set up and still remains on Birch Lane.
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B postcode area
Coordinates: 52°27′47″N 1°53′20″W / 52.463°N 1.889°W / 52.463; -1.889
The B postcode area, also known as the Birmingham postcode area, provides postcodes for the boroughs of Birmingham, Solihull, Sandwell and Walsall and parts of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire in England.
The approximate coverage of the postcode districts:
Clockwise from the east, the adjacent postcode areas are: CV (Coventry), WR (Worcester), DY (Dudley), WS (Walsall), DE (Derby).
Before the introduction of postcodes in the 1960s, Birmingham along with other major cities were divided into numbered postal districts. With a few exceptions these were directly incorporated into the outcode (the first part of the postcode).
For example, Great Barr was formerly Birmingham 22 and Birmingham 22A (now B43 and 44) and Smethwick was formerly Birmingham 40 and 41 (now B66 and 67 and a separate post town).
[]
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Balsall Common
Coordinates: 52°23′29″N 1°39′06″W / 52.39141°N 1.65169°W / 52.39141; -1.65169
Balsall Common is a large village and one of the larger rural settlements in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, situated 7 miles (11 km) west of Coventry and 13 miles (21 km) to the east of Birmingham, to which it serves as a commuter village in the West Midlands. It is currently undergoing gradual suburbanisation and is increasingly considered as a small town in terms of its population.
The village is split between the civil parishes of Balsall, which also includes Balsall Street, Temple Balsall, Fen End, and Chadwick End, and has a population of 6,234 according to the 2001 census; and Berkswell. As of 2008, the population was approaching 7,000 residents.[citation needed] It also lies on the Heart of England Way.
The village is of recent origin; most of the houses and shops were built in the 20th century. Previously, the village consisted of a couple of hamlets of about six to twelve houses each and a few scattered cottages - as this map of 1889 shows. In the 1930s there began the development which linked these isolated buildings, but it was not until after World War II that the village really began to grow. With its proximity to the village of Meriden, 3 miles (4.8 km) away, Balsall Common is close to the precise (though much-disputed) geographic centre of England and thus is one of the furthest places from the UK coastline. The local secondary school is unsurprisingly named the Heart of England School. The local primary school is named Balsall Common Primary School.
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Barston
Coordinates: 52°23′59″N 1°41′50″W / 52.39963°N 1.69719°W / 52.39963; -1.69719
Barston is a village and civil parish in Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands of England. It is about six km east of Solihull and is located inside a large meander of the River Blythe. The nearest large city is Birmingham. According to the 2001 UK Census, the parish had a population of 499.
There are some fine historic buildings, some of them timber-framed. The Church of St. Swithin is a Church of England church which dates from 1721, and is built on the site of an earlier church. The village also possesses a pub, The Bulls Head, and about 50 residential properties. There is no bus service or any other from of public transport in the village, although an abandoned bus stop still exists at the end of the central road of Barston, Oak Lane, which is left over from an old school service from the 1970s. Next to the bus stop is an old-fashioned red phone box.
The footballer Robbie Keane owned a house in Barston whilst playing for Coventry City F.C. in the early half of the 1990s.
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Bentley Heath
Bentley Heath is a village in the West Midlands borough of Solihull, England.
Bentley Heath is to the East of the M40 and the South of the M42 which, along with a small but important green belt area, separates Bentley Heath and its neighbours of Knowle and Dorridge from the greater urban area of Birmingham. It falls in the Meriden Gap and historically was part of Warwickshire. It is 125 metres (400 ft) above sea-level, located in the Midlands Plateau.
There is a relatively large amount of green space to be found in Bentley Heath, with the park, Bentley Heath School fields and various small greens dotted around the residential roads. In the village itself is the aforementioned C of E school, a butchers, a co-operative store, a winter sports shop, a post office and a newspaper shop. There are two hair salons in the village centre and a GvR pillar box situated under a large oak tree next to the bus stop.
It is likely that the Heath was first inhabited in Anglo Saxon times. The Domesday Book records the land as belonging to Turchil of Warwick. After changing hands a number of times, the most famous Lord of the Manor was Lord Byron after whose wife Lady Byron Lane in Knowle is named. Widney Manor is referred to back in the reign of Henry III. Bentley Heath was first mentioned in its own right in 1280 where reference was made to the "Heath at Benteley".
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Bickenhill
Coordinates: 52°26′20″N 1°43′30″W / 52.439°N 1.725°W / 52.439; -1.725
Bickenhill is a village, civil parish and ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England, on the fringes of the West Midlands conurbation.
The manor of Bickenhill was held by Edward the Confessor, by Alward, and then by Turchil. It is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. The descendants of Turchil, the Arden family, settled in the area and adopted the surname 'de Bickenhill,' though spelt differently. The name developed into de Bickenhill in the 13th century. In 1295, Alice de Langley gave herself the title Lady of Bickenhill. A manor then developed in Bickenhill and by the 15th century, there were two manors. It is believed that both manors shared rights by the end of the century. The manors were no longer existing by the end of the 16th century.
The parish was rural in the 19th century but began to develop in the early 20th century into a populous area.
Many changes to the area were made during the nineteenth century. Solihull parish received a detached part of Bickenhill parish, known as Lyndon Quarter, in 1874. The area had been known as Lyndon or Ulverley, after the Ulverlie family who were the original land-owners in the area. When they constructed a new town at a nearby crossroads, which was to become Solihull, old Ulverley became the Old Town, later corrupted to Olton. Though Elmdon parish lay between Olton and Bickenhill proper, the area was administratively Bickenhill until transfer to Solihull, and finally independence with the building of St. Margaret's parish church. The area had been rapidly suburbanising because of the opening of a railway station at Olton, which allowed those who worked in Birmingham to live there and commute. It soon became a suburb of Birmingham. Marston Green, in the north of the parish proper and now the other side of the airport, suburbanised similarly due to having its own station.
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Bilston
Coordinates: 52°33′58″N 2°04′22″W / 52.56605°N 2.07281°W / 52.56605; -2.07281
Bilston is a town in the English county of West Midlands, situated in the southeastern corner of the City of Wolverhampton. Historically within Staffordshire, three wards of Wolverhampton City Council cover the town: Bilston East and Bilston North, which almost entirely comprise parts of the historic Borough of Bilston, and Ettingshall which comprise a part of Bilston and parts of Wolverhampton.
Bilston was first referred to in AD 985 as Bilsatena when Wolverhampton was granted to Wulfrun then in 996 as Bilsetnatun in the grant charter of St. Mary's Church (now St. Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton). It is later mentioned in the Domesday Book as a village called Billestune, being a largely rural area until the 19th century. Bilsetnatun can be interpreted as meaning the settlement (ton) of the folk (saetan) of the ridge (bill).
Situated just two miles southeast of Wolverhampton, it was extensively developed for factories and coal mining. Many houses were constructed in the Bilston area. Between 1920 and 1966, the council replaced most of the 19th century terraced houses with rented modern houses and flats on developments like Stowlawn, The Lunt and Bunker's Hill. Bilston has had a market in the town centre for many years.
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Birmingham
Birmingham (
i/ˈbɜrmɪŋəm/ BUR-ming-əm, locally /ˈbɜrmɪŋɡəm/ BUR-ming-gəm) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 (2010 estimate), and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a population of 2,284,093 (2001 census). Birmingham's metropolitan area is also the United Kingdom's second most populous with a population of 3,683,000.
A medium-sized market town during the medieval period, Birmingham grew to international prominence in the 18th century at the heart of the Midlands Enlightenment and subsequent Industrial Revolution, which saw the town at the forefront of worldwide developments in science, technology and economic organisation, producing a series of innovations that laid many of the foundations of modern industrial society. By 1791 it was being hailed as "the first manufacturing town in the world". Birmingham's distinctive economic profile, with thousands of small workshops practising a wide variety of specialised and highly-skilled trades, encouraged exceptional levels of creativity and innovation and provided a diverse and resilient economic base for industrial prosperity that was to last into the final quarter of the 20th century. Its resulting high level of social mobility also fostered a culture of broad-based political radicalism, that under leaders from Thomas Attwood to Joseph Chamberlain was to give it a political influence unparalleled in Britain outside London and a pivotal role in the development of British democracy.
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Bloxwich
Coordinates: 52°36′57″N 2°00′58″W / 52.61577°N 2.01620°W / 52.61577; -2.01620
Bloxwich is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England, with a population of around 40,000 people.
Bloxwich has its origins at least as early as the Anglo-Saxon period, when the place name evidence suggests it was a small Mercian settlement named after the family of Bloc (Bloxwich, earlier Blochescwic, meaning "Bloc's village").
Some 19th century works suggest that at one time Bloxwich was a settlement in the ancient manor of Wednesbury. There is no conclusive evidence for this and Bloxwich has since at least medieval times been associated with the manor and town of Walsall (which for reasons unknown does not appear in the Domesday Book of 1086). Bloxwich itself is however mentioned in this book under the name 'Blockeswich'.
Traditionally there has been a strong rivalry between Bloxwich and Walsall with origins as early as the English Civil War, when Walsall was Parliamentarian in sympathy and Bloxwich, centre of the Foreign of Walsall, was Royalist. This situation was exacerbated by disputes over local taxation for the poor rate in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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Brierley Hill
Coordinates: 52°28′46″N 2°07′28″W / 52.4795°N 2.1245°W / 52.4795; -2.1245
Brierley Hill is a town and electoral ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England. It is one of the larger Black Country towns with a population of 9,631 and is heavily industrialised, best known for glass and steel manufacturing, although the industry has declined considerably since the 1970s. One of the largest factories in the area was the Round Oak Steelworks which closed down and redeveloped to become the Merry Hill Shopping Centre. Brierley Hill was originally in Staffordshire, but was transferred to the West Midlands metropolitan county upon its creation in 1974.
The name Brierley Hill was formed from three Anglo-Saxon or Old English words; 'brier' meaning the place where the Briar Rose (Rosa rubiginosa) grew, 'leah' or 'ley' meaning a woodland clearing and 'Hill'. The name Merry Hill is derived from the word 'gemeare' which means the boundary, indicating that it was on the boundary of the parish of Kingswinford.
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Brownhills
Coordinates: 52°38′49″N 1°55′59″W / 52.647°N 1.933°W / 52.647; -1.933
Brownhills is a town in the West Midlands, England. Located on the edge of Cannock Chase near the large artificial lake Chasewater, it is 6 miles (9.7 km) north-east of Walsall and a similar distance south-west of Lichfield. It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the Aldridge-Brownhills parliamentary constituency and neighbours the ancient villages of Pelsall and Stonnall. Before boundary changes in 1974, it was in the county of Staffordshire.
The town lies on the ancient Watling Street, but is not recorded before the 17th century, although Ogley Hay, which in modern times is a district of the town, is recorded as a settlement in the Domesday Book. Brownhills quickly grew around the coal mining industry, especially after it became linked to the canal and railway networks in the mid-19th century, and by the end of the century had grown from a hamlet of only 300 inhabitants to a town with a population of over 13,000, of whom the vast majority were employed in the coal industry. Mining remained the town's principal industry until the 1950s, but the subsequent closure of the area's pits led to a severe economic decline which has continued until the present day. The local authority has instituted a regeneration programme which it is hoped will revive the town's fortunes, providing better transport and leisure facilities.
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Castle Bromwich
Coordinates: 52°30′18″N 1°47′08″W / 52.5050°N 1.7856°W / 52.5050; -1.7856
Castle Bromwich is a suburb situated within the northern part of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the English county of West Midlands. It is bordered by the rest of the borough to the south east, North Warwickshire to the east and north east; also Shard End to the south west, Castle Vale, Erdington and Minworth to the north and Hodge Hill to the west - all areas of the City of Birmingham. It constitutes a civil parish which had a population of 11,857 according to the 2001 census.
It was a civil parish within the Meriden Rural District of Warwickshire until the Local Government Act 1972 came into force in 1974, when it became part of Solihull.
In 1861, the population was 613. This rose to just over 1,000 in the 1920s, when half of the original parish was ceded to the City of Birmingham for the construction of overspill estates. This caused a drop to 678 (almost the 1861 level). Post Second World War estate building in Castle Bromwich increased the population to 4,356 in 1951, 9,205 in 1961 and 15,941 in 1971. The parish was then split into two, resulting in the lower 2001 figures.
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Catherine-de-Barnes
Coordinates: 52°25′13″N 1°44′18″W / 52.42040°N 1.73822°W / 52.42040; -1.73822
Catherine-de-Barnes (known to locals as Catney) is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the English county of West Midlands. It is split between the local government administration unparished area of Solihull and the Hampton-in-Arden civil parish and situated about 2 miles east of Solihull town centre.
Its name originates from Ketelberne, the man who owned it after the Norman Conquest in 1066. However it is mainly a later settlement probably dating from the building of the Grand Union Canal there and the present St Catherine's church, now a village hall, was built by Joseph Gillott in 1879.
In 1907, a "fever hospital" was built in Henwood Lane as a joint operation of the Solihull and Meriden Councils for isolating patients with infectious diseases such as diphtheria, typhoid fever and smallpox. In 1978, Janet Parker died here, as the last known victim of smallpox.
The main road passing through the village is the east-west B4102 Hampton Lane/Solihull Road from Solihull to Hampton in Arden. The north-south B4438 Catherine de Barnes Lane starts 250m east of the village, leading past Bickenhill, over the A45 to the NEC, Birmingham International Airport and Birmingham International Station all of which are just 2 miles to the north.
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Chelmsley Wood
Coordinates: 52°28′34″N 1°43′45″W / 52.47612°N 1.72906°W / 52.47612; -1.72906
Chelmsley Wood is a neighbourhood, civil parish and large housing estate in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, England, with a population of 13,010. It is located near Birmingham International Airport and the National Exhibition Centre. It lies adjacent to Birmingham. There are several bus routes linking the town to Birmingham city centre, about 8 miles (13 km) away, and to Solihull town centre.
Chelmsley Wood is a relatively new area, which was built by Birmingham City Council in the 1960s on ancient woodland (part of the Forest of Arden) as an overspill town for Birmingham. Permission for the construction of the overspill estate on green belt land was granted by Richard Crossman as Minister of Housing and Local Government. A shopping centre (which opened on 7 April 1970), a library (completed in 1970 at £240,000), hall and a few public houses. With the adjoining neighbourhoods of Fordbridge and Smith's Wood it became part of Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in 1974.
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Cheswick Green
Cheswick Green is a village and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the English county of West Midlands. It was previously part of the civil parish of Hockley Heath, and lies approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south west of Solihull town centre.
The village of Cheswick Green was a planned settlement from the 1970s and is large enough to sustain some shops including a newsagent, a post office, a pharmacy and a hairdresser as well as a pub, doctor's surgery, village hall and a school.
The civil parish of Cheswick Green includes the village of Cheswick Green, the hamlet of Illshaw Heath and the Blythe Valley Business Park.
Coordinates: 52°22′39″N 1°48′50″W / 52.3775°N 1.8139°W / 52.3775; -1.8139
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Coronation Street
Coronation Street is an English television soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960. The show has been on the air for over 51 years. Coronation Street is produced by ITV Granada Television under ITV Studios and shown in all ITV regions. It has been filmed in Manchester at the Granada Studios since inception, but filming will move to a new set at Media City in Trafford in 2013.
Since first being aired, it has been one of the most financially lucrative programmes on British commercial television, underpinning the success of its broadcaster ITV and its franchise Granada Television. On 17 September 2010, it became the world's longest-running TV soap opera in production, after the United States soap opera As the World Turns ended.
The first episode was aired on 9 December 1960 and was not initially a critical success; Daily Mirror columnist Ken Iriwin claimed the series would only last three weeks. Granada Television commissioned only 13 episodes and some inside the company doubted the show would last its planned production run. Despite the criticism, viewers were immediately drawn to the serial, won over by Coronation Street's 'ordinary' characters. The programme also made use of Northern English language and dialect; affectionate local terms like "eh, chook?", "nowt" (IPA
/ˈnaʊt/, means nothing), and "by heck!" became widely heard on British television for the first time.
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Coventry
Coventry (i/ˈkɒvəntri/) is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although Stoke-on-Trent, Leicester and Nottingham have larger urban areas. The population of Coventry had risen to 315,800 as of 2010, according to the Office of National Statistics.
Historically within Warwickshire, Coventry is situated 95 miles (153 km) northwest of central London and 19 miles (31 km) east-southeast of Birmingham, and is further from the coast than any other city in Britain. Although harbouring a population of almost a third of a million inhabitants, Coventry is not amongst the English Core Cities Group due to its proximity to Birmingham.
Coventry was the world's first twin city when it formed a twinning relationship with the Russian city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) during World War II. The relationship developed through ordinary people in Coventry who wanted to show their support for the Soviet Red Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. The city is now also twinned with Dresden, Lidice and 23 other cities around the world.
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Cradley Heath
Coordinates: 52°28′23″N 2°04′45″W / 52.47302°N 2.07908°W / 52.47302; -2.07908
Cradley Heath ((pronunciation: /ˌkreɪdli ˈhiːθ/) is a town in the Black Country, located in Sandwell metropolitan borough, England. Cradley Heath is often confused with neighbouring Cradley in Halesowen, although the two places have long been in separate local authorities.
Cradley Heath is one of several towns in central England still recognisable from their early 20th century appearance. Many of the shops and houses in the town's High Street are still standing after 100 years. Some of these were demolished in the mid-2000s to make way for a long-awaited by-pass, which finally opened in 2007 to relieve the town's severe congestion problem which had been getting worse for decades.
Cradley Heath was originally an area of heath, between Cradley, Netherton and Old Hill, in the Staffordshire parish of Rowley Regis, which subsequently received borough status in 1933. The residents of Cradley had grazing rights, subject to an annual payment to the lord of the manor. The River Stour forms the boundary to the south between Cradley and Cradley Heath. To the north, Mousesweet Brook (which feeds into the River Stour near to Cradley Heath Railway Station) forms the border next to Quarry Bank and Netherton. Both also act between the modern MBCs of Sandwell and Dudley.
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Darlaston
Coordinates: 52°34′15″N 2°02′45″W / 52.5708°N 2.0457°W / 52.5708; -2.0457
Darlaston is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall in the West Midlands of England.
Archaeological evidence of the history of Darlaston has been destroyed by The de Darlaston family owned Darlaston and lived in the manor between the 12th century and 15th century. When the de Darlaston family died out, the manor was taken over by the Hayes family and renamed Great Croft. The exact location of the manor is not known. It is believed that the site is covered by the new Asda car park, slightly south west of the original parish church, which is now the location for St Lawrence's Church.
Due to being located on the South Staffordshire Coalfield, Darlaston became industrialised very early in its history. The first industries were cottage industries and anyone wishing to mine the coal had to apply for a copyhold from the lord of the manor. In 1698, Timothy Woodhouse was manager of the coal mines belonging to Mrs Mary Offley, who was the lady of the manor. In the first year he sold 3,000 sacks of coal and later went into partnership in his own business. Darlaston also had a windmill which is mentioned in a map of 1695. The mill continued to be in use until about 1860.
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Dorridge
Coordinates: 52°22′19″N 1°45′19″W / 52.37196°N 1.755411°W / 52.37196; -1.755411
Dorridge is a village in the West Midlands borough of Solihull, England, with a population of 7800.
Dorridge is to the East of the M40 and the South of the M42 which, along with a small but important green belt area, separates Dorridge and its neighbours of Knowle and Bentley Heath from the greater urban area of Birmingham, with the town of Solihull encompassing the green-belt area. It falls in the Meriden Gap and historically was part of Warwickshire. Indeed, there are no major towns between Dorridge and Warwick. It is 125 metres (400 ft) above sea-level, located in the Midlands Plateau.
The village of Dorridge did not exist as a community until the mid-19th century, though it is mentioned as far back as the 15th century in the Westminster Muniments which recorded a place called 'Derrech'. It was just the name given to the ridge of land running westwards from Knowle (also then called 'Dorege'). The earliest evidence of settlement though is of Bronze Age man - an axe dated to 1300 BC was found in Norton Green. Cottages dating back to the 16th century exist in Mill Pool Lane. However, the lack of any significant road system until the arrival of the railway showed that there was no community there.
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Dudley
Coordinates: 52°30′43″N 2°05′45″W / 52.5119°N 2.0957°W / 52.5119; -2.0957
Dudley (i/ˈdʌdli/ DUD-lee) is a large town in the West Midlands county of England, and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. At the 2001 census (according to the Office of National Statistics), the Dudley Urban Sub Area had a population of 194,919, making it the one of the largest settlements in England, the second largest town in the United Kingdom behind Reading, and the largest settlement in the UK without its own university.
Dudley is part of the West Midlands conurbation, and is located south of the city of Wolverhampton. It is the largest town in the Black Country region of England, and for many years the town (but not the castle, which was classed as part of Staffordshire) formed part of an exclave of the county of Worcestershire. Despite the more recent changes in county borders, the town still remains part of the Anglican Diocese of Worcester.
Dudley unsuccessfully bid to receive city status in 2012, losing out to Chelmsford, Perth and St. Asaph.
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Eastcote
Coordinates: 51°35′03″N 0°23′23″W / 51.5842°N 0.3897°W / 51.5842; -0.3897
Eastcote is a suburban area established around an old village in Greater London, and is part of the London Borough of Hillingdon.
In the Middle Ages, Eastcote was one of the three areas that made up the parish of Ruislip, under the name of Ascot. The name came from its position to the east of the parish.
While no historically significant events have taken place in Eastcote, there are links to past events in the history of Britain. One such example is of Lady Mary Bankes, who lived in Eastcote for a time, and led the defence of Corfe Castle in Dorset against the Roundheads during the English Civil War. Eastcote also housed an outstation of the Bletchley Park codebreaking activities during the Second World War, with several codebreaking computers in use. This operation became the precursor to GCHQ, which remained in Eastcote after the war until the department moved to purpose-built buildings in Cheltenham in 1952.
By the turn of the 20th century, the recorded population was around 600; this had reached 11,278 for the Eastcote and East Ruislip ward in 2007.
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Elmdon Airport
Birmingham Airport (IATA: BHX, ICAO: EGBB), formerly Birmingham International Airport is an airport located 5.5 NM (10.2 km; 6.3 mi) east southeast of Birmingham city centre, at Bickenhill in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull within the West Midlands, England. The airport is a base for Bmibaby, Flybe, Monarch, Ryanair, Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways. Whilst Flybe holds the most flights into and out of Birmingham, Monarch carry the most passengers, which will futher be increased over the next 12 months with the introduction of a number of new routes and frequencies.
The airport offers both domestic flights within the UK, and international flights to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan, North America and the Caribbean. After handling a record 9.6 million passengers in 2008, passenger numbers declined to around 8.6 million in 2010 and 2011, making Birmingham the seventh busiest UK airport.
Birmingham has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P451) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction.
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England
Englandi/ˈɪŋɡlənd/ is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, while the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separate it from continental Europe. Most of England comprises the central and southern part of the island of Great Britain in the North Atlantic. The country also includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world. The English language, the Anglican Church, and English law—the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world—developed in England, and the country's parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England's Royal Society laid the foundations of modern experimental science.
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Fordbridge
Coordinates: 52°29′06″N 1°44′24″W / 52.48512°N 1.74006°W / 52.48512; -1.74006
Fordbridge is a civil parish and suburb between Kingshurst and Chelmsley Wood in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, which is in the West Midlands county, and also part of the West Midlands conurbation. It is 8 miles (13 km) east of Birmingham City Centre. It has a town council. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 8,748.
Fordbridge is near to Marston Green and features a new £32 million secondary school, called the 'Grace Academy'. The area falls within the borders of North Solihull, which is now subject to a £1.8 billion regeneration project.
According to statistics, Fordbridge is one of the more poorer areas of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull. However, Cooks Lane and surrounding areas differ in that there is more expensive housing (well above the average house price for that area), less crime and are different in housing architecture compared to the surrounding areas of Smith's Wood, Kingshurst and Chelmsley wood.
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France
France (Englishi/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] (
listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
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Germany
Germany (i/ˈdʒɜrməni/), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ( listen)), is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state and the largest economy in the European Union. It is one of the major political powers of the European continent and a technological leader in many fields.
A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, was documented before AD 100. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward, and established successor kingdoms throughout much of Europe. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation while southern and western parts remained dominated by Roman Catholic denominations, with the two factions clashing in the Thirty Years' War, marking the beginning of the Catholic–Protestant divide that has characterized German society ever since. Occupied during the Napoleonic Wars, the rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states into the German Empire in 1871 which was Prussian dominated. After the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the subsequent military surrender in World War I, the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic in 1918, and partitioned in the Treaty of Versailles. Amidst the Great Depression, the Third Reich was proclaimed in 1933. The latter period was marked by Fascism and World War II. After 1945, Germany was divided by allied occupation, and evolved into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990 Germany was reunified.
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Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. Its main line starts in London and ends in Birmingham, stretching for 137 miles (220 km) with 166 locks. It has arms to places including Leicester, Slough, Aylesbury, Wendover and Northampton.
The Grand Union Canal was also the original name for part of what is now part of the Leicester Line of the modern Grand Union: this latter is now generally referred to as the Old Grand Union Canal in order to avoid ambiguity.
With competition from the railways having taken a large share of traffic in the second half of the 19th century, improvements in roads and vehicle technology in the early part of the 20th century meant that the lorry was also becoming a threat to the canals. Tolls had been reduced to compete with the railways, but there was little scope for further reduction. The Regent's Canal and the Grand Junction Canal agreed that amalgamation and modernisation were the only way to remain competitive.
The (present) Grand Union Canal came into being on 1 January 1929, extended in 1932. It was formed from the amalgamation of several different canals:
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Halesowen
Coordinates: 52°27′01″N 2°03′03″W / 52.450164°N 2.050935°W / 52.450164; -2.050935
Halesowen (
/heɪlzˈoʊ.ɨn/) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands, England. After the construction of the M5 motorway a part of Halesowen's Lapal suburb, Carters Lane to the east of the M5 and the roads which culminate on it, were separated from the rest of it and thus fell within Birmingham City Council's boundary. It is now included in the city's Woodgate ward but retains Halesowen as its post town and the B62 postcode.
The population, as measured by the United Kingdom Census 2001, was 55,273. Halesowen is included in the Halesowen and Rowley Regis constituency which is held by the Conservative James Morris.
Halesowen was a detached part of the county of Shropshire but was incorporated into Worcestershire in 1844 by the Counties (Detached Parts) Act. Since the local government reorganisation of 1974 it has formed a part of the West Midlands Metropolitan County and Conurbation, in the Dudley Metropolitan Borough, which it joined at the same time as neighbouring Stourbridge.
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Hampton in Arden
Coordinates: 52°25′52″N 1°42′00″W / 52.43110°N 1.69992°W / 52.43110; -1.69992
Hampton-in-Arden is a village and civil parish located within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands of England. The village was previously located within the county of Warwickshire, until the 1974 county boundary changes. It lies in the countryside between Birmingham and Coventry. Hampton-in-Arden is a typical Arden village, but is now very much a commuter development for nearby Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry. In 1968, the central part of the village was designated a Conservation Area, which is an "area of special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance". Its population in the 2001 census was 1,787.
Hampton is mentioned in the Domesday Book, when it was held by Geoffrey of la Gurche. "In Coleshill Hundred Hantone. 10 hides. Land for 22 ploughs. In lordship 2; 2 male and 2 female slaves. 50 villagers with a priest and 16 smallholders have 13 ploughs. A mill at 40d; meadow, 10 acres; woodland 3 leagues long and 3 wide. The value was and is 100s." All of Geoffrey's lands were held freely by Leofwin. Geoffrey's wife was called Aelfeva and her English name suggests that Geoffrey may have acquired his Warwickshire lands through her, by inheritance rather than by confiscation; she may have been Leofwin's heiress. A priest was recorded, implying that a church existed.
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Hockley Heath
Coordinates: 52°21′21″N 1°46′39″W / 52.3559°N 1.7774°W / 52.3559; -1.7774
Hockley Heath is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, England. The parish is to the south of the West Midlands conurbation,12 miles (19 km) from Birmingham 5.5 miles (8.9 km) from Solihull and 12.5 miles (20.1 km) from Stratford on Avon. Until recently, as well as Hockley Heath village (which is at the extreme south-eastern corner of the parish), it included Cheswick Green, Dickens Heath, Tidbury Green, Salter Street, and Whitlock's End. However following a community governance review, on 31 March 2009 the former Hockley Heath Parish Council was abolished and on 1 April 2009 four new parish councils were created. The new parishes follow the old ward boundaries for the Hockley Heath Parish and each parish now has a parish council. [3] According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 6,771.
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Italy
Italyi/ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in south-central Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km2 (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world.
Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries a political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.
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Kingshurst
Coordinates: 52°29′17″N 1°44′53″W / 52.488°N 1.7480°W / 52.488; -1.7480
Kingshurst is a post war housing estate and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands. It lies about 9 miles (14 km) east of Birmingham city centre. The Smith's Wood area of Solihull borders it to the north and east, Fordbridge to the south and the Shard End area of Birmingham to the west.
The name Kingshurst comes from having previously being a Royal Manor, and 'hurst' meaning wood. The earliest record of Kingshurst is in documents from the late 13th and early 14th centuries, when it is referred to as part of the Manor of Coleshill. Tenant farming was administered from here and Simon de Montford of Coleshill was an English nobleman who built a moated manor house near Kingshurst. The Hall had its own park and farmlands.
Kingshurst took on an independent existence from Coleshill with the arrival of the Mountfords. It is unclear how Kingshurst came into their possession although it is probable that they bought the area around 1332 from the Clintons, who were then Lords of the Manor at Coleshill. What is certain is that they were in possession by about 1352.
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Knowle
Coordinates: 52°23′17″N 1°43′55″W / 52.388093°N 1.73181°W / 52.388093; -1.73181
Knowle ( /ˈnoʊl/) is a large village a few miles southeast of the town of Solihull, UK. Knowle lies within the historic county boundaries of Warwickshire, and since 1974 it has been part of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull within the West Midlands. It lies a few miles from the modern Warwickshire border.
Knowle is in the constituency of Meriden.
Knowle is a busy village which still retains considerable charm, despite being on the very edge of the West Midlands conurbation. Knowle is contiguous with the large village of Dorridge and the smaller village Bentley Heath, both of which mainly residential in nature.
Knowle has many shops. Most of these are located on the High Street, though there are a number of side roads and a shopping precinct. Knowle Library is maintained by Solihull Council in a building called Chester House dating back to Tudor times. At the rear of the building a Knot garden has recently been restored. The small shopping area also has restaurants of all varieties, making Knowle a popular destination for dining out. In 2011 a Costa Coffee opened on the High Street and plans for a new Waitrose store have been put forward.
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London
Londoni/ˈlʌndən/ is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
London is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transport all contributing to its prominence. It is the world's leading financial centre alongside New York City and has the fifth-largest city GDP in the world (and the largest in Europe). London has been described as a world cultural capital. It was the world's most visited city during 2011 and London Heathrow is the world's busiest airport by number of international passengers. London's 43 universities form the largest concentration of higher education in Europe. In 2012 London will become the first city to host the modern Summer Olympic Games three times.
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Main-Taunus-Kreis
Main-Taunus is a Kreis (district) in the middle of Hesse, Germany and is part of the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region as well as the Frankfurt urban area. Neighboring districts are Hochtaunuskreis, district-free Frankfurt, Groß-Gerau, district-free Wiesbaden, Rheingau-Taunus. It is the second most densely populated rural district in Germany.
Before the era of Napoleon, the area was divided into many small bits and pieces of independent states. The most prominent of these were the Archbishopric of Mainz and the territory ruled by the Lords of Eppstein, who were later succeeded by the Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1806 the area became united for the first time as part of the Duchy of Nassau, which was annexed to Prussia in 1866. In 1928 the Main-Taunus district was formed when the cities of Wiesbaden and Frankfurt annexed adjoining areas, leaving the remaining unincorporated areas in the former districts of Wiesbaden and Höchst too small to survive on their own. Together with some adjoining area in the north, these bits and pieces were merged into the Main-Taunus district. In 1972 the northern part of the district was transferred to the Hochtaunus district, and in 1977 the westernmost parts became parts of the city Wiesbaden and the newly formed district Rheingau-Taunus. In 1980 the administrative seat was moved from Frankfurt-Höchst to Hofheim.
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Monkspath
Monkspath is a housing estate and community in Solihull, England, south-east of Shirley (and served by Junction 4 of the M42 motorway). Monkspath is in the Blythe ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull.
The estate is served by a small shopping centre located on Farmhouse Way (off Shelly Crescent). The centre contains two small Co-op supermarkets (one containing a post office), a fish and chip shop, hairdressers and pharmacy. The site also contains a doctors and dentist surgery, a public house ' The Farm ', Monkspath Junior and Infant School and a community centre. There are also several restaurants, a Tesco's Extra, McDonalds and David Lloyd Gym outside of the main community local shops. There is also a park called Hillfield Park with a new playground built in late 2009 and a lake.
Monkspath is built on the former hamlet of Shelly. During the 13th and 14th centuries Shelly was a thriving settlement which connected Solihull and Henley-in-Arden by way of the Kings Highway (now Shelly Lane). Monkspath was so named after the famous Harry Monkspath. He gave his life to helping locals through very hard times. He is known as one of the earliest philanthropists and many feel started the move in society to protecting the more vulnerable.
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Olton
Coordinates: 52°26′16″N 1°48′21″W / 52.4377°N 1.8058°W / 52.4377; -1.8058
Olton is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands, England. In the 13th century the Lords of the Manor moved their seat and formed a new settlement, in the junction of two major roads, that village has now grown into a big town called Solihull. It was then that Ulverlei was being referred to as 'Oulton' (meaning 'old town') to distinguish it from the 'new town' of Solihull of which it is now a part. It is located on the A41 between Solihull town centre 4 miles (6.4 km), Acocks Green, 2 miles (3.2 km) and Birmingham 5.7 miles (9.2 km), dating back over a 1,000 years, it is a now a residential suburb, though historically part of Warwickshire. Many of the large houses built in St. Bernard's Road and Kineton Green Road during the Victorian and Edwardian period form part of one of Solihull's conservation areas.
Olton means 'old town' and is the site of the manor of Ulverlei from where Solihull was founded. Ulverlei has been translated to mean Wulfhere's clearing or meadow. Wulfhere was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, from the end of the 650s until 675. Wulfhere's father, Penda, was killed in 655 fighting against Oswiu of Northumbria. Penda's son Peada became king under Oswiu's overlordship, but was murdered a year later. Wulfhere came to the throne when Mercian nobles organized a revolt against Northumbrian rule in 658, and drove out Oswiu's governors. As he was a youth, Wulfhere had been kept in hiding until he came of age.
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Oxford
Oxfordi/ˈɒksfəd/ is a city in central southern England, the home of the University of Oxford. The city is the county town of Oxfordshire, and forms a district within the county. It has a population of just under 165,000, of whom 153,900 live within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles (80 km) north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames (also sometimes known as the Isis locally) run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre.
Oxford has a diverse economic base. Its industries include motor manufacturing, education, publishing and a large number of information technology and science-based businesses.
Buildings in Oxford demonstrate an example of every English architectural period since the arrival of the Saxons, including the iconic, mid-18th century Radcliffe Camera. Oxford is known as the "city of dreaming spires", a term coined by poet Matthew Arnold in reference to the harmonious architecture of Oxford's university buildings. The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world.
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Republic of Ireland
Ireland (/ˈaɪərlənd/ or /ˈɑrlənd/; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen)) is a sovereign state in Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. Its capital is Dublin. The population of the state was 4.59 million in 2011. It is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy, with an elected president serving as head of state. In the 1937 constitution, the name of the state is given as simply "Ireland". The Constitution of Ireland (Article 4) and the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 provides that the "Republic of Ireland" (Irish: Poblacht na hÉireann) is "the description of the state".
Ireland is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations. A developed country with the seventh highest Human Development Index, Ireland is also highly ranked for press freedom, economic freedom and democracy and political freedom.
The modern Irish state was established in 1922 as the Irish Free State, a dominion within the British Empire, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty which brought an end to the Irish War of Independence. The partition of Ireland had already been provided for in previous British legislation in 1921 in response to opposition to Irish Home Rule or independence by Unionists, who formed a majority in the north-eastern part of the country. Six of the nine counties in the northern province of Ulster were established under that legislation as Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, with which the Irish state shares its only land border. The state is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, St George's Channel to the south east, and the Irish Sea to the east.
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Rowley Regis
Coordinates: 52°29′N 2°04′W / 52.48°N 2.06°W / 52.48; -2.06
Rowley Regis is a town in the Sandwell metropolitan borough of the West Midlands county and a part of the Black Country in the United Kingdom. Being part of the Black Country, locals speak with the traditional dialect, though in a form regarded by many as the quickest and the hardest to understand.
The history of Rowley Regis began centuries ago when a small village grew around the parish church of St Giles approximately two miles south-east of Dudley. It began to develop as a town between the two world wars, when thousands of privately owned and local authority houses were built in the surrounding area. During that time, Rowley Regis became a borough and incorporated the neighbouring communities of Blackheath, Old Hill and Cradley Heath. These places were all within the ancient parish of Rowley Regis, which (despite being in the county of Staffordshire) was in the diocese of Worcester. The parish contained the manors of Rowley Regis and Rowley Somery, the latter being part of the barony of Dudley, but the extents of these manors and the relationship between them are not clear.
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Sandwell
Sandwell is a metropolitan borough of the West Midlands with a population of around 289,100, and an area of 33 square miles (85 km2). The borough is named after Sandwell Priory, and spans a densely populated part of both the Black Country, and the West Midlands conurbation, encompassing the urban towns of Blackheath, Cradley Heath, Oldbury, Rowley Regis, Smethwick, Tipton, Tividale, Wednesbury, and West Bromwich. West Bromwich is the most populous town in Sandwell, but Sandwell Council House (the headquarters of Sandwell's local government) is located at Oldbury.
The Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell was formed in 1974 as part of the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972 and is an amalgamation of the former County Borough of Warley and County Borough of West Bromwich. For its first 12 years Sandwell had a two-tier system of local government; Sandwell Council shared power with the West Midlands County Council. Since the Local Government Act 1985 Sandwell Council has effectively been a unitary authority, serving as the sole executive, deliberative and legislative body responsible for local policy, setting council tax, and allocating budget in the district.
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Smethwick
Coordinates: 52°29′34″N 1°58′06″W / 52.492854°N 1.968226°W / 52.492854; -1.968226
Smethwick ( /ˈsmɛðɨk/ SMEDH-ick) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands of England. It is situated on the edge of the city of Birmingham, within the historic boundaries of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire.
Originally the area was an urban district and from 1894 a municipal borough in the county of Staffordshire. In 1907 it became a county borough. In 1966, Smethwick was merged with the boroughs of Oldbury and Rowley Regis to form the new County Borough of Warley, and was transferred into the county of Worcestershire. This in turn was merged with West Bromwich in 1974 to form the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, which was incorporated into the new West Midlands county.
In 1888, there had been plans for Smethwick to be incorporated into the city of Birmingham, but the urban district council voted against these plans by a single vote.
Smethwick had always had strong economic links to Birmingham (even after its independence of county control following the creation of Smethwick County Borough in 1907), although like most areas and towns of the West Midlands has a strong sense of its own identity. The Warley County Borough was placed entirely in Worcestershire on its creation, but Smethwick has also been in Warwickshire and Staffordshire, and since 1974 has formed part of the West Midlands county. The former boundary of Staffordshire, and detached parts of Worcestershire and Shropshire could be found at the Three Shires Oak, in Bearwood.
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Smith's Wood
Coordinates: 52°29′42″N 1°44′31″W / 52.49500°N 1.74206°W / 52.49500; -1.74206
Smith's Wood is a residential area in the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the West Midlands of England. It is a civil parish with a population of 10,943, according to the 2001 census.
The A452 and M6 form its north and east boundary, Kingshurst and Fordbridge its south, and Castle Bromwich its west.
Smith's Wood also has several parks that are being redeveloped. The Smith's Wood estate is the site of the ancient 'Smith's Wood'- a historical woodland which was once part of the forest of Arden. It was officially designated a Local Nature Reserve in 2004 and is going to be enhanced as part of the regeneration project along with other green spaces.
Smith's Wood is home to Smith's Wood Boys Football Club, a large boys' football club established in 1970. Derby County forward Jamie Ward is from Smiths Wood and attended Smiths Wood Sports College.
Many flats and houses are being demolished and rebuilt in Smith's Wood as part of the regeneration of North Solihull. New features will include a high street, a community hub, and a new private housing estate on Burton's Farm Park. The Woodlands campus of Solihull College was completed in 2006.
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Solihull
Coordinates: 52°24′46″N 1°46′20″W / 52.412903°N 1.772094°W / 52.412903; -1.772094
Solihull ( /ˈsɒlɨhʌl/ or /ˈsoʊliːhʌl/ or /soʊliˈhʌl/) is a 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.
Historically part of Warwickshire, Solihull is one of the most prosperous towns in the English Midlands. Residents of Solihull and those born in the town are referred to as Silhillians The motto of Solihull is Urbs in Rure (Town in Country)
Solihull is "commonly thought" to have derived its name from the position of St Alphege parish church – on a “soily” hill. The church was built on a hill of stiff red marl, which turned to sticky mud in wet weather.
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Stourbridge
Coordinates: 52°27′27″N 2°08′52″W / 52.4575°N 2.1479°W / 52.4575; -2.1479
Stourbridge /ˈstaʊərbrɪdʒ/ is a large town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England. Historically a part of Worcestershire, Stourbridge was a centre of glass making, and today includes the suburbs of Amblecote, Lye, Norton, Oldswinford, Pedmore, Wollaston, Wollescote and Wordsley.
The population, as recorded in the United Kingdom Census 2001, was 55,480. Stourbridge is included in the Stourbridge parliamentary constituency, currently held by Margot James of the Conservative Party.
Stourbridge is a part of the West Midlands metropolitan county and conurbation, in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. Stourbridge is located about 13 miles west of Birmingham, at the edge of the industrial Midlands, located between Kidderminster and Dudley.
Much of the town consists of suburban streets, interspersed with green spaces. Stourbridge borders on green belt land, and is close to unspoiled countryside with rural Shropshire close by to the west. The Clent Hills, Kinver Edge and large areas of farmland lie to the south and west.
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Stratford upon Avon
Coordinates: 52°11′24″N 1°42′36″W / 52.19°N 1.710°W / 52.19; -1.710
Stratford-upon-Avon ( /ˌstrætfəd əpɒn ˈeɪvən/) is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, 22 miles (35 km) south east of Birmingham and 8 miles (13 km) south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers a much larger area than the town itself. Four electoral wards make up the urban town of Stratford; Alveston, Avenue and New Town, Mount Pleasant and Guild and Hathaway. The estimated total population for those wards in 2007 was 25,505.
The town is a popular tourist destination owing to its status as birthplace of the playwright and poet William Shakespeare, receiving about three million visitors a year from all over the world. The Royal Shakespeare Company resides in Stratford's Royal Shakespeare Theatre, one of Britain's most important cultural venues.
Stratford has Anglo-Saxon origins, and grew up as a market town in medieval times. The original charters of the town were granted in 1196, making Stratford officially over 800 years old. The name is a fusion of the Old English strǣt, meaning "street", and ford, meaning that a Roman road forded the River Avon at the site of the town.
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Sutton Coldfield
Coordinates: 52°33′47″N 1°49′19″W / 52.563°N 1.822°W / 52.563; -1.822
Sutton Coldfield ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a town within the city of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Sutton (as it is often abbreviated) is located about 8 miles (13 km) from central Birmingham; it has borders with North Warwickshire, Lichfield, Erdington, Kingstanding and Castle Vale. Sutton is in the northeast of Birmingham, with a population of 105,000 recorded in the 2001 census. It forms part of the West Midlands conurbation.
Historically within Warwickshire, the town has a historical connection to the Royal Family, resulting in it receiving the title of Royal Town when it was a municipal borough in its own right and part of Warwickshire. When the Local Government Act 1972 came into force in 1974, Sutton Coldfield became part of Birmingham and the wider West Midlands County.
The Etymology of the name Sutton appears to be from South Town.
The name "Sutton Coldfield" appears to come from this time, being the "south town" (i.e. south of Tamworth and/or Lichfield) on the edge of the "col field". "Col" is usually derived from "charcoal", charcoal burners presumably being active in the area.
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Tipton
Coordinates: 52°31′33″N 2°04′30″W / 52.5259°N 2.0751°W / 52.5259; -2.0751
Tipton is a town in the Sandwell borough of the West Midlands, England, with a population of around 47,000. Tipton is located about halfway between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. It is a part of the West Midlands conurbation and is a part of the Black Country.
Historically within Staffordshire, Tipton was an urban district until 1938, when it became a municipal borough. The vast majority of the Borough of Tipton was transferred into West Bromwich County Borough in 1966, although the Tividale part of the town became part of Warley. Along with the rest of West Bromwich and Warley, Tipton became part of the Sandwell Metropolitan Borough in 1974 and remains within this local authority to this day.
Tipton was once one of the most heavily industrialised towns in the Black Country.[citation needed] But most of its factories closed during the 1980s and new housing estates have been built on the site of many former factories, the new private homes have seen an upturn in Tipton's fortunes by rising house prices.
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Touchwood
Touchwood is a shopping centre in Solihull, West Midlands, United Kingdom.
Opened in 2001 and costing £110 million to build, the centre was built on the former car parks behind the High Street.
Around 251,000 cubic metres of earth were excavated to form the basements and over 4,000 tons of support the Touchwood structure.
Touchwood has the only John Lewis department store in the West Midlands, at 265,000 sq ft (24,600 m2), as well as 80 other stores, over 20 restaurants and a Cineworld nine-screen multiplex cinema.
The Touchwood access also leads to Library Square, for the Solihull Central Library and Arts Complex.
Coordinates: 52°24′47″N 1°46′48″W / 52.413°N 1.780°W / 52.413; -1.780
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Triumph Engineering
Triumph Engineering Co Ltd was a British motorcycle manufacturing company, based originally in Coventry and then in Solihull at Meriden. A new company, Triumph Motorcycles Ltd based in Hinckley gained the name rights after the end of the company in the 1980s and is now one of the world's major motorcycle manufacturers.
The company began in 1885 when Siegfried Bettmann emigrated from Nuremberg, part of the German Empire, to Coventry in England. In 1884, aged 20, Bettmann founded his own company, the S. Bettmann & Co. Import Export Agency, in London. Bettmann's original products were bicycles, which the company bought and then sold with its own brand name. Bettmann also distributed sewing machines imported from Germany.
In 1886, Bettmann sought a more general name, and the company became known as the Triumph Cycle Company. A year later, the company registered as the New Triumph Co. Ltd., now with funding from the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company. During that year, Bettmann was joined as a partner by another Nuremberg native, Moritz Schulte.
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UK
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
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Walsall
Coordinates: 52°35′N 1°59′W / 52.58°N 1.98°W / 52.58; -1.98
Walsall ( pronunciation (help·info)) is a large industrial town in the West Midlands of England. It is located northwest of Birmingham and east of Wolverhampton. Historically a part of Staffordshire, Walsall is a component area of the West Midlands conurbation and part of the Black Country.
Walsall is the administrative headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, though it has changed its name to Walsall Council. In the 2001 census, the town had a population of 170,994 with the wider borough having a population of 253,500. Neighbouring towns in the borough include Brownhills, Willenhall, Bloxwich and Aldridge.
The name Walsall is thought to have derived from the words "Walh halh", meaning "valley of the Welsh speakers" (referring to the Brythons). Walsall is first referenced as 'Walesho' in a document dated 1002. Possibly as a result of a clerical error, it is not referenced in the Domesday Book, while the settlements of Aldridge, Bescot, Shelfield, Pelsall, Bloxwich, Great Barr and Rushall within the Metropolitan Borough are. However, it is believed that a manor was held here by William FitzAnsculf, who held numerous manors in the Midlands. By the first part of the 13th century, Walsall was a small market town, with the weekly market being introduced in 1220 and held on Tuesdays. The mayor of Walsall was created as a political position in the 14th century. Walsall is known as "the town of a hundred trades". (This appellation is a nod to the fact that nearby Birmingham is known as "the city of a thousand trades".)
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Warwickshire
Warwickshire (i/ˈwɒrɨkʃər/ or /ˈwɒrɨkʃɪər/) is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare and George Elliot. Commonly used abbreviations for the county are Warks or Warwicks.
The five districts of North Warwickshire, Nuneaton & Bedworth, Rugby, Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon together form the Warwickshire County Council area, and are within the 1974 boundaries. The shape of the administrative area of Warwickshire differs considerably from that of the historic county, which also includes the now autonomous unitary authorities of Coventry and Solihull, as well as a small area around central and northeast Birmingham.
For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region (code UKG13) and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region.
Warwickshire is bounded to the north-west by the West Midlands metropolitan county and Staffordshire, by Leicestershire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the east, Worcestershire to the west, Oxfordshire to the south and Gloucestershire to the south-west. The northern tip of the county is only 3 miles (5 km) from the Derbyshire border. An average-sized English county covering an area of almost 2,000 km2, it runs some 60 miles (97 km) north to south.
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Wednesbury
Coordinates: 52°33′11″N 2°01′12″W / 52.553°N 2.020°W / 52.553; -2.020
Wednesbury (/ˈwɛnzbᵊri/WENZ-bər-ee) is a market town in England's Black Country, part of the Sandwell metropolitan borough in West Midlands, near the source of the River Tame.
It is believed that Wednesbury was originally founded as an Iron Age hill fort. The first authenticated spelling of the name was Wodensbyri, written in an endorsement on the back of the copy of the will of Wulfric Spot, dated 1004. Wednesbury is one of the few places in England to be named after a pre-Christian deity.
Wednesbury is one of the oldest parts of the Black Country. The ending "-bury" comes from the old English word "burgh" meaning a hill or barrow. So "Wednesbury" may mean "Woden's Hill" or "Woden's barrow". It could also mean Woden's fortification, although the former description is often accepted.
During the Anglo-Saxon period there are believed to have been two battles fought in Wednesbury, one in A.D. 592 and one in 715. According to The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle there was "a great slaughter" in 592 and "Ceawlin was driven out". Ceawlin was a king of Wessex and the second Bretwalda, or overlord of all Britain. The second battle, in 715, was fought between Mercia (of which Wednesbury was part) and the kingdom of Wessex. Both sides allegedly claimed to have won the battle, although it is believed that the victory inclined to Wessex.
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Wednesfield
Coordinates: 52°35′59″N 2°04′54″W / 52.5998°N 2.0817°W / 52.5998; -2.0817
Wednesfield is a town within the city of Wolverhampton, West Midlands. It is 2 miles (3.2 km) east-northeast of Wolverhampton city centre, and is part of the West Midlands conurbation. It is historically within the county of Staffordshire.
Its name comes from the Old English Wōdnesfeld meaning Woden's Field, open land belonging to, or holy to, the high god of the Germanic Pantheon.
It is reported by the Englisj Dialectal Society in the publication "A Glossary of dialectal place-nomenclature" available on-line in the Internet Archive of The University of Toronto Library, that the place name "Wednesfield" is pronounced by the local populace as "Wedgefield". Indeed, The 1871 Census enumerators have used the name "Wedgefield" rather than "Wednesfield" when recording the place of birth of some of those persons enumerated.
Local areas include Ashmore Park and Wood End. There is also a formal garden at Wednesfield Park.
Wednesfield lies at 52°35′59″N 2°04′54″W / 52.5998°N 2.0817°W / 52.5998; -2.0817 (52.5998°, -2.0817°), and is located to the northeast of Wolverhampton city centre on the northern fringe of the West Midlands conurbation. It is historically part of the county of Staffordshire, and since 1974 has been part of the West Midlands metropolitan county.
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West Bromwich
Coordinates: 52°31′30″N 2°00′58″W / 52.525°N 2.016°W / 52.525; -2.016
West Bromwichi/wɛst ˈbrɒmɪtʃ/ is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, in the West Midlands, England. It is 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Birmingham lying on the A41 London-to-Birkenhead road and is part of the Black Country. Historically within Staffordshire, West Bromwich is the largest town within Sandwell, with a population of 136,940 at the time of the 2001 census.
The Latin motto on the town's coat of arms translates as "Work Conquers All".
West Bromwich was first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, the name meaning "the little village on the heath of broom" (broom being a particular type of bush). It is believed that it may have originally been part of the Handsworth parish. A Benedictine priory existed in West Bromwich from the 12th century around which the settlement of Broomwich Heath grew. In 1727, the town became a stop on the coaching road between London and Shrewsbury and its growth began.
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Willenhall
Coordinates: 52°34′47″N 2°03′38″W / 52.57980°N 2.06046°W / 52.57980; -2.06046
Willenhall is a town in the Black Country area of the West Midlands of England, with a population of approximately 40,000. It is situated between Wolverhampton and Walsall, historically in the county of Staffordshire. It lies upon the River Tame.
The urban district of Willenhall (established by the Local Government Act 1894) was partitioned in 1966 between the county boroughs of Walsall and Wolverhampton (since 1974 the metropolitan boroughs of Walsall and Wolverhampton).
The northern border of Willenhall has always been adjoining green belt land, although Willenhall has expanded so much in the last 100 years that its northern border has been moved by about two miles. This is mostly due to housing developments in the Short Heath and New Invention areas.
As a town it is historically famous for the manufacture of locks and keys. As early as 1770 Willenhall contained 148 skilled locksmiths and its coat of arms reflects the importance of this industry to its growth. Its motto is "Salus Populi Suprema Lex" - The welfare of the people is the highest law.
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Wolverhampton
Wolverhamptoni/ˌwʊlvərˈhæmptən/ is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region (code UKG35) and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region. In 2004, the local government district had an estimated population of 239,100. Wolverhampton is part of the West Midlands Urban Area which had a population of 2.3 million in the 2001 census which makes it part of the second largest urban area in the United Kingdom.
Historically a part of Staffordshire, and forming part of the metropolitan county of the West Midlands from 1974, the city is commonly recognised as being named after King Wulfhere, who established an abbey in 659. The original name being from Wulfereēantūn = "Wulfhere's high or principal enclosure or farm" after the Mercian King. The name Wulfrun is used to denote a later nun who established a church in the city – for example, for the Wulfrun Centre or for Wulfrun Hall.
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Yorks Wood
Yorks Wood is an 11 hectares (27 acres) ancient wood of predominantly oak trees in Kingshurst, Solihull, England. The River Cole is located south of the wood and located within Kingfisher Country Park.
The first mention of the wood is in 1456. It was stated as being owned by the Mountford family and being located within Kingshurst Park. The wood received its current name in the 19th century and by the 1920s, it was under the ownership of the Scout movement. In the 1970s, the fields surrounding the wood were sold to make way for housing development. The wood was preserved in the 1960s when the Kingshurst Hall Estate was completed so that it could act as a buffer between the estate and other nearby estates. Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council bought the wood in 1984 and designated it as a Local Nature Reserve in 1991.
During May, the floor of the wood is covered in bluebells and towards the closing of the year, fungi can be seen. During spring, Wood Anemone, and Celandine are located in different parts of the forest.
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Alan Cox
Alan Cox (born 22 July 1968 in Solihull, England) is a British computer programmer who formerly maintained the 2.2 branch of the Linux kernel and continues to be heavily involved in the development of the Linux kernel, an association that dates back to 1991. He lives in Swansea, Wales with his wife, Telsa Gwynne.
While employed on the campus of Swansea University, Cox installed a very early version of Linux on one of the machines belonging to the university computer society. This was one of the first Linux installations on a busy network and revealed many bugs in the networking code. Cox fixed many of these bugs and went on to rewrite much of the networking subsystem. He then became one of the main developers and maintainers of the whole kernel.
He maintained the 2.2 branch, and his own versions of the 2.4 branch (signified by an "ac" in the version, for example 2.4.13-ac1). This branch was very stable and contained bugfixes that went directly into the vendor kernels. He was once commonly regarded as being the "second in command" after Linus Torvalds himself, before reducing his involvement with Linux to study for an MBA.
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Amii Grove
Amii Anne J. Grove (born 5 September 1985) is a former English glamour model and a current Page Three Girl. She has appeared in publications such as The Sun, Nuts, Zoo Weekly and FHM.
Grove was born in Solihull. In 2004, Grove competed for the title of Miss Bikini World but failed to be placed in the competition. She then competed in Miss England later that year, but again failed in winning the title, and was listed at position 66 in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World for 2007.
Grove was engaged to Liverpool F.C. winger Jermaine Pennant, her on-off partner of two years, in November 2008. On 1 December 2008, Pennant became the latest in a growing list of Premiership footballers to be targeted by burglars - Grove was at his house at the time but the burglars left empty-handed. Pennant left Grove over Christmas 2008, less than two months after becoming engaged to her. Grove then decided in March 2009 to sell her £32,000 engagement ring on eBay but failed three times, after Pennant traded her Mercedes-Benz as part of a deal to buy himself a new Ferrari.
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Andy Townsend
Andrew "Andy" David Townsend (born 23 July 1963) is a former professional footballer, who played in two World Cups for the Republic of Ireland and is now a television and radio pundit.
Starting his career at Welling United and then Weymouth, Townsend came to prominence at age 21 when he signed with Southampton. In 1988 he moved on to Norwich City, before joining Chelsea two years later. In 1993 he signed with Aston Villa and enjoyed four successful years before his transfer to Middlesbrough. His final club was West Bromwich Albion, where he retired in 2000.
Following his retirement as a player he became a football pundit, most notably with ITV Sport.
Townsend was born in Maidstone, Kent, but grew up in Bexley, where he attended Upton Primary School in Bexleyheath, followed by Bexleyheath School.
He began his playing career in August 1980 with Welling United in the Athenian League, while working as a computer operator for Greenwich Borough Council in south-east London. After making 105 appearances for Welling, he was signed by Weymouth in March 1984 for £13,500.
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Craig Gardner
Craig Gardner (born 25 November 1986) is an English footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Premier League club Sunderland. A versatile midfielder, Gardner can play in many different positions, although central midfield is his preferred position. Gardner began his career at Aston Villa, before switching to city rivals Birmingham City in 2010.
Born in Solihull, West Midlands, Gardner rejected the chance to join Birmingham City in 2003 in order to play for Aston Villa and turned professional on 31 January 2005. Before Gardner made his Premier League debut on 26 December 2005 he played for the youth team Arden Forest. This was before joining Aston Villa's youth system which then later took him to his debut, when he came on as a substitute for Steven Davis against Everton at Villa Park. He scored his first professional goal for Villa in the 3–1 away win on 14 April against Middlesbrough. He also netted a contender for goal of the month on the last day of the season away to Bolton Wanderers. After a series of appearances Villa Manager Martin O'Neill entered contract talks with Gardner.
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Daniel Caines
Daniel Stephen Caines(born 15 May 1979 in Solihull, United Kingdom) is an English athlete who mainly competes in the 400 metres.
He was educated at Solihull School, a British independent school in the affluent West Midlands town of Solihull. He has a Kittian descent and grew up with an adventist background.
In addition to winning medals in individual contests, he has been a fairly successful relay runner.
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Dave Hill
Dave Hill (born David John Hill, 4 April 1946, Holbeton, Devon, England) is an English musician, who is the lead guitarist and backing vocalist in the English glam rock group, Slade. The music journalist, Stuart Maconie, commented "he usually wore a jumpsuit made of the foil that you baste your turkeys in and platforms of oil-rig-derrick height. All of this though paled in comparison with his coiffure, a sort of demented tonsure with a great scooping fringe. He even had one around 1973 outfit famously called his 'Metal Nun' suit but later styles were much toned down."
Born in Devon the son of a mechanic, he moved with his parents to Penn, Wolverhampton when he was only a year old. There he attended Springdale Junior school and Highfields Secondary school. He bought his first guitar from a mail order catalogue and received some guitar lessons from a science teacher at his school. He then formed a band called 'The Young Ones' with some school friends. Upon leaving school he worked in an office of the firm Tarmac for over two years.
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David Baulcombe
Sir David Charles Baulcombe, FRS (born 1952) is a British plant scientist and geneticist. He is currently Royal Society Research Professor and Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge.
David Baulcombe was born in Solihull, West Midlands (then Warwickshire). He received his B.Sc. degree in botany from the University of Leeds in 1973 at the age of 21. He proceeded to the University of Edinburgh, where he received his Ph.D. in botany in 1977. Baulcombe then spent the following three years as a post-doctoral fellow in North America, first at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) from January 1977 to November 1978, and then at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia, USA) until December 1980. Dr. Baulcombe returned to the United Kingdom then, where he joined the Plant Breeding Institute (PBI) in Cambridge and started his career as an independent scientist. At the PBI, Dr. Baulcombe initially held the position of Higher Scientific Officer, and was promoted to Principal Scientific Officer in April 1986. In August 1988 Dr. Baulcombe left Cambridge for Norwich. He joined the Sainsbury Laboratory as a Senior Research Scientist, and also served as Head of Laboratory between 1990–1993 and 1999-2003. In 1998 he was appointed Honorary Professor at the University of East Anglia, and given a full professorship there in 2002. In March 2007 it was announced that Prof. Baulcombe would become the next Professor of Botany at Cambridge University as a Royal Society Research Professor, taking up his post in September 2007. He serves on several committees and study sections, was elected Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation in 1997 and was president of the International Society of Plant Molecular Biology 2003-2004. As of 2007[update], he is also a senior advisor for The Embo Journal.
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David Jennens
David Michael Jennens (4 April 1929 – 27 September 2000) was an English rower who competed for Great Britain in the 1952 Summer Olympics. He was a medical doctor.
Jennens was born in Solihull, United Kingdom. He attended Oundle School and in 1947 went up to Clare College, Cambridge. He stroked the Clare coxless four that won the Cambridge University event twice, and in 1949 won the Visitors' Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.
In eights racing, Jennens stroked the Clare crew that rowed Head of the River in the 1949 May Bumps. He earned his Blue when he stroked Cambridge to a win by a quarter of a length against Oxford in the 1949 Boat Race. He rowed in the number two seat of the 1950 winning Cambridge crew, and then returned to the stroke seat for the Cambridge victory of 1951. The umpire had ordered a re-row of the 1951 race after Oxford sank in treacherous conditions.
Also in 1951, Jennens was the stroke of the British eight that won the European Rowing Championships in Mâcon, France. In 1952, he stroked the Leander Club eight that won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley. This crew went on to row as Great Britain in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, finishing fourth.
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Don Maclean
Don Maclean KSS (born 11 March 1944) is an English actor and comedian, who appeared on the BBC television series Crackerjack with Michael Aspel, Peter Glaze, and Jan Hunt in the 1970s.
Born in Birmingham, he attended Clifton Road School, in Balsall Heath and St. Philip's School, Edgbaston. His first job was as a civil servant at the Inland Revenue.
Maclean usually performed a live routine or routines with Glaze in front of a studio audience of children and a filmed insert with Glaze, in the style of a silent comedy film. Live routines would almost always work in the 'joke' where an exasperated Glaze would exclaim 'Maclean!' to which Maclean would answer 'Yes, I had a bath this morning!'. Also notable was that when responding to Glaze's exasperation, Maclean would regularly give an alliterative reply, such as "Don't get your knickers in a knot" or "Don't get your tights in a twist", the combination of which ("Don't get your knickers in a twist") has passed into popular vernacular.
Early in his career, Maclean was a comedy compère of the BBC Television Series The Black and White Minstrel Show. He also appeared in Crossroads and Carry On Columbus. From 1990 to 2006 he presented Good Morning Sunday, a religious programme on BBC Radio 2 (he is a practising Roman Catholic), but he was replaced by Aled Jones.
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Dr Beeching
Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching (21 April 1913 – 23 March 1985), commonly known as Dr Beeching, was chairman of British Railways and a physicist and engineer. He became a household name in Britain in the early 1960s for his report "The Reshaping of British Railways", commonly referred to as 'The Beeching Report', which led to far-reaching changes in the railway network, popularly known as the Beeching Axe. As a result of the report, just over 4,000 route miles were cut on cost and efficiency grounds, leaving Britain with 13,721 miles (22,082 km) of railway lines in 1966. A further 2,000 miles (3,200 km) were lost by the end of the 1960s.
Beeching was born in Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, the second of four brothers. His father was a reporter with the Kent Messenger newspaper, his mother a schoolteacher and his maternal grandfather a dockyard worker. Shortly after his birth, Beeching's family moved to Maidstone where his brothers Kenneth (who was killed in the Second World War) and John were born. All four Beeching boys attended the local Church of England primary school, Maidstone All Saints, and won scholarships to Maidstone Grammar School, where Richard was a prefect. Beeching and his elder brother Geoffrey attended Imperial College of Science & Technology in London where both read physics and took First Class honours degrees. His younger brothers both attended Downing College, Cambridge.
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Elizabeth Bower
Elizabeth Bower (born 1 August 1976 in Leeds, West Yorkshire), is an English actress, best known for starring as Dr Melody Bell in Doctors from 2007 to 2009.
Educated in Solihull, Bower attended Langley School, before undertaking A Levels in Theatre Studies, Geography and Biology at The Sixth Form College. After graduating from the University of Warwick with a BA hons in Theatre Studies and Performing Arts, Bower gained her post graduate diploma in Acting and Musical Theatre from the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
After an initial period solely on stage, Bower took a supporting cast role in The Ralf Little Show in 2002 and occasional turns presenting Five kids slot Milkshake! Probably best known, until recently, for starring in commercials for the UK celebrity magazine Heat, in 2005 Bower starred in Channel 4's comedy sketch show Spoons, and then took a guest lead role in British crime drama Silent Witness as DCI Helen Radley.
After starring in the television adaptation of the children's book drama series The New Worst Witch, Bower won the Edinburgh Fringe Report award for Best Actress: TV Drama and Comedy 2006:
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Five (band)
Five (stylized as 5ive) are an English boyband who were active between 1997 and 2001, 2006 and 2007 and now 2012 to the present. They were formed by the same team that managed the Spice Girls before they launched their career. The five members were Scott Robinson, Ritchie Neville, J Brown, Abs Breen and Sean Conlon. Signed by Simon Cowell, they were a manufactured band and held several rounds of auditions in London, in 1997. the auditions resulted in a provisional casting of 7 members with 2 standby members Peter Montpellier and Paul Taylor who were later cut when the final 5 were chosen in September. The band enjoyed great success worldwide, particularly in the UK, most of Europe and Asia, Russia, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. They split up on 27 September 2001, after selling 20 million records worldwide, and having 11 top ten singles and four top ten albums in the UK. Four of the five original members, Robinson, Breen, Neville and Brown briefly reformed the group without Conlon in September 2006, with a new management team headed by music manager Richard Beck. Eight months later, having secured a lucrative tour, but failing to gain enough record company interest, Five made an announcement via their official website they would again disband. In 2012, the band said that they were planning to reunite again, this time without member Jason "J" Brown.
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Gianni Paladini
Gianni Paladini (born 1946 in Naples, Italy) is the former chairman of Queens Park Rangers football club after replacing Bill Power in a boardroom coup. He originally took his position at QPR as part of a Monaco-based consortium, Wanlock LLC which acquired 30% of the club and retained his position notwithstanding the investment of Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore and Lakshmi Mittal in 2007.
A promising teenage footballer, he was forced to give up the game at the age of 23, before playing a single game for his home town club Napoli.
Paladini came to England in the late sixties and settled in Solihull, marrying English wife Olga – the couple have two children, Stephen and Kate. He built up a business which involved property and nightclubs.[citation needed]
When the Premiership started importing foreign stars, Paladini became an interpreter in the football industry and eventually an agent for stars mainly linked with Middlesbrough F.C., such as Fabrizio Ravanelli, Benito Carbone and Brazilians Emerson Moisés Costa and Juninho Paulista.[citation needed]
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James McFadden
James Henry McFadden (born 14 April 1983) is a Scottish footballer who is currently a free agent after being released by Everton.
McFadden started his career with Scottish Premier League club Motherwell. He came to prominence in the 2002–03 season by scoring 19 goals and winning the Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year award. Everton signed McFadden for £1.25 million in 2003. He struggled to hold down a regular place in the Everton team and moved to Birmingham City for £5 million in January 2008. A serious injury meant that McFadden missed most of the 2010–11 season and Birmingham, who were relegated in his absence, decided not to renew his contract. McFadden signed for Everton on a free transfer in October 2011, after regaining his fitness.
McFadden was first capped by Scotland in 2002. As of October 2011, he has played 48 times for Scotland and scored 15 goals. His goal for Scotland in the Euro 2008 qualification match on 12 September 2007 against France in the Parc des Princes is regarded as one of Scotland's most famous goals.
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Jasper Carrott
Jasper Carrott OBE (born Robert Norman Davis on 14 March 1945) is an English comedian, actor, television presenter and personality.
Born in Shaftmoor Lane, Acocks Green (which he would later describe as sounding like the address for "the home of a professional rapist"), Birmingham, Carrott was educated at Acocks Green Primary School and Moseley Grammar School. He then worked as a trainee buyer at a city centre department store called the Beehive with schoolfriend Bev Bevan.
In February 1969 he started his own folk club, "The Boggery", in nearby Solihull with his friend Les Ward. Here, Carrott performed folk songs and MC duties. Before long, his banter with the audience overtook the actual songs; he became known more as a comedian than a singer.
He also worked as a musical agent (in partnership with John Starkey, who became his manager in 1974 until 1992), as Fingimigig, managing (among other acts) Harvey Andrews. He toured the UK, appearing in rugby clubs. He independently recorded an album, financed by himself, called Jasper Carrot – In the Club, which he sold out of the back of his van. It was this album that contained the original "Magic Roundabout". Released in 1973, the LP is quite rare, although it mainly consists of material later used in his first three official LPs (such as "Hare Krishna", "Car Insurance", "Bastity Chelt", and "Hava Nagila") plus the Fred Wedlock song "The Folker".
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Jim Proudfoot
Jim Proudfoot is an English football commentator, who has worked on national radio and television since the late 1990s.
Proudfoot was born in the West Country on 16 December 1972, but moved to the Midlands at a young age. He was educated at Solihull School.
His professional broadcasting career started in 1991 with the now defunct DevonAir, for whom he was a football reporter and later DJ. Proudfoot subsequently worked as a journalist and newsreader for TFM in the North-East of England before moving to Capital Gold in 1994, where he was part of the award-winning team headed by Jonathan Pearce. Later stints followed as a commentator on South Coast Radio and Xtra AM in Birmingham before a move to national radio station talkSPORT in 1999.
Initially employed as the station's number two commentator behind Alan Parry, Proudfoot became talkSPORT's lead commentator in time for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, a role that he has held for the vast majority of time since. He has subsequently commentated on both the UEFA Euro 2004 Final, and the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final for the station, and has long been established as talkSPORT's lead Champions League commentator.
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Joanne Malin
Joanne Malin (born 22 March 1967) is a British radio and television presenter. She was an anchor on Central News in the West Midlands alongside Bob Warman for many years. She currently presents a show on BBC WM.
Originally from the Moseley area of Birmingham, Malin trained to be a dancer at the Italia Conti Academy in London and worked in local theatre productions. Her first professional show was Jack and the Beanstalk with Russ Abbott at the Birmingham Hippodrome, performing as Little Miss Muffet in the chorus. She then did a provincial tour with the show 42nd Street, before taking her next role as Frenchie in a six month sell-out tour of Grease. After more panto in Birmingham, she took a nine month contract dancing on the QE2. At the age of 25, she then switched career and retrained by taking a National Council for the Training of Broadcasting Journalists course at Portsmouth, where she graduated with a distinction and won a prize for Best Documentary. Joanne started out working in the news departments of local radio stations before being hired by Reuters to work on breakfast news bulletins for Virgin Radio.
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John A Butt
John A Butt is an orchestral and choral conductor, organist, harpsichordist and scholar who has held the Gardiner Chair of Music at the University of Glasgow since 2001, and has led the Dunedin Consort, a professional vocal ensemble centered in Edinburgh, since 2003.
John Butt was born in Solihull in the West Midlands, England, in 1960. He was educated at Solihull School on a music scholarship. In 1979 he began his undergraduate education at University of Cambridge, where he held the position of organ scholar at King's College. His organ teachers at Cambridge included the noted organists Peter Hurford and Gillian Weir. He received his Ph.D. at Cambridge in 1987. After graduation, he lectured at the University of Aberdeen and was a Fellow of Magdalene College Cambridge. In 1989, he became University Organist and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of California, Berkeley; he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1992. In 1997, he returned to Cambridge University as a University Lecturer and Fellow of King's College. Since October 2001 he has been the Gardiner Chair of Music at the University of Glasgow; he also served as Head of the Music Department from 2001 to 2005. Since 2003 he has been conductor of the Dunedin Consort (a professional vocal ensemble in Edinburgh, Scotland).
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Jonathan Nott
Jonathan Nott (born 25 December 1962, Solihull, England) is an English conductor, the son of a priest at Worcester Cathedral. He was a music student and choral scholar at the University of Cambridge, and also studied singing and flute in Manchester at the Royal Northern College of Music. Nott was also a conducting student in London. He left London to develop his conducting career in Germany via the traditional Kapellmeister system.
Nott made his conducting debut in 1988 at the Opera Festival in Battignano, Italy. In 1989, he was appointed Kapellmeister at the Frankfurt Opera. In 1991, he was appointed Erster Kapellmeister at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, and became interim chief conductor for the 1995–96 season. He later became music director at the Lucerne Theatre and served as principal conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra from 1997 to 2002.
With the Berlin Philharmonic, Nott recorded several orchestral works of György Ligeti as part of the Teldec contribution to the complete recorded works of Ligeti. Nott became music director of the Ensemble InterContemporain (EIC) in 2000. He relinquished this post in 2003, and immediately took up the position of principal guest conductor of the EIC. He has held that title since then.
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Karren Brady
Karren Rita Brady (born 4 April 1969) is an English sporting executive, television broadcaster, newspaper columnist, author and novelist. She is the former managing director of Birmingham City Football Club and current vice-chairman of West Ham United. Her appointment with Birmingham City began in March 1993, when only 23 years old, and in 2002 became the first woman to hold such a post in the top flight of English football when the team was promoted. She was responsible for the company's flotation in 1997, thus becoming the youngest managing director of a UK plc. She left the club in October 2009 after it was sold for £82,000,000. In January 2010 she was appointed vice-chairman of West Ham United following a change of ownership of the club. She is currently Lord Sugar's aide on the BBC 1's TV show The Apprentice and writes regular columns for Woman & Home magazine and The Sun. She has also published four books including two novels.
Brady was brought up in Edmonton, London, and the family house was near to the Tottenham Hotspur football ground. Her father, Terry Brady, was once chairman of Swindon Town and a director of Portsmouth. He made his fortune in printing and property development. Her mother is Italian, and she has an older brother, Darren. She attended Poles Convent, a boarding school in Ware, Hertfordshire and Aldenham School, Elstree, a boys' school which accepted girls in the sixth form..
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Kerry Minnear
Kerry Minnear (Born on 2 January 1948, in Shaftesbury, Dorset, England) is a classically trained multi-instrumentalist who played in the innovative progressive rock band Gentle Giant during the 1970s.
Kerry received a classical music education at the Royal Academy of Music, with a degree in composition.
Contributing to the band's success as one of the composers and arrangers, Kerry, unlike most of the keyboardists of his time, chose to create natural sounds from his keyboards. Like the other members of Gentle Giant, Kerry is quite adept on a number of instruments including the cello, drums, guitar, upright bass, vibraphone, recorder, and the flute.
He also composed the soundtrack to the 1996 video game Azrael's Tear, along with bandmate Ray Shulman.
Kerry now lives in Solihull (West Midlands) with his wife Lesley and has three children, Sally, Sam and Susie. Still very much a part of the Gentle Giant franchise, he also composes for film and television.
In the years since the disbanding of Gentle Giant, Kerry has used his talents as a teacher and a church musician. He and his wife Lesley own Alucard Music, which releases Gentle Giant CDs and DVDs.
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Lucy Davis
Lucy Clare Davis (born 2 January 1973) is an English actress. She is best known for playing the character Dawn Tinsley in the BBC comedy The Office and as Dianne in the horror-comedy movie Shaun of the Dead.
According to IMDb, Davis's first role was in a 1993 episode of The Detectives. Davis played Maria Lucas in the BBC's 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice. She has also appeared in the film Sex Lives of the Potato Men (2004), had a role in Shaun of the Dead (2004), and played Hayley Jordan in The Archers on BBC Radio 4. She gave up the latter role when her other acting responsibilities made it impossible to continue; the part was recast in September 2005.
She appeared in the episode Elephants and Hens of UK TV programme Black Books alongside Tamsin Greig, Olivia Colman (who appears with Greig in the programme Green Wing).[citation needed]
She was reportedly offered a role in In Her Shoes that eventually went to Toni Collette. Davis apparently refused the role as it involved being Cameron Diaz's on-screen 'fat, ugly' sister. In 2006, Davis appeared as the 'Fashion TV' host on ABC's hit Ugly Betty, and later that year played writer Lucy Kenwright in NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. In 2008, she appeared in several episodes of the U.S. series Reaper.[citation needed] 2 In 2010 Davis starred in ITV's six-episode comedy drama, Married Single Other, and also appeared in a guest role in The Mentalist alongside her then husband Owain Yeoman. Davis also stars in the John Landis-produced thriller Some Guy Who Kills People.
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Malcolm Stent
Malcolm Stent (born 14 June 1945, Saltley, Birmingham) is a British actor, musical performer and playwright, who lives in Solihull. He was in a band called the Timoneers, before he became a regular at The Boggery with Jasper Carrott. He has continued to perform around the Midlands ever since.
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Matthew Croucher
Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher GC (born 14 December 1983, in Solihull, England) is a member of the Royal Marines Reserve and recipient of the George Cross, the highest British (and Commonwealth) medal for gallantry not in the face of the enemy, for his extreme valour in risking his life to safeguard the lives of his comrades. The award was announced by the Ministry of Defence on 23 July 2008, and gazetted on 24 July 2008, with a lengthy citation.
Croucher was born in Solihull in 1983 in the West Midlands and attended Lyndon Humanities College.
Prior to joining the Royal Marines in November 2000, he was a member of 2030 Squadron Air Training Corps. He was a regular marine until November 2005 when he transferred to the Royal Marines Reserve. He has served three tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan. He is a member of 40 Commando which is based at Taunton in Somerset, and serves in the Commando Reconnaissance Force.
On 9 November 2007 Croucher was credited with helping to save the life of a seriously wounded comrade who had been shot in the chest. Due to the intensity of the firefight, the company medical assistant was pinned down and could not help for over 20 minutes, during which time Croucher stabilised the casualty until he could be evacuated. Croucher himself was injured in a road accident during an operation the following week, and had to be returned to the United Kingdom for treatment on a suspected broken leg. After intensive physiotherapy, he returned to Afghanistan in a matter of weeks to resume his duties.
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Michael Buerk
Michael Duncan Buerk (born 18 February 1946) is a BBC journalist and newsreader, most famous for his reporting of the Ethiopian famine on 23 October 1984, which inspired the Band Aid charity record.
Buerk was born in Solihull, and was educated at Solihull School, an Independent school in the West Midlands where he was a member of the Combined Cadet Force and represented the school on the sports field.
Michael Buerk's hopes of a career in the armed forces were dashed when he failed an eyesight test at the selection centre. After a brief spell as a hod carrier he began his career in journalism with the Bromsgrove Messenger, South Wales Echo (where he shared a house with Sue Lawley in Cardiff), and the Daily Mail, he joined Radio Bristol in 1970 before becoming a reporter for BBC News in 1973.
He was awarded the Golden Nymph award at the Monte Carlo festival for his reports on the famine from Korem in Ethiopia, first broadcast on 24 October 1984. The footage of the famine was shot by Mohamed Amin. He later said that the broadcast was one of "the most influential pieces of television ever broadcast [prompting] a surge of generosity across the world for Ethiopia[that raised] more than $130 million". Another notable bulletin he is renowned for is being the first news reporter on the BBC News in the 2000s, making the bulletin at 0100 GMT on the 1 January 2000.
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Nick Drake
Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter and musician who was known for his sombre guitar-based songs. He failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime but his work has gradually achieved wider notice and recognition. Drake signed to Island Records when he was 20 years old and released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1969. By 1972, he had recorded two more albums—Bryter Layter and Pink Moon. Neither sold more than 5,000 copies on initial release. Drake's reluctance to perform live, or be interviewed, contributed to his lack of commercial success.
Drake suffered from depression and insomnia throughout his life and these topics were often reflected in his lyrics. On completion of his third album, 1972's Pink Moon, he withdrew from both live performance and recording, retreating to his parents' home in rural Warwickshire. There is no known footage of the adult Drake; he was only ever captured in still photographs and in home footage from his childhood. On 25 November 1974, Drake died from an overdose of amitriptyline, a prescribed antidepressant; he was 26 years old.
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Richard Hammond
Richard Mark Hammond (born 19 December 1969) is an English broadcaster, writer, and journalist most noted for co-hosting the car programme Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson and James May, as well as presenting series 1–4 of Brainiac: Science Abuse on Sky 1. Since 2009, Hammond has co-hosted Total Wipeout with Amanda Byram on BBC One which has since been cancelled.
Hammond is currently presenting Planet Earth Live alongside Julia Bradbury.
Hammond was born in Solihull and is the grandson of workers in the Birmingham automobile industry. In the mid-1980s Hammond moved with his family (mother Eileen, father Alan, and younger brothers Andrew, writer of the 'Crypt' Series, and Nicholas) to the North Yorkshire cathedral city of Ripon where his father ran a probate business in the market square. Originally a pupil of Solihull School, a fee-paying boys' independent school, he moved to Ripon Grammar School, and from 1987 to 1989 attended Harrogate College of Art and Technology. After his graduation he worked for several radio stations, including Radio Cleveland, Radio York, Radio Cumbria, Radio Leeds, Radio Newcastle and Radio Lancashire, before auditioning for Top Gear.
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Ritchie Neville
Ritchie Neville (born Richard Neville Dobson on 23 August 1979 in Solihull, England) is an English singer most noted for being a member of the successful boyband Five. Neville attended the private schools Bromsgrove School in Worcestershire and Solihull School in the West Midlands, where he sang in the school's Chapel Choir.
Neville was born to musical parents and at the age of four, after engaging in activities that often involved singing and acting with his friends, Neville joined the church choir. Whilst growing up, Neville's musical tastes began to centre around grunge - identifying with many rock bands including Smashing Pumpkins and Soundgarden. He started his own group, Anal Beard. The lure of the stage brought him to London where, in 1997 at the age of 17, he saw an advertisement in the national newspaper The Stage, asking for young male singers to audition for a new boyband with "attitude and edge". Neville, J Brown, Sean Conlon, Abz Love and Scott Robinson, who had during the audition arranged themselves into a group, were subsequently picked and later became Five.
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Rupert Hill
Rupert Sinclair Hill (born 15 June 1978, Southhampton) is an English actor known for several former roles in UK soap operas.
Rupert Hill started with small roles on television. He appeared in one episode of EastEnders as Robbie's half-brother Kevin Bolton, and also played a part in a music video by the band Haven.
Hill subsequently went into the ongoing role of Cameron Davenport in daily serial Family Affairs, a role he played from 2002 to 2004. He was then cast in Coronation Street, originating the role of Jamie Baldwin in 2004.
Hill played guitar in the now defunct band Shepherd's Pi which he formed with former Family Affairs co-stars Sam Stockman and Angela Hazeldine. He now leads a new group called Biederbeck, who have performed several gigs in Manchester, London and will be appearing at Bestival on the Isle of Wight in 2012.
In April 2007 it was announced by the media that the actor had quit his role in Coronation Street, a move which has left the street without a member of the Baldwin family for the first time in 30 years.
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Russell Leetch
Russell Jonathan Leetch (born 5 March 1982 in Solihull, England) is the bass guitarist for Birmingham-based indie rock band Editors. He studied music technology at Staffordshire University where he met his fellow Editors band members. He went to secondary school at Arden School, Knowle.
He used to work with bandmate Tom Smith in a call centre before the band got a record deal. His favourite bands are Radiohead and Spiritualized.
In February 2008, Leetch remixed The Hives single "T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S.", where it featured as a b-side on the single. He also directed the video to Editors single "Bones" which was released in Europe.
He ran the 2008 New York City Marathon for charity. In April 2011 Leetch ran the London Marathon along with lead singer Tom Smith. They raised over £10,000 for Oxfam.
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Shane Geraghty
Shane Geraghty (born 12 August 1986 in Coventry, West Midlands) is an English rugby union player who plays for CA Brive in the Top 14.
Geraghty's position of choice is at Centre or at Fly-half.
He attended Bablake School until 2002 and Colston's Collegiate School until 2004.
At the age of 20 he secured himself a first team slot at London Irish after covering for Riki Flutey's injury, he playing well.
Geraghty left London Irish at the end of the 2008–09 Guinness Premiership and joined Premiership rivals the Northampton Saints. He was first choice fly-half in the early part of the 2009–10 Guinness Premiership but lost form after some patchy substitute appearances for England in the autumn internationals. Stephen Myler reclaimed the No. 10 jersey, after which Geraghty was mainly used as an impact substitute.
He represented Ireland at U18(clubs) level, but has since represented England at every level up to and including International level.
He was included as one of three fly halves, in Brian Ashton's Elite England Squad for the 2007 Six Nations Championship. He made his debut as a substitute on 11 March 2007 in the win against France, playing a huge part in England's vital second try and helping England to win the game by kicking 5 points.
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Simon Mayo
Simon Mayo (born 21 September 1958 in Southgate, London) is an English radio presenter who has worked for BBC Radio since 1981. As of January 2010, Mayo is presenter of Simon Mayo Drivetime on BBC Radio 2 and, with Mark Kermode, presenter of Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews on BBC Radio 5 Live.
In 2008, Mayo was recognised as the "radio broadcaster of the year" at the 34th annual Broadcasting Press Guild Awards and the "Speech Broadcaster of the Year" at the Sony Radio Academy Awards, receiving the latter for his "ability to paint colourful pictures of location and event and his ability to bring the very best out of his guests, encouraging conversation and interaction between them while skilfully nudging and controlling them" and for being "a master of light and shade, handling serious and lighter issues with aplomb." Known as a committed Christian, Mayo has criticised the BBC for marginalising religion and being anti-Christian.
Mayo attended Solihull School, an historic independent school in the West Midlands, and after graduating from the University of Warwick in 1980 with a degree in History and Politics, Mayo spent some time honing his skills at Southlands Hospital Radio, worked for five years as a presenter with BBC Radio Nottingham, before joining the national pop network BBC Radio 1 in 1986, presenting a two hour Saturday evening show from 7.30-9.30pm.
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Stephanie Cole
Stephanie Cole, OBE (born 5 October 1941) is an English stage, television, radio and film actress, best known for playing characters a great deal older than her actual age.
Born in Solihull, Warwickshire. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School 1958–1960 and went on to consolidate her acting skills in repertory theatres around the United Kingdom. She made her stage debut at the age of seventeen playing the 45 - 65 year-old Madame Arcati in Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit. At the age of 63 she returned to the same role when the play was revived at the West End's Savoy Theatre in 2004.
One of her most recognised and popular roles was of Dr Beatrice Mason in the 1980s television series Tenko, a drama which chronicled the lives of British women in Singapore after the Japanese invasion and their consequent confinement in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. The series was explicit in its portrayal of the horrific conditions and brutality faced by the women during their imprisonment, and dealt with issues such as rape, stillbirth, lesbianism, suicide, abortion and euthanasia. Cole played the role of the stern, officious yet kindly doctor over three series and a one-off special between 1981 and 1985.
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Stewart Lee
Stewart Lee (born 5 April 1968) is an English stand-up comedian, writer and director. He made his name in the mid 1990s as one half of the radio duo Lee and Herring, a popular success followed through with extensive touring to built up a loyal live following. He gave up comedy in the early 2000s when he became disillusioned by the business and believed he was doomed to be a cult act with limited appeal who had reached the extent of any potential audience. Lee returned to stand up after co-writing and co-directing the surprise mock Broadway hit Jerry Springer - The Opera. Since then he has returned to the live circuit and though BBC and C4 specials and series, has rebuilt a niche audience and a reputation as an anti populist, anti "after the pub" comedian.
He remains a significant voice in UK stand up despite his refusal to appear on the panel shows that have seen many of his contemporaries eclipse him in ticket sales, if not critical acclaim. Although Lee's audience figures are comparatively low, he usually tours to 400-600 capacity venues and standing outside the comedy mainstream, he is well regarded by critics and has been a regular pundit on BBC political programming. In December 2011 he won the award for best male television comic for his series Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle which also won best comedy entertainment programme at the 2011 British Comedy Awards. A 2009 article in The Times referred to him as "the comedian's comedian, and for good reason" and named him "face of the decade". His stand-up features frequent use of "repetition, call-backs, nonchalant delivery and deconstruction", a device he jokingly ascribes to his tedious, exacting middle-class persona.
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Zat Knight
Zatyiah "Zat" Knight (born 2 May 1980 in Solihull) is an English footballer who plays as a defender for Premier League club Bolton Wanderers. Knight has two caps for England.
Fulham signed Knight from Rushall Olympic on a free transfer in 1999. As Knight was not a professionally contracted player to Olympic, Fulham were not obliged to pay a fee for him, but sent the club 30 tracksuits as a gesture of thanks.[citation needed]
Knight scored four goals for Fulham, two in the 2004–05 season and two in the 2006–07 season. The first in a FA Cup match against Watford in a 1–1 draw, his second a Premier League goal against Norwich City in a 6–0 win. His last goal for Fulham came against Bolton Wanderers in a 2–1 loss. He was arguably Fulham's most consistent player in the 2006–07 season, a reward for this being given temporary captaincy of the club while regular skipper Luís Boa Morte was out injured.
Before the game against West Ham United it was announced that he had broken his jaw in two places while messing around with his brother. Chris Coleman has been quoted as saying that it takes more than horseplay to break one's jaw in two places, but Knight insists there was "nothing sinister" about the incident.
wn.com/Zat_Knight
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37 route Birmingham to Solihull part 2
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:00
- Updated: 07 Dec 2012
part two of the 37 route from Digbeth to Sparkbrook
http://wn.com/37_route_Birmingham_to_Solihull_part_2
part two of the 37 route from Digbeth to Sparkbrook
Land Rover Solihull Plant Factory Footage
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:09
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Car production at the Land Rover Factory Solihull. I think LR might have billed this as Solihull, but perhaps added parts of other plants like Halewood? No doubt some sage will put us right on this after taking a look! The sound is LR's not mine, press mute if you get fed up with it!
http://wn.com/Land_Rover_Solihull_Plant_Factory_Footage
Car production at the Land Rover Factory Solihull. I think LR might have billed this as Solihull, but perhaps added parts of other plants like Halewood? No doubt some sage will put us right on this after taking a look! The sound is LR's not mine, press mute if you get fed up with it!
- published: 10 May 2009
- views: 48960
- author: BlesamaSoul
Amazing Magic Trick with Ring - Jewellery Shop
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:27
- Updated: 17 Dec 2012
www.facebook.com/benhanlin www.twitter.com/benhanlin I decided to have some fun with some random people in my hometown, Solihull. Check out how to make a ring disappear! Magician Ben Hanlin has been filming his antics once again. This time he borrows a random persons ring and makes it reappear inside a jeweller shop window! The shop was Steven Charles Quance jewellers in Touchwood Solihull, Birmingham, UK
http://wn.com/Amazing_Magic_Trick_with_Ring_Jewellery_Shop
www.facebook.com/benhanlin www.twitter.com/benhanlin I decided to have some fun with some random people in my hometown, Solihull. Check out how to make a ring disappear! Magician Ben Hanlin has been filming his antics once again. This time he borrows a random persons ring and makes it reappear inside a jeweller shop window! The shop was Steven Charles Quance jewellers in Touchwood Solihull, Birmingham, UK
- published: 04 Oct 2011
- views: 14110
- author: MagicBoyTV
Tour of Solihull 6th Form (mini project)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:44
- Updated: 28 Nov 2012
Random tour of Solihull 6th Form, Keith told us to do a camera practise Staring Adam Carter and Andy Baker, feat. Mr. Flood :-)
http://wn.com/Tour_of_Solihull_6th_Form_mini_project
Random tour of Solihull 6th Form, Keith told us to do a camera practise Staring Adam Carter and Andy Baker, feat. Mr. Flood :-)
- published: 17 Nov 2009
- views: 1092
- author: Adam Carter
Wheelie Bin "Terrorising" Solihull
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:59
- Updated: 09 Oct 2012
Wheelie Bin, with its new toys, let loose in Solihull high st. "Shot" lots of people. Pesky kids wouldn't leave it alone. Only managed to knock two of them over! Great laugh. Enjoyed by all.
http://wn.com/Wheelie_Bin_Terrorising_Solihull
Wheelie Bin, with its new toys, let loose in Solihull high st. "Shot" lots of people. Pesky kids wouldn't leave it alone. Only managed to knock two of them over! Great laugh. Enjoyed by all.
- published: 28 Jun 2010
- views: 630
- author: av500
Solihull High School for Girls, Malvern Hall
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:29
- Updated: 21 Sep 2012
Memories recorded by Solihull Local History Circle and illustrated with images from the collection of Solihull Heritage & Local Studies Service, based at Solihull Central Library.
http://wn.com/Solihull_High_School_for_Girls,_Malvern_Hall
Memories recorded by Solihull Local History Circle and illustrated with images from the collection of Solihull Heritage & Local Studies Service, based at Solihull Central Library.
- published: 02 Sep 2009
- views: 2750
- author: SolihullHLS
Solihull travellers granted the right to stay
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:16
- Updated: 28 Mar 2012
Solihull council said it had reached a compromise allowing travellers to stay on a site for a further 12 months. But as Darshna Soni reports, neither side is completely happy.
http://wn.com/Solihull_travellers_granted_the_right_to_stay
Solihull council said it had reached a compromise allowing travellers to stay on a site for a further 12 months. But as Darshna Soni reports, neither side is completely happy.
- published: 28 Mar 2012
- views: 183
- author: Channel4News
The Olympic Torch comes to Solihull
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:14
- Updated: 12 Jul 2012
The 1st July saw the Olympic Torch relay come through Solihull. Here's Asunta Wagura carrying the torch down Blossomfield Road. It cuts off when I ran out of space on my phone! www.london2012.com
http://wn.com/The_Olympic_Torch_comes_to_Solihull
The 1st July saw the Olympic Torch relay come through Solihull. Here's Asunta Wagura carrying the torch down Blossomfield Road. It cuts off when I ran out of space on my phone! www.london2012.com
- published: 01 Jul 2012
- views: 416
- author: Chris Cooper
Management Drenched at Britvic Solihull
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:52
- Updated: 16 Nov 2012
Charity day at Britvic Solihull contact center dressed in doctor/nurses uniforms some of the management get put into the stocks....
http://wn.com/Management_Drenched_at_Britvic_Solihull
Charity day at Britvic Solihull contact center dressed in doctor/nurses uniforms some of the management get put into the stocks....
- published: 28 May 2011
- views: 1300
- author: Dean Bullivant
150018 Dorridge - Solihull
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:23
- Updated: 16 Nov 2012
Here we take a short trip on 150018 from Dorridge to Solihull where we filmed and photographed more trains at Solihull station. There is onboard footage of 150018 as well, so if you love Class 150's then you are going to be in for a treat on this video.
http://wn.com/150018_Dorridge_Solihull
Here we take a short trip on 150018 from Dorridge to Solihull where we filmed and photographed more trains at Solihull station. There is onboard footage of 150018 as well, so if you love Class 150's then you are going to be in for a treat on this video.
- published: 07 Apr 2008
- views: 6200
- author: EWS60008
Devine chance, Wrexham vs Solihull Moors
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:07
- Updated: 17 Dec 2012
Would have been a good goal if it had sneaked the other side of the post.
http://wn.com/Devine_chance,_Wrexham_vs_Solihull_Moors
Would have been a good goal if it had sneaked the other side of the post.
- published: 17 Dec 2012
- views: 96
- author: Cenotaff
Accumulator with Joker Class Solihull.mov
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:35
- Updated: 18 Dec 2012
Canter Banter Season 2, Episode 11 - November 2009
http://wn.com/Accumulator_with_Joker_Class_Solihullmov
Canter Banter Season 2, Episode 11 - November 2009
- published: 18 Dec 2012
- author: British Showjumping
The Solihull Interviews 6/12: Carrie Triffet, Stacy Sully and Nouk Sanchez
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 35:56
- Updated: 18 Nov 2012
acimexplained.com * My work is entirely donation-based. If you'd like to make a donation, you can do so here bit.ly Love, Ken * I speak to the terrific trio of Carrie Triffet, Stacy Sully and Nouk Sanchez about shoe-shopping, the ACIM UK Conference, their recent retreat held in Bavaria, Tomas, suffering and self-annihilation! :) I start with asking: 01:00 What is their overall intention and 'mission'? 01:55 Love 02:30 Talking about direct experience: a contradiction in terms 03:20 ACIM Conferences 04:40 Carrie talks about their doubts about teaching in a conference setting 05:20 Nouk talks about their presentation at the conference (which happened the day before this interview) 05:40 Nouk: "The teaching itself cannot be conveyed in 25 minutes" 07:05 Nouk: "I've been told that I can talk a lot" :) (I had an interview youtu.be with Nouk which was just under two hours :)) 07:28 I speak about my concerns about speaking in a conference setting 08:20 Carrie: "We considered getting up [on stage] and spending 50 minutes in silence" 08:25 Stacy talks about the combination of the 2 modes of teaching at their retreat in Bavaria, and the retreat in general 09:30 Carrie talks about each of their unique teaching styles and how it all "flowed seamlessly" 10:15 I ask Stacy what did she 'do' during the retreat? Stacy: "Being quiet. Being deeply quiet. Being grounded. Being. Just being. And in that being, knowing when to speak, knowing when to join. In that being, everything is provided ...
http://wn.com/The_Solihull_Interviews_6_12_Carrie_Triffet,_Stacy_Sully_and_Nouk_Sanchez
acimexplained.com * My work is entirely donation-based. If you'd like to make a donation, you can do so here bit.ly Love, Ken * I speak to the terrific trio of Carrie Triffet, Stacy Sully and Nouk Sanchez about shoe-shopping, the ACIM UK Conference, their recent retreat held in Bavaria, Tomas, suffering and self-annihilation! :) I start with asking: 01:00 What is their overall intention and 'mission'? 01:55 Love 02:30 Talking about direct experience: a contradiction in terms 03:20 ACIM Conferences 04:40 Carrie talks about their doubts about teaching in a conference setting 05:20 Nouk talks about their presentation at the conference (which happened the day before this interview) 05:40 Nouk: "The teaching itself cannot be conveyed in 25 minutes" 07:05 Nouk: "I've been told that I can talk a lot" :) (I had an interview youtu.be with Nouk which was just under two hours :)) 07:28 I speak about my concerns about speaking in a conference setting 08:20 Carrie: "We considered getting up [on stage] and spending 50 minutes in silence" 08:25 Stacy talks about the combination of the 2 modes of teaching at their retreat in Bavaria, and the retreat in general 09:30 Carrie talks about each of their unique teaching styles and how it all "flowed seamlessly" 10:15 I ask Stacy what did she 'do' during the retreat? Stacy: "Being quiet. Being deeply quiet. Being grounded. Being. Just being. And in that being, knowing when to speak, knowing when to join. In that being, everything is provided ...
- published: 11 May 2012
- views: 1015
- author: ACIMExplained
York City v Solihull Moors - 10.12.11
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:32
- Updated: 24 Nov 2012
Edited highlights of the FA Trophy 1st Round tie between York City and Solihull Moors at Bootham Crescent.
http://wn.com/York_City_v_Solihull_Moors_101211
Edited highlights of the FA Trophy 1st Round tie between York City and Solihull Moors at Bootham Crescent.
- published: 10 Dec 2011
- views: 2493
- author: YorkCityTV
Bedroom Curtains & Blinds Solihull
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:52
- Updated: 24 Apr 2012
www.window-dressings.co.uk - Bedroom curtains, Roman and Venetian blinds made to measure by Window Dressings, a small but well established curtain business in Solihull, West Midlands. A full range of products, fabrics, voiles and poles are brought to your house for selection. We also make matching bed spreads and soft furnishings and undertake commercial interior design projects. If you are located in Birmingham, Coventry, Leamington, Knowle, Solihull, Warwick or the Midlands area and need made to measure curtains or blinds; Contact Window Dressings on 0121 705 2399 or email info@window-dressings.co.uk
http://wn.com/Bedroom_Curtains_Blinds_Solihull
www.window-dressings.co.uk - Bedroom curtains, Roman and Venetian blinds made to measure by Window Dressings, a small but well established curtain business in Solihull, West Midlands. A full range of products, fabrics, voiles and poles are brought to your house for selection. We also make matching bed spreads and soft furnishings and undertake commercial interior design projects. If you are located in Birmingham, Coventry, Leamington, Knowle, Solihull, Warwick or the Midlands area and need made to measure curtains or blinds; Contact Window Dressings on 0121 705 2399 or email info@window-dressings.co.uk
- published: 03 Jun 2010
- views: 4810
- author: 1WindowDressing
Tallie - Solihull Puissance!
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:19
- Updated: 21 Nov 2012
As most of you will know, today I took Tallie to Solihull Riding Club christmas show and competed in the puissance! We came 3rd, clearing 4'3 (She refused the 4'6, which 2 riders cleared so they came joint first and there was no 2nd place) This is my first ever puissance and only my 4th time sat on this horse, so no critics please! Tallie's jump is VERY powerful,Willow has a lovely smooth jump but Tallie is SO different I swear she is actually turbo charged haha and on the last 2 jumps she stood off so much haha, hence why I look a little left behind! She was so good bless her, very excited at the start and kept rearing, includng when I had both feet out the stirrups trying to lengthen them and she went up lol! But she soon settled down and jumped amazingly (wouldnt of expected anything less from her!) if very hyper and strong haha! The bit where you can hear me saying something I was saying 'it's PAINFUL!' because I had been standing waiting for the others to go, holding the reins loosely and Tallie snatched her head forwards and the reins ripped some skin off my finger right where I hold the reins, which of course made things even more difficult to control her because my finger was stinging :L So if any of you are particularly eagle-eyed and noticed I was wearing one glove, that's why - I only had one in my pocket and it was needed for my grazed hand haha. Oh and my feet were also completely numb, it was freezing! Hence why I am wearing my yard jacket over my show ...
http://wn.com/Tallie_Solihull_Puissance!
As most of you will know, today I took Tallie to Solihull Riding Club christmas show and competed in the puissance! We came 3rd, clearing 4'3 (She refused the 4'6, which 2 riders cleared so they came joint first and there was no 2nd place) This is my first ever puissance and only my 4th time sat on this horse, so no critics please! Tallie's jump is VERY powerful,Willow has a lovely smooth jump but Tallie is SO different I swear she is actually turbo charged haha and on the last 2 jumps she stood off so much haha, hence why I look a little left behind! She was so good bless her, very excited at the start and kept rearing, includng when I had both feet out the stirrups trying to lengthen them and she went up lol! But she soon settled down and jumped amazingly (wouldnt of expected anything less from her!) if very hyper and strong haha! The bit where you can hear me saying something I was saying 'it's PAINFUL!' because I had been standing waiting for the others to go, holding the reins loosely and Tallie snatched her head forwards and the reins ripped some skin off my finger right where I hold the reins, which of course made things even more difficult to control her because my finger was stinging :L So if any of you are particularly eagle-eyed and noticed I was wearing one glove, that's why - I only had one in my pocket and it was needed for my grazed hand haha. Oh and my feet were also completely numb, it was freezing! Hence why I am wearing my yard jacket over my show ...
- published: 18 Dec 2011
- views: 3342
- author: MPequestrian
01 Birmingham & Solihull Rugby Club V Pontypridd - 6th March 2010
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:19
- Updated: 14 Mar 2011
BEES FACE PONTYPRIDD IN FINAL B&I; CUP CLASH Thursday 4th March 2010 Birmingham & Solihull Rugby Club face Welsh Principality Premiership side Ponypridd this Saturday (6th March KO 2pm) at Sharmans Cross Road in their final B&I; Cup fixture. Neither side can progress into the last four of the B&I; Cup, so both sides will use the fixture as an opportunity to work on tactics and team selection ahead of crucial league run ins. Pontypridd currently sit in third place in the Welsh Principality Premiership, but like the Bees have struggled in the B&I; Cup. We need to try and pick up some momentum to take us into the crucial playoff period, explained Director of Rugby Russell Earnshaw. Its also an opportunity for a few of the lads to stake a claim for a place in the starting line-up. Were expecting a tough challenge, but we know that we have to raise our game ahead of the playoffs so this will be a good test. Stuart Philpott returns to Captain the side and Ryan Tomlinson gets an opportunity at inside centre. The side to face the Pontypridd on Saturday is:- 1 Mauro Sperdandio, 2 Stuart Philpott (C), 3 Leo Halavatau, 4 Alex Davidson, 5 Will Betts, 6 Adam Clayton, 7 Rob Connolly , 8 Rob Bell, 9 Jimmy Williams, 10 Rod Petty, 11 Anthony Elliott, 12 Ryan Tomlinson, 13 John Holtby, 14 Simon Hunt and 15 Tom Foden. The bench is:- 16 Matt Long, 17 Ben Phillips, 18 Ken Dowding, 19 Simon Pittfield, 20 Matt Cox, 21 Mike Penn & 22 Will Lawson.
http://wn.com/01_Birmingham_Solihull_Rugby_Club_V_Pontypridd_6th_March_2010
BEES FACE PONTYPRIDD IN FINAL B&I; CUP CLASH Thursday 4th March 2010 Birmingham & Solihull Rugby Club face Welsh Principality Premiership side Ponypridd this Saturday (6th March KO 2pm) at Sharmans Cross Road in their final B&I; Cup fixture. Neither side can progress into the last four of the B&I; Cup, so both sides will use the fixture as an opportunity to work on tactics and team selection ahead of crucial league run ins. Pontypridd currently sit in third place in the Welsh Principality Premiership, but like the Bees have struggled in the B&I; Cup. We need to try and pick up some momentum to take us into the crucial playoff period, explained Director of Rugby Russell Earnshaw. Its also an opportunity for a few of the lads to stake a claim for a place in the starting line-up. Were expecting a tough challenge, but we know that we have to raise our game ahead of the playoffs so this will be a good test. Stuart Philpott returns to Captain the side and Ryan Tomlinson gets an opportunity at inside centre. The side to face the Pontypridd on Saturday is:- 1 Mauro Sperdandio, 2 Stuart Philpott (C), 3 Leo Halavatau, 4 Alex Davidson, 5 Will Betts, 6 Adam Clayton, 7 Rob Connolly , 8 Rob Bell, 9 Jimmy Williams, 10 Rod Petty, 11 Anthony Elliott, 12 Ryan Tomlinson, 13 John Holtby, 14 Simon Hunt and 15 Tom Foden. The bench is:- 16 Matt Long, 17 Ben Phillips, 18 Ken Dowding, 19 Simon Pittfield, 20 Matt Cox, 21 Mike Penn & 22 Will Lawson.
- published: 07 Mar 2010
- views: 1879
- author: Pontydog
BIRMINGHAM SOLIHULL BUS JANUARY 2007 PMP DVD 1456
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:47
- Updated: 13 Apr 2012
A trailer from PMP DVD 1456 covering buses in Birmingham city centre in January 2007 plus Solihull. Lasts over 60 minutes , one of around 1500 transport titles from PMP. www.pmpvideo.com includes links to e bay shop and our blog.
http://wn.com/BIRMINGHAM_SOLIHULL_BUS_JANUARY_2007_PMP_DVD_1456
A trailer from PMP DVD 1456 covering buses in Birmingham city centre in January 2007 plus Solihull. Lasts over 60 minutes , one of around 1500 transport titles from PMP. www.pmpvideo.com includes links to e bay shop and our blog.
- published: 31 Jan 2007
- views: 24883
- author: DaveSpencer32
Paul & Cat freestyling at Solihull
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:11
- Updated: 20 May 2012
www.westcoastswing-solihull.co.uk After performing their classic routine, Paul Warden & Catriona Wiles danced freestyle
http://wn.com/Paul_Cat_freestyling_at_Solihull
www.westcoastswing-solihull.co.uk After performing their classic routine, Paul Warden & Catriona Wiles danced freestyle
- published: 20 Oct 2008
- views: 8012
- author: Clive Gidney
merc solihull
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:08
- Updated: 08 Nov 2012
Welcome to the new Merc store in Solihull
http://wn.com/merc_solihull
Oxford Brookes Degrees at Solihull College
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:07
- Updated: 05 Sep 2012
Did you know that Oxford Brookes offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at a number of regional further education colleges? In this video, students studying at Solihull College share their experiences of gaining an Oxford Brookes University degree at their local college. They talk about the benefits of being able to stay at home to study, how the course fits around their employment and having access to all the facilities at Oxford Brookes University. For more information visit www.brookes.ac.uk
http://wn.com/Oxford_Brookes_Degrees_at_Solihull_College
Did you know that Oxford Brookes offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at a number of regional further education colleges? In this video, students studying at Solihull College share their experiences of gaining an Oxford Brookes University degree at their local college. They talk about the benefits of being able to stay at home to study, how the course fits around their employment and having access to all the facilities at Oxford Brookes University. For more information visit www.brookes.ac.uk
- published: 03 Feb 2012
- views: 325
- author: Oxfordbrookes
The Solihull Interviews 2/12: Tom McCabe on Radical Forgiveness
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 29:54
- Updated: 02 Oct 2012
acimexplained.com * My work is entirely donation-based. If you'd like to make a donation, you can do so here bit.ly Love, Ken * I 'happened' to sit next to Tom at dinner during the conference and the next thing we knew - we were in the ACIM Explained Film Studio during an interview! Tom starts with introducing himself and with what he teaches: Forgiveness. 00:30 "It doesn't matter who you have the grievance against or how small or big it is, it blocks you from the sunlight of Spirit" 01:30 "When I was 18, I discovered the elixir of life: Lager" 02:26 "Got married, got sober, got God" 05:35 Tom talks about some of his students / clients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) (Sometimes also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome CFS) 06:00 A five step process - 'Psychically' bringing the person into the room - Telling the story - Collapsing the story - Reframing the story - A breathing exercise (integration) 08:05 Adult children not talking to their parents 08:35 Talking about grandparents 09:35 'Releasing, releasing, releasing' 10:05 How Tom came to A Course in Miracles 10:50 'Radical forgiveness doesn't ask for you to believe in God, all that it asks for is your willingness to release' 12:14 "We unconsciously create a situation to which there is no solution. Every road we go down is a dead end. Every door we knock on is not answered. Every solution we find does not work." - Carl Jung 12:37 "At that point the ego, which always says it's going to find you solutions, always says it ...
http://wn.com/The_Solihull_Interviews_2_12_Tom_McCabe_on_Radical_Forgiveness
acimexplained.com * My work is entirely donation-based. If you'd like to make a donation, you can do so here bit.ly Love, Ken * I 'happened' to sit next to Tom at dinner during the conference and the next thing we knew - we were in the ACIM Explained Film Studio during an interview! Tom starts with introducing himself and with what he teaches: Forgiveness. 00:30 "It doesn't matter who you have the grievance against or how small or big it is, it blocks you from the sunlight of Spirit" 01:30 "When I was 18, I discovered the elixir of life: Lager" 02:26 "Got married, got sober, got God" 05:35 Tom talks about some of his students / clients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) (Sometimes also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome CFS) 06:00 A five step process - 'Psychically' bringing the person into the room - Telling the story - Collapsing the story - Reframing the story - A breathing exercise (integration) 08:05 Adult children not talking to their parents 08:35 Talking about grandparents 09:35 'Releasing, releasing, releasing' 10:05 How Tom came to A Course in Miracles 10:50 'Radical forgiveness doesn't ask for you to believe in God, all that it asks for is your willingness to release' 12:14 "We unconsciously create a situation to which there is no solution. Every road we go down is a dead end. Every door we knock on is not answered. Every solution we find does not work." - Carl Jung 12:37 "At that point the ego, which always says it's going to find you solutions, always says it ...
- published: 13 May 2012
- views: 270
- author: ACIMExplained
90cm ODE at Solihull - 01/07/12
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:18
- Updated: 17 Dec 2012
HD it, it looks 100x better! Yesterday me and Willow had our first ever 90cm ODE, at Solihull riding club. Unfortunately we are eliminated! Will explain this a bit further down. The elimination was purely a mistake, and although I was fuming at the time at the end of the day it doesn't really matter, Willow behaved beautifully for most of the event. Got to the yard in the morning feeling nice and prepared, got into the field and to my horror found Willow had lost a shoe. So called the farrier out and started plaiting while we were waiting for the farrier to turn up, and Willow was being a complete nauze and knocked me off the stool twice which really didn't help my stress levels! Got her shoe put back on and headed to SRC, but got there quite late and had a mad rush to get her ready for the dressage, and I had to go and ask the judges if I could go back a place to allow time to warm up, they said they couldn't do that but would wait a few minutes. So we didn't really get a decent warm up, and in the rush I had left my spurs -- so in our test she was feeling very stiff round the corners and not really bending etc, and we got a score of 41. Not a disaster but could have been a lot better, but all things considered I was pleased with her! Then onto the SJ -- she was being very strong in the warmup jumps but that's just her, as soon as we got into the ring shhe chilled out and jumped everything beautifully, came out with a nice clear round, or so I thought... was told I was ...
http://wn.com/90cm_ODE_at_Solihull_01_07_12
HD it, it looks 100x better! Yesterday me and Willow had our first ever 90cm ODE, at Solihull riding club. Unfortunately we are eliminated! Will explain this a bit further down. The elimination was purely a mistake, and although I was fuming at the time at the end of the day it doesn't really matter, Willow behaved beautifully for most of the event. Got to the yard in the morning feeling nice and prepared, got into the field and to my horror found Willow had lost a shoe. So called the farrier out and started plaiting while we were waiting for the farrier to turn up, and Willow was being a complete nauze and knocked me off the stool twice which really didn't help my stress levels! Got her shoe put back on and headed to SRC, but got there quite late and had a mad rush to get her ready for the dressage, and I had to go and ask the judges if I could go back a place to allow time to warm up, they said they couldn't do that but would wait a few minutes. So we didn't really get a decent warm up, and in the rush I had left my spurs -- so in our test she was feeling very stiff round the corners and not really bending etc, and we got a score of 41. Not a disaster but could have been a lot better, but all things considered I was pleased with her! Then onto the SJ -- she was being very strong in the warmup jumps but that's just her, as soon as we got into the ring shhe chilled out and jumped everything beautifully, came out with a nice clear round, or so I thought... was told I was ...
- published: 02 Jul 2012
- views: 3312
- author: MPequestrian
photo: AP / Guang Niu, Pool
16 Dec 2012
Retired Col. Gen. Viktor Yesin yesterday wrapped up a visit to the United States during which he met with officials at the Pentagon, State Department as well as members of Congress warning about underestimating China’s tactical nuclear weapons buildup ... Yesin warns that U.S. and Western arms specialists are dramatically underestimating China’s nuclear arsenal ... Somewhere between the higher and lower estimates is no doubt the truth ... Mr ... Mr ... ....(size: 4.0Kb)
photo: AP / Jason DeCrow
16 Dec 2012
NEWTOWN, Conn. — The gunman in the Connecticut shooting rampage committed suicide as first responders closed in, the governor said Sunday, raising the specter that Adam Lanza had planned an even more gruesome massacre and was stopped short. Lanza blasted his way into the building and used a high-power rifle to kill 20 children and six adults, including the principal who tried to stop him, authorities said ... Among the questions ... H ... The Rev....(size: 8.8Kb)
photo: AP / Newtown Bee, Shannon Hicks
15 Dec 2012
The massacre of 26 children and adults at an elementary school in the US state of Connecticut elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the gunman, a 20-year-old described as brilliant but remote, would have been driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims ... He paused for several seconds to keep his composure as he teared up and wiped an eye ... ... "I'm numb ... Yes, yeah....(size: 8.8Kb)
photo: AP / Khalil Hamra
16 Dec 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. "Fundamentalism is good for protest, good for revolution, and good for war, but not so good for development.". After a century of being persecuted and driven underground, mainly for their vibrant nationalism and their anti-imperialist and pro-Palestinian views, Egypt's Islamist Muslim Brotherhood has finally taken center-state ... Such actions will have to be avoided....(size: 6.9Kb)
photo: AP / David Goldman
17 Dec 2012
WASHINGTON—Democrats say meaningful action in the wake of last week's elementary school shooting must include a ban on military-style assault weapons and a look at how the nation deals with individuals suffering from serious mental illness. Several Democratic lawmakers and Independent Sen ... Gun control was a hot topic in the early 1990s, when Congress enacted a 10-year ban on assault weapons ... He added ... Sen ... Rep ... ———....(size: 5.3Kb)
noodls
18 Dec 2012
(Source. Aberdeenshire Council) Aberdeenshire toilets flushed with success. 18th December 2012. Aberdeenshire Council is flushed with success after winning the UK trophy for public toilets at the annual Loo of the Year awards. It was one of a number of awards picked up by the council at a ceremony in Solihull on Friday, December 7 ... Councillor Peter Argyle, chairman of the Infrastructure Services Committee, said ... www.loo.co.uk....(size: 3.7Kb)
noodls
18 Dec 2012
Venue Proposed date 1 Vaughn Parry Williams Pavilion, Nottingham University, University Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 2RD - VENUE CHANGE 8 January 2013 2 Holiday Inn, Peartree roundabout, Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 8JD - VENUE CHANGE 9 January 2013 3 Silhillians RFC, Memorial Club House,Warwick Road, Copt Heath, Solihull, West Midlands, B93 9LW 17 ......(size: 6.7Kb)
BBC News
17 Dec 2012
The Guardian
17 Dec 2012
While studying medicine at Cambridge in the early 70s, Paul Wolfson became involved with Footlights and wrote and starred in two revues. My friend Paul Wolfson, who has taken his own life aged 61, was a man of many parts ... His mother loved writing poetry. Paul went to Solihull school and spent his early teens at Habonim camps (run by the Jewish Labour Zionist youth movement), which he said was a great way to meet girls ... ....(size: 3.9Kb)
BBC News
16 Dec 2012
Keates scored Wrexham's winner from the penalty spot to secure a 3-2 win over Solihull Moors in the FA Trophy ... And Keates says the FA Trophy victory over Conference North side Solihull Moors will give Wrexham confidence ahead of Friday's game at promotion rivals Grimsby ... Wrexham 3-2 Solihull Moors 15 Dec 2012 Wales Wrexham 5-0 Rushall ......(size: 3.4Kb)
The New York Times
16 Dec 2012
The final of the Gold Cup, Britain’s premier bridge event, in Solihull, England, was between the top seeds, Alexander Allfrey, Andy Robson, Peter Crouch, Derek Patterson, Tony Forrester and David Gold, who had come back from the dead in the semifinal; and Janet de Botton, Nick Sandqvist, David Burn, Thor Erik Hoftaniska and Artur Malinowski, who easily won their semifinal. Enlarge This Image ... The diagramed deal was Board 41 ... Box7....(size: 7.8Kb)
BBC News
15 Dec 2012
noodls
15 Dec 2012
(Source. Aston Villa plc). You'd expect Paul Lambert to start arguing in his pre-match press conference if a reporter stepped out of line with his questioning - but not over the guy's mobile phone ringtone ... He said. "Who's got Dollar as their ringtone?" ... He said ... Never mind the Magical Mystery Tour of Liverpool, my colleague Rob Bishop was treated to a similar excursion around Knowle and Solihull on Wednesday ... He said....(size: 10.7Kb)
The Daily Telegraph
15 Dec 2012
We can only protect our land in the long term by reducing the rate of population growth. 7.00AM GMT 15 Dec 2012. Comments. SIR – David Cameron has backed building on greenfield land and the search for shale gas (reports, December 12). His support for both has aroused much opposition from those concerned with the environment and quality of life in Britain ... Simon Ross. Chief Executive, Population Matters ... Solihull, West Midlands ... ....(size: 18.2Kb)
BBC News
14 Dec 2012
noodls
14 Dec 2012
It's the second time police had arrested the 23-year-old in connection with at least 12 burglaries - many in Solihull but also at addresses in Edgbaston and Kings Heath - over a six month period from August 2011 ... Police had caught up with Moore - formerly of Reservoir Road in Olton - on January 25 when an off-duty PC spotted them in Charingworth Road, Solihull, driving an Audi estate bearing different front and rear number plates....(size: 5.2Kb)
The New York Times
14 Dec 2012
On Dec. 8, one semifinal of the Gold Cup, the premier event on the British bridge calendar, in Solihull, England, was between the top seeds. Alexander Allfrey, Andy Robson, Peter Crouch, Derek Patterson, Tony Forrester and David Gold; and Simon Cope, Andrew Murphy, Sally Brock, Barry Myers, Nicola Smith and Chris Dixon. With 8 of the 64 boards to be played, the Cope team was leading by 31 international match points. Enlarge This Image ... ....(size: 7.4Kb)
noodls
13 Dec 2012
(Source. UNITE). Unite, Britain's biggest union, has demanded an urgent meeting with senior Tata executives to seek assurances over the future of Jaguar Land Rover's five UK plants ... We also received guarantees that the future of Halewood, Castle Bromwich, Solihull and the two design studios would be secure for the long term. ... They deserve recognition for the past and certainty for the future ... ENDS. Contact ... distributed by....(size: 2.9Kb)
For the larger local government district, see Metropolitan Borough of Solihull.
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009) |
Coordinates: 52°24′46″N 1°46′20″W / 52.412903°N 1.772094°W / 52.412903; -1.772094
| Solihull | |
 Solihull High Street |
|
 Solihull
Solihull shown within the West Midlands |
|
| Population | 94,753 (2001 Census) |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SP1579 |
| - London | 113 mi (182 km) |
| Metropolitan borough | Solihull |
| Metropolitan county | West Midlands |
| Region | West Midlands |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | SOLIHULL |
| Postcode district | B36, B37, B40, B90, B91, B92, B93, B95 |
| Dialling code | 0121 |
| Police | West Midlands |
| Fire | West Midlands |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| EU Parliament | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament | Solihull |
| List of places: UK • England • West Midlands | |
Solihull ( /ˈsɒlɨhʌl/ or /ˈsoʊliːhʌl/ or /soʊliˈhʌl/) is a town in the West Midlands of England with a population of 94,753.[1] 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.
Historically part of Warwickshire, Solihull is one of the most prosperous towns in the English Midlands.[2] Residents of Solihull and those born in the town are referred to as Silhillians The motto of Solihull is Urbs in Rure (Town in Country)
Contents |
History[link]
Toponymy[link]
Solihull is "commonly thought" to have derived its name from the position of St Alphege parish church – on a “soily” hill.[3] The church was built on a hill of stiff red marl, which turned to sticky mud in wet weather.
Early history[link]
The town has existed since medieval times when it was founded as a market town and it later became an important coaching and mail coach stop.[citation needed] Solihull probably came into being about a thousand years ago, as a clearing in the forest to which people would come to trade.[citation needed] The town is noted for its historic architecture, which includes surviving 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 168 feet (51 metres) high, making it visible from a great distance. It is located at the head of High Street and is a Grade I listed building.[4] 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 can still be seen there.[citation needed]
20th century[link]
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Unlike 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.[citation needed] 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 terraced 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 the town's oldest landmarks, the George, which dates from the 16th century. It is now called the Ramada Jarvis Hotel.
Governance[link]
Due to its growth, Solihull was promoted from an urban district to a municipal borough, the honour being bestowed by Princess Margaret.[citation needed]
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. At this time it also moved from the county of Warwickshire to the West Midlands.
Wards[link]
There are 17 wards in Solihull;[5] Shirley West, Blythe, Shirley South, Meriden, Elmdon, Lyndon, Smith's Wood, Chelmsley Wood, Dorridge & Hockley Heath, Olton, St. Alphege, Shirley East, Silhill, Kingshurst & Fordbridge, Castle Bromwich, Knowle and Bickenhill.[6] Each ward is represented by three councillors at Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, making a total of 51 councillors.[5] The mayor is elected by the Council and is currently (2011–12) Irene Chamberlain of the Liberal Democrats, representing Lyndon Ward.
Geography[link]
Solihull may be considered to be a dormitory town for neighbouring Birmingham, although many Silhillians now work within the town and many commute daily to towns and cities outside the Birmingham conurbation.[citation needed] Despite the common misconception, Solihull is not part of Birmingham.[citation needed] However, an advertisement in the 'Gardeners Chronicle & New Horticulturist', dated September 18, 1869, quotes "Solihull, Birmingham".[7] Solihull also makes use of the Birmingham Postcode area 'B90-B94'.
Education[link]
Solihull has no universities, but there are five universities within 16 miles 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 Sixth Form College, Solihull and is where students, mainly between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, complete their secondary education.
Solihull School is an independent school and is located on Warwick Road near the centre of the town. It was founded in 1560 and celebrated its 450th anniversary in 2010.
Saint Martin's, an independent school for girls aged 2¾ to 18, is located in the historic Malvern Hall in Brueton Avenue. St. Martin's obtained the best GCSE and A-Level results in the borough for 2009. St. Martin's young enterprise company 'Smart' was awarded best overall young enterprise company at both the Solihull area awards and the Birmingham & Solihull Strategic Final held in May 2010. Smart will now go onto represent Birmingham & Solihull in the West Midlands Regional Final 2010.
Solihull was the first council in the country[citation needed] 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 have been built by BAM PPP, under 'Private Finance Initiative'. Archbishop Grimshaw has been built by BAM PPP under a traditional contract.[8]
Transport[link]
A 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. Birmingham International Airport (BHX) is located in Solihull.
Solihull railway station is on the former Great Western Railway line from Birmingham Snow Hill station to London Paddington although trains now run along the Chiltern Main Line terminating at London Marylebone. Solihull railway station was first built on a very grand scale, with 2 island platforms complete with nearly full length canopies, and a large goods yard, boasting space for some 200+ waggons; the yard was equipped with a loading dock, goods shed and large crane. Solihull was also rare in being only one of a handful of stations in the area to have a goods relief line.
When Dr Beeching completed his dossier for British Railways the station, along with many others, had the slow lines and goods yard (plus relief line) closed; the latter's area is now the car park buildings close by, including the fire station. The platform for the slow lines had the buildings demolished and the stairway bricked up.[citation needed]
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 through Solihull are now run by Chiltern Railways and local services by London Midland.
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 southeast Birmingham.
Housing[link]
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Residential development in Solihull comprises a variety of housing types, but features a notable preponderance of semi-detached, detached and town houses, with little or no true terraces. 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 and Smith's Wood in the north of the borough, are large 1960s overspill estates for Birmingham of largely Radburn design, and are currently undergoing a period of regeneration with redesign of some housing areas and creation of new village centres at North Arran Way (in Smith's Wood) and Craig Croft (in Chelmsley Wood). 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.
Economy[link]
Solihull offers a variety of shopping facilities. It has an open-air 1960s-style shopping centre called Mell Square which was constructed following the demolition of several terraces of Victorian houses and the original Solihull Congregational Church. In recent years, the town has undergone much development, and High Street has been pedestrianised since 1994. On July 2, 2002, a large new shopping centre, Touchwood, was opened by the Queen.
Solihull is the home of the four-wheel-drive car manufacturer Land Rover's main production plant and a range of other major companies. The suburb of Meriden was the famous home of the Triumph motorbike factory from 1942-1983. The former home of retail bakers Three Cooks, after it was brought out of administration in 2006, the new company Cooks the Bakery retains its HQ in Solihull.
The National Exhibition Centre is within the borough of Solihull, as is almost all of Birmingham Airport and the ever-expanding Birmingham Business Park.
Communal facilities[link]
Parks and local nature reserves[link]
Solihull has a number of parks and local nature reserves, including for:
- Alcott Wood in Moorend Avenue, Chelmsley Wood; 5.7 hectares (14 acres) of semi natural ancient woodland, designated in 2002.[9]
- Babbs Mill in Fordbridge Road, Kingshurst; 24 hectares (59 acres) of mixed grassland, lake and woodland habitats, designated in 2000.[9]
- Bills Wood, in Bill's Lane, Shirley; 7 hectares (17 acres) of semi natural ancient woodland, designated in 1991.[9]
- Dorridge Wood, in Arden Road, Dorridge; 7.5 hectares (19 acres) of semi natural woodland, designated in 2000.[9]
- Elmdon Park, at Elmdon Manor, Solihull; 4.6 hectares (11 acres) of former walled garden, managed by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, designated in 1995.[9]
- Jobs Close in Longdon Road, Knowle; 3.5 hectares (8.6 acres) of grassland and woodland with pond, designated in 2004.[9]
- Palmers Rough, in Jacey Road, Shirley; 6.5 hectares (16 acres) of semi natural woodland, designated in 2000.[9]
- Malvern & Brueton Park in Old Warwick Road, Solihull; 30 hectares (74 acres) of mixed grassland, woodland and marsh, designated in 2002.[9]
- Millisons Wood, in Albert Road, Meriden; 11 hectares (27 acres) of semi natural ancient woodland, designated in 1993.[9]
- Smiths Wood in Windward Way, Smiths Wood; 4.5 hectares (11 acres) of semi natural ancient woodland, designated in 2004.[9]
- Yorks Wood, in Fordbridge Road, Kingshurst; 10 hectares (25 acres) of semi natural ancient woodland, designated in 1991.[9]
Other parks include Tudor Grange Park, Elmdon Park, Hillfield Park, Cole Bank Park, Knowle Park and Shirley Park. The nearest parks to the town centre are Malvern and Brueton Parks. They are interlinked and cover a total area of about 130 acres (0.53 km2). 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 Independent School for Girls.
The River Blythe, a headwater tributary of the River Trent, passes through parts of Solihull including Malvern and Tudor Grange Parks.
Leisure[link]
Solihull has numerous leisure facilities including a public swimming pool on the edge of Tudor Grange Park. This pool replaced the old Tudor Grange Sports Centre, which was demolished in 2007, to make way for the brand new leisure centre (A combination of the old Norman Green Athletics Centre and Tudor Grange Sports Centre). These centres stood on the existing site since 1960s when they replaced the old outdoor pool.[citation needed] At present there are two sports centres, the more modern Tudor Grange Sports Centre, and the older North Solihull Sports 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. There are several Scout groups including Knowle Sea Scout Group which is based in the south of Solihull and is sponsored by the Royal Navy providing 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 a Riley's snooker club.
Events[link]
Every year since the early 1930s (apart from gaps during world wars), Solihull Carnival has taken place. This is now fixed to the first weekend after the June half-term and takes place in Tudor Grange Park, organised by Shirley Round Table[10] and comprises the usual stalls and arena events that your would expect to see. The event raises about £10,000 for charitable causes each year.
Tudor Grange Park is also the venue for the annual free firework display held on the Saturday closest to November 5, organised by Solihull Round Table. The event attracts about 15,000 people to the park.[11]
Sport[link]
The largest football club in the town is Solihull Moors which is located in Damson Park 2 miles (3.2 km) from the town centre. It is a semi-professional club and currently competes in the Conference North. The club was established in 2007 as a merger between former clubs Solihull Borough and Moor Green. The other sports club of note is Birmingham & Solihull R.F.C., known as "the Bees", a professional rugby union team which competes in the RFU Championship. It currently plays at the Moors' Damson Park ground, after leaving its previous Sharmans Cross Road home in August 2010.
Solihull also has a number of field hockey clubs, namely [Old Silhillians Hockey Club] (the home of Warwickshire Hockey), Olton & West Warwickshire Hockey Club and Solihull Blossomfield Hockey Club.
Gaelic games are played by Warwickshire GAA who play their home matches in Páirc na hÉireann, Birmingham which is located in Solihull.
The town has an indoor bowling area and club.
Suburbs[link]
For a full list see List of areas in Solihull
Solihull town has several suburbs including Solihull Lodge, Blossomfield, Haslucks Green, Sharmans Cross, Shirley (considered a sub-town of Solihull), Shirley Heath, Hillfield, Monkspath, Widney Manor, Olton and Lode Heath.
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, Catherine-de-Barnes and Bentley Heath.
Twin towns[link]
Solihull is twinned[citation needed] with:
Notable residents[link]
This list includes notable persons who were born or have lived in Solihull.
- Sir David Baulcombe, Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge
- Elizabeth Bower, actress, Doctors
- Karren Brady, the managing director of West Ham United F.C.
- Michael Buerk, BBC News reader, born and brought up in Solihull, attending Solihull School
- John A. Butt, conductor, scholar, keyboardist and Gardiner Chair at the University of Glasgow.
- Daniel Caines, athlete.
- Stephanie Cole, actress
- Alan Cox, a Linux kernel engineer
- Matthew Croucher, Royal Marine George Cross holder
- Lucy Davis, actress and daughter of comedian Jasper Carrott
- Paddy Doyle, 'the world's fittest athlete' and multiple record breaker
- Nick Drake, musician/poet.
- Craig Gardner, Sunderland A.F.C. midfielder
- Shane Geraghty, England rugby union player, attended St Alphege Junior School in the 1990s.
- Tommy Godwin, cyclist, twice Olympic medallist in 1948 and President of Solihull Cycling Club.
- Amii Grove, glamour model.
- Richard Hammond, BBC presenter of Top Gear
- Richard Harrison (scientist)
- Dave Hill, Slade's guitarist
- Rupert Hill, Jamie Baldwin in Coronation Street was born and brought up in Solihull
- David Jennens, Olympic and Cambridge University rower, was born in Solihull
- Martin Johnson, CBE, former England rugby union player and captain.
- Zat Knight, professional footballer currently playing with Bolton Wanderers
- Stewart Lee, stand-up comedian attended Solihull School.
- Russell Leetch, bass guitarist for Editors
- Don Maclean, 1970s host of Crackerjack, comedian, broadcaster and personality
- Joanne Malin, (Central News)
- Simon Mayo, broadcaster, attended Solihull School.
- James McFadden, Birmingham City F.C. midfielder/striker
- Kerry Minnear, keyboard player, composer and member of 1970s progressive rock band Gentle Giant
- Lizo Mzimba, from CBBC's Newsround attended both Ruckleigh and Solihull School
- Ritchie Neville from pop band Five
- Jonathan Nott, chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
- Gianni Paladini, Italian football agent.
- Jim Proudfoot, TalkSport football commentator.
- Mandy Rice-Davies, famed for her role in the Profumo affair, attended Sharman's Cross Junior School in Solihull.
- Malcolm Stent, playwright and entertainer
- Andy Townsend, broadcaster and TV pundit, and former Aston Villa, Chelsea and Republic of Ireland footballer, lives in Solihull
- Stephen Martin Walters, actor, lives in Solihull.
- Ron A. Webster, songwriter, silversmith, lyricist of "The Last Farewell". [2][3]
- Felicity Kendal - actress and TV star
Musical groups which were formed in or by a member from Solihull include:
- Five - a 1990s boy band
- Ocean Colour Scene - a 1990s rock band
- Swell Maps - a 1970s alternative rock band
- Spizzenergi - a 1970s alternative rock band.
- The Applejacks - a 1960s pop group
- Gentle Giant - avant-garde 1970s progressive rock band
References[link]
- ^ KS01 Usual resident population: Census 2001, Key Statistics for urban areas
- ^ [1] National Statistics Neighbourhood Profile Summary showing indicators of prosperity,
- ^ "Solihull, West Midlands". Solihull Observer. http://www.solihullobserver.co.uk/about.html. Retrieved 9-Aug-2010.
- ^ Listing on Images of England
- ^ a b Solihull MBC: Council Structure
- ^ Solihull MBC: Member and Committee Information
- ^ Gardeners Chronicle & New Horticulturist, September 18th 1869. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KAsjAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1007&dq=solihull+birmingham&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rFadT-L5BueT0QWmzIjsDg&ved=0CFMQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=solihull%20birmingham&f=false.
- ^ Solihull MBC: Building Schools for the Future
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Solihull Council Local Nature Reserves". http://www.solihull.gov.uk/environment/localnaturereserves.htm. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
- ^ http://www.solihullnews.net/news/solihull-news/2011/06/16/a-big-turn-out-at-the-carnival-105074-28890721/
- ^ http://www.solihullnews.net/news/solihull-news/2011/11/03/display-sparks-massive-show-of-support-105074-29714543/
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
